Five days until the start of the Super Great Challenge. Dean posted tips for tackling the SGCs. I thought I’d go through those and see how I’m doing in my planning.
Consistency is key. Plan days/times to write and stick to it.
I have several sessions planned each day on my daily planner for writing. If I manage all of those sessions, I can generally figure I’ll write at least a thousand words per day. That might not be quite enough.
Plan to write more than you need.
This follows naturally from what I said in the last hint. If I write 1,000 words in a day, that’s only 7,000 words for the week. The stories need to be at least 2,000 words, but they might end up going over 7,000 words. Even if I only bump it up by 500 words (1,500+ words total), that gets me an extra 3,500 words for the week. Enough to cover false starts, stories running long, or a headstart on the next story.
Practice covers and set up templates.
I’ve created quite a few covers over the years and have templates. That said, I do want to create some new ones over the next couple weeks. Creating covers for the stories will have some challenges. I need to complete them quickly, creating artwork and design. They need to be branded as a group, to my author brand, and to the story genre. Better to get started on that now. And for those in tiers 3+, I’ll share the templates so you can see exactly how I’m laying those out.
Control all of the steps.
I do this normally. I like the various publishing steps. I enjoy creating books and bringing them to life. It’s all part of my process. That means I’m not relying on someone else to do cover design or create artwork for me.
I have checklists for publishing titles with each step so I don’t forget anything.
Create interior templates.
I’ve already created interior templates. One of the keys with this is having section templates for things that appear in every title. Copyright pages, about the author, other titles—all of the front and back matter that appears in books.
I do want to spend some time over the next couple weeks making some decisions around interior branding for genre. A science fiction book interior will have different font or chapter headings than a mystery, for example. I’ll have some templates to share for this too, for those tiers 3+.
Have back matter in place.
Yes. This is really covered in #5.
Set up publishing accouts and add stories.
I already have accounts set up with Amazon, Kobo, Draft2Digital, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Google Play, and Ingram. The challenge stories will appear on all of those in addition to my shop. All members in Tiers 2+ will automatically get each title delivered to your my.bookfunnel.com library.
Set the publishing deadline three days before the challenge deadline.
Good advice. Critical, in fact. Depending on the retailer, there can be up to a day before titles become available in the stores. And it takes time to upload all of the details for each title to each site. Lots of filling in the same information about each title, but in different forms.
Don’t wait until the last minute to complete challenge steps.
Also good advice that’ll be key to success. The deadline to submit the story manuscript each week is midnight on Sunday. Same deadline for the Books2Read link when the story is published (except two weeks later). I plan to submit each as early as possible. If I finish a short story and have it ready before the week is up, I’ll submit it. If it hasn’t taken me two weeks to publish the story, that’s fine. I’m not making you wait. I’ll submit it to fulfill the challenge requirements.
I’m ready. We’re good on the checklist. I’ve set up my physical tracker. Each story is listed with each of the challenge steps. Writing, sending the manuscript, publishing and sending the link. I have cards printed to add to the pockets. I’ve even adapted the design I created for the writing-in-progress card to create a mug to have on hand while I’m doing the challenge. You can pick up a “Writing Stories” mug right now in my shop. It’ll make a great gift for writers you know (or for yourself).
I was asked about the icon I drew for the design. It represents my keyboard, which is a split, ergonomic design, the ErgoDox EZ. It’s open source. It has a terrific feel and is easy to customize your layout. I got mine all in black, no backlight, with unlabeled keys.
The design features a dotted border to imply an in-progress display—suggested by Kate. I didn’t think I’d add that to the design, but once I saw it, I knew it had to stay.
I finished writing a new novel yesterday. I don’t have a planned release date yet for the book. It is the first novel in a new series centered around space librarians. Yep, space librarians. It’s a fun space opera book.
With that done, the way is clear to focus on this challenge, writing stories, and improving my writing. I think the consistent practice and focus on writing short stories is exactly what I need to move my writing to the next level. I’m thrilled that people have already signed up to join me in the journey. It’s free to start and gain access to the posts going forward. You can always pick up stories that look interesting in my shop (or through retailers). You can get a discount each month to save on a story of your choice for only $2/month (and get a $2 discount), or sign up for $5/month to get e-book copies of all of the stories written each month. Support my writing at higher levels to get access to more digital goodies and—for the collector—print copies of the stories.
I appreciate support at every level.
