Post your goals for this month and let us know how you got on with last month’s goals.
Leave a comment below telling us how you got on last month, and what you plan to do next month, then check back in on the first of each month, to see how everyone’s doing.
(It doesn’t have to be fiction. Feel free to use this group to push you in whatever creative direction you need.)
Did you live up to your commitment from last month? Don’t remember what you promised to do? Check out the comments from last month.
And don’t forget to celebrate with/encourage your fellow SWAGr-ers on their progress!
Download your SWAGr Tracking Sheet now, to keep track of your commitments this month
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Examples of Goals Set By SWAGr-ers in previous months
- Write a story a day in May – everyone!
- Revise at least 10 short stories – Iraide
- Write two short stories. – Jami
- Attend one writers’ conference – Julie
- Write fable for WordFactory competition – Sonya
- Re-read the backstory pieces I wrote in May and see if I can use them within my novel – Monique
- Research the market – Jami
- Focus on my serial – Maureen
So, what will you accomplish this month? Leave your comment below (use the drop-down option to subscribe to the comments and receive lovely, encouraging notifications from fellow StADa SWAGr-ers!)
(Next check-in, 1st of the month. Tell your friends!)
I knew I was going to forget! Oh, well, at least it’s only 3 days into the month when I thought about it. My goals from October:
Make more progress on 3 unfinished novels – I did this. 6640 word on Craving You, 6634 on Nowhere to Run, & 5511 on Green Hills & Smoky Fields 2.
Rewrite the end of Still Burning(I apparently didn’t save the final version to dropbox before I switched computers) – added 7177 words to this.
Work on outlining of those next in series novels(4 of them) – yes on all of these
Actually remember to check in here by the end of the month – well, I was a few days late, by I did get here.
For November:
Main goal is to complete NaNo. Within that:
Still Burning & Nowhere to Run – finish 1st draft
GH&SF 2 & Craving You – add at least 20000 words to each of these
Also:
Finish story toolkits for 4 projects in plotting mode
Edit GH & SF(the first book)
Publish Flames of Renewal
That’s probably enough to keep me busy. 🙂
Are you sure you don’t want to write a symphony and build a gothic cathedral in your spare time? 😉
I worked on my novel manuscript here and there in October, but I also took a poetry workshop for three weeks during this month. It resulted in nine poems. This month, I look forward to enjoying writing poems that I’m not having to come up with on the spot during the workshop. I’m going to purchase a couple poetry books and work through the exercises in those one at a time. When I finish one, I’ll start another one.
This month, I want to refill the creative well by catching up on some TV shows that my day job has kept me from. I don’t have much creative energy at the moment, and I’m hoping playing with poetry will help me make writing fun again.
That sounds liveky, Lisa. Poetry and great episodic tv are such good ways to refill that well. Drink deep!
Hi, I’m new here. Stumbled up the site while looking for writing prompts. My writing has been very random, when I had five minutes that one of my children weren’t calling for me, but in October I decided to take it more seriously. I created a new blog JUST for my fiction writing, and signed up for NaNoWriMo. My goal for November… 50,000 words hopefully in full sentences that make up an actual story!
Welcome, Lisa! And good for you.
I started StoryADay when I was at the same stage as you are now, as a mother. It has been a long but satisfying road back to productivity and seeing myself as a writer. You can do this! Good luck with NaNoWriMo. It is an exhilarating experience. Just keep carving out time to write and connecting with other writers. You are not alone!
Hi, all!
For October, I planned to outline my Nanowrimo project (DONE); begin final-final edit of my novel incorporating some feedback (I put this off); begin outlining/brainstorming a few stories for upcoming submission calls (did this, too); finish requested edits on a short story that will be published next year (put this off, because I still have a month); and go to our local speculative fiction convention (it was excellent). I also wrote up my experiences at the convention on my blog and wrote a piece for Medium about mistakes I have made doing Nanowrimo.
For November, I am doing Nanowrimo obviously. My story is another SF novel (asteroid miner discovers something interesting and then things start happening to her/around her). I also want to finish up a story for a December 1 submission date and I have to finish the edits for the story to be published. I also want to do one or two more Medium stories and see how that goes.
