Post your goals for this month and let us know how you got on with last month’s goals.
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!)
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Two goals this month:
First, complete all my Patreon obligations: writing an original short piece, a character thank you, and first look and behind-the-scenes posts.
Second, write out a complete outline for NaNoWriMo!
I’m jealous of the folks who did Story A Day, I’m hoping to do it again in May 2019 🙂
I forgot to post in September, or maybe I just didn’t want to… I was annoyed with myself for not reaching my goals/doing much writing. I finished “The Artist’s Way” and I think my expectations were too high as to what would happen AFTER completing it. I tried to dive into a big project that overwhelmed me and made me mad. But some good things have happened:
1. I went to a local open-mic reading thing. I actually brought one of my stories but didn’t end up reading (or talking to anybody…), so one of my goals is to read something at the next open-mic opportunity I get (and talk to people).
2. I’ve enrolled in a flash fiction contest and my goal is to make my submission in October. I’m liking my story so far but every morning I want to change it, it’s nice to do something more manageable in size after overdoing it with my first project.
3. I explored the “Snowflake Method”, which I discovered in somebody else’s SWAGr comment. That’s actually what I used with my big project (that failed…) but I enjoyed it and I pick up some good things from the method.
The writing efforts, good or bad, are all due to this group so wanted to drop a quick note and say how grateful I am, good luck everybody!
I’ve heard of Inktober. But now there’s Drawlloween…too many things!
My hope is to come closer to finishing the novel. I have an art show coming up and my 50th, that’s 50th!, birthday. And my favorite holiday of the year! Halloween. Not my birthday.
Anyway. I hope we all keep writing.
I was thrown a curve ball in September when my sweetheart ended up in the hospital for 14 days and then home health therapy and more procedures and doctor visits. No worries, he is on the mend I will make sure he continues to get better. I did keep up with publishing my Daily Quotes to my blog (30 for 30, 100%) and only dropped 6 of my 35 planned flash fictions posts on the blog (29 of 35, 83%). So that wasn’t too bad all things considered. However, everything else was a bust.
So October Goals are a repeat of September’s 😩
That is ok. Here we go again:
1. Continue to write and post to the blog every day (with 2 posts on Sunday).
2. Continue Daily Quotes to Blog
3. 10,000 Words on Short Story Collection
4. Finish The emotional craft of fiction
5. Submit one Flash Fiction story to a contest
6. Write and finish Salem outline
7. Attend a critique group meeting
8. Read ARC story
9. Rewrite/edit Short story for submission
Best of luck to everyone on meeting your October Goals. ✨
I completely failed with my September goals- but at least the prompts helped me come up with an idea for a longer story with a new direction:)
I want to continue my blogs in October, and draft an outline and hopefully plan characters and the ending of the story that has me stumped- so I have some draft outline before NaNoWriMo..sigh. I also need to watch less Netflix on the weekends..lol 😀
Prachi,
I would not count September a complete failure if you at least came up with some new story ideas. Congratulations on that and best of luck to you on your October goals.
All the best.
Met my StoryADay goal to write everyday. Didn’t always make it to the prompt, but produced many pages of stuff I love and can’t wait to make bigger and better.
October
*Keep up the momentum
*Submit a story to critique group by the 15th
*Complete first full revision of a story that I would like to submit for publication by January
*Educate myself on writing submission letter and submission process
Hai hai hai. This October I plan to start small, but start nonetheless, once and for all.
I will be gentle with myself, but I will stop dancing in circles around the things I want, and instead enter the darn circle and become a part of it, more actively.
So this October I will just *write*, try to spend less hours on Netflix and reading, and a little more outlining and developing and, guessed it, writing.
No extremes, no stiff rules or tips I read online: trying to organize life into rigid time boxes does nooot work for me. Instead, organical baby steps towards the actual, main goal. Organically grown baby steps.
Nobody is born a writer or a screenwriter, so just gotta start without any ideals or unrealistic goals. And enjoy it 🙂 That’s my goal for this month.
Best wishes and good luck to you all 🙂
My only goal for September was surviving life’s problems. The writing was assigned to a moveable space in the schedule. However, I did get some short story drafts and ideas created. Problems are ongoing so might impact the next few months.
