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 Writer’s 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 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
Want to get reminders by email? Sign up now
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Examples of Goals Set By SWAGr-ers in previous months
- Write a story a day in May – everyone!
- Revise at least 10 short stories – Iraide
- Write two short stories. – Jami
- Attend one writers’ conference – Julie
- Write fable for WordFactory competition – Sonya
- Re-read the backstory pieces I wrote in May and see if I can use them within my novel – Monique
- Research the market – Jami
- Focus on my serial – Maureen
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. )
Last month my goal was to work through the first few weeks of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. COMPLETE.
I’ve done morning pages every day since June 1st, and the results have been shocking. Most of them have been positive… feeling more present, hopeful, and I can see some creative ideas coming into focus. But some negative stuff has come up too. I’ve noticed myself being impatient, having self-doubt, and getting weirdly angry over trivial things. Probably the lowest point was in week 4 when I had to do a “reading fast” and threw a legit tantrum when I wasn’t allowed to read.
It also has made me very grateful for this group. There’s a part in the book where you’re supposed to identify people you can “trust” with the knowledge that you’re going on this journey. My list was very short which made me sad but then I put the SWAGr group in the trust bubble and just felt really happy about it.
This month’s goals: 1) Continue with The Artist’s Way, and 2) read StoryFest 2018 entries.
Oh David, good for you! I was wondering if you would follow through on that promise (and yeah, I sympathize about that “reading fast” tantrum. But isn’t it an interesting experience. I did it long before social media had come to dominate our days. It would be so much worst now!)
Glad to hear we’re part of your trust bubble! The longer you write the easier it gets to tell people about it, but it’s not a bad idea to protect that tender shoot at first. There’ll be plenty of time later to come up with your own variation of a response to the things people ask as soon as you say you’re a writer (“Oh, what have you published?”, “Where do you get your ideas?”, “I’d love to have time to write…”)
Are you going on to do Weeks 5-8?
Obviously, I’m late posting here. I didn’t see the SWAGR email in the morning on the first, and then I forgot about posting until I was deleting my piled up emails just now. My goal last month was to read a page of the rough draft of my novel manuscript each day. I didn’t do it every day, but I am in the midst of page 77 of the manuscript.
This month, my goal is the same: look at and comment on at least one page of my rough draft manuscript each day.
That was my fault! I forgot to queue up the post in advance this month!
Great progress on the revisions. Keep chipping away. Even slow progress is progress!
Couldn’t find my goals for June, perhaps they didn’t post? As it is, I certainly didn’t complete them. I did get one short story completed and submitted to an anthology that my online writing group will publish in the fall.
July? I have a teenage Steampunk novella to edit. I wrote it two years ago and it’s been festering so I thought I’d get it out and clean it up ready for submission.
I would like to complete at least one short story a week, but that might be too ambitious…
Good luck with those goals. Maybe if completing a story a week is too much you could at least brainstorm a story each week: main character, desire, obstacle, central question… that kind of thing?
Hi, all,
My plan for June was to finish editing my novel. I did not finish, but I’m about 1/3 through this final-before-beta-readers editing pass, so I’m getting there.
Otherwise, I wanted to get a couple short stories submitted for end of June deadlines. I finished and submitted one, but I wasn’t very enthused about the other. However, I also had a previously submitted piece of flash fiction accepted for an anthology (out later this year), so that was exciting.
So, for July, the novel editing needs to be finished. I am planning on taking a few days off work to see how much I can get done.
Otherwise, I am working on a solid outline for my next novel (I couldn’t help myself). I feel like I have learned a lot about making more work for myself from the process with the current one, so I am trying to avoid some of that. I’m in a Camp Nano cabin to help keep me on track and I have a daily schedule of what to do (I’m trying a modified version of the Snowflake Method by Randy Ingermanson).
LOVE Randy Ingermansol. Let us know how your “snowflaking” goes!
I completed my June goal of publishing one short story per week to my blog, I have largely this SWAGr group to thank for that. This month I will be doing the same as part of Camp Nanowrimo! Wish me luck!
What is your blog?
That is so good to hear. Well done. And good luck for this month too!
In June I wanted to finish my novel draft and finish a short story for an upcoming collection.
Guess which one of the two is finished?
I received an extension from my editor on the novel and hope to use the push of Camp Nano to get it wrapped up this month.
I also want to spend more time reading. It is summer, after all.
Ah…well an extension is good. Hope camp Nano helps get you there. You can do this!
I achieved the goals I set for June. Wrote everyday and created 14 short story drafts. 3 submissions , 2 rejections. Posted to the blig 3 times a week.
July the goal is twice a week for the blog.
Revise 2 stories.
Submit 3.
Go to writer group.
Write everyday and draft at least 4 stories for the month.
Rock and roll!
