Posting a little early for May, since tomorrow’s a big day at the site. Don’t forget to post your commitments here, even if you’re not doing the StoryADay May challenge this year. And we’d love to have you stop by and cheer people on every so often during the month!
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!
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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. )
Don’t 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. Now only $2.99
Oops, forgot to post my goal for the month: It’s to write a 100-word story a day (obviously) and post most of them on the blog. I’ll try to use as many of the StAD prompts, as well.
Good luck everyone 🙂
My second day here, still trying to figure it all out. I did do the 40 minute draft yesterday. My goal is to submit five or six pieces to the Kansas Author’s contest in June. I have several stories cooking but need to get serious. –s6
This is my first time participating in the challenge and it seems a bit crazy to do it after just finishing the poem a day frenzy! Hope to have some rough drafts to work with after this challenge and polish some poems and send them out for this month. That’s it this month for me 🙂
Crazy is what we do, around here… Welcome!
Since this is my first time, I’m pledging to do the bare minimum: a story a day every day in May. Next month I might get a little more courageous, but for now, I figured I’d start with baby steps.
I joined last year and didn’t get much done. I have continued to write, but I haven’t been posting here. I completed my first story in April. From first draft to finished, it was about 8 or 9 months with a gap to let it settle a bit. I submitted it to the Alice Munro Festival of the Short Story Competition. It felt pretty awesome just to hit the submit button. I have been passing the finished copy around to my co workers at the library, and getting positive feedback. It’s neat to complete something and put it out into the world. My goal for April was to revise another story, but I haven’t gotten started on that yet. I will make time in May. My goals for May are to revise my WIP and write one complete first draft. I will try to use as many of the daily challenges to inspire me in May. I write morning pages every single day. When something interferes with this, my coping mechanisms shut down. So, in May, I intend to write my morning pages every day also. I typically do a writing exercise from oneminutewriter.blogspot.com. I plan to substitute Story A Day for that writing time, I have plenty of Sparks that I have been gathering over the last year to keep me going.
I have signed up, but due to the fact that I’m not only attending a writers’ conference this month but speaking at one, I doubt I’ll be writing a story a day! At least not before the midpoint of the month.
I did just complete – really, COMPLETE – the A to Z Blogging Challenge for the first time. I think my previous personal best was to get up to Q, then write a poem where the first letter of each line was Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z and declare myself DONE. This time, I not only wrote 26 posts, I wrote several bonus posts and published a rare guest post on writing humor! (You should come check these out.)
Okay, enough of that. I need sleep. 🙂 But hi. I’m here in spirit if not always in body. “Finish prepping for my conference sessions” is my #1 goal for the month. Past that, it’s all icing on the cake.
My friend Joe Hosch just told me about this wonderful month of writing … just signed up but have not received my confirmation email yet.
I do the Writer’s Digest April PAD challenge each year, but writing a story a day will make me stretch my writing skills … totally excited!
Trying to decide which of my writing websites to post on daily … will put up a link when I have made that decision … most likely on my weekly writing challenge site … Writing Outside the Lines https://annieswritingchallenge.wordpress.com
I can’t find your email address on any of the lists. Can you try subscribing again? https://storyaday.org/signup2016
Hey! So… I’m new. First time doing this. I’m pretty excited! I’ve been trying to write regularly since January and I’m proud to say I’ve reached my wordcount goals each month. March and April were really hard, but during last month I had my great Camp Nano cabin to cheer me.
My goal for next month is trying to write a story a day, trying to write at least three in English and maybe posting some of them in my blog.
Good luck everyone!
Welcome, and Well done for hitting your word count goals. Isn’t is great to look back and say Wit was hard, but I did it?”
It is the best feeling ever!
My therapist told me that I like had a terrible April because I didn’t set any writing goals (or any goals at all) for myself. I guess I better come up with some for May. But I’m eager to take on my fourth time being involved with StoryADay.
Well, after writing a sad story and then feeling great, this morning, I’m inclined to agree with your therapist!
I just need to have fewer goals but stronger ones. I really need to get better as a writer. I’ve got to make a better effort toward that.
I just finished National (Global!) Poetry Writing Month and I’m even more eager to write a story a day in May. Last year I made it four days. This year I’ll make it 31. I feel organized, prompted, and ready to start!
I purposely picked May for this, so as not to step on the poets’ toes! Here’s to your extra 27 days this year!!
This is my first try at a story a day in May. I just finished the SAD boot camp, even though I still don’t have all the stories finished, but that is part of my goal in May. I plan to complete all the writing assignments. I do have a blog, but not sure if I will be posting my stories or just keeping myself accountable by posting to it with my progress… we will just have to see how this goes. Good luck to all and know that we can all reach our goals, and make May our month to get our writing on…. ;o)
Hi Michelle! Welcome back, and welcome to the main challenge 🙂
Just finished Poem a Day (successfully) and figured I’d keep the ball rolling. Short stories were my first love after becoming my own writer again, so I’m game to scratch that itch every day in May. And, if I miss a day, well…
This being my first StoryADay May rodeo, I’ll just climb back in the saddle ride that bronc again tomorrow. Oh, and I’ll still write a poem or three each week (some qualify as stories anyway, if you check my blog), because that’s who I’ve become.
Thanks Julie ~ JH
Congratulations on writing a poem a day. I also successfully completed NaPoWriMo and it has given me the confidence to tackle StoryADay May. Best success in your upcoming month of prose and poetry writing!