October presents an interesting goal or three that may be subject to the road diversions: i. finish and blog 1000-word of flash fiction for the IWSG/WEP Challenge October 17th; ii. edit and submit my 6000-word entry for the 2019 IWSG Anthology; iii. complete the plotting and research for my 2018 NaNoWriMo novel = November goal.
Roland, I too got sidelined with life problems. I feel your pain. I plan to keep working and never give up. Some progress is always better than none.
I hope your issues resolve quickly. Best of luck
In September, I finally published the blog post I had been (sort of) working on since last April. I also wrote a story that I don’t plan to do anything with. I don’t like it, but, hey, I wrote it. I also wrote a poem that needs a complete overhaul, but I’m not opposed to returning to it at some point. Finally, I wrote down some ideas of how I’d like to revise my novel-in-progress.
I’m going to continue with my novel revision this month. My goal is to work on it at least ten minutes per day. I’m measuring my work by minutes instead of pages because I’ve stopped commenting on the text itself for the time being. I’ll be doing some character and structure, and plot work, the kind of work many writers do before they ever draft a rough draft. I wish I had done this work before I started drafting, but, hey, I’m a panster by nature. I’m working to correct that. I get that the panster method would be fine if it worked for me, but it doesn’t.
I’m fighting my inner pantser, because my inner-slob doesn’t want to do all that work after the fact. I’m sure there’s a solution somewhere in the middle ground. Let me know if you find it!!
Well done on getting that blog post written. I’m sure it was satisfying.
Hi, all!
So! I completely misjudged my day job work load for the month, which I knew would be heavy, but was far busier/frantic than I expected. Unfortunately that meant I totally bailed on Story A Day. But I did write, edit, and submit two stories (one 35oo words, the other 5000) for submission calls, so that was an accomplishment.
Anyway. Moving on! For October, I am planning on outlining my Nanowrimo project; begin final-final edit of my novel incorporating some feedback (then I am sending it out into the world!); begin outlining/brainstorming a few stories for upcoming submission calls; finish requested edits on a short story that will be published next year; and go to our local speculative fiction convention (https://can-con.org/ for anyone in/near the Ottawa area).
Best of luck for the month, all.
Hello. I’m new to SWAGr. I haven’t been writing as much as I would like. So my goal is going to be to write for one hour every day this month. I am working on a short story (estimate 6500 words.) that I would like to complete this month (at least the first draft).
Hi Natalie! That sounds like a great goal. If you can stick to it for two weeks I bet you make it through the month.
Let me know if there’s anything we can do to help.
Welcome, this is a great group. It is nice to have a place to be accountable. Best of luck to you on achieving your October goal.
Last Month, I:
Finished Story a Day(30 stories, not all that I was happy with)
Finished writing By the Gun, a western I’ve been struggling to write for almost 2 years
Made progress on a few other novels
Started outlining the next in a few series
For October:
Make more progress on 3 unfinished novels
Rewrite the end of Still Burning(I apparently didn’t save the final version to dropbox before I switched computers)
Work on outlining of those next in series novels(4 of them)
Actually remember to check in here by the end of the month
😀
Last month, l completed a non fiction work book. It’s only about 6500 words though. This month, l plan to write the book 2
Keep that momentum going!
I survived Story a Day September AND writing four fanfics in the span of five hours tonight. Phew!
Last month’s goal was to do STAD, which I do to the best I could do with vacation in the middle of it. I wrote a lot of things this month that will be used as prep for my NaNo novel next month.
This month, my goal is a story a day for Drawlloween. I think they’ll all be fanfics (what a surprise), but I had so much fun with it last year, this year’s got to be just as good.
Drawlloween sounds fun. Does someone else draw pics and you write to them? The other way round?
Back to my day job now, so if I get 100 words per day down, I’ll be happy. Perhaps I should write a drabble a day? An October challenge methinks! Let me wish you happy Halloween too! (My favourite celebration.)
I write a piece a flash fiction every day. anywhere from 100 to 1000 words. There are days when it is difficult, but it is possible. Best of luck to you.