You posted a link to a talk given by Ray Bradbury. He recommended a short story every week. I am going to try that. I’m also going to take his advice to read an essay, a poem, and a short story every day.
Thanks for all of your hard work to keep this site alive and interesting. Well done!
Thanks Howard!
I think you’re going to love this experiment. I look forward to hearing how it goes.
I signed up here more than a little while ago and then life got in the way. In June I forced myself to get back in the saddle. I have now been writing and posting to the blog every day since 6-11. I have also put together a new excel spreadsheet to help keep track of word count, posts etc.
For July:
1. Continue to write and post to the blog every day (with 2 posts on Sunday).
2. For camp Nano I have committed to 60 hours of editing the draft.
3. Read at least one resource on Plot & Structure.
* I’m participating in Camp NaNoWriMo with a commitment of 20,000 words, trying to finish a novel I started during a November NaNoWriMo.
* I’m preparing documents for 45 short stories. When I don’t have to look back for prompts, my writing sessions go better.
* Non-writing goal: Have still more testing run in the neurosurgery department at UT Southwestern, with the hope of finding the cause of and developing a treatment plan for my paralyzed right foot and my partially paralyzed right leg.
Hi Mary Lou,
Good luck with that non-writing goal. I think it’s very smart of you to include it. It’s important to remember that we have non-writing stuff that will impact our writing goals. And that does sound like something you definitely want some answers about!
Oh and of course, good luck with the writing too.
Thank you, Julie!
Hello. I’m a long time procrastinator and can’t remember if I’ve ever popped in on the group or just attempted to participate in storyaday (which I read all the prompts this year so yay progress).
This month:
I will write a story every day (I’ve already got the first flash done) and am using camp nano to track
Hey there! I remember you!
Good for you, for committing. Good luck with your personal challenge
Well, I didn’t read as much as I’d hoped this past June, but I didn’t write at all, which was both relaxing and lowkey stressful.
This month is all about writing. I’ve got 35,000 words total to do for three fanfics, which is what I’m using Camp NaNo to help me track. I’m determined to write something every day, so that should help me get the word count easy. Hopefully I’ll also get some more reading done this month as there are a lot of great books coming out now, too.
Ahh, that sounds like a lovely June.
I have no doubt you’ll meet your writing goals. I’ve seen what you can do!
Confession time: I didn’t commit to anything last month as still recovering from doing an A to Z of posts in April – completed. So, May and June were minimal posts with the focus on a review every Thursday – completed.
I have just signed up for 100k in 100 days, starting July 1st so that will encourage me to write more than weekly blog posts. I’m aiming to write some short stories linked to the mystery/police procedural that I’ve been writing for some time + I must finish the penultimate draft of the novel.
100 days takes me into October, so I might have completed a collection of shorts and that elusive draft.
Good luck! That sounds like it’ll help with keeping your mind on your writing 😉
I have too many projects and too many ideas! This month will be about focussing on one at a time – hopefully!
Great insight! It’s hard to do, but worth it. You end up making more forward progress if you focus and finish. Good luck!
Okay…what will I do?
My big over-the-top, aim-for-the-stars goal is to finish my current work in progress–Astrophilia, Stories from another Universe. In June I finished reading Donald Maass’s The Emotional Craft of Fiction, and plan to use my notes to help me with Astrophilia.
My smaller goal is to keep up with almost-daily writing on my blog.
I’m also working on art for a fundraiser.
Good luck all!
Oo, that sounds great
I need to finish the book. I keep stopping to write!
That may have been his goal, of course!
OK, last month I promised this:
* I will write and polish one story, ready to be sent out into the world – NOT DONE. I always underestimate how busy June will be. I’ll catch up in the next couple of months, I promise.
* I will polish up and re-send out the stories that bounced back in Jan-April – NOT DONE. (see above for excuses)
* I will read through some craft books about revision and decide on a plan for my novel – EMPHATICALLY DONE. Getting excited about this.
* I will pursue my secret-squirrel goal that I’m not talking about yet – NOT much progress yet, but it’s kind of out of my hands at the moment.
* I will read a ton of short stories and finish the 2 novels I’m actively reading – DONE
* I will do some StoryADay admin stuff behind the scenes – DONE, but there’s much more to do!
* I will take lots of time to hang out with my visiting parents and my off-school kids. I will continue to write fiction throughout June, as an act of self-care and sanity (love my family, but the introvert needs what the introvert craves…) – DONE DONE DONE, and still doing. I have a week of family-intensive stuff coming up but reading will feature heavily as often as I can manage it.
FOR JULY I WILL
* Work on the behind-the-scenes StoryADay admin stuff
* Write one polished short story
* Send out the bounced stories
* Outline and revise the partly-finished novel
* Post prompts, Reading Room posts and two podcasts
OK, that’s my commitment. How did your June go, and what will YOU do in July?