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!
****
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.
Oh dear, late again! I’ve not done much actual writing this month, but I seem to have achieved what I’d set out to do! I was looking to enter two short story competitions by the end of the month and by judicious tinkering with a couple of previous stories managed this objective. My writers reunion was amazing, six of us spent four days together doing workshops and reviewing each other’s work. As a result, I’ve got renewed enthusiasm for my half finished novel. I’m now starting it in a different place which seems much more logical.
November objectives; well I attended a writing workshop day yesterday (four short workshops and a couple of speakers0 which was very good. I’m trying to plan out a number of short stories over the coming months and will be looking for some competitions to enter. On the writing front I want to produce a first draft of my new first chapter my novel and possibly the second chapter as well. I may try to kick off a short story as well, but this will be second priority.
Well done on your achievements Julie, looks like you had a good month in October.
Phew! I think I’ll have to start posting a mid-month “remember your SWAGr promises” email, if only so I remember to keep myself honest! Really am finding the promises I make here very helpful, so thanks to everyone who turns up and does the same!!
Here’s how last month went;
Promises made / Results
– Write 10,000 words of fiction / Yes! Made it just under the wire, but made it. Feels good.
– Write sample chapters for non-fiction book proposal / Well, I didn’t complete them but I did brainstorm and break through a mental block, and start them, so that’s good.
– Get non-fiction book proposal out the door! / Um, no. Because of aforementioned mental block. November is my month!
– Critique a novel for member of writing group / Done!
– Critique stories/excerpts for writing group members. / Done and done. Some good stuff this month and it keeps my brain churning. I learn so much from critiquing other people’s stuff and engaging in real-world discussions with other critiquers!
– [Stretch goal] Flesh out one new writing workshop idea / I did this. In fact I sketched out two ideas and will be presenting one of them later this month in Pennsylvania.
— Bonus: wrote a cracking Christmas story, which I’ll be releasing in a Christmas ebook collection (I hope)
— Bonus: wrote a 50 word story and had it accepted and published at fiftywordstories.com
— Bonus: created a NaNoWriMo word count spreadsheet and shared with the world (https://storyaday.org/nanowrimo-tracker/)
— Bonus: wrote four blog posts for StoryADay.org
— Bonus: volunteered to review Martin McGuinness new book “Motivation for Creative People” which is AWESOME! Reading that and readying my review now.
Goals for November
— push forward on the new serial/novel, which is exciting me (and my critique group). Get to the half way point, if not further.
— (related) write at least 10,000 words of fiction
— Write sample chapters for NF book proposal. Give to someone to critique.
— Polish up book proposal and get out of the door by the end of the month. For reals.
— Create and present workshop on Conflict.
— Write 2-3 more Christmas stories. Put Christmas ebook together.
— Write four Write On Wednesday prompts for StoryADay.org (unless anyone wants to guest post a prompt…email me!)
Yikes. No more slacking off, I guess.
I can’t believe it’s November already!
For October I planned to:
*Finish 2-3 short stories: didn’t happen, although I have several ideas that are well on their way, so I’m not overly frustrated with that.
*work on novel: I did this, including outlining the last 50 000 words for my unconventional Nanowrimo
*2-3 blog pieces: did one, and another today (which expands on some of the things here: http://bit.ly/1l2zwN9)
*attend two workshops at CanCon: this is a speculative fiction convention in Ottawa, the workshops were both awesome (more in the blog post mentioned above)
*Electronic Literature course on EdX: I began this (also more in blog post)
For November:
*Nanowrimo
*work on some short stories as time permits
*post to blog every Sunday
*finish the Electronic Literature course and then sign up for: Plagues, Witches, and War: The Worlds of Historical Fiction near the end of the month (https://www.coursera.org/learn/historical-fiction)
Thanks, as always, Julie for providing this venue for accountability!
That’s quite an ambitious roster, there! I can tell you’ve done NaNo before, because you’re like, ‘yeah, I’ll write a 50K word novel and do all this other stuff too’ 🙂
Ha ha! And I didn’t even think twice when I wrote that, either. (This is my seventh NaNo, I finished all previous six.)
I barely got any writing done last month despite my efforts to do month-long Halloween themed prompts. This month, I’m doing two writing projects: Yeah Write’s daily November blog posting, and NaNo with two novels. I’m going to try pacing myself this month so I don’t get burned out quickly or get so ahead I don’t have the urgency to continue anything.
NaNo with two novels?!!!
Hey, if you can do it, go for it. I have found, however, that setting smaller goals is much more rewarding than setting your sights high and failing. Of course, NaNo and StADa kind of break those rules, because sometimes you need to sprint for a defined amount of time, just to prove you can do it. So go for it. But don’t beat yourself up (or expect to keep up that pace) long-term.
Good luck!!
Productivity got away from me in October. Classes became pretty overwhelming, and I didn’t end up writing anything.
This month, I’ll try to take on NaNoWriMo. Hopefully I’ll get into the habit of writing every day, and maybe that will make writing a bigger part of my life again. I really missed it!
NaNo (and StADa) are more boot camp than habit factories, so remember to keep a sense of humor and to reassess at the end. Good luck!
I plan on writing for 60 minutes daily. I am doing the NaNoWriMo again this year and WILL to better at it than previous years. The goal is to get the 50k words. I will be doing a collection of short stories.
Planning ahead a bit should help. Plus: remember to let your first drafts suck!
Welp, last month’s goals got a bit scrambled, but I did finish the first draft of ’til human voices’ and started rewriting it; I also took a much-needed break from Mostly Dead Girls to collect myself and have switched to a more manageable once-every-other-week schedule. Submitted ‘Last Spell’ to Uncanny Magazine – I know it’s moved up to the senior editors, but I don’t know if it’s accepted or rejected yet, so fingers crossed! And I just got a short horror story accepted!
This month, I’m going to:
– Mostly focus on NaNoWriMo, obviously. 🙂 I’m working on a weird, dark fantasy YA called ‘The Wicker Forest’, which draws on a lot of fairy-tale stuff, mostly more obscure stories.
– Might try to finish ’til human voices’
– write the 2 updates for MDG I need
Gonna leave it at that, because between my job and NaNo I’m going to be exhausted this month. 😛
Yes, yes you are! But, good exhausted 🙂