Good luck, all!
Oo, can you share a link to your NaNo mistakes article?
I love the sound of your new novel.
Glad the convention was good. They can be so invigorating!
Here is the article: https://medium.com/@MoniqueAC/five-mistakes-i-made-in-my-first-eight-nanowrimo-s-3e909646121f
October was time to rest from a productive Storyaday September, enjoy the break from the long (eternal) summer heat and rain and reclaim the gardens so I could plant winter crops, create an outline for November’s NaNoWriMo, and prepare for Halloween (a spectacular 50+ children this year—what a delight!). For November, I hope to write 2000 words a night and complete a novel draft as I participate in NaNoWriMo.
Still, I enjoyed writing in response to the Write on Wednesday prompts, and cannot adequately express how helpful, energizing, practical, and imaginative these prompts are. I am so glad I found this wonderful source of insight, encouragement, and inspiration!
Aw, thanks! And your October sounded wonderful!
Hi there. I haven’t been here in quite some time. My writing has been sidelined by life and I am back to a place where I have made space for it again. Boy did I miss it, but I am finding it very difficult to work on any fiction. I started working through The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron again. I am on Week Five right now. I have been writing morning pages consistently for over 2 years now and continue with that habit. I have been adding in Artist’s Dates to my weeks and completing all of the tasks each week. One of the tasks resulted in me planning some blocks of writing time each week. I have absolutely no goals for those blocks of time as long as I am writing in some way. Most of my writing has been about personal exploration lately so I want to make those blocks more focused on fiction work. I almost forgot! In October I submitted a short story entry to the 2019 CBC Short Story Prize! It was a story that I wrote a few years ago and really liked at the time. I pulled it out and tweaked it a tiny bit, then clicked submit!
My goals for November
1. Continue to work with The Artist’s Way
2. Get some fiction writing in during the times I have blocked off for writing.
3. Find somewhere to submit the short story I wanted to submit to the CBC Short Story Prize but it was over on the word count. I could have tried to edit the story to shorten it, but I don’t want to! So instead I will find another way to share it with the world.
Loved The Artist’s Way, keep going and have fun with it!
I’m in a much better place than I was when I last posted in early October.
Goals last month:
Make a submission to a flash fiction competition: complete! My story was weird and kind of dark but I liked it, find out the results in December, I’m trying not to get too attached to it/not get my hopes up but I’m proud of what I did.
Read at an open mic: incomplete. Really just a function of my schedule more than anything else, a lot of the family got sick in October and I was on the road for work.
Big news for me is I’m starting a blog, I posted about it on social media and then after three days of panic attacks thinking about how stupid an idea it was/unqualified I am I’ve calmed down and am taking steps toward developing content. My goal for November is to outline and develop a promotional plan in December. I’m super excited about this, or terrified depending on what time of day you ask me. At least I know what my content will be in May 2019 (Story A Day obviously…)
I owe all of this to the group, thank you Julie and thank you everybody!
Hit the mark in October. I am NaNo-ing this month, along with many of you. This is my first genuine attempt at a novel. I have an idea I really like, a writing routine that gives me plenty of time to meet the word-count requirement, tons of resources and a great support group here at StoryADay. I even dusted off the Tarot deck. I like to pull a card and just let it take me where it will.
I am flp5463 on NaNaWriMo if you are looking for another voice to compete with the ones in your head.
Oh, right – the goal: 50,000 words in the general direction of a story.
First novel, yay! Don’t worry when you hit the 20-25K word mark and feel like you’re floundering. I have talked to enough published authors to know that EVERYONE feels this way in the middle and that the only way out is through.
My commitments for October were:
i. finish and blog 1000-word of flash fiction for the IWSG/WEP Challenge October 17th – completed on time. But I wanted to comment on all the other ‘entries’ but a 21+ day cold cut that short;
ii. edit and submit my 6000-word entry for the 2019 IWSG Anthology – completed and submitted yesterday with 4 days in hand. Now, I must wait to see what the judges think;
iii. complete the plotting and research for my 2018 NaNoWriMo novel – I completed a detailed outline, did most of the research, plus roughed out my characters.
November goal is to complete another NaNoWriMo 50k, earn another shiny Winner badge, and feel that the draft novel gives my Snowdon Shadows series the opening it needs.
Plus, I have to do a few blog post including the monthly IWSG one on November 7th.
I also have a beta-read scheduled for December that I might glance through IF I get ahead in NaNoWriMo.
I meant to get replies as well.
That sounds like a fabulously productive month. Glad the ISWG is pushing you to complete things. I didn’t know about their anthology (note to self: must pay more attention!).
I am envious of your researched-and-outlined NaNo project. I had plans…but I shall instead leap in, in the original pants-waving spirit of the challenge. Wish me luck!
Wishing you luck with your pants-waving challenge – I know that you can do it, Julie.
😉
I don’t think I even posted my commitments for October, but I did a lot
– Talked about storytelling to a Rotarians group
– Wrote and read a noir story at two events
– Published a couple of podcasts
– Hit my 10,000 words of fiction goal for the first time in a few months
– Taught a workshop inn flash Fiction at the Bucks County Book Fest
– Printed a chapbook of my own flash fiction pieces to sell at all the events. Sold some!
– went to see Frozen on Broadway. That’s not a writing achievement but I had to mention it. All the work and talent in these performances inspires me.
– Ran the StoryADay October Critique Week (which will be back in Feb. mark your calendars now!). Read and critiques 12 stories by StoryADy folks. Such talent and creativity on display!
Ok. So. November is going to be all about NaNoWriMo for me. I’ve only participated seriously twice and won once. I am nowhere near as prepared as I’d hoped to be (October was busy!), but I’m going for it.
Aside from that I’m reading at Holiday Stories reading and want to make up another chapbook for that one.
November is nothing but NaNo. I’m trying an experiment in plotting. I can’t remember where I heard this but a writer said a way to outline is to use one song title in a random playlist or stream as the idea for each chapter. My cable TV has music channels, and I just grabbed what was playing this morning from each of 40 different music genres. I’m not sure what I’ll do with “My Sharona,” but I’m sure it will all work out.
Are you writing more about George Godzilla?
October was about the usual blogging- I blogged a little more than September.
November, I am participating for the second time in NaNoWriMo. I quit half way through last year, so this year, the goal is just try and finish the 50K words. The story may or may not make sense, and may not even be one I want to publish any time. But I just want to get practice in writing daily.
Other than that, I’ve got my usual blogging in November anyway 🙂
Lots of NaNoWriMo writers here (I’m participating this year too!)
I’m StoryADay at the NaNoWriMo site if you want to “buddy” me.
October was successful! I finished 31 fanfics in 31 days, totaling 16,150 words.
This month is all about NaNo. I’ve got two things I’m working on for it, one that will hopefully be novel-length that I can turn into something publishable, and one that is a sequel to something else I wrote this month.
Go! Go! Go!
😉
My goal at the beginning of October was to write for at least 1 hour each day. Also, I was going to finish a first draft of a short story.
I did write every day of the month which is an achievement since I had been inconsistent before. However, 9 of those days I wrote for less than an hour, 10 days I wrote for an hour, and 12 days I wrote for an hour and a half to two hours.
As it turns out, the short story came out shorter than I expected. I wrote a complete first draft and made a few edits before setting it aside midway through the month to work on a second short story. With the second story I also completed a first draft to the end and have done some editing. I will set the two short stories aside until December when I will work on revisions.
For November, I will be doing Nanowrimo. I plan to work on a Children’s Fantasy Novel. The novel I will work on is one that I started nearly 20 years ago. I wrote 2 or 3 chapters at the time and then set it aside (I still have the story). At the time I couldn’t get out of my head the Wizard of Oz and the Labyrinth. But I’ve decided to revisit it. For some reason I remember that I started writing the novel the same day I registered for college classes. Although I majored in English and took 2 creative writing classes I didn’t do much creative writing after college, and it has only been in the last year and a half that I have gotten back into writing. So I decided to go back and revisit the novel I started years ago.
Greet news, Natalie. Look at you, writing every day!
Glad to hear you’re going back to the fantasy. And remember, it doesn’t matter too much if you’re imitating other works in the first draft. In fact it might help you get the story down and find the truly original parts that are all you.