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!)
This month: listen to the podcast with me and Monique Cuillerier discussing writing, goals and accountability. (15 mins)
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 2016 and support the running of the StoryADay challenge at the same time. (I’m really proud of this year’s collection!) Give a little, get a little 
Click here. Now only $2.99
Here’s what I said I’d do last month:
-Post all the prompts! DONE
-Podcast all the prompts! DONE
-Cheerlead in the community! DONE (with varying degrees of attendance)
-Read a whole bunch of short stories DONE (watch the Tuesday Reading Room for reviews and recommendations)
-Revisions to the novel and get pages out to agents DONE almost the whole novel is revised (still have some work to do in a couple of spots) but the opening pages are going out to agents who requested them. Fingers crossed.
FOR OCTOBER
Take a short story class with Mary Robinette Kowal – DONE and highly recommended
Keep sending out pages to the agents who requested them
Start planning ahead for 2017
Outline next novel
Write one short story in the novel’s universe to keep me excited
Outline four Christmas/holiday stories
Begin writing Christmas/holiday stories
Write four blog posts on this month’s theme of Making It Better
I didn’t post last month, so don’t have any hard & fast goals to evaluate. But, I wrote 24/30 stories for Story a Day, finished first draft of Shed Some Light and added almost 27,000 words to Closing Time. Almost fully plotted the next in Shed Some Light’s series(Gilbert, Co series) and added about 8000 words between Break on Me, In the Moonlight, & Defending the Heart(BC Security series)…I have trouble focusing on one thing at a time obviously.
So, for this month:
*finish Closing Time
*Get close to finishing Break on Me
*Plot next in Break on Me’s series(Kurztown series)
*Work on revisions for Guarding the Heart(BC Security series)
*Send Healing the Heart(Gilbert, Co series) to beta readers
You were definitely last month’s rock start, not only writing, but posting almost daily. Go, you!
I love that you’re including ‘send to beta readers’ in your goals. That can be VERY motivating!
Good luck!
Hi, all,
Well, I did get a lot done in September, but it wasn’t entirely what I had planned.
I intended to:
*do Story A Day September every. single. day: Didn’t do 🙁 I managed 9 days, which isn’t terrible, but a good part of the reason why it didn’t go better was that I was really inspired by a few of the stories I wrote in the first week, all dealing with the same science fiction premise, and I’ve been thinking about/researching that to use for Nano.
*go to a science fiction/fantasy writers convention: I did and it was awesome, useful, and inspiring!
*work on the mystery novel I’ve been working on for (sigh) most of this year: I have finished draft 2 and working on what I intend to be the last work before I submit it to a contest.
*work on the political thriller screenplay first draft: Did not get around to this.
I did, however, write a few lengthy blog posts, too, so that was good.
To do in October:
*finish the mystery novel and submit it (mid-month) to a unpublished novel contest
*outline my “Moon-Mars cargo pilot sucked into accompanying a group going to Enceladus to colonize it” story for Nano
*really, truly work on the political thriller screenplay (second half of the month, after the mystery novel is done)
Good luck, all.
Good luck on the mystery novel! And your NaNo project sounds exciting. 😀
Agreed!
I love the moon-mars cargo pilot idea. Write that, please!
I also love that you pledged to ‘really, truly work on’ a particular project. Heh. If you need us to hold your feet to the fire, just let us know!
Well, this month was kind of stressful but I got a decent bit of work done, considering. I got almost a full draft of the themed story written before realizing that I’d misread the deadline and wouldn’t have a chance at submitting it, which has depressed me a bit but I’m going to pick up and finish it soon. I made some notes on the story but haven’t written the 1st draft – I have written half a draft for another short story heavily inspired by the Twilight Zone, tho. I’ve come up with a few more ideas for my NaNo project and had a minor breakthrough on another story idea.
This month, I’m going to:
– try to finish at least one of my short stories, edit and submit it somewhere
– prep for NaNo
– write a bit more on other short stories?
– and in non-writing news, apply to some jobs/do some Adult Stuff so I feel like I’ve been responsible enough to ignore responsibilities a bit during NaNoWriMo.
I love the idea of front-loading the Adulting so you can focus on writing during NaNo!
Sorry you missed the deadline, but hey, at least you have the heavy lifting done for the story which will, no doubt, find another home.
Good luck!