The Writers Aspirant Accountability Thread

Posted by: @toddjones

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December 2024 Goals: UPDATE

• Review/Edit three (3) stories for Story Unlikely submission - Two (2) stories completed, working on partial rewrite of third (adding back in a section I previously removed and moving the beginning or the story back in time to avoid a flashback.)  Have not submitted yet.
• Finish/Submit a new story for Q1 WotF - Completed
• Spend time with family - Completed, but there is always room for more time. Removing as goal, since this should be considered a given.
• Added goal: Start/continue a new short story for Q2 WotF - I have two started (1 has first scene completed, other has first 2 scenes)

January 2025 Goals:

• Review/Edit/Submit three (3) stories for Story Unlikely end of January submission
• Complete draft of new short story for Q2 WotF

Posted by: @adrian

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Dec goals are likely to be limited. Not much writing time. Really just trying to get my Q1 entry into something resembling presentable shape and get a critique, if time allows. - DONE

 

Okay, due to setting a supremely low bar, I hit it. Q1 entry in presentable shape and got a critique (thanks Irene!). Whittled it down under 10k words, which took a bit of a woodsman axe. I actually took it down under 9k, but then the critique told me stuff was missing, so had to put pieces back in again. I'm debating how to get into my novel mode again and whether I can manage four quarters of WotF plus making progress on that, on top of a pretty hectic work schedule.

So I think my goals for Jan are:

1) have a very simple WotF story concept and very rough outline, with some kind of choice at end. Something that would translate into 4-5k words max. (I'm not sure this will actually do as well as a longer piece, but I need to free up some time! 😀 )

2) actually get some stuff done on my novel. Ideally a few rough outlines of the major arcs.

3) outline the first chapter of my novel.

#3  feels ambitious, but outlining is quicker than making pretty words, so let's give it a try

Posted by: @annax

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Here's my December goals for the next two weeks:

- Write a new story in a genre I don't normally write; write at least 5k words

- Stop being antisocial and say hi to writer friends and see if anyone needs any help

I did not get to write because I forgot I wouldn’t have time. I’m on vacation and won’t be back until tomorrow. But I did get to be more social and hopefully helped others, so I’m happy about that.

Here’s my January 2025 Goals:

- write my Q2 entry

- write at least 5k words in a different genre

- write at least 60k words in a novel

- at least start writing Resnick entry

Posted by: @annax

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Posted by: @annax

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Here's my December goals for the next two weeks:

- Write a new story in a genre I don't normally write; write at least 5k words

- Stop being antisocial and say hi to writer friends and see if anyone needs any help

I did not get to write because I forgot I wouldn’t have time. I’m on vacation and won’t be back until tomorrow. But I did get to be more social and hopefully helped others, so I’m happy about that.

Here’s my January 2025 Goals:

- write my Q2 entry

- write at least 5k words in a different genre

- write at least 60k words in a novel

- at least start writing Resnick entry

 

You were definitely sociable on here so 👍 

And looks like your January goals only requires you to write... 75,000 to 80,000 words this month  so not ambitious at all....??

Are you *trying* to make the rest of us look bad?  

I'll be here cheering you on, but how thats possible is beyond my meagre writing stamina or bandwidth for 1 month. Just don't burn yourself out

Posted by: @marius

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New goal: survive the darkness here in Sweden, enjoy the holidays, and write... *throws a random number in there* ...10.000 words of my novel.

I did it! By the skin of my teeth, though. Had a bit of last-minute-of-the-year inspiration and did 3K words today. I'm kinda proud of myself.

January 2025 goal: 20.000 words. Yup, I'm going all in now.

I managed 13k for the month. Hoping for more in January but I have a lot on so won't set a particular target. 

Posted by: @gideonpsmith

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You were definitely sociable on here so 👍 

 

And looks like your January goals only requires you to write... 75,000 to 80,000 words this month  so not ambitious at all....??

Are you *trying* to make the rest of us look bad?  

