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Post by Siana Blackwood on Jan 1, 2017 22:23:55 GMT
Happy New Year, everyone! Here's hoping for a great year of hitting our writing goals and not being constantly kicked in the head by the news. This being a writing forum and all, we probably should have some kind of plan for what writing-related things we're going to do. So, time to put together lists of suggestions and then figure out which ones we're actually going to try. This includes things we liked from previous years, challenges we borrow from elsewhere on the web, random new ideas we come up with on the spot and whatever else. When you're thinking of things, try to keep your own goals for the year in mind. There's no point thinking of a challenge that would be fantastic for some imaginary writer, but useless for you.
Here are some ideas from me to start things off: * I've started a challenge for the first week or so of January that's one of those 'I'm doing it anyway, so might as well share it', for deciding what big project to work on this year and what things need to be done to get it to the next stage.* Since Jᴀy V. Aꜱᴛᴇʀ 💀🐍 mentioned the Brandon Sanderson lecture series and I realised they've been on my 'to watch' list since the original version was posted in 2012(?), I'm wondering about a sort of 'study group' thing where we watch one of those lectures each week and then discuss it in a thread here on Steve. * Some of us are doing SS-SFF-SS, so it might be nice to get everyone on the same page as far as finishing a thing by the end of that challenge (Feb. 28th). Doesn't have to be a story - any goal at all, so long as it's something you could complete by that date. * We definitely need another reading challenge, or at least a brag thread where we boast about numbers or size of books we've read. Idea: what about a 'scavenger hunt' type thing like this challenge on Absolute Write? The 2017 AW Reading Challenge! A "Pick 12" Choose Your Own Adventure * More Daily Plot Bunnies. Even if we never use any of them, they're fun and also good creative exercise. Although, considering how we've been doing them it might be time to remove the 'daily' part. * An ongoing challenge to regularly submit, publish or get feedback on things (pick which one suits your writing goals best). This could involve posting fanfiction chapters, posting for critique on a site that allows it, submitting short stories to magazines etc. * Also, maybe a return to the monthly wordcount challenges. Although they have their issues, it seems to me that we mostly try harder and write more when there's a concrete goal to work towards. I'm open to alternative methods of progress-tracking here, of course. (Also, assuming they fix the bugs or we decide we can work around them, this kind of challenge should involve the NaNoWriMo goal tracker.) |
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Post by Jᴀy V. Aꜱᴛᴇʀ 💀🐍 on Jan 3, 2017 0:41:20 GMT
I added a suggestion to that. * Since Jᴀy V. Aꜱᴛᴇʀ 💀🐍 mentioned the Brandon Sanderson lecture series and I realised they've been on my 'to watch' list since the original version was posted in 2012(?), I'm wondering about a sort of 'study group' thing where we watch one of those lectures each week and then discuss it in a thread here on Steve. I love this idea. I've only watched one so far, as I am going to give it a week in between so that the ideas have time to percolate, and so I don't overwhelm myself, and can fit it in my schedule over time. I would LOVE to have others join in on this, if anyone is interested. Let me know! Anyway I have to go back to work this week, so I don't mind waiting a few days (if people want to catch up) before I watch the next one. The first one is just a summary of the curriculum, but very much worth watching. If anyone else is interested, I'll create a separate thread for this and post the lectures as I watch them. If someone gets to it before me, feel free to post also. Discussion posts would be great too, even if it's just a post about how the lecture relates to your own work. In addition... So one thing he said was that the writers who succeed are the ones who are in writing groups. It's because they not only have support, but they are forced to put out work regularly, and they are forced to look at and work on their craft. In addition, it helps the writers to build contacts. So on Steve, we've done the support group thing, which covers mutual support. We've also done the SYW thing, which covers critique, and the SSSS thing, which covers regularity. We've never done the thing in between though, which does all three and which perhaps might be of the most use to us. Now, I know we're not all in the same place, but perhaps it would help us to set something up where several of us get together in an actual group, and agree to share some work. It can be a flash, a short story, a passage from a longer work, anything. This would provide more benefit than mere cheering on, because we have a defined task to do. This still allows us to show our work and receive feedback, except it's ongoing rather than sporadic. This also forces us to be consistent, but is not so limiting that it throttles everything we do. I know SSSS was hard for some, because everything had to be written AND cleaned up in a week. For the writing group, participants can still write something in advance, then clean it up and bring it in when it's their turn. We can do either weekly or monthly submissions. I am leaning towards "meeting" twice a month. In the first "meeting" of the month, half the participants will post something, then the other half will post in the second one. That way we get monthly subs, but we're not meeting infrequently. Maybe we'll do weekly if there are those who want to go every week, or there are enough monthly participants to do this. * Some of us are doing SS-SFF-SS, so it might be nice to get everyone on the same page as far as finishing a thing by the end of that challenge (Feb. 28th). Doesn't have to be a story - any goal at all, so long as it's something you could complete by that date. I already have a NaNo tracker set up for Sisyphus, so I'm game to jump in on this. Yes. Please. I probably won't do the AW challenge, but a reading challenge for the whole year would be great. * More Daily Plot Bunnies. Even if we never use any of them, they're fun and also good creative exercise. Although, considering how we've been doing them it might be time to remove the 'daily' part. Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. Agreed on removing the Daily. So. Y'all. DAILY PLOT BUNNIES NEEDS A NEW NAME! THE PERSON WHO COMES UP WITH THE BEST ONE GETS THE ETERNAL APPROBATION OF THIS SOULLESS FORUM SMILEY!