Until next time,
Ryan
For many years I’ve been tempted to do a particular writing challenge. I love your help.
It’s simple (mostly).
Write a short story each week. And publish it within two weeks.
When I read about writers like Robert Silverberg writing a quarter of a million words in a month (more than most writers will produce in a year), or Dean Wesley Smith writing a story a day for a year, I always think, “Yes! That sounds like fun. I wish I could do that.”
Who wouldn’t want to? Basically, you’re challenging yourself to have more fun. Can I spend more time having fun? Yes, please.
It’s also more practice (yes, Ben). Practice. Not a dirty word. Use play if you like that better. Simple fact is, you play more (as a musician or writer or athlete), you tend to improve. You’re able to do cool things that you could only dream about before. Because you gave yourself permission to play and have more fun.
Dean does big challenges. He has a history of doing challenges that most writers can’t imagine. When he started out, (writers who’ve attended workshops will know) he and Nina Kiriki Hoffman had a mutual challenge to write and send out a story each week. If they missed, they owed the other a steak dinner, and because they couldn’t afford that, they didn’t miss.
Playing, practicing your art consistently makes you better.
Through their Teachable courses, Dean and Kristine Kathryn Rusch, have several new variations of this challenge. Win the challenge and you get lifetime access to everything they have on Teachable. All of their workshops, lectures, mini-courses, everything now and in the future. To purchase the lifetime access to everything it costs $10,000 dollars. The challenges cost $600. If you miss, you get a $600 credit for anything on Teachable.
That’s amazing.
Kris and Dean have been my mentors and teachers for the last sixteen years. Before that, I regularly submitted stories to them, Kris as the editor of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, at Pulphouse, and Dean for the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds anthology series (not the current TV show). I sold a story, “The Tribbles’ Pagh” to Dean for Strange New Worlds 9. Since then, I’ve sold stories to Pulphouse Magazine and their Fiction River anthology series (three previous volumes, and three more upcoming). I have purchased many courses on Teachable and was regularly attending workshops on the Oregon coast before they moved to Las Vegas.
Lifetime access to everything they have on Teachable is invaluable. I intend to succeed at the challenge.
Or, I should say, the Super Great Challenge. Because it isn’t only write a story each week. I also have to publish each story across various platforms within two weeks of writing it.
The publishing requirement is equivalent in the original challenge of submitting to magazines, only instead I’m sending it out directly to readers. That means creating e-book files, covers, blurbs, and all of the rest that goes into getting it published.
The challenge rules are still pretty simple:
- Each week, I write a story. It must be at least 2,000 words long. Any genre.
- By Sunday, I need to send Dean the manuscript for the current story.
- Within two weeks, I must send Dean the Books2Read link (universal book link that shows all of the stores where the story can be purchased). That includes Amazon, Kobo, Draft2Digital, Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks, Google Play, and Ingram. Plus it'll be on my store, of course.
- Repeat!
- 52 stories written in 52 weeks, with the final story published within 54 weeks.
It sounds fun!
I plan to start the challenge on Monday, June 2nd with Story #1.
I’ll need to send Dean the manuscript by Sunday, June 8th.
On Monday, June 9th, I start story #2. While writing that story, I’m going to be busy getting Story #1 ready to publish.
By Father’s Day, I’ll send in story #2, starting story #3. That means by Sunday, June 22nd story #1 needs to already be up at various retailers and in my shop. It’ll continue on that way, writing the next story while publishing the previous story. It’s okay to get ahead, but I can’t miss.
Oh, and in case it wasn’t clear, I already have a fulltime job (Librarian and IT Administrator).
It’s an exciting challenge and I want to invite you to be part of it. Let’s face it—I haven’t done a challenge like this. I consistently write new stories and novels. I write daily. This year I’ve finished two novels and several stories. I have a backlog of novels and stories to be published. That’s one of my challenges. I write a story or novel and move on to the next. I’m looking for that nudge to not only write stories consistently, but publish consistently.
So I’m adding my own twists to the challenge.
I’ve created membership tiers on my site where you can support my efforts on this challenge. If you’re familiar with Patreon, this works pretty much the same, except it is through my site on Fourthwall.
Tier 0 — Sign up for free as a follower. Sign up to follow my progress and cheer me along. I appreciate the encouragement and support. You’ll have access to my posts and updates to the challenge each week, with the ability to comment and like posts
Tier 1 — $2/month, join my support team as a supporter, get access to the challenge updates, comment and like posts, and I’ll send you a code each month for a $2 discount on any challenge story e-book, written before or after you join. The code each month can only be used once and only one code per story. Stories will retail for $2.99.