I'll be here cheering you on, but how thats possible is beyond my meagre writing stamina or bandwidth for 1 month. Just don't burn yourself out

It is ambitious, but I’m going to do it!

Watch me. Keep me accountable!  

Posted by: @annax

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It is ambitious, but I’m going to do it!

Watch me. Keep me accountable!  

 

You asked for it! 👍 

will be looking for updates on the daily/weekly thread!

December check in:

I tried really hard to meet my goal to write a fresh story for Q1, but it just didn’t happen. After fully outlining and abandoning half a dozen stories that I determined weren’t “winning ideas,” I didn’t have time to finish writing the idea I finally liked. It’s nearly there, but it needs more time, so I will make it my Q2. 

With the new year coming, I want to be more diligent about setting and reaching my goals. Over the past few weeks, the pressure to win ASAP created an insurmountable writer’s block that I don’t want to experience again. So, my first goal is to release myself from that pressure. My writing is better when I’m writing stories I’m passionate about, and that can’t happen if I’m only thinking about winning. 

For January, my goal is to write and polish a story for another market before the end of the month. This is manageable. I can do this and not completely fall apart. 

I’d also like to set goals for the year, but that will need more time and consideration. 

January goals:

1. Write and submit two sub-1000 word pieces.

That's it for January. Whether you think its ambitious or conservative I guess depends on your perspective, but lots going on in 'real life' right now workwise so I know this is a solid, achievable, but still stretch goals for the month.

Posted by: @kz_richards

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Over the past few weeks, the pressure to win ASAP created an insurmountable writer’s block that I don’t want to experience again. So, my first goal is to release myself from that pressure. My writing is better when I’m writing stories I’m passionate about, and that can’t happen if I’m only thinking about winning. 

100% agree on that one. I was pushing too hard that way for a while (although, at the time, further away from winning than you probably are), got a bit unenthused, then decided to only do stories that intrigued me in some way. Good luck with the piece that you liked in the end, when you get around to finishing it!

January Goals:

1. Overarching goal: write 1,000 words a day (consisting of the following threads).

2. Complete Q2 rewrite #1 (goal for the year is one entry per quarter).

3. Complete rewrite of prior WotF entry for submission to another market.

4. Complete current in-progress revision of book one in my series (goal for the year is a revise for all five manuscripts). 

5. Read one book per week (fiction or craft).

Posted by: @mgamblesee

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5. Read one book per week (fiction or craft).

 

Wow! I wish I could read a craft book a week - my limit seems to be about 1 every 2 to 3 weeks, and even then I struggle at times. Part of it is bandwidth but most of it is that when I read them I need to practice what they say so it goes hand in hand with the same amount of time writing. If I don't do that I don't retain any of the recommendations.

How do you use craft books?

I usually post about ones I've read on my blog, so if you find any great ones let us know as I'm always interested in identifying new ones I haven't yet seen  

Happy 2025 Everyone

I hereby declare this the year of writing success for us all! As always, I love seeing so many beat me to the hounding. Y'all had so much success in December, which is awesome considering how busy that time of year is.

And welcome @mgamblesee! Glad to have you with us. By posting here you've signed up for an irrevocable monthly nag from me to keep you accountable to yourself and progressing steadily on your writing journey.

Speaking of a nag: @ajschultz6, @clfors, @writhmic,@joel-c-scoberg, @storysinger, @physa, @pegeen, @kent, @jeschleicher, @sconn, @ericstallsworth, @hannya, @tiinag, @olivia-ava, @abeona, @bon, @thewritingwolf, @mulch, @robot_drew - how did your December go? What are you aiming to achieve this January?

Also, may I draw everyone's attention to @gideonpsmith's thread on more regular goal reporting. I think it's a bloody great idea for those who write/progress more consistently/frequently, so if that's you, check it out. 

For myself:

Posted by: @ease

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December goals:

• Translate 2000 words of dictation - COMPLETE - I did 3600 (bringing me up to 7600 total)
• Read two cyberpunk novels - INCOMPLETE - I finished one, and am 2/3rds through the second. The second is an audiobook, so I only listen while driving to work... and I did very little of that due to the holidays. So kinda yay?!

