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just did my end-of-September Get Your Words Out check in and I’ve completed my 2025 word count goal of 150k words, woo! @loopyloo2610 you were so right not to go for 200k words, though. at the pace I’ve been going lately, I’d have to push myself to do another 50k in the next three months and it wouldn’t be fun.
Did You Miss It?
If you haven’t been around Dreamwidth recently, you may have missed a great post at GYWO! All links are member-locked, so if you’re not signed up for the challenge, you won’t be able to access them.
Challenges
The 8d20 Challenge: For every d20 rolled, you write for that many minutes
r/amitheasshole Challenge: Write a story in the style of Reddit’s Am I The Asshole
Permission to Suck: Sucky first drafts are a go!
Discussions
Getting a Grip on Deadlines: Let’s discuss 4 strategies to help you better plan your deadlines and complete your projects
What's the Purpose Of...Said?: For such a small word, 'said' can be crucial. Explore how 'said' functions with dialogue and why you might—or might not—want to use it
Internal vs External Conflicts and Goals: What's the difference between internal and external conflict—and how can you combine both to strengthen your story?
How to Find Time to Write: How to look for big (or small) moments to write in a crowded schedule
Making Symbolism Work: Symbolism, when done well, can really enrich a story. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when incorporating it
Writing Queerplatonic Relationships: What does a queerplatonic relationship look like? And how do you write it?
Come Tell Us What We're Missing: We're in the second half of the year, so come tell us about what more you want from GYWO. We want to hear from you!
Writing & Production Schedules for Self-Publishers: How to go about coming up with your own production schedule and setting your own deadlines
How to Edit & Revise in Passes: How to edit in passes to make the most out of your revision time
Refilling the Creative Well When The Well Has a Leak: How do you refill the well when it’s running low? When it’s slowly drying out?
Support
Chronic Illness Support Post: Comfort via your senses
Success!: Share a success, no matter how small!
Pep Talk: Taking a break isn't a bad thing (it really isn't)
Share Time: Share your work and get positive reinforcement
Events & Announcements
Dreamwidth & Mississippi: How to navigate GYWO if you're geoblocked
GYWO Build-a-Bingo
Build-a-Bingo Badge Updates & Digest: Fills July 3–July 25
Build-a-Bingo Badge Updates & Digest: Fills July 26–August 25
Build-a-Bingo September Prompts: Check out this month’s prompts and start thinking about what you’ll write in your next fill
Monthly Check-In
August Check-In: Don't forget to check in for August! Check-in closes September 5th
Did You Miss It?
If you haven’t been around Dreamwidth recently, you may have missed a great post at GYWO! All links are member-locked, so if you’re not signed up for the challenge, you won’t be able to access them.
Challenges
WIP Challenge: Write one sentence on your current WIP
Back to School Challenge: Receive a common school subject as your prompt
Two Days Challenge: How much can you write in two days?
Discussions
Writing While Neurodiverse: How does being neurodivergent affect you as a writer? How does it affect your writing routine, the characters you create, or the stories you tell?
English Flexibilities: The Accessibility of Verbing Nouns & Other Grammatical Abuses: Explore the linguistic flexibility of the English language and find out how you can use it in your writing
What Research Rabbit Hole Have You Fallen Down?: What has made you fall the deepest into a research rabbit hole? What interested you about the subject?
'Dem Bones/'Dem Bones/'Dem Bareboooooooooooooooones: How to expand bare bones prose
Sustaining a Longer Series: Tips for sustaining a longer series without losing track of all the moving pieces
Canon, Canon Divergent, or AU: Where Do Fanfiction Ideas Come From?: What draws creatives to play in the sandbox, play slightly outside the sandbox, or take the toys and go to a tree?
Daily Habits to Encourage Writing in Your Life: How do you fit writing into your life?
Building an Outline/Scene List From a Beat Sheet: What do you do with a beat sheet once you have it? One suggestion: use it as your draft zero of your outline to your next bestseller or amazing fanfic!
Where Do You Start When You Write?: What's your starting point when you embark on a new piece of writing? Let's exchange ideas and processes!
Writing Through Chronic Pain: Writing when you’re dealing with chronic pain
Worldbuilding Philosophies: Different approaches to worldbuilding and when they might work for you
Support
Chronic Illness Support Post: A round of gratitude
The Duck Pond: Are you stuck on a concept? Not sure where to go with a character? Just need help making a decision? Talk to a rubber duck and find a solution!
The Five W+H Of Your Writing Life: Answer 6 questions to get an overview of your current writing life
Pep Talk: Some of us want our writing to be perfect, but that way lies madness. Let's take a moment to remember the best you can do is good enough
Events & Announcements
GYWO Donation Drive: If you’re able to donate, you can now contribute to the current and future development of GYWO—we appreciate your assistance!
GYWO Build-a-Bingo
Build-a-Bingo Badge Updates & Digest: Fills August 25–September 3
Build-a-Bingo October Prompts: Check out this month’s prompts and start thinking about what you’ll write in your next fill
Monthly Check-In
September Check-In: Don't forget to check in for September! Check-in closes October 5th
Did You Miss It?
If you haven’t been around Dreamwidth recently, you may have missed a great post at GYWO! All links are member-locked, so if you’re not signed up for the challenge, you won’t be able to access them.
Challenges
WIP Challenge: Write one sentence on your current WIP
Tarot Prompts Challenge: Comment to get three tarot cards as inspiration
STOP: Stop, write, continue on
Discussions
You — Yes, You! — Can Write a Longfic/Novel: Looking to make the jump from short fiction to long fiction but intimidated by the prospect? All you have to do is more of what you've already been doing
Writing Goals Beyond Metrics: Set a few goals for your projects, writing life, or how you’ll develop your craft over the year
Ways to Encourage Good Writing Habits: New year, new writing goals! But how can you best set yourself up for success with good writing habits?
Revising POV: How do you choose POV in a multi-POV story?
This Is YOUR Space...: What does your writing space look like—or what do you wish it looked like? Take a moment to share your current or ideal writing space
Counting Words as You Revise: Not sure how to keep track of the words you add in revision? Check out several methods to keep your GYWO progress increasing without driving yourself nuts
Writing While Chronically Ill: How to juggle writing and chronic illness
Why Do You Write?: Maybe you write because you feel better than when you don't? Or to get out of your head a feeling or a plot point? Has your reason or reasons changed over time?
Support
Chronic Illness Support Post: Receive support for writing while dealing with a chronic illness
What Are You Working On?: Fill out the question form and leave a comment to let everyone know about your current work in progress
Pep Talk: Just Start Writing!: Starting a new draft can be the hardest part—what's getting in your way and how can you get past it?
Events & Announcements
Welcome Home Writers: Information and start-of-the-year posts to kick off GYWO 2025
Check-In Information: Not sure how to check-in? This is the post to explain things!
Monthly Check-In
January Check-In: Don't forget to check in for January! Check-in closes February 5th
Did You Miss It?
If you haven’t been around Dreamwidth recently, you may have missed a great post at GYWO! All links are member-locked, so if you’re not signed up for the challenge, you won’t be able to access them.
Challenges
STOP: Stop, write, continue on
GYWO Iron Chef Challenge: Get a prompt and use it in more than one way, in more than one piece of writing
Time Management Challenge: You have 72 hours (three days) from reading this challenge to find a total of 60 minutes to write
Discussions
Defining a Magic System: This post provides a series of defining questions that will help you build your magic system from scratch
Time Management & Sustaining Motivation: Use these tips to think about how best to carve out writing time in your busy schedule
Self-Editing Tips: Revising your own work can be a challenge, but it’s an important skill for every writer to hone. Here are some strategies to help
Writing Characters on the Asexual Spectrum: When incorporating an asexual character in your works, there's a lot more to know than just the definition. This should help with kicking off your research
Searching High And Low For A Good Home Part 2: Anthologies: The life cycle of an anthology submission
Nope Nuhuh Can't Make Me. I'm Not REVISING!: What part of revision puts your hackles up or makes you throw it in a folder and say “Nope”? What does revision mean to you?
