Welcome to a new year, 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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Last month, I decided to write every single day of the month for a Contest being conducted by Writer’s Digest.
I am very happy to have accomplished my goal of writing for 28 days. 28 stories were born as a result. And the responses so far have been very positive and heart-warming.
I am looking for something similar in the months to come.
Here is wishing all fellow writers all Success and Happiness.
Jut discovered this site. Last year ended with a lot of work lined up, but this year (2022) started very slowly. I did get three blogs in to the company I am supposed to be doing four a month for. (To be fair I did five for them in December…) That was good. I have transcribed most of the interviews with the company owner for the blogs for this month. But I still have two reviews and an interview that editors are still expecting – no we never created a firm deadline. I have read the books and transcribed/ cleaned-up the 13,000+ word interview and drafted the intro. I am waiting to hear back from the writer/ artist interviewed for final clarification on a couple of points. I have attended a new writing group four times and done a re-write on a flash fiction story that needs to be more about 2500 words instead of flash.
For Feb: Finish all of the above assignments:
2 reviews (1000 – 1500 words)
1 Interview (1300+ words)
4 blogs for business consulting company
New work:
Get short story (mentioned above) ready for proofreader
Craft 2 more pitches for other editors
Do market research for places to send existing story
Write one poem for the Rattle ekphrastic challenge
Get 2 more flash/ short fiction stories started
Start posting goals every month
Submit two stories
Write four short stories
Read more short stories (fiction and non-fiction)
Research markets/contests
Failed in my mission to write a story a day last month but very happy with progress nonetheless. Wrote probably 1/3 of days of month. This month hoping for writing more days than not. A realistically attainable improvement for me.
Sounds like a pretty glorious failure! 1/3 days ain’t bad!
Reflections
• 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
• Complete an abbreviated character profile for Evelyn’s father who I see as a static background character for the purposes of this book. He has nonetheless had a profound effect on the character to do have a change arc in this book, so I need to wrestle with understanding him better. COMPLETE
• Begin a character profile for my love interest’s mother. NOT COMPLETE
• ADDITIONAL COMPLETION: I drafted two poems.
• Complete the above goals by working on my novel at least one hour a day, five days a week SATISFACTORILY COMPLETE
January 2022 Goals
• Complete a character profile for my love interest’s mother by working on my novel for at least one hour a day, five days a week.
• Publish at least one post on my new spirituality blog.
• Proofread the manuscript of my other novel.
Making great progress!
In January, I want to set up a more regular time to do my writing, and I want to average 1,000 words a day.
Great goals. What time did you choose?
In January I will reestablish morning pages. I will create a consistent space in my scriptorium so that I can write more often. Develop routines so that writing is a daily practice.
ACHIEVEMENTS DECEMBER 2021.
*explored scene structure and pace through an online Lewis Jorsted course.
*completed first draft of my next chapter
* completed simple outlines of all my remaining chapters.
* doubled the number of books read.
* kept my Story Sparks notebook with me and added to it regularly.
GOALS FOR JANUARY 2022
*increase my speed and volume of writing
* record how long it takes me to write a chapter in order to assess how much time I need to spend on my novel to improve my output.
* increase my reading by listening to audiobooks whilst exercising or doing chores .
* improve my access to my collection of Story Sparks by working out a system of categorising them.
* complete another chapter of my novel…First draft.
December:
~Mistletoe–DONE
~Yuletide–DONE
~CIE–DONE
~HH–DONE (today, it’s still 2021 here)
Ending the year with 125.536 words, around 85-90 written works, about 50+ of which I posted.
Holy Hera, that’s a lot of stuff!
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January:
~HP
~FFFX
~Zine
~Commission #3
~3C x4
I have so much to do this month, but then I’m going to take a break (zie says) from exchanges except ones I *really* want to do. I need to catch up on my reading of fics from past exchanges that I haven’t done yet. I need to read the library books I have (not to mention the books I *own*).
I also want to take this year to write for myself more than others (outside of commissions). I don’t need to have a publishable novel ready or anything, but I want to work on stuff that makes me happy rather than stressing over deadlines. This means more prompts, more going back to WIP I haven’t touched in a while, and more just enjoyment overall.
More enjoyment overall? Can’t endorse this hard enough!
Congrats! And, enjoy your year of happy writing!