You’re back! Or you’re here for the first time. Either way, good for you!
Welcome to the Serious Writers Accountability Group, where we post our goals for the coming month and ‘fess up to how much we wrote last month.
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.)
Don’t remember what you promised to do? Check out the comments on previous SWAGr posts.
And don’t forget to celebrate with/encourage your fellow SWAGr-ers on their progress!
****
Examples of Goals
- “I’m going to write every morning from 6-7 AM.”
- “I’ll write 250 words a day, minimum.”
- “I’ll write 10,000 (fiction) words this month.”
- “I’ll write one full story and revise another.”
- “I’ll write four stories and submit one story to a publication.”
- “I’ll outline that presentation I’ve been putting off working on, and create half of the slides.”
- “I’ll track my time and see what’s getting in the way of my writing.”
- “I’ll keep a journal to track my resistance to getting the work done.”
So, what will you do this month? Leave your comment below:
(Next check-in, Nov 1, 2014. Tell your friends. )
Don’t forget, if you’re warming up for NaNoWriMo, you could do worse than write a few short stories. How about a collection of ALL THE PROMPTS from StoryADay May 2014? Yes? Click here.
I have just reviewed the contract for services from Woodward Press that will help me publish my short story collection on Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords. Hopefully the book will come out at the end of November as an e-book and in POD with CreateSpace. The title is Night Cruiser: Short Stories about Creepy, Amusing, or Spiritual Encounters with the Shadow.
Wish me luck! Julie, your book Writing and Releasing Short Story eBook Collections was a great help.
That is great news, Veronica, and I’m thrilled to have contributed in a small way!!
I have a crazy-comprehensive marketing document (not my own) that I’m going to try to find and link to, to help you think about your marketing efforts.
Well done, you!
Ok here’s the link to a book release-and marketing plan. It is overwhelmingly thorough but has useful timelines. If you pick and choose a few things I’m sure they’ll pay off.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Auz0e3drrTq_dGtrSFVwVUJXVUUxTWJwNUF4OGdXNHc&usp=docslist_api
Well, I didn’t make any promises on here last month, but about two months ago I promised myself that I was going to start submitting short stories to paying markets, and if possible I would always have a story out somewhere while writing a new one.
I’ve mostly kept up with that! I’m just now polishing another short story (Don’t Eat Any Demons), I’ve had one accepted and a lot of rejections, and another out at Daily SFF that I have my fingers crossed over.
Before the end of October, my goals are to:
– Finish one of my other short stories and send it out.
– Write at least 500 words a day on any project
– finish the next large chunk of script I’m writing for a webcomic
– finish the last chapter of a multichapter fanfiction (don’t judge me)
– and soak myself in inspiration for my NaNo novel.
No judgment here — writing is writing!
Excellent news on the acceptance and even the rejections (because it proves you’re finishing stories and putting them out into the world). Good for you. Keep it up!
And thanks for sharing.
That sounds great, Jeannie!
How on earth do you write at the same time as being ML? Does it keep you honest?
I have trouble managing both things during May.
Great idea to schedule ‘me time’ and recharge. Seek out beauty and get away from the computer! 😉
I’ve been distant on these pages but I plan to fix that by showing up from now on. As to what I’ve been up to, here’s a list:
1. Did Camp NaNoWriMo in July and revised a novella (around 38,000 words). Encouraged others to write by scheduling and attending 2 write-ins a week. Good results by everyone who committed.
2. Gearing up for the November challenge (I’m ML for my region) by scheduling pre-planning workshops, weekly write-ins, and filtering too many story ideas for my own project. Do I finish the Steampunk novel or write the murder/mystery story I’ve been tinkering with? (These are rhetorical questions)
3. Taking 2 creative writing classes at my local community college: Short Story and a special study in Steampunk (3rd time for this class because I love the genre).
NEXT TIME
– Decide on a project and outline before November 1st.
– Revise two short stories and research possible markets.
– Expand a couple of writing exercises into short stories.
– Schedule “me time” to recharge my creative juices during November because, if I don’t, I won’t and that can prove disastrous to the heavy writing challenge ahead.
“I’ll track my time and see what’s getting in the way of my writing” sounds like an excellent goal to me. I shall do that. Prediction: the big four offenders in no particular order are day job, college, sleep, and being social on the Internet.
That DOES sound like an excellent goal. Maybe with a view to making November’s goal: do something about that stuff 😉
I bet ‘being social on the Internet’ is the big one. It’s certainly the only one you can do much about. I’ve often found that having a concrete goal for my writing helps me sacrifice a little of the less-critical poncing-about-online that I do. (e.g “finish two Christmas stories by the end of the month, to send to friends and family in Dec).
See you on Nov 1!
Well, I didn’t log my word count as much as I meant to in September, but I did stick to my goals of
– Submitting two pieces to my critique group
– Writing some new scenes
– Finishing the non-fiction piece about the Romance genre for Flash Fiction Chronicles
I did add several thousand new words and revise some older pieces.
) I’m find it really helpful to do a warm-up.
I also restarted the Morning Pages habit (from The Artist’s Way
NEXT TIME
Since I’m switching the dates of the checkin to the start of the month, we only have two and a half weeks this time, so I’m just going to say that I will
– write every week day,
– be on track to hit 10K words in a month (that’s just over 300 words every day)
– complete another genre article for Flash Fiction Chronicles
– post Write On Wednesday prompts every week
– read a new short story every day.
Yikes, that’s quite enough promises for now.
You?