 

January goals:

• Translate 3000 words of dictation (expecting/hoping to smash this).
• Finish reading the second cyberpunk novel.
• Read my friend's ARC (a forumite/WotF winner is being trad-published! I'm so proud of her).
• Write/edit every day (this is actually an annual goal).
• Run at least once (not really writing related? But writing is life, and living requires health, so sorta?).

Pretty pedestrian (pardon the pun), but it's a new year. Who knows how useless I might be this time around the sun.

Posted by: @gideonpsmith

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I wish I could read a craft book a week - my limit seems to be about 1 every 2 to 3 weeks, and even then I struggle at times.

I've only ever finished a single craft book: On Writing by the king, I mean, Stephen King. Potato potahto. This might explain the difference in the approach (and elegance!) of our writing. 

Submitted my Q1 with hours left on the clock, so December goal was achieved.

I am in a bit of a writing rut. I have several stories in different stages of drafts and/or outlined which I haven't been able to finish (yet) because there is always something off that I can't put my finger on. Any tips on how to deal with that, how to figure out what a story is missing?

January goals:

Go back to re-writing my newest story which has a first draft so far, but needs TONS of work.

Try to write a flash. These are so hard for me but I like the challenge. Also they are great way to try some form, setting, or style I usually don't write in.

Posted by: @ease

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I've only ever finished a single craft book: On Writing by the king, I mean, Stephen King. Potato potahto. This might explain the difference in the approach (and elegance!) of our writing. 

 

As I said to another forumite you know well who commented on my predilection for craft books - they didn't call it Hermione Granger and the Philosopher's Stone. It was Harry Potter, the one with natural gifts, not the one with book smarts, that was the star 😉

Posted by: @tiinag

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Submitted my Q1 with hours left on the clock, so December goal was achieved.

I am in a bit of a writing rut. I have several stories in different stages of drafts and/or outlined which I haven't been able to finish (yet) because there is always something off that I can't put my finger on. Any tips on how to deal with that, how to figure out what a story is missing?

January goals:

Go back to re-writing my newest story which has a first draft so far, but needs TONS of work.

Try to write a flash. These are so hard for me but I like the challenge. Also they are great way to try some form, setting, or style I usually don't write in.

congrats on submitting

As to the tips on how to finish stories that have 'something off', I can't guarantee this will help, but I certainly face this challenge myself and sometimes the problem is I am too focused on the plot/story and not the story forces or the theme/message/underlying lesson. 

What I mean by that is, it's easy to get from A to B (plot) but you have to consider whether the character learned a lesson/changed, and did the 'change' feel 'earned'. e.g. if your plot is that the character at the beginning is kicking puppies and hating the world, and at the end finds love and universal compassion, how did they get there? Is the push and pull that delivered them to this ending a believable reason to evoke that change, and is there something bigger here/a theme/lesson or are we just describing almost random events? Without theme/lesson I often find it's just a story, and stories can have components that don't articulate well together.

It's not always that, but thinking about story in that lens often helps me

YMMV  

Posted by: @gideonpsmith

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Posted by: @mgamblesee

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 5. Read one book per week (fiction or craft).

 

Wow! I wish I could read a craft book a week - my limit seems to be about 1 every 2 to 3 weeks...

...How do you use craft books?

I usually post about ones I've read on my blog, so if you find any great ones let us know as I'm always interested in identifying new ones I haven't yet seen  

 

So, that's fiction or craft. More precisely, it will probably be 3 fiction and 1 craft per month. I take more time with craft books, read a chapter, underline key points that resonate with me, re-write 'ah-ha!' concepts in a journal, and let it marinate. Some of those re-written concepts will go into a self-edit process that I'm working on but have yet to implement. I'm more of a gardener when it comes to writing, but I want to be cold and systematic when it comes to edits. Gardeners carry shears for a reason.