* An ongoing challenge to regularly submit, publish or get feedback on things (pick which one suits your writing goals best). This could involve posting fanfiction chapters, posting for critique on a site that allows it, submitting short stories to magazines etc. *stares sadly at her Wattpad account that she can't even call abandoned, because you can't abandon something you have never used* I almost feel like this is too scary. Not that it's not a great goal, but personally, I'm having enough trouble just getting through the chaos draft. Submitting is a deep, dark, pool of murk that fills me with terror. Seriously, I have one flash ready to submit and I'm too scared to do it. Beyond that, I have a lurking feeling that after I do it, I'm going to have to keep up with it, and given the aforementioned difficulty getting to The End, that might just prove TOO scary and challenging. Not that I'll never do it, but I'm not *quite* ready. THAT said...I do think a writing group (see above) might be a good way to lead into this. A regular output of finished work would naturally set a base for encouraging people to clean up that work, which would in turn, through sheer volume, encourage them to submit it. In addition, perhaps if the writing group takes off, we could add this challenge in. * Also, maybe a return to the monthly wordcount challenges. Although they have their issues, it seems to me that we mostly try harder and write more when there's a concrete goal to work towards. I'm open to alternative methods of progress-tracking here, of course. (Also, assuming they fix the bugs or we decide we can work around them, this kind of challenge should involve the NaNoWriMo goal tracker.) Yes, I think monthly challenges might be good. The only thing is, this time I'm counting my words by project rather than having a real WriMo tracker. So I set up a challenge on NaNo today for Lantern that goes from Jan 1st to Apr 1st, although in reality it ends on March 31st, and it SEEMED to get the days right. At least, I updated for the first time today (1/2) and it did put it in the Day 2 bar. I have a feeling it doesn't include the last day, so you have to set it to end the day AFTER your challenge ends. |
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Post by Siana Blackwood on Jan 3, 2017 1:20:50 GMT
Yeah, the regular 'group meetings' you suggested could definitely be part of the 'submit/publish/seek feedback' challenge idea. Did we have a discussion thread about this before? It sounds familiar for some reason. Ah, this: Instead of rejection slips, I could use critiques, likes, or even just growing entries on a 'done!' spreadsheet. ...sort of a general aim that if we finish something, it doesn't get consigned to the archives until it's had at least one other person give an opinion on it? Anything at all from posting a snippet on Steve to submitting to a top magazine would count. The only 'rule' is that self-rejection isn't a sufficient reason to abandon a thing. So posting to the group meeting would count as receiving feedback on a story, and therefore be a 'win' for the challenge that month. It would be a friendly low-pressure way to set a minimum requirement, and also encourage regular writing and attempts at polishing. The only problem is that we really need more than two people...  (Although if we're doing this, it's definitely a good excuse to send out a mass email. Maybe we could lure some people back.) |
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Post by Jᴀy V. Aꜱᴛᴇʀ 💀🐍 on Jan 3, 2017 4:19:57 GMT
Why not? A mass email can't hurt. Why not set up a reading challenge, the weekly Brandon Sanderson workshop (you know, I'll just create it and anyone who wants to join in is welcome), and the writing group, and see who's interested?
For the writing group, if it's just us, well, yes, it would be ideal to have more people, but there's also no reason why we can't do it. We could have "meetings" (e.g. thread or something) on the second and fourth Saturday/Sunday of the month. If it's just us, you could submit one time, and I could submit the other. We could have a thread for each one. Anyone is still welcome to join in at any time.
Also, I feel like that familiar challenge didn't work because we never made it into a timed challenge with a due date. We just left it open.
Also, I completely forgot about it. XD
So the aim of this writing group could be that we regularly submit finished (or highly cleaned up) pieces to the group for critique, with the aim that we should be building up a body of work that we should be polishing and submitting regularly.
Now, because I said I am terrified of submitting things, if we do this writing group, I'll volunteer to have one short story polished and ready for submission by the end of each quarter. No, it's not 100 rejections a year, but it's definitely getting there.
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Post by Jᴀy V. Aꜱᴛᴇʀ 💀🐍 on Jan 5, 2017 5:55:36 GMT
So, I guess I'm the only one interested in writing groups? If anyone else is interested in at least trying for regular submissions of completed work, I'll start up a thread to discuss frequency. The aim of this is that knowing that someone is expecting it will be a sort of motivating factor, but it doesn't have the urgency of writing and cleaning a whole serial (pretty impossible for pantser-y types to do on the fly). It also leaves time to complete longer works
If something IS pantsed, it's okay to bring it in as long as it's cleaned up to the best of your ability, especially in the first few meetings, so as to give time to clean up earlier things. Just be aware that pantsed items could lead people to telling you to fix issues you are already aware of. (I know Brandon Sanderson had mentioned that people sometimes do this, so I guess it's an okay rule to inncorporate.)
The Steve version is really intended as a tool to first help writers finish their shee-it, clean it up second, THEN submit it.
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Post by Siana Blackwood on Jan 6, 2017 2:30:54 GMT
I'm definitely interested in the writing group idea, even if it's just two people at first.
Anyone else?
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srhevans1
Marvin The Paranoid Android
Posts: 82 
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Post by srhevans1 on Jan 7, 2017 14:59:39 GMT
Hey guys
Happy new year. Sorry I have been gone a while. I am doing an online novel writing course called a novel idea and found a great writing community on Facebook called ninja writers.
I am open to a number of writing challenges in 2017. I just finished the rough draft of act 1 in my novel and I am very excited that I got writing done instead of only planning and talking about it.
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Post by laloca on Jan 10, 2017 2:13:07 GMT
I have already signed up for the reading challenge and the writing group and I am excited about both! I am also interested in the Brandon Sanderson lectures and will get caught up as soon as possible. Ready for a new beginning in 2017!
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