Well, StoryADay May is over for another year, but don’t let go of that excitement and enthusiasm (not to mention the sense of community).
Every month we gather here to discuss what we’ve achieved and commit to making more progress in our creative lives in the coming month. We call it our   Serious Writerâs Accountability Group or SWAGr, for short! (We’re serious, not sombre!)
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 everyoneâs doing.
(It doesnât 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 donât forget to celebrate with/encourage your fellow SWAGr-ers on their progress!
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Examples of Goals Set By SWAGr-ers in previous months
- Write a story a day in May – everyone!
- Finish novella â Maureen
- Write two short stories. â Jami
- Write 10,000 (fiction) words this month. â Julie
- Work on a series â Brick
- Track my time and see whatâs getting in the way of my writing â Alex
- Research the market – Jami
- Writing the synopsis for my novel â Misa
- Finish one story draft each month â Carol
 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. )
Donât forget, if you need inspiration for a story you can still get ALL THE PROMPTS from StoryADay May 2015 and support the running of the StoryADay challenge at the same time. Give a little, get a little 
 Click here.
Well, I didn’t write 31 stories this year, unlike years past, but once again StoryADay got me moving on my novel (sequel)–earlier, this time, so it must become more potent the more you do it.
Otherwise, I read some terrific stories here, and had a jolly time with the writing prompts, which were great. (I’ve saved them all, even if I didn’t use them.)
This is a wonderful challenge, and I do look forward to it every year. Keep up the good work.
My goals for May were small because I knew I had a heavy schedule with commitments I made before I found the May challenge.
I wanted to write one more short story first draft and write my morning pages every day.
My morning pages were not necessarily done daily, but I did finish up 3 pages for each of the days of the months, working around some huge commitments elsewhere in my life.
I did write one more short story first draft, short though it is, I am very pleased with it.
My goals for June will be small again, keeping it realistic for the other things going on in my life.
Write my morning pages every day.
Write a short story first draft.
Record 15 story sparks a week for the whole month, for a total of 60.
I wasn’t able to commit to Story a Day in May this year, but I am keeping all the emails with the prompts and I intend to make August my challenge month. I have a writing retreat planned for myself when I will be able to dedicate hours and hours to writing. June and July will be spent preparing myself for that challenge. Julie, thanks ever so much for all the work you put into this challenge, the prompts I have read are terrific and I am so excited to put them into place in August. Maybe next year I can do the challenge as it happens!
You’re welcome.
And we may be planning a September StoryADay, so pencil that in, too!
I think you’re smart to collect the story sparks. Even if you haven’t got time to sit and write a whole story you’ll be thinking creatively and creating a ‘bank’ of ideas for when you can write.
Congratulations!
I hope to finish editing four chapters of my rough draft novel and get them sent to my freelance editor and revise a couple of the short stories I wrote in May. Since this is the busiest time of year on the farm, we will see how that goes.
Well, having goals at least means you’ll know what to dive into if you DO have any free time.
I’m no farmer but I’ve noticed my garden has taken a serious hit since I started running StoryADay May. I did not think about that when I picked May!
This is going to be my first time setting goals with SWAGr, and there are a bunch, though most of them are relatively small. In May I met my goal and finished one story every day (yay!) and quite a few of them led to ideas for future projects.
For June:
– Type up all those May stories (I write first drafts by hand) and get one ready for StoryFest
– Continue the short story mayhem with one every other day
– Finish editing my novel from last year’s NaNoWriMo
– Outline two novel ideas and one series idea gained from May
– Write one chapter to a long standing project
– Write two scripts (comic strip scripts, really short)
– Finish getting my blog all set up
This looks like a lot, but it’s not too bad considering my average ‘to-do’ lists. đ
Well done, and good luck with that list!
I’m looking forward to seeing all the nominations for StoryFest. I don’t get to read as many stories as I’d like DURING the month…
So, my plan for May was to write stories related to the novel I am currently working on:
1) backstory anecdotes to fill out my charactersâ personalities;
2) outlines of future books and short stories in the series; and
3) outlines of some books from the fictional series the protagonist loves and frequently refers to.
And I did! (Yeah!)
The last week was difficult. I had far too many other things (mostly work-related meetings) that interfered with my available writing time, but I managed 31 stories. (I cheated a little and wrote 2 stories/day a couple of times.) I found the whole process of living in my novel’s world for a month in a non-linear kind of way to be interesting and, I hope, useful.
My plan for June is to re-read the backstory pieces I wrote in May and see if I can use them within my novel in some way. I am also going to re-read what i have already written and outlined for the book and decide what, if anything, needs to be altered before I return to chapter by chapter writing. And — the largest part — I would, ideally, like to write 5 or 6 chapters of the book (which would leave me at about 2/3 finished).
Congratulations!
That’s encouraging. I had planned to do something similar but didn’t quite pull it off.
Well done getting 31 stories written!
My May goal was to at least start a story every day, and I did! I even have a couple of complete first drafts.
So, for June I have two goals:
1–Revise two of my May stories
2–Sketch out an outline for the novel idea that attacked me during May
Well done!
I love the idea of a novel attacking you. I know exactly what you mean đ
My comments last time were;
Iâve been outlining the chapters of my novel in preparation for my weeks retreat and Iâm in the process of sketching out another of my competition short stories.
