It’s here! STORYADAY MAY is here. But don’t forget to make your commitments public with our Accountability group:
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
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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 2016 and support the running of the StoryADay challenge at the same time. (I’m really proud of last year’s collection!) Give a little, get a little 
Click here. Now only $2.99
I’m relatively new to taking my writing seriously. The past few months I’ve written off and on, but never worked on developing a habit with it. My goal is to use Story A Day May to start developing that habit. I’ve written flash fiction stories for the 1st two prompts. The second part of my goal is to at least write 500 words into each short story. I’ve convinced a friend that is new to writing to join me in this venture. We are sharing our work with each other, comparing how each of us take the prompt.
Being new to actually finishing any writing, I wanted to set goals of pieces of flash fiction per week.
Then I thought it’d be better to commit to 5 days of actual writing practice each week, with at least 1 finished flash fiction per week, so any extra would feel fabulous.
Now I have flu. But I have jotted down a bunch of story sparks and ideas for next week when I get my brain back and start on that modified goal.
Just found your site and I hope it is not too late to start. I have just finished the April AtoZ Challenge and don’t want to break my new habit of writing every day. For May I have come up with the following goals:
Goal #1: Catch up on the writing prompts I missed during April. These are various site prompts I have been following and posting to my blog. I missed the last 2 weeks due to the AtoZ.
Goal #2: Continue with the writing prompts for May and post to my blog.
Goal #3: Write 1,000 words a day on my novel. This is my first, first draft which I began in November. It is about half written, 65K words so far. I “need” to get it done so I can start editing.
Looks like I am behind so time to go catch up.
Welcome!
That’s an ambitious plan. Please feel free to skip the StoryADay prompts you’ve missed so far. Just go forward from here. And don’t forget: you can make your own rules. If you don’t want to write EVERYDAY, just commit at the start to what you think you can manage, plus a little bit extra 😉
Well, the Swan novella is *almost* done and I’ll be delivering it on 15 May. Phew. That took way longer than I ever thought for a 20,000 word novella (lesson learned: I cannot pants). This week and next week I’m doing final edits, proofreading and formatting. The third week of the month I’m pulling out the draft for my August release and seeing what kind of shape it’s in. I haven’t looked at it for more than a year and I think my writing style has changed a lot since then. Good luck to everyone doing the story a day.
I can pants a short story (though really, at a certain point a framework emerges, if only in my head) and I can pants within scenes, but I’m learning that for longer works I need more of a plan.
Glad to hear Swan’s almost there. I’ll be interested to hear your experience of going back to the longer ms after all this time (and writing).
Also, thanks for the prompt. I think you’re up tomorrow!
I actually used to be a pantser (which my mac keeps auto correcting as panther!). Not all that many years ago I would have said I absolutely couldn’t write to an outline. But I’ve learned that for me an outline is the most efficient way to work. I hate sitting down to write and not knowing what is supposed to happen in that scene. With an outline, I can write 1000 words in 10 minutes. Without an outline, there was a day recently where it took me something like 8 hours to write 1200 words. I’m looking forward to getting back to the longer stuff!
It’s my favorite month! Last year was my first Story-A-Day and I really loved some of the stuff I wrote for it, so I’m very excited it’s time again.
I succeeded in Camp NaNo, which made me very happy, and got started on a new fanfic. I’m hoping to get it done for this fic challenge, but I’m not stressing myself about it; as long as I finish it, I’ll be happy.
This month, my only goal is to write a story every day. I’m challenging myself to do it for the whole month and post each one on my Patreon (that way, the only people who see it are at least paying to see my messiness, XD). I’m also challenging myself to use the given writing prompts as at least a baseline, even if I veer wildly from the prompt itself. I’m gonna make this as lowkey as possible for myself.
That is a bold promise (to post on Patreon). Good for you!
For May, I plan to:
– Keep up with a story each day, based on the prompt – I wrote about 1000 words about the message from the dead friend on 1 May.
– post a daily photo and story about the photo every day on my dreadwidth blog.
Wait, so you’re writing TWO stories a day?!
The blog entry isn’t much, just an interesting photo around my neighborhood. The entries run from 100 – 500 words. The other day, the entry was about the Chao Anouvong statue in Vientiane, and the story of this last King of the Vientiane Kingdom. Maybe I’ll write that story in the future.
Goals for May 2017:
To complete 30 flash fiction pieces/story starters this month.
Write for 30-60 minutes per day.
By the end of May have some stories I can elaborate on, or, edit and submit to literary publications 🙂
Update my blog.
Good plan!
Hello Folks!
This is my first Story-a-Day May! I’m really excited to get the creative cobwebs swept out and write! My goal is to have at least 20 stories by the end of the month and to also have fun with this.
I’m a quarter into the writing prompt for today. The most difficult part for me will keeping it short.
That is a challenge for sure! Finishing stories has a special power though. I encourage you to push for that throughout the month.
My goal for this month is to write at least 10 short stories.
Don’t underestimate that. It’s a real challenge. Good for you
Hi everyone!
This is my second Story A Day challenge (I ended up missing last year because life got in the way). I just finished the April A to Z Challenge yesterday and met my goal of not falling behind in posting.
My goal for this month is to write at least 25 short stories. I’m hoping I can actually do one a day, but taking a day off per week sounds more manageable. That’ll be plenty to keep me busy as I make my way through this month.
Just hit ‘Publish’ on the first story of the month, so I’m off to a pretty good start!
Great start! Hope life gets out of your way a little bit more this year!
