The weather is getting colder, the days are getting shorter, and we're officially entering cozy season. 🧣🧤 And since we're all cozying up inside, what better time to make some serious progress on our goals? For November Writing Month, I've decided to set a personal goal: ⭐️ FINISH THE FIRST DRAFT OF MY BOOK! Not just make progress. Not just add a few thousand words. I want to reach the final page and finally have a complete first draft in my hands. It won't be perfect, but the goal is to get the story out of my head and onto the page. Editing will come later! 🥇I'd love for everyone in WRITERS to set a goal of their own this month. - Maybe it's finishing a chapter, - reaching a word count, - starting a new project, - or finally making time for that story you've been thinking about. Let's make this a month of showing up, putting words on the page, and making real progress. 💪 So, what's YOUR writing goal for November? Let's get cozy, get writing, and make some things happen! 🍁

Who's dressing up for halloween!? I'm gonna be a dragon! 🐉 What about you? If not, what are your plans for this spooky evening. 👀

I was listening to a podcast today with Mark Forsyth and he said something that I quite liked. ✨ "Don’t write just to be efficient. Write to enchant." Don’t write just to get the meaning across. Write to enchant.🌙 Write for beauty. Write to make things better than they were. ✍️ EXAMPLE: 😐 Efficient: We keep struggling, but the past keeps pulling us back. 😊 Enchanting: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” (F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby) Anyone can write a sentence that works. A sentence that works tells the reader what happened, where they are, and how someone feels. It’s clear, it’s useful, and it’s forgettable. But the sentences we carry with us are the ones that did something more. They made an ordinary moment glow. They found the strange, specific detail nobody else noticed. They gave a feeling a shape. Efficiency is for emails and instruction manuals. Stories get to be more than that. 📚 So the next time you sit down to write, try this: ♦️ Swap one plain word for a truer one. ♦️ Add one detail only your character would notice. ♦️ Read a line aloud and listen to how it sounds, because rhythm is part of the magic. Your first draft only has to exist. Your second draft is where you get to enchant. ✍️ If today’s draft feels plain, that’s okay. Come back to it and add a little magic. 💬 What’s one line you’ve written lately that you’re proud of? ❤️

I want to give a big warm welcome to our new members 🌟 Leeann Munda Jabulani Mtshali Oladipupo Samuel Hey guys! We're so glad to have you! When you have a second, please introduce yourself and let us know... What are you working on right now? ✍️ Or are you reading anything interesting? 📖

Sure, this is a writing community; but dedicated writers are always reading. What am I reading? To my daughter (who is almost 6): - First: Doctor Who and the Runaway Tardis - Next: 4 pages of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban each night - After that: Some combination of Goodnight books (Goodnight Lab, Goodnight Unicorns, and/or Goodnight Moon) For myself? I'm bouncing around. - Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky (great ideas for character flaws and uncomfortable emotions) - The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (great for tactical thinking and understanding motives) - Various cooking/baking recipes (great for structure and rooting myself in the tangible world) - Dead Space: Martyr by B. K. Evenson (writing genre research; SciFi Horror) Your turn. What are you reading and why, and/or what's your favorite book(s) and why?