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SWAGr for December

Serious Writers' Accountability Group

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!)

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16 thoughts on “SWAGr for December”

  1. I wrote out my goals for January last night:
    *Proof and polish my novel
    *Submit every day
    *Write every day using prompts
    *Write a high-level story outline every day

    This is my first time posting my commitments. I just retired and I’m excited to pursue writing hard-core! Wish me luck!

    1. Woohoo!

      Happy retirement!

      Love those ambitious goals. Remember to be kind to yourself around the middle of the month when it starts to feel haaaaaard. Just keep moving forward and you’ll be amazed how much you accomplish!

  2. I haven’t posted my goals since September but I have continued as I intended. I hold on to my goals during December :-
    * research scene structure to find a way to boost the pace of my novel. It’s feeling a bit flat.
    *Complete first draft of my next chapter.
    *Complete Outlines of the remaining final chapters.
    *Read read read and read some more.
    *Increase collecting story sparks. ….how I love doing this! Thank you Julie!
    Sadly:-
    I am doubting I will reach my goal for 2021 which was to complete the first draft of my novel.

    1. …but you’re making progress! Awesome!

      Have you looked at Dan Wells’s 7-Point Story Structure? (You can find a series of lectures on YouTube). It might help you figure/rule out of the “flatness” has something to do with the structure rather than the scenes.

      You’ve got this!

  3. *drags self across calendar*
    Is November over yet???

    It is?
    Oh.
    Thank god.

    “November is here, though, so let’s see those goals:
    ~YGO ME PH
    ~Mistletoe
    ~Yuletide
    ~CIE
    ~HH
    And NaNo, maybe. We’ll see.”

    I, uh, did the YGO ME pinch hit. I did a flash exchange. My commissioner returned for round 3. And I got into a Zine!
    But, yeah, everything else didn’t happen yet.

    This month is going to be extra busy, but hopefully I’ll get some time here and there to do something other than write for my life.

  4. November was a bomb. I had so many RV problems that most of my focus went to it. (I live in my RV full-time.) I got some work done on a full-rewrite of “The Woman in White” (working title), but not as much as I would have liked. Despite that, I’m quite proud of myself. Writing something longer than my usual flash was losing its fun. So, I’m setting the story aside so I can focus on flash fiction. 🙂

    December goal(s):
    1. Daily flash using Rory’s Story Cubes.
    2. Revise some of my old flash from Story-A-Day 2020.

    1. Excellent!

      Here are some more prompts you might like to use, from right here at StoryADay (one of my goals this year is to make this archive more user friendly!)

      Prompts about character: https://storyaday.org/tag/character/ (8 pages of prompts. You’ll find the “next page” button at the bottom of the list)
      Prompts about point of view: https://storyaday.org/tag/pov/
      Prompts with various types of limits (time, word count etc) https://storyaday.org/tag/limits/

  5. I did Nanowrimo this year. I didn’t get to 50K. But boy did I get close 40,838 words in total for my novella novel (not sure yet what it’ll be.)
    Boy is my mind fried. LOL So I’m taking a minor hiatus from it will finish later. I did treat myself to the new scrivener program. Regardless I like it a lot. Now I’m going to focus on writing a short story, putting up poetry that I’ve already wrote had put away and finishing up old flash fiction prompts from email sign up. Also be less grouchy.

    1. Haha! That’s pretty impressive: 40k in a month. I can see why you were grouchy!

      Enjoy the freedom of the shorter forms this month!

  6. Reflections
    • Draft one more poem. I’d like to try a sonnet again — I’ve set aside this goal for now. Why spend time on projects that pull my energy away from the creative project that energizes me most right now?
    • Top goal: Complete Evelyn’s mother’s character profile to make progress in my novel rewrite. — Almost finished. I should be able to complete this goal today, but if not, I will complete it tomorrow.
    • Draft at least one piece of flash fiction as part of flash NanoWriMo. I will be receiving a flash fiction prompt every day this month. — I discarded this goal for the reasons given above. I’ve written these reasons down so that I’ll keep them in mind when I get distracted by the prospect of starting something new.
    • To complete the goals above in the order decided upon above, I need to work on writing at least one hour each day, five days a week. — I’m satisfied with the consistency with which I worked toward this goal.
    December 2021 Goals
    • Complete Evelyn’s mother’s character profile to make progress in my novel rewrite. — Almost finished. I should be able to complete this goal today, but if not, I will complete it tomorrow.
    • Complete an abbreviated character profile for Evelyn’s father, whom I see as a static background character for the purposes of this book. He has nonetheless had a profound effect on the characters who do have a change arc , so I need to wrestle with understanding him better.
    • Begin a character profile for my love interest’s mother.
    • Complete the above goals by working on my novel at least one hour a day, five days a week.

    1. “ Why spend time on projects that pull my energy away from the creative project that energizes me most right now?”

      I love this! It’s exactly the kind of flexibility we need in our writing lives.

  7. I am going back to the old standby, writing a short story a day this month. Would like to move into novel length in the new year.
    Best wishes to everyone on smashing your goals this month!

  8. During the month of November, I participated in NANOWRIMO. My goal was to reach 50,000 words. I hit 59,000 words actually, but my book isn’t finished.
    December Goals: 1) to write 25 posts on Medium (I think) entitled the 25 Days of Holiday Self-Care and 2) to finish my NANO novel. Just so it is done. I will worry about editing it later.

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