Don’t forget, this month we’re starting StoryADay September 2015. Now there’s an ambitious goal, for you!
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!
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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 2015 and support the running of the StoryADay challenge at the same time. Give a little, get a little 
Click here.
My August goals were:
1. Finish a free story for my email opt-in. I finished this! Yay!!
2. Weekly blog post and sharing by email. Done.
3. Writing daily on next WIP…um. No. Mainly because I didn’t pick a WIP and focused on the freebie story…
September goals:
1. Write every day using STAD prompts!
2. Revise and publish my humorous romance novella, “When Freida Fixes It.”
3. Weekly blog posts 🙂
This is my first month doing SWAGr so I don’t have any goals I wanted to meet last month.
In the month of September, I plan to:
-Pay special attention to grammar. I’ve become lax in recent years.
-Participate in AShortStoryADay September 2015! I’ve tried NaNoWriMo twice and it wasn’t for me. I’m a short story writer that has lost her way. I’m hoping I will write more and with more ease from this.
-Make some writer friends and connections. This goal is important to me. I feel like I’m on an island on my own because the only writer I know is my boyfriend and we don’t share the same writer interests.
So. August was ridiculously busy for me at my day job. And September is going to be so. much. worse.
What I said I would do:
*finish the not-short mystery story to the point that someone else can read it and look for markets for it — DONE!
*write at least 5-6 chapters of the novel — yeah no.
*blog posts — ugh.
*complete at least first draft of the other short story I started — a bit of work on this
*I will not sign up for any online classes this month (really) — managed this!
Also, I volunteered to write some prompts for Story A Day September (and have done one so far).
For September:
*the other 3 Story A Day prompts
*Story A Day! I have done today’s (so that’s a beginning). I will post them on my blog, as well. Won’t necessarily be able to do one every single day, but I’m going to try (see other commitments).
*at least one other blog post, but hopefully 2-3
*work on my novel. I am currently reading the prologue plus first 3 chapters, so I can get into the right mindset.
I can’t promise anything else. I’m involved in a campaign related to the Canadian federal election (which is October 19th) and it is getting very intense right now.
My goal is to actually get back to writing. My blogging/writing fizzled out after the last Story A Day ended, and I spent some time creating and running one event, but my writing diminished almost 100 fold 🙁 So this will give me the structure and discipline to get back on that merry-go-writing-wagon!
There are probably some stories that were just the beginning of longer works, which I can add to, I hope.
last month:
– submit first three chapters of novel(la) to Hodder by Sunday – yes
– 100-word story a day – yes
– submit to Paper Swans flash fiction competition – yes
September goals:
– 100-word story a day
– bird story for mslexia by Sep 7
– edit Scarlett & mslexia novel competition
– a longer story that can be serialised in 100-word chunks on the blog in Oct
– have fun during StoryADay September 🙂
Last month my goals were –
– finish Dame Fortune, polish and submit. Done! Fingers crossed for it.
– build a 2-chapter buffer for MDG: not quite, but I have a 1-chapter buffer, and I also got it onto JukePop and have been slowly updating there too.
– Write ‘Second Boy’ – ugh, well, I’ve inched a little closer. It depends so strongly on atmosphere I really need to get into the right headspace to work on it, and that’s been hard lately.
This month, my goals are pretty simple. I’m not going for Story a Day, although I might write one or two if possible. But mostly, I’ll be:
– actually building a buffer for MDG, at least 4 chapters and preferably 6, so when NaNoWriMo comes I don’t have to worry about it
– continuing to work on Second Boy
– wrapping up a couple fanfic obligations
I’m hoping to re-establish good writing habits by doing a story a day. It is so easy to let writing slide.
I didn’t have any goals for August because this is my first SWAGr. In July-August, I took a short story writing course offered by my university’s continuing education program. I got 7 drafts out of it, and it was very helpful to be held accountable for actually getting things done. So here I am!
This September, I want to write consistently for Story a Day. While I’ve always written at least a few stories in my past attempts, I’ve had trouble getting myself to write every single day. It’s a tough challenge to balance with school and work, especially since I’m starting my second degree and a new job this month.
I might need to rely on prompts and shorter-than-usual stories, but I’ll try to make it work this time around. Hopefully, writing some prompts will give me a motivation boost!
My objectives for August were;
1. Finish 2,000 word story and submit it by end of August. Completed! Submitted it two days early, so fingers crossed!
2. Start anthology story and at least have first draft finished by end of month. I decided this was a story too far so scrubbed that objective.
3. Research competitions for future months. I’ve found a couple of competitions with a deadline of end of October and another for early October, so I’m looking for a few good prompts for these, which brings me on to …
It’s September, so I’m actively engaging with the Story a Day! I’ll try to write something most days, there will be inevitably be a few days when other things take priority.
I love using competition deadlines and themes to help get the stories flowing. Good luck!