Happy January!
This month’s theme has been ‘Practice’ (as in setting up and maintaining a healthy writing practice).
Here’s what you might have missed:
Podcast
The January 2017 episodes covered:
Stay Excited About Your Writing This Year
I talked a lot in December, about looking forward and setting goals for the new year. Now that we’re in it, episode 47 is all about ways to keep that enthusiasm going so that you can keep making progress towards your writing goals (and, if you haven’t set any yet, it’s not too late!).
I also posted a long, action-step-packed blog post on this topic. Check it out here.
Cheerleaders, And Why We Need Them
In episode 48, I talk about what my cheerleaders did for me this week, and how you can tap this powerful source of support.
If you’re not sure how to have the podcast automatically download onto your favorite digital device, (or even what a podcast really is) check out this post.
Lots & Lots Of Worksheets
Are those new year’s writing resolutions starting to look a little distant in the rear-view mirror? It’s not too late to reboot and capture them in a way that will in the front of your mind all year long.
Use the StoryADay Goal Setting and Tracking worksheets to capture not only what you want to do but, more importantly, why.
Accountability Tools
…to make your SWAGr commitments even more effective.
Another, free, printable worksheet for you: this time to capture the commitments you make in the Serious Writers Accountability Group every month.
Print it out, keep it at your desk to remind you what you committed to, and why it’s important to you.
Want to take a peek at what kind of writing commitments other people made this month? Check them out here
A Year Long Challenge
Does this ever happen to you: you see a post about an upcoming writing contest and think “Why yes, I would like to win $200 and have my story published!” only to remember that you haven’t actually written anything and the deadline is two days away?
Yeah. Isn’t that a recipe for feeling good about yourself?
If you’d like to build up a portfolio of stories that you can submit to markets and contests whenever you hear about them, think about joining the #12For12Stories challenge.
Started by StoryaDay participant and multi-published writer Alexis A. Hunter, this is part-challenge, part-support group and the idea is that you write a story a month all year long.
Read this interview with Alexis and follow along with the #12For12Stories hashtag on Twitter
Reading Room – James Blish
In which I take a look at the short story Surface Tension by James Blish, muse about tropes in genres, and consider how we can play with them.
If you need some help finding short stories to inspire your own short writing, browse the Reading Room archives.
If you’d like to submit a review of a story (with an eye to how other writers might benefit from reading it), check out the guidelines here.
Upcoming Appearances
Next month you can find me:
- Talking at the AWP conference in DC on a panel with Gabriela Pereira, Jane Friedman, Stuart Horwitz and Andrea Cumbo-Floyd
- In the pages of the March/April (short story-focused) edition of
Writer’s Digest Magazine, talking about short stories as a creativity tool.
Keep writing!
If you want to read more like this, let me send future articles straight to your inbox: