Write, Edit and Polish Your Story this Month
If you take fiction writing seriously, but you can’t seem to get to “done,” this may help. In Write Club, we set monthly deadlines. We issue a writing prompt at the beginning of the month, and then we get cracking.
In 10 days we write the first draft. Then we read one another’s work and refine our stories. By the end of the month, we polish them. If all goes well, we each have a story ready to submit to a publication of our choice before the month begins.
Does it always go well? No, it actually doesn’t. Life gets in the way and we stumble and grumble and don’t like our stuff and feel like failures.
But guess what! That cadence gets us moving. The result is that we produce a lot more finished work than we would otherwise.
Here’s What You Do
If you are a fiction writer who wants to get your work accepted and published by a fiction magazine, you are welcome to try this. Here are two options:
- Check out Write Club and see if it’s for you.
- Use this prompt on your own.
What is Write Club?
Write Club is a small community that is devoted to writing on a schedule, moving the work through peer review and revision, and getting the work to publishable state.
We are a group of passionate fiction writers with a range of fiction writing experience (from workshoppers to those with MFAs), who have spent time working on mastering the craft and want the accountability of a group and deadlines to ensure we stay on track.
Here’s how we work:
- A member of Write Club provides a writing prompt. For example, it can be a short story, as well as an aspect of that story to emulate, such as an “unreliable narrator.”
- Each person in the group who wishes to participate for that round signs up. This is a commitment to meet that month’s deadlines, including performing peer reviews of other members’ work. Additionally, the participants provide an intended publication they want to target for that month’s story.
- The first 10 days are for the first draft. There are then two peer review cycles over the next 20 days.
At the end of this process, you have a completed story for which you have received two rounds of feedback and performed two rounds of edits. And you have a target publication. The rest is up to you.
And then we start again.
How to try out Write Club
If you are an experienced fiction writer, and the information above did not scare you off, you are welcome to check us out. You can find more information in this article on Medium, along with a link to our Discord channel where we converse and manage all of our deadlines and reviews.
This month’s writing prompt
That brings us, at last, to the prompt!
For the month of October 2019, Write Club members must incorporate the following element: Write a story that illustrates a character’s transformation.
It could be something as simple as gaining appreciation for a parent, or something as complex as making one of life’s most difficult choices. It’s completely up to you.
Have fun!