Looking forward to the Story a Day challenge. Iâm away from home for next three days, but I intend to produce something each day, even if it is a bit sketchy.
I wrote for the first two prompts, which was good. I managed to write almost every day in May, mainly sorting my short story competition entry which I finally submitted yesterday, 7 hours before the deadline. My first draft ran to 7,000 words but I finished at just under 5,000. My week writing retreat was really good, more workshops than I’d envisaged, but I learnt so much. I’ve got the book of prompts and will use some in the near future, as well as some of the guest prompts. I’m already looking at another three competition entries over for the next three months. I’m actually using one of the prompts rewriting one of my recent stories in the subsidiary characters POV, to get a better understanding of their feelings.
Thanks for all your encouragement throughout the year.
Good for you and good luck in the competition.
Hey, you keep turning up here and I’ll keep being encouraging!
I love this group. You all encourage me and keep me honest!
Thanks Julie, I’ll let you know, shortlist is published in October, so a while to wait. Very competitive. I like the sound of a September Story a Day.
Oh look, and you made September StoryADay alliterative. Lovely, thanks!
Well, I didn’t get my story-a-week goal down but I did write one long-ish new short story + edited and submitted a couple others, and I started my serial story.
So, in the coming month:
– Mainly I’ll focus on my serial, ‘Mostly Dead Girls’. I’m trying to figure out whether an update every week or every two weeks works better, and I want to build up a two-or-three-update buffer in case life events happen.
– But if I have a spare day or so, I want to write another short story.
– Also I’ll be working intermittently on my tiny novella ‘Dame Fortune’. It’s for an anthology call that’s due in August, but it’s always better to start soon.
Good for you, building in a buffer and revision time for that novella.
Are you publishing the serial somewhere? Wattpad? Smashwords? Your own blog? Love the title!
Last month:
– write a story a day (obviously); use one 100-worder a week as opening for a longer story â wrote a story a day, plus micro fiction on Thursdays; no longer stories, though
– print out and read through novella; take editing notes â printed it and started reading & taking notes, but I havenât gotten far
June goals:
Be realistic â Iâm moving house this weekend and Iâll be away for my brotherâs wedding for two weeks. Still, I hope Iâll manage a 100-word story a day (even if I donât publish them on the day I write them). In addition, if possible:
– write fable for WordFactory competition
– novella editing notes
– I just bought Julieâs guide to releasing short story collections and I hope Iâll get round to reading it this month
Well, a wedding should certainly provide fodder for stories, even if you’re pushed for time!
Thanks for buying the ebook. Feel free to ignore the pieces that don’t apply, and I hope the tools and workflow stuff is useful.
I’m really disappointed and pretty depressed about May. Due to life events, not one story draft written. I’d like to try one story a week in June, using the prompts from May.
That is my goal, I hope to be able to accomplish it.
Carol
don’t feel too bad! Sometimes life is just difficult like that. Good luck with your goals in the next month.
Gah, that’s frustrating. But all we can do is move forward. And you have a plan, so that’s good.
Feel free to post updates to the Victory Dance, as you get your stories written. I’ll be checking in throughout the month.
Good luck!
OK, so here’s what I promised to do last month:
*write some more episodes of a serial I started last year (http://www.julieduffy.com/category/writing/fiction/forgetown-follies/) DONE
*write some Christmas stories for release in November (I did this in 2013 and it was fun! ) NOT DONE
*write some other holiday/themed stories for submission to markets that like holiday/themed stories. NOT DONE
*perhaps write some short stories set in the universe of my novel(s) to add depth, spark ideas for them, and potentially work as stand-alone pieces. DONE
I didn’t write a story every day in May but I am happy that I wrote as much as I did. (Next year I vow to have all the prompts and interviews done BEFORE April, so that I’m not running on fumes by the time May arrives)
I also wrote, illustrated and delivered a StoryADay Live! Workshop at a local writers’ group, which was a blast. Must take that on the road and do it again, more places.
THIS MONTH
*Working on two pitches, one fiction and one non-fiction, to share with agents at two writers’ conferences this summer.
*Organize and promote StoryFest 2015.
*Finish reading “The Book Architecture Method” by Stuart Horowitz and apply it to my completed novel draft.
*Apply the Snowflake method to next novel idea.
*Write one Christmas story. Share with critique group.
*Read and critique work for Critique Group.
*Send out feedback form to StoryADay Live attendees.
*Think about running a version of StoryADay in September this year. And maybe next Jan.
*Attend one writers’ conference.
Oh, and my kids are off school soon. Hmm. Ambitious, moi?
pretty impressive goal list! Best of luck with it. đ
I just became a new member yesterday! I got my first short story written yesterday and felt good about the upcoming month. My goals aren’t prioritized yet
Excellent! Anyone else planning to write every day this month?
(The main challenge may be StoryADay May, but there’s no reason folks can’t do this any month of the year).
Sing out if you’re joining @vivimunch this month…
Hi there!!! đ
During May I’ve been able to write a story a day and continue with the prewriting of a novel addressed at 10-year-old children.
In June, I’d like to revise at least 10 short stories and finish with the prewriting in order to start with the first draft of the novel in July and enjoy the motivation of Camp NaNoWriMo.
Thank you again for the story-writing challenge!!!
Excellent. That’s a lot of writing, but you’ve just completed StoryADay May, so you know you can do it!
(And you’re welcome!)