Glad to have you here. I’m shooting for 100 words stories this year, which can be like little prose poems sometimes. Good luck!
April found me poeming on several sites and I revised and submitted a short story to a local publication. I had a 50 word story make it to story of the week on http://fiftywordstories.com
May – well, Story A Day for sure!
OK, so I am going to try and draft a story every day in May. I’ve done some of the lessons in the warm-up course, and really want to do this. I feel like my Creativity (yes, with a Capital ‘C’!), has been locked inside me for too long.
I think the best time for me to write fresh is in the early AM, so I will shoot for that. If I don’t make that time, evening seems to work as well.
Here goes, and wishing everyone the best of luck and madness!
Carol
I actually… missed the last couple months of check-in, I think? My life/brain hasn’t been doing very well. So I’m just gonna state my goals fresh for this month.
– do edits on and submit a short story (it got passed on, but the publisher invited me to revise and resubmit, so that’s cool!)
– write at least 1 new short story
– keep a nervous eye on the Crows On Heartstrings Kickstarter (for anyone who’s interested: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1439936295/crows-on-heartstrings-an-antholgy-of-doomed-love-s)
– write a bit of fanfic just for my own amusement, because I’ve been working with a lot of writing that’s under people’s eyes, in one way or another; I want to do something that’s more just about having fun.
I found Feb and March this year much harder than seemed strictly necessary. Hopefully things have lightened up for you, too, now.
Hi, all,
For April, my main thing was Camp Nanowrimo. I chose to use it to edit my mystery novel (which it feels like I’ve been working on forever, but it has actually only been, from idea to now, just over a year). And I did it!!! First draft edit is done (all 243 pages). I have a lot to work on (and the edits are on paper, not the computer), but yeah!!!
Otherwise, the things I planned to do in April were:
*try to post to my blog: didn’t happen
*online class on dialogue through the Guppy chapter Sisters in Crime: I just am finishing this today, in fact. It was excellent and *so* helpful. I used my novel-in-progress for all of the exercises, so it was practical (and not just a way of procrastinating).
*in person workshop on writing from personal experience: This was interesting and really well organized. Some of the ideas that came from it will definitely be finding their way into my work.
And May! Of course, I’ll be doing Story A Day May. It will be nice to work on some short fiction at the moment, to be honest.
As well, I am going to continue on with the novel editing. For May, I want to get the edits entered on the computer and some serious work done on the dialogue (applying the ideas from the class I took this month). And I am signed up for another Guppy chapter class on death scene investigation, which I am really looking forward to.
Cool. Hopefully writing on the short stories will remind you that there is life beyond the current WIP and the editing process. You’ll get some of that ‘shiny new thing’ out of your system:)
Write a story a day in May, for sure! That’s my main goal, and then I’ve got a few fanfics to work on for some challenges, so I’ll either use those for my stories or try to do the stories on top of them. Who knows? XD
Last month worked out really well for me! I actually won my first Camp NaNo which I’d set to just get me started again. I feel very proud of that. Because of the workshop, I’ve been getting better at managing my time and stealing away time to write and I’ve made a calendar to keep myself on track.
Good for you. Well done on Camp NaNo!
Keeping track is a really powerful tool. I’m glad you brought that up because I’ve been slacking off on my fiction recently, and need to get back to it. My tracker is one of the most helpful things I’ve found to keep me going.
I haven’t posted here for the past year, and that’s probably pretty common. Until a few months ago I did not much writing at all. I spent last summer in a frenzied job search followed by 7 months working in a job I didn’t really fit in with great people that I miss.
This year I think might be different. I was laid off in February and have been writing to fill in free time during a much healthier job search. Last month I finished my novel outline and am currently about half-way through writing the first draft. I also have been writing about one short story a week.
In May I plan to: finish my novel, write a short story every day, and maybe even get a full-time job. (If I’m honest I’d rather show that writing should be my full-time job. That doesn’t fit very well, if at all, with the picture my wife has of what our life should be trending to so we’ll see.)
Welcome back!
Writing surely is a hard fully one gig to pull off (unless you’re willing to do sales copywriting), but you never know, unless you put in the work, eh? Why not us? That’s what I say!
In April, I took Julie’s fabulous bootcamp course and it’s motivated me to get involved with this monthly accountability group.
I’ll be doing the May Story-A-Day challenge, with weekends off. My bottom line is to follow along with Julie’s 2016 writing prompts and practice creating a story outline at least each weekday, and when I can wrestle more time from a day, to compose a fleshed-out story draft. My primary goal for this May is to get a ten-minute play written, polished, and ready to stage at a night of short plays I’m doing with friends this summer.
Hi Georgia! Glad to see you here!
Thank you! Hopefully this will become my regular haunt.
I post my stories to my blog every day in May, most SADIM. For better or worse, it keeps me honest.
I hesitated this morning, but decided to follow your example. I don’t imagine I’ll try to place any of these stories with markets that won’t publish a previously-published 100 word story, so why not share?!
Hi all! Coming back again and hoping to do some flash fiction stories and other little stories. I may have to double up days but we’ll see how it goes. I’ll be blogging at http://girlzombieauthors.blogspot.com
Awesome URL!
I’ve never done this before, but looking forward to the coming month of story-writing. That’s about all I think I can handle for the coming month. My stories will be my haven from work (where I also write, albeit about history).