Okay so next year I'll be disappointed if I don't achieve the following:
1 New Novel
Agent representation for novel written this year
Win another writing award/nomination
25 new short stories, at least 5 pro.
Well done on nearly achieving all your goals this year, PD! And i like the look of 2014's goals, too!
I'm not making a similar resolution next year as I have a novel on sub and want to see how that goes, and another novel to finish. Also, I will be on the British Fantasy Awards jury so will have to see how much the reading for that impacts on my writing time. But I do hope to produce some more shorts in 2014. I'm a published short-fiction writer, with pro sales, and not a published novelist. It may well be that short fiction is where my strengths lie.
Regardless of how next year goes for you short-fiction-wise, please do continue to hang out with us here in this room.
I meant to do this last year, but in the end hardly wrote anything at all, so for 2014 I want to get back into writing properly.
I'll therefore be trying to write one short story a week. Not necessarily submitting all of those, though -- I'm so rusty at this point I'm not convinced m(any) of them will be publishable.
I'm hoping that I'll at least generate a decent amount of new stuff and having a goal to work for will help me pick up the habit of writing regularly again.
Welcome to W1S1, Gilead!
The goal of writing regularly is a good one, and i'm sure W1S1 will help you achieve it
Also, don't be too quick to write your stories off. Let the editors decide whether or not they're publishable
Out of interest, is there actually a roster? I feel very new to this section of AW.
*Resists slinking back to the SF/F section*
Back when we first ran with W1S1 here, we did have a roster. However, we've since scrapped the idea, as people are joining all the time, and others, for whatever reasons, stop the challenge or take a sabbatical (i've taken at least two breaks since the challenge has been running).
But perhaps i can help you get your bearings (you plus all the other W1S1 newbies).
Here are some of the long-running threads from this room:
The W1S1 Check-in Lounge and Bar--where we post updates on how we're going, and for general chitchat. From now on, we'll be using this thread as a check-in for both the short fiction and novel aspects of the challenge.
Rejectomancy--where we post rejection news, and sometimes analyze said rejections, and generally commiserate with each other. Strangely, there's comfort in numbers, and the rejections seem to sting a little less when we share them
Braggage III--where we share our brags. Mostly this is sales-related, but if you're amped about completing a story, or reaching some other goal, then post away!
The Great W1S1 Hey-Do-You-Know-About-This-Market Thread--heard of a new market, contest, award, etc? This is the place to share the gossip.
Middling It--has a story been sitting at a market for aaaages? Has it made it past slush? Tell us about it here. Anxiety shared is anxiety halved and all that.
There are plenty of other ongoing threads too
#
Also, here is the
W1S1 blog. While the challenge at AW has diverged a little from their challenge, Milo James Fowler, Simon Kewin, and Stephen V. Ramey are the original peeps to come up with the W1S1 idea. We just ran with it in a forum context. Alex Shvartsman, AW W1S1 regular, is a site admin over there. They have regular weekly and monthly check-ins, as well as mid-week posts which are always interesting and encouraging (editor interviews are sometimes on the menu, for example).
Bring on 2014! Write like you mean it, peeps!
