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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For April, my goals are to:
* join the London Writers’ Salon at least 3 mornings a week
* journal at least 20 minutes 3 mornings a week
* finish editing my story, “The Lucky Charm
I achieved my February goals which were to submit two stories and dedicate my time to the I,WRITER class.
My March goals are to actually post my goals on the 1st day of the month, submit one short story, complete the I,WRITER class and spend the rest of the month going over the lessons and assignments, applying what I learned to stories I have written.
*hazy flashback visuals*
February Goals:
~CB–Due Monday….AAAAAAAAAAAAH–DONE
~Zine–Due 12th….AAAAAAAAAAAH–DONE
~Commission #3–Due whenever I get my stuff together ;__;–…NOT DONE
~IPQ–Due March, thankfully–DROPPED
*and now, the present*
March Goals:
Commission 3–No, for real, actually finish this month.
S4S–Outline
O5k–Outline
YGOBB–Pick idea and outline
HBB–Pick idea and outline
March Writing Goals: Re-write my Linked In profile, complete the Writer course lessons and exercises, complete the 2nd act of a play. These are the top 3 priorities. IF I get these done and have more month left (after I celebrate!!) I’ll start the outline for the memoir. If not then this will start off Aprils’ goal list.
Reflection
• Complete arc progression worksheets online for my two protagonists so I can start getting a clearer picture for the rewritten version of my novel. — Started but not complete. I’ve done a lot of creative and productive thinking about the project this month though. I feel like I made major breakthroughs in understanding what my characters do and why they do it. I’ve also done some research.
• Complete arc progression worksheets for, perhaps, two more of my characters. Not complete
• Work on my novel at least one hour each day, five days a week to complete at least the first goal. While I didn’t complete the first goal, I feel like I did work on the project for an hour a day, five days a week.
• Publish a blog post each week. — Complete
March 2022 Goals
• Draft one poem before my poetry group meets next Tuesday evening.
• Publish one blog post each week.
• Complete character arc progression worksheets for the characters who need a change arc Deadline: March 25th
• Work on my novel at least one hour a day, five days a week until I go on vacation.
I’m semi-new! I’m working on a short story that has driven me batty! So I’d like to finish revising that story this month. I also have a story I need to type up as well! Those are my two goals.
Good luck everyone!
I’m new here and this is my first month! My biggest struggle is discipline so I’m making that my goal for this month. I will plan and write two sessions of 15 minutes each week. Start small and build on successful habits 🥰
Did I even post a goal for myself here last month–can’t remember but, past is past.
This month, I will work so my outline’s ready for a class starting March 24th –need to be ready to apply the exercises to my story beats.
This is my first go at this. I’ve tried setting goals myself and I always miss them. I’m hoping for some accountability! I’ll keep my goal small and achievable, in case that’s my stumbling block:
5,000 words of my first draft.
I have it plotted out, just need to get it down.
I started the first draft of my fantasy novel mid last month and I’m on track to finishing it by mid this month — as long as I keep pushing, that is!
So I’m the spirit of “shoot for the moon, land amongst the stars,” my goal is to finish that first draft by the end of this month. I also want to keep up with the articles for my fantasy substack, which I use as a warmup each day. It should be doable, fingers crossed! 🤞
Excelsior!
ACHIEVEMENTS IN FEBRUARY 2022
*Completed another chapter of my novel.
* Discovered audiobooks are not for me. I have realised I’m a visual, tactile person! I have increased the time I devote to reading instead and I’m loving it.
* I have increased the time I give my writing I stead of focusing on word count. Sometimes I just think and research in that time. I can see I have become more productive.
* I have realised it’s difficult to work out how to organise my story sparks whilst retain the spontaneity of writing them. Still working on this.
GOALS FOR MARCH 2022
*Write the next chapter of my novel.
* Organise and streamline my filing system for chapters of my novel, to allow easier accessibility.
*Write my ‘Book Reviews’ article for our community newspaper which is published quarterly.
*Join the online reading community ‘Goodreads’ to record my books read and to broaden my reading material.
*Read, read and read.
*Indulge in more Story Sparks Try to organise them.
Those are some pretty exciting discoveries. I’m glad for you! Best of luck on your goals!
Last month goal was 10k, actual words written 13,308. So, yay!
Shooting for 10k min this month as well. Also, want to plot my first novel after years of short stories or no writing at all. Hopefully I can start on the writing as well.
Great goals! I wanted to recommend a book; depending on how detailed you want to go, the Monster Novel Structure Book can be a useful tool for helping with three-act structure plotting. If you’re more of a “just need some road markers” kinda writer, it definitely would NOT be for you. It helped me a lot to figure out “ohhhhh, THIS is how this plot beat works!” Best of luck on your goals, you’ve got this!
Hmm, I seemed to have replied to Julie what I meant to reply to you! Anyway, I thank you for your tip! I am looking at combining my top three or four methods and making my own system! 🙂
Fabulous!! I’m so pleased for you.
Do you have a sense of what style is plotting you’ll use? I’m a fan of Save The Cat Writes a Novel’s methodology AND The Snowflake Method though they both scratch different itches. Which is to say: there is no One True Pth to Plotting even inside one single writer… Keep at it!
Thank you for the tip! I did order a book called Book in a Month by Victoria Schmidt but I have not used it. It’s a workbook, and I can hardly bear to actually write in it and mess it up! Plus, I have began learning about the Save the Cat method and want to incorporate that in my plotting and this book doesn’t do that.
I kind of want to just mix match several systems, picking and choosing the things that work for me from several that I liked things about. Ha. Just too lazy to design my own system this month!
I did get 30k words so, exceeded my goal there, at least!