SWAGr for March 2023

It’s that time again: time to make your commitments to your writing for the coming month. Join us!

Welcome to the Serious Writers’ Accountability Group!

Post your goals for this month and let us know how you got on with last month’s goals.

Serious Writers' Accountability Group

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

  • Finish first draft of story and write 3 articles for my school paper. – Courtney
  • Write on seven days this month – Clare
  • Extend my reading and to read with a ‘writers eye’- Wendy
  • write 10,000 words – Mary Lou

 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!)

SWAGr for March 2023

It’s that time again: time to make your commitments to your writing for the coming month. Join us!

Welcome to the Serious Writers’ Accountability Group!

Post your goals for this month and let us know how you got on with last month’s goals.

Serious Writers' Accountability Group

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

****

Examples of Goals Set By SWAGr-ers in previous months

  • Finish first draft of story and write 3 articles for my school paper. – Courtney
  • Write on seven days this month – Clare
  • Extend my reading and to read with a ‘writers eye’- Wendy
  • write 10,000 words – Mary Lou

 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!)

Forget the Hero’s Journey – a conversation with Gwen E. Kirby Pt II

In the second part of my conversation with Gwen E. Kirby we talk about developing characters that feel real to people, about writing at this moment in time, writing about women, and the question that Gwen Kirby doesn’t get asked often enough,

Gwen E Kirby is the author of the fabulous debut collection of short stories Shit Cassandra Saw. has a MFA from Johns Hopkins university. PhD from the University of Cincinnati and is the Associate Director of Programs and finance for the Sewanee Writers. Conference at the University of the South where she’s also teaching students about creative writing. Her writing has appeared in One Story Tin House Guernica. Smoke Long Quarterly, and many other places.

LINKS

Gwen’s book: https://stada.me/cassandra

This interview: https://storyaday.org/episode278

Ready to write today, not “some day”?

Forget the Hero’s Journey, a conversation with Gwen E. Kirby

“when we leave our characters in sort of these vagaries, these big emotions and these big ideas, we don’t have anything to hang the characters or the emotions on.”

-Gwen E. Kirby

In the second part of my conversation with Gwen E. Kirby we talk about developing characters that feel real to people, about writing at this moment in time, writing about women, and the question that Gwen Kirby doesn’t get asked often enough,

Gwen E Kirby is the author of the fabulous debut collection of short stories Shit Cassandra Saw. has a MFA from Johns Hopkins university. PhD from the University of Cincinnati and is the Associate Director of Programs and finance for the Sewanee Writers. Conference at the University of the South where she’s also teaching students about creative writing. Her writing has appeared in One Story Tin House Guernica. Smoke Long Quarterly, and many other places.

Need the transcript? Find it here

I hope it’ll leave you inspired and ready to get to your own stories!

Keep writing,

Julie

Want more?

Weekly writing prompts and lessons in your inbox, every Wednesday with the StoryAWeek Newsletter

How To Be A GREAT Critique Partner

There’s a memorable scene in the movie Silence of the Lambs, when Jodie Foster’s FBI supervisor points out that assumptions are treacherous “Because when you assume, you make an “ass” out of “u” and me…”

I was thinking about that today, as I prepare for another Critique Week, here at StoryADay.

When I interviewed Matthew Salesses, author of Craft in the Modern World, he talked about the difficulty of giving meaningful feedback to other writers if we don’t root out our unconscious biases.

Chances are, if you’re like me, most of the literary greats you were exposed to at school were white, male, and dead. 

“Good stories” were those that were modeled after Faulkner or Joyce, or Poe. 

But what if you’re being asked to read a story by your friend who is queer, 25, and an immigrant from Nigeria? How do you ‘judge’ that story?

How To Be A Sensitive Reader

In my experience, the best way to give helpful feedback is to get into conversation with the writer.

Some useful questions include:

  • Who are you writing this for? (Accepting, humbly, that I might not be the target audience.)
  • How do you want the reader to feel at various points in your story?
  • Are there any cultural storytelling norms you’re using that I might need to know (if I’m not your target audience)?

I hope this gives you confidence to say ‘yes’, next time someone asks you for feedback.

Keep writing,

Julie

P. S. If you’re interesting in getting great feedback from some talented and thoughtful writers, find out more about the StoryADay Critique Week.

Sh*t Cassandra Saw, an Inteview with Gwen E. Kirby

“So little of life is comprised of huge dramatic running out into the rain to cry “Stella!”  If we saved our short fiction for only those moments, not only am I not totally sure what we would write about, but I’m not sure it would be all that accurate a portrayal of what it is to be a person.”

-Gwen E. Kirby

On this week’s podcast I’m in conversation with author Gwen E. Kirby, whose debut collection Sh*t Cassandra Saw was one of my absolute favorites from last year.

In our conversation we talk about the stories in her new collection, the benefit of a fantastic title, how to take an idea and develop it into a story. 

Need the transcript? Find it here

Next week, in the second part of this interview, we will talk more about developing characters that feel real to people, about writing at this moment in time, writing about women, and the question that Gwen Kirby doesn’t get asked often enough.

It was a delightful conversation and I hope it’ll leave you inspired and ready to get to your own stories!

Keep writing,

Julie

P. S. Mary Robinette Kowal, who I interviewed a few episodes ago, is offering a class this Sunday on diagnosing (and fixing) story problems. I always leave her classes feeling as if someone has flipped my head open and dropped in a bunch of sparklers. You might want to check it out.

Want more?

Weekly writing prompts and lessons in your inbox, every Wednesday with the StoryAWeek Newsletter