What Resources Exist For Worldbuilding?: Let's explore the various places you can seek information for worldbuilding. Check out their upsides and downsides, alongside a few recommendations
Revision Resources: Tips, links and books to help you with revision
Lightning Words: Drabbling Your Writing Practice: Mark Twain famously stated that choosing the perfect word over an acceptable word is the difference between “lightning and the lightning-bug.” In that case, what drabbling can teach you is to call storms
Support
Chronic Illness Support Post: It’s the second quarterly gratitude post of 2025! Let’s celebrate the things that brighten our days, no matter how big or small they may be
Are You Tired?: Writing is a long proces and it's easy to feel discouraged or exhausted while treading that slog. This is a judgment-free space to talk about how tired you are and maybe find some support
The 5W+H of Your Writing Life: Answer 6 questions to get an overview of your current writing life
Writing Round-Up: Post links to & descriptions of your finished work
Pep Talk: Getting stuck is the worst, but you can get unstuck! Check out the solutions to three common ways writers get stuck
Events & Announcements
Mid-Year Marathon: July: Complete your minimum monthly pledge for July
GYWO Yahtzee
Yahtzee Leaderboard & Digest: Fills May 27–June 9
Yahtzee Leaderboard & Digest: Fills June 10–June 13
Yahtzee Leaderboard & Digest: Fills June 14–June 17
Yahtzee Final Results: And the winners are…
Yahtzee Leaderboard & Digest: Fills June 18–June 25
GYWO Build-a-Bingo
GYWO Build-a-Bingo 2025: GYWO’s choose-your-prompts game; ends Dec 8
Build-a-Bingo July Prompts: Check out this month’s prompts and start thinking about what you’ll write in your next fill
Monthly Check-In
June Check-In: Don't forget to check in for June! Check-in closes July 5th
Did You Miss It?
If you haven’t been around Dreamwidth recently, you may have missed a great post at GYWO! All links are member-locked, so if you’re not signed up for the challenge, you won’t be able to access them.
Challenges
Roll the Dice Challenge: Roll a word count goal for a 2-day challenge
Who's Coming to Dinner? Challenge: Find out what unexpected guest appears in your next scene
Discussions
What's the Purpose Of...Epithets?: Epithets are a powerful writing tool, designed to be memorable. Here is a practical breakdown of their uses and misuses
Establishing a Writing Routine: Consider how some simple actions in a set order can help get your brain to shift into the writing gear
How Much Do You Plan Before You Start Writing?: Come share your thoughts (and find new methods) on how much YOU plan before writing the first draft
Naming Those Characters: How do you name characters? What resources do you use and how do those resources affect your decisions and worldbuilding?
Character Tropes: How to use tropes to build characters or deepen your understanding of a character you've already created
Oh Horatio, What Makes A Good Book Cover?: Let’s take a look at a few existing covers and figure out what makes them work
Finding the Balance Between Planning and Pantsing: Here are some ideas for finding a hybrid approach between planning and pantsing that will work for you
GYWO & YEM Writers Share: What Are You Working On?: You've got a work in progress and we want to know about it!
Support
Chronic Illness Support Post: Stories that resonate with us
Writing Round-Up: Post links to & descriptions of your finished work
Workshop Doctor: Get feedback about some element of your writing
Pep Talk: If you desire to be a happy, healthy writer: You be You. So seemingly simple and yet sometimes so very hard
How's It Going YEMers?: We’re almost halfway through our Year-End Marathon. Let us know how things are going for you
Share Time: Share your work and get positive reinforcement
GYWO Build-a-Bingo
Build-a-Bingo Badge Updates & Digest: Fills October 19–November 1
Build-a-Bingo Badge Updates & Digest: Fills November 2–November 16
Build-a-Bingo Badge Updates & Digest: Fills NNovember 17–November 30
Monthly Check-In
November Check-In: Don't forget to check in for November! Check-in closes December 5th
Did You Miss It?
If you haven’t been around Dreamwidth recently, you may have missed a great post at GYWO