I have a piece of flash fiction that has been bouncing around to different contests. It has bounced back to me once again so I sent it to a local writing group’s annual publication. (It was actually ling listed for one of the contests.)
Having just finished NaPoWriMo, I think I’m warmed up for Story-A-Day in May. Will I write every day? We’ll find out in about 31 days 😉
Stay tuned, eh?
Remember flash fiction is almost like poetry; short, intense, vivid. Maybe thst’ll help you hit your target.
That was a fun prompt. It inspired a bunch of ideas. I’ve actually completed one. It turns out that’s the hard part. I found it so hard to just sit and keep writing without switching tasks every time I had to pause.
I might actually write another based on this prompt tonight.
That sitting and not switching tasks thing is really hard at first, but it becomes easier with practice.
I saw the writing prompt right after waking this morning and my mind was off. I just completed my very first short story ever – it took longer than I expected but I’m so pleased!
I was initially going to try for a story a day, but realistically I’ve got a lot of events this month so I’ve decided to mimic Madeline’s schedule above of five stories a week. Thanks so much for running this challenge, Julie – it’s so fun to try something so intense my first time writing fiction!
You’re welcome!
And yay! How exciting that you’re writing short stories for the first time. Don’t get discouraged if it gets hard some days. (It will). They do t have to be good, they just have to be written.
Persistence makes all the difference between being a writer and whining about wishing you were a writer 😉
I aim to write a scene or flash story every day, with weekends off.
Today I wrote a scene even though it’s May Day Bank Holiday over here.
It’s a long time since I’ve written any fiction and I just wrote with nothing in mind and saw where it led me. It was fun.
I miss May Day (it’s not a thing in the US as far as I can tell). Did you get up and was your face in the dew? 😉
I like your plan and am glad it moved you to play with fiction again. Enjoy!
My biggest creative/writing goal for this month is to complete Story A Day. I set my own rules in terms of writing a story every day, Monday through Friday OR five stories a week. Leaving myself some wiggle room! 🙂
Good luck, everyone!
Smart move! I usually take Sundays off, myself…
Happy May everyone! My goal is to write either a short story or a continuation of a novel I had been working on for CampNaNoWriMo. Attend local workshop groups in my area and submit to at least to literary magazines this month. Good luck everyone!
Excellent.
Do you have a market in mind or is this the month you research them?
New here, and not used to setting goals for myself, so I’m starting off slow. My goal for this month is to write at least two short stories.
I approve!
If you want some help walking through the short story-writing process (from brainstorming to submission) check out 7DayStory.com You get emails every day for a week (written by me and Gabriela Pereira of DIYMFA.com).
I’m new to this site. My goal for May is to write a story synopsis every day Mon-Fri and finish one of the stories every weekend. That’s basically only one complete story a week, but I’ll have like 16 synopsis to choose from this summer. I hope to discover a short story for an upcoming anthology.
Sounds good to me! It’s certainly more than I achieved last month, how about you? 😉
Hi, all,
My plans for April were to do Camp Nanowrimo (working on my novel-in-progress, I set a goal of 50 hours); write a short story for #12for12stories and submit; and another online short course through Sisters in Crime’s Guppies Branch.
50 hours was wildly optimistic given my workload in April. I managed 22. But I’m still pretty happy with what I did do. I did get a short story written (finished yesterday morning!), but not submitted. The online course I did, although I didn’t give it as much attention as I would have liked (it was on historical mysteries),
For May, as I posted in May group, I am going to work on short pieces that provide backstory for the characters in my novel. I have 21 people on a space ship and they need to be more distinguishable from each other, so I want to have particular hooks for each of them. In addition, I’ll keep at the general editing/adding subplots work on the novel and I have two short stories to edit.
I love your ambition! If shooting for 50 hours got you to 22, you’re doing the right thing.
And 21 characters? My head would explode, but go you! Vive la différence !
Good morning! Last month was NaPoWriMo, which I completed (minus four days off for being sicker-n-a-dog). I also submitted a poem to the Olympia Poet Laureate and it was accepted as part of the Procession of the Species celebrations, so that was exciting! This month I want to use the prompts to help me get a reasonable direction and first draft for another short story project, and I’m looking forward to getting started! 🙂
Hey, congrats for not only putting your work out there but being selected. That’s fabulous.
Hope the prompts are fruitful for you!
Hi – this is my first day on the Story a Day site. I’ve just started writing and need some goals! So…here goes…
In May I plan to…
write 20 stories – just can’t do every day
Continue to post on my blog at least twice a week
Feel good about writing!!
Good luck to everyone!
Excellent plan. 20 is going to be challenging enough, believe me. Keep going even when you don’t want to. You’ll be amazed when you look back and see what you’ve accomplished.
Hi all, welcome to May!
These were my goals for last month:
– Post once a week on my blog… done!
– Write and edit one 1,000-word story per week for a workshop… done!
– Enter at least one short story competition… done!
For May, I hope to complete the StoryADay challenge and somehow make time to also update my blog every week. Wish me luck!
Dan
Ambitious, but manageable, i’d say based on how much you’ve achieved on Day 1!!
Good luck
Welcome to May everyone, a quick list of this month’s objectives:
Write something everyday, it may be part of a novel chapter, or the short story I’m pulling together or even a quick fiction using the daily prompt!
Excellent prompt for day one, I will give it a go today.
Last month I rehashed one of my earlier short stories and despatched it to a competition. I was really pleased with the end result as the few tweaks I’d made made it much stronger in my opinion. I almost completed the latest novel chapter, only about another 500 words, then onto the next one.
Onwards and upwards!
Happy May!
Great work, revising that story and good luck for this month!