Jeez times passes fast, we're already near halfway through January! Time for our second buddy challenge check-in! As always, no pressure! Team 1: Me and @Kate Nixon! Goals: Me: Spend 1+ hour/week sorting through my story notes in prep for starting an Actual Writing Draft Thing. Kate: Spend 10 mins, 3x/week, working on her WIP. Team 2: @Mizu Minxx & @Casey Stamps! I don't think I ever found out directly what you guys were working on, but I know you were messaging each other about it. Team 3: @Noemi Mandysová & @Marisela Brazfield! Same as above, I think. Team 4: @Kirsten Ivatts & @Jessica Huckabay! Team 5: @Tatianna Stevenson & @Adam Palmer! If you're tagged here, feel free to comment down below! Easy topics (all optional, no need to include all of them if you don't want): - What your goal was/is - If you hit your goal this week - One challenge you encountered (anything is valid) - One win you had If you want to join the buddy challenge, you still can! Just comment either here or on the original buddy challenge post to find a buddy (or participate solo)! I've got a google sheet to remind me of who to tag each week and what they're working on, so I'll add you anytime.

Spent some time today going through the reams and reams of notes I have for my setting/series, the Patchwork Places. Safe to say I remembered why I've put this off for so long. I mean, good lord, there's so much! Worldbuilding documents that go into ridiculous depth about locations no one is gonna visit in-story. Character profiles with the most random, irrelevant details sprinkled in. Plot arcs with 4 different versions that all contradict each other but are all cool. Random little notes that I'm sure meant something profound when I wrote them but are indecipherable now. All stuff I loved doing at the time, and certainly will help make the finished work be higher quality, but the fact that I spent so long last year creating all this detail and no time organizing it has definitely bit me in the butt now 😵‍💫 Anyone else have this happen, where you procrastinate the boring side of your ideas (actually organizing them) until you're forced to? I think it's something that happens more often than we might like to admit, both in writing and other places.

I figure I'll do these every saturday, since the 31st is also a saturday. This is where you'd show off to the group what you've done across the week if you're doing the challenge! THERE IS NO MINIMUM - even 1 word, 1 letter, even having devoted 1 second to writing this week (or technically 3 days lol) counts! And remember you can join the challenge at literally any point, just comment somewhere to let me know about it. So without further ado, the current contestants: @Kate Nixon reckon you'll be able to set aside that few minutes today? (I'll give my own update in a comment) @Casey Stamps @Mizu Minxx How's y'all doing? Decided on your goals for the month and such?

When wishes are granted, Dreams are destroyed. So what are your wishes And what are your dreams? Are they one in the same? Or are they different, Or does this makes sense? When wishes are granted, Are dreams destroyed? I wrote this poem 30 years ago. It's the only one I have memorized. What do you think?

Happy New Year! Let's kick off 2026 by weaponizing friendly competition and accountability. I'll keep this as simple as possible. FIRST Find a buddy! Just comment here saying 'looking for a buddy', OR reply to someone else's comment to pair up. Optional: Pick a cool team name. - If you do want, you can participate solo too and use the whole group as your sorta-buddy - THERE IS NO TIME LIMIT, YOU CAN JOIN ON JAN 31ST IF YOU WANT SECOND Individually decide, with your buddy, what each of you would like to accomplish in January. Your goals don't have to be the same, and there's no minimum! Pick something you'd genuinely like to do by Jan. 31st that is realistically achievable. For example: - Write minimum 15 mins 3x/week - Finish a short story/chapter/poem - Write X words over the month - Sit down to write 1x/week (EVEN IF YOU DO NOTHING ELSE) THIRD Decide how you'll keep each other accountable! Do you want your buddy to ping you every 3 days? Will they look at summaries of your stuff every week (not even necessarily review, just 'here's what I did')? Bounce ideas off each other? - The rule here: If it works to keep you going when motivation wanes (and doesn't turn into a second job), it's valid. FOURTH That's it! I'll ping all the participants every Sunday and check how things are going, and then at the end of January, we'll all celebrate our wins and share what we worked on (either showing the work itself, or just sharing your progress if you'd rather keep the writing itself private)! So yeah, comment below with 'looking for a buddy' if you wanna join! I'll help pair people up if need be, and hell, I could use one myself :P