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.
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!)
I have a lot of things I’m working on, but I have one goal. ORGANIZE. I want to organize digital and paper copies of my work.
First time here! My goal is to write every day this month, no matter what! I have a list of 30 prompts already printed and ready to go. Figured I should start small and work my way up to more than one goal at a time.
February is for Finishing and Filing
*finish writing as many promising draft starts as possible, minimum of four
*submit 3 stories for publication
*work on organizing files
*write 750 words per day, five to seven days a week
Last month:
I submitted one story
Met my word count 22 out of 31 days
Looked at my Elemental Girl manuscript
Hi, I haven’t done this for a while. No time like the present to get back on track. Right?
In January, my goals were to up my average daily word count and really concentrate on stepping up my writing journey. In December, I had slipped to only writing about 2k words per week. Despite hitting a wall with burnout and sheer exhaustion on January 4, and scheduling an impromptu staycation designed to let me sleep and recharge, I still boosted my weekly average by 60%
This month’s goals are to add word count, while still letting myself recover from exhaustion. My “Good Goal” means adding a Flash Fiction piece every day, hopefully racking up 100-250 words each. Depending on my other commitments, my “Better Goal” involves writing one short story per week. I’m thinking of something in the 1,500-3,000-word range. And the pie in the sky, “Best Goal,” is to write 1,000 words per day on my novel.
Here is the breakdown for total words per week/month:
Status Quo 3,200/12,800 (My weekly average for January)
Good Level 4,000/16,000 (Add Daily Flash Fiction)
Better Level 5,500/22,000 (Add Short Story)
Best Level 12,500/50,000 (Add Novel words)
My goals for January were to finish two short stories (I did this) and write my story for round one of NYC Midnight’s short story challenge (did this, too).
I submitted one of the stories I finished and the other is waiting for a particular magazine to open for submissions. I’m mid-first draft in two other stories.
I planned to return to my Nanowrimo novel from this past November, but the short story writing is going so well that I’m sticking with that for now.
My plans for February are to at least finish the two first draft stories (and submit them, they are both for anthology calls), as well as work on two others (a short story & a novella) that are complete but need heavy work before they are ready to submit.
February goals
Submit 5 micros
Read 1 short and 1 poem a week
2 Blog drafts
Post here!!
My goals for February 2021:
1. To finish/polish one short story already begun
2. Write four new short stories, two for each of two series I’ve started
3. Meet once with a new writing group I’m forming
4. Work through writing goals worksheets for 2021
5. Write “morning pages” five days each week
6. Weeks 2-6 of The Artist’s Way
7. Post to Instagram once per week
8. Post monthly SWAGr goals (I already accomplished one goal!)
GOALS FOR FEBRUARY 2021:
+ Draft for at least 10 StoryStorm ideas
+ Write for 20 minutes daily on my YA WIP
+ Submit more of my writing instead of just letting it sit in my computer
Thank you for giving access to the tracking sheets as well!
February 2021 Goals
• Journal every day.
• Work on something writing-related for at least one hour each weekday.
• Finish Heiress Weds Coachman as part of my research.
• Finish revising the poem I wrote today in time for the Poetry Circle on the fourth Thursday of the month.
• Finish revising my website so that it includes the necessary information about the freelance proofreading and editing I’m starting.
• Get that information out to the public.
It’s a little one, but it’s where I am:
February goal:
Write at least 5 minutes a day, every day.
JANUARY GOALS
I met many of my goals but I failed on two of them. I didn’t
* Complete the full development of the character of my
story’s villain.
* Complete a first draft of the ending of my novel (but I do
now have an outline).
GOALS FOR FEBRUARY 2021
* Research character types and develop that of my villain.
* Set a goal for the year based on what I have now learnt
from reflecting on 2020 and from researching goal
setting.
* Identify the meaningful changes occurring in my novel.
* Pinpoint what is unique and important in my story’s
world.
* Continue writing story sparks
* Continue to read with a writer’s eye and keep notes.
* Research clever storage ideas for my cluttered writing
space in the corner of a small bedroom!
Thank you Julie the question you posed me! It really made me examine what was stopping me. (A very skillful question).
Let’s all be determined to make the most of this lockdown while we have it and emerge from it having done something that makes us proud. Keep Writing.
Love Wendy x
Me, a month ago: Sign up for only small exchanges.
Julie: Why do I suspect that Goal #1 for this year is going to fall by the wayside pretty quickly?
Y’all know me too well….
January:
I did finish half of my FFFX fic. Thankfully, it could be split in two, so now I have a week to finish the second half.
Other than that, I really didn’t do much writing, which is a little upsetting, but then, I was also laid off halfway through the month, so that’s been hurting my productivity in writing. Did do a TON of cleaning/book organizing, so that was great.
February Goals:
Finish FFFX fic, part 2.
Work on the other exchanges I definitely didn’t need to sign up for, but did anyway.
Extend Dynamic Duo zine submission.
Write moar.