Every month we gather here to discuss what we’ve achieved and commit to making more progress in our creative lives in the coming month. We call it our Serious Writer’s Accountability Group or SWAGr, for short! (We’re serious, not sombre!)
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!
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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. )
Don’t forget, if you need inspiration for a story you can still get ALL THE PROMPTS from StoryADay May 2016 and support the running of the StoryADay challenge at the same time. (I’m really proud of this year’s collection!) Give a little, get a little 
Click here. Now only $2.99
Oh my goodness, I forgot to post here. Here’s what I committed to, for September
-Post all the prompts!
-Podcast all the prompts!
-Cheerlead in the community!
-Read a whole bunch of short stories
-Revisions to the novel and get pages out to agents
August was a very bad month for writing for me (dropped out of three writing commitments! D: ) between acquiring a kitten and general life emergencies. But, the kitten is now happy in her domain, life has somewhat settled down, and I’ve reached the writing things I’ve been waiting to do all year. Yay!
Goals for September:
–Short stories! I have 25 500-word fanfics to write, which by size should be fun to do (I write about 500 in one sitting, so A+)
–Book reviews! I’ve been building up my review blog and while I have books read and waiting to be reviewed (and even handwritten reviewed), I haven’t been able to get many up.
–Read! Because nothing improves your writing like reading!
I have a few bigger projects coming up (or currently happening), but I’m not focusing much attention on them for now. My main goal this month is short stories and lots of them (with a break for birthweek, obvs). I’m really excited because things are at a good place right now and I’m ready to tackle them.
I’m on a short-story reading push too (because you’re right: there’s nothing like it for improving your own writing), and I need to get some reviews posted. Maybe we need to form a “reading/reviewing accountability group”!
So… I’ve been absent for a while due to bad brain stuff messing with my ability to do anything, but I’m trying to slowly get back on the horse (hopefully without immediately toppling off the other side) so I thought I’d try coming back here *small wave*
I’m… not even gonna talk about what I’ve accomplished/not accomplished recently, except that I finally finished edits on a short story that has been needing them for months. That’s probably what’s somewhat broken my block, come to think of it.
Oh, and I’ve started writing poetry now? It’s been interesting.
This month, I’m going to attempt:
– Writing and revising a short story for a themed issue of a magazine (although I have an alternative market in mind if they wind up rejecting it)
– Writing the first draft of another short story that I’ve got the outline of; it’s a… rather angry horror story, so that should be interesting.
– Collecting notes, pieces of inspiration and ideas for my November project (I start preparing for Halloween and NaNoWriMo around the same time)
– And if things go well, I might start editing my other short story that’s languished in need of a rewrite for several months. I’ve already got some notes on how to improve it.
Hey! I’ve been thinking about you. Glad you’re back.
Good luck with the plan (“angry horror”?!)
Do you do NaNo every year?
Thanks! Haha, didn’t realize how odd that sounded until you pointed it out – basically it’s a story very much in response to some horror tropes that make me really upset (the ‘mentally ill people are always evil/violent/secretly demons’ thing) hence, horror story centering on something I’m angry about. Angry horror. I’ve invented a subgenre! 😛
I’ve done NaNo every year since I discovered it – this’ll be the fifth. It’s usually a time I try to lay aside my usual stresses over writing and just grab a really fun, weird project I’m passionate about to charge forward on – it helps me remember why I enjoy writing again.
Oh I like it. I particularly approve of writing about something that makes you angry. There’s nothing like passion for powering your writing.
Sounds like the perfect approach to NaNo. Tempted myself, this year, but I have some projects I actually care about, which isn’t the best recipe for NaNo success, I think.
I have been receiving the emails and prompts for a while now, but have never joined in so it’s about time! I didn’t have a goal for last month, but I was able to finish a short story and submit it to a contest.
In September, I am partaking in a story a day (maybe the super short 100-word type), but I really want to write 4 good stories, one per week, that are ultimately submittable. Good luck to everyone!
Welcome.
Write with abandon!
Write every day to establish a daily writing habit. It can be a prompt or a short-short story or a scene. The key will be… Every. Day.
And if you miss a day, practice forgiveness. That can be harder than discipline. Then, back on the horse, Jayde!
Hoping it went well for you this month! Do let us know what you accomplished (or learned from less-than-perfect attendance!)
*Do story a day.
*Some of those stories should be fairy tales and some more should be comic script adaptations of those fairy tales.
That sounds very cool!
How’s it going? Did you get many stories written? What fairy tales did you tackle?
I missed SWAGr in August, but here are my September goals:
*do Story A Day September every. single. day (day one done!)
*go to a science fiction/fantasy writers convention next weekend
*work on the mystery novel I’ve been working on for (sigh) most of this year
*work on the political thriller screenplay first draft (roughly based on a *long* Nanowrimo novel)
Good luck, all!
That’s a big, ambitious plan. I love it! Are you, by any chance, the kind of person who thrives on multitasking?
Yes, I am 🙂 I find I get more done the more I plan. So, I can write a story and then switch to editing the mystery novel because I feel really productive once I get going.
Ah, getting started. That’s always the big hurdle for me.
One simple goal — write EVERY day, not SOME day . . . all month long. 🙂
Ah! My little brainwashed disciple! Excellent *steeples fingers and cackles*