Last week I finished On Writing (King). This week I started The Fire in Fiction by Don Maass. However, I am concurrently reading some fiction, which goes a bit more quickly (planned fiction for January includes: Wise Blood, Edgedancer, and WotF Volume 17). So, it's more like 4 books a month-ish, averaging one per week of either fiction or craft. Does that make sense?

Posted by: @ease

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...And welcome @mgamblesee! Glad to have you with us. By posting here you've signed up for an irrevocable monthly nag from me to keep you accountable to yourself and progressing steadily on your writing journey.

Thanks for the welcome @ease. Looking forward to the nags to see if it helps me be more consistent in my writing. It's a reoccurring theme that the writers that make it are consistent, relentless. 

Hi everyone and happy new year! I'm late due to some health issues at the end of December, but now it's much better so I'm back on track.

Now for my December goals... They were:

• I'll sit down everyday at my laptop. Let's put some words on that blank screen. YES
• Submit something to WOTF, not sure what yet, but I've got options that need some edits. NO
• At least one new story drafted. YES
• Keep on submitting/resubmitting. No less than 5 subs out. YES
• Thrilled to have been asked to participate in the selection/edit phase for one of the mag I read for. I want to learn as much as I can from the editors as to how they handle these final steps, and I'll help as much as I can. YES
• Plan for 2025. I'm a mess as a rule. But being a mess doesn't work anymore as I progress. YES

So, not that bad. I didn't sub for WoTF but I ran out of time.

January, I don't know yet. I've set up some high-level goals for 2025. First, 60k words. I have too much to edit, so new words are not my priority. I also will keep on slush reading. I aim at a minimum of 100 short stories submissions, and in parallel, I'd like to start or rewrite/edit longer formats. I'm now waiting to see how I want to start. January will be contributing to these objectives, but I'll let my mind meander along those lines.

Happy New Year everyone!

Time to check-in:

December goals

• Write 10,000 words on my novel 
• Submit three short stories

I submitted three shorty stories, though that was this month - a New Year's resolution to be more proactive! So, I may call that a success for last month / this month due to the rather hectic time of year.

I wrote about 2,500 words on my novel. I need to pick up some momentum on that front.

January goals

• Write 10,000 words on my novel

I'll just focus on my novel, I think, otherwise it'll never get drafted! I don't want to be too ambitious or spread myself too thin.

Happy New Year!! I've been MIA for the past few months writing a boat load of college essays. BUT everything's all done now so I'm hoping to pick up some steam again and get back into the type of writing I truly love.

January Goals:

• Plot a couple novel ideas: I'd like my 2025 project to be writing a novel (and hopefully the first I'm proud of!) so this month will be coming up with the idea
• Plot out my Q2 story. If I start writing it then that's a happy bonus.
• Ensure my first Writing Workshop through Starspun Lit runs smoothly If anyone would like their first 450 words critiqued live, you can sign up through the link in my signature!
• Read. Read. Read. I can't remember the last time I had the time to read a book just for fun and, boy, do I miss it.

1339 today to give a total of 9421 for the month so far, despite the fact (or maybe to spite the fact) that my PTSD has me climbing the walls for some reason.

Anyway, time to try to chill out and breathe a bit.

Posted by: @annax

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Here’s my January 2025 Goals:

- write my Q2 entry

- write at least 5k words in a different genre

- write at least 60k words in a novel

- at least start writing Resnick entry

 

Checking in: I am at roughly 14k words. I still have a lot more to go, but I will have gigantic chunks of time starting next week to accomplish my writing.

Q2 entry is going good so far, just changing a lot. Hopefully, I can get it done first and foremost.

I have not written a different genre or started my Resnick entry. Those are for after Q2 gets published.

Let's keep on writing!

I checked back to remind myself of my goals, and thought maybe y'all would appreciate a reminder too. Let me know if mid-month nudges are too much!