Tier 2 — $5/month, become a super supporter, get access to the challenge updates, comment and like posts, and automatically receive an e-book of each challenge story written during the month. Depending on the number of weeks each month, that could be 4-5 stories. Stories will retail for $2.99, in e-book. I’ll deliver e-books via Bookfunnel as they are published.
Tier 3 — $15/month, as a super great supporter, you’ll get all challenge updates, ability to comment, like posts, and receive e-books of each challenge story as described in Tier 2. Plus you’ll get access to various templates, digital cover art files, and a special mention in the acknowledgements for each story.
Tier 4 — $55/month, as a super great supporter and collector, you’ll get everything in Tier 3, plus I’ll send you exclusive print copies of the challenge stories from each month you’re a supporter. Typically, I’ll aim to get those sent out by the end of the following month, as a batch. I’ll be ordering copies as they’re produced, signing them, and then when I have all the copies for a month, I’ll bundle them up and send them out to you. These won’t be available anywhere else. I’m not putting up the print editions for individual sale. Each will be done in a pocket-sized format 4.25” x 7” with a full color glossy cover, and high-quality paper.
I hope you’ll sign up to support me in this challenge. It’s going to be so much fun! I’m curious to see what stories I end up writing. I can promise it’ll be mix of different genres, tones, and lengths.
So what am I doing to succeed at this super great challenge?
Most importantly, relax and have fun!
I’ve had a lot of experience writing consistently. I normally write enough each week to write a story each week. Often that’s been on novels, but I have had periods where I wrote a short story each week. I did a shorter challenge of writing a short story each week for six weeks, successfully completed the challenge, and three of those stories have been accepted for publication. They’ll be coming out in the Fiction River anthologies starting later this year.
I’ve published a number of stories and novels that are available globally through various retailers and my shop. I know how to do all of that and have templates I can use, I know the processes, and I have checklists I’ve created for each step. The challenge doesn’t require the print editions, but I’m doing those because I want print copies of each story. And I figured there might be other collectors that do as well.
Typically, I plan several writing sessions during the day when I take a break from other things and go off and make stuff up. It’s a great stress release. I’m planning similar points for the various publishing tasks, like designing a cover.
I’ve talked to my family about the challenge and they’re very supportive.
I also wanted to do some sort of visual, real-world tracker of my progress on the challenge. To plan that out, I went into Blender and created my door.
Each week has three 2”x3” vinyl pockets.
I’m printing out completion cards that I’ll add to the pockets as I complete each of the three steps.
1. WRITE. I’ve written the story.
2. MSS. I’ve sent the manuscript to Dean.
3. LINK. I’ve published the story and sent the Books2Read link to Dean.
I have three columns of eighteen rows to take me through fifty-four weeks.
As each step, for each story, is completed, I’ll add it to my card template. I’m printing these out in batches. The first is the Title card with the word count and genre. Second, a scaled-down version of the first manuscript page, and then third, the scaled-down version of the cover. When I can print a sheet, those will replace the generic completion cards.
This means each time I go through the door I’m reminded of what I’ve accomplished so far in the challenge. After a few weeks that’ll be a powerful reminder of the streak and encourage me (along with your support) to keep having fun. I think it’ll be cool to see the completed cards on each week. I’ll be sharing pics of the door as I make progress. I've set up the door so it is ready when I start the challenge next week.
It’s Monday, one week before I start the challenge, when this newsletter gets posted. I started writing this a couple days earlier, putting down my thoughts and ideas for the challenge. By the time this goes out I’ll have:
- Finished the newsletter (or you won’t be reading it) and got it into my email program so it can be sent and posted online and on the site. Done!
- Set up the memberships on my site at ryanmwilliams.com. If you want to support me in my writing and on this challenge, I encourage you to sign up now. Done, sign up now!
- Set up my physical tracker on the door. It's ready to go next week!
Really, though, I think I’m ready to jump into this challenge. It gives me clear, measurable targets. It’s like a tabletop game, except to play I need to write stories and publish them! My door is going to be my playmat where I track my progress in the game.
If you can support me (at any level) in the challenge, that’d be great! I think this is going to be a really fun and exciting year. I hope you’ll be part of it.
Until next time,
Ryan