@ajschultz6, @clfors, @writhmic, @pdblake, @annax, @kz_richards, @toddjones, @joel-c-scoberg, @storysinger, @physa, @pegeen, @kent, @jeschleicher, @sconn, @gideonpsmith, @ericstallsworth, @hannya, @tiinag, @olivia-ava, @abeona, @bon, @tj_knight, @thewritingwolf, @mulch, @marius, @robot_drew, @mgamblesee

My mid-month update:

Posted by: @ease

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January goals:

• Translate 3000 words of dictation (expecting/hoping to smash this). - Smashed - 3400 so far.
• Finish reading the second cyberpunk novel. - Finished! Altered Carbon is fantastic, but I felt it didn't quite stick the landing. 
• Read my friend's ARC (a forumite/WotF winner is being trad-published! I'm so proud of her). - It's so good, but I've not finished yet. I have an audiobook (Altered Carbon) and eBook on the go (this ARC) at any one time. If I get called to work a lot, the audiobook gets read, and vice versa. So naturally the success of one undermines the other.
• Write/edit every day (this is actually an annual goal). - going strong so far!
• Run at least once (not really writing related? But writing is life, and living requires health, so sorta?). - not yet. Far too cold. And it's only getting colder. Looking at sub-zero F (-18C) next week! Might allow myself to sub in two good gym sessions.

Not too bad.

I hope those in the US (especially the south, that are less used to/have governments less prepared) manage through the coming winter storm (and everyone else, if it leaves our shores of freedom - sorry, I'm only privvy to local weather news). Hopefully battening down the hatches, lighting a fire, and having some hot cocoa will get the writing mojos flowing!

@ease 

thanks for the check-in!

January goals:

1. Write and submit two sub-1000 word pieces.

So we are about 50% of the way through the month, and I am 50% of the way towards achieving my January goals as I have written and submitted one new sub-1000 word piece (though it's already been rejected at that first market 😆 )

This is my super late check in on my December goals and on updating my January goals, but I think it was warrented. From health scares, to family issues, to problems at work, and more, the transition from 2024-2025 may have been the most challenging three weeks of my life to date. 

I owe a lot to the written language for getting me through this time. I don't know how I would've made it through the family issues and hospital visits without a keyboard or pen and paper to organize my thoughts. In one week, I journaled double the word count I usually shoot for in my fiction writing, and all of it was necesary.

But writing so much came with a downside. With so much journaling, I was flooded with new ideas for stories. I felt a rush to write them all down, fearing I would lose them if they weren't documented.

In service to my writing, I slacked at work. I forewent sleep. I missed meals. Ten pounds fell off in under two weeks, and I didn't have ten pounds to lose.

Writing was destroying me. Writing was keeping me moving.

So my goals for January need to look a little different. I'm also switching up the foremat I'm documenting them, putting the goals for the new month first. This is Writers of the Future afterall. Shouldn't the future come first?

Goals for January

• Set and stick to boundaries around writing time. Put down the pen or keyboard when it's time for family, health, or work. The ideas aren't going anywhere. Not if they're truly good ones.
• Don't start anymore stories. Work on what I have.
• Continue approaching my writing habits with curiosity, not acting out of fear or expectation on what productivity looks like.

December Check in

• Complete the Q1 story
  • 👍 - Edited, submitted, and anxiously awaiting judgement. 
• 11,000 words on anything. 
  • 👎 -If I'm honest about how I intended it, no. I missed by about 300 words.  Including my personal and professional journals, absolutely destroyed. But that's moving the goal post. 
• Finish a draft of one of the new stories that cropped up last month. Hopefully one can be a story for Q2.
  • 👎 - About a scene and a half shy.
• Keep up with my current reading and submission rate. Keep out the 3 stories that are circulating and crack open a book at least once a day.
  • 👍 - It's remarkable to me that this one was and is still standing.

@mulch that's quite the update

Amazed you got so much done with so much going on. Congrats!

Of course, never forget health, and mental health, and life come before writing. Sounds like you are attending to that, but its a good note to self for all of us that the writing will still be there tomorrow, so long as we take care of ourselves today

While I've been editing my epic like crazy, I have not been imagining/outlining as I'd like. Super busy at work, so my mind is occupied and not in the clouds. Thus, editing is a good alternative.

Hopefully I can get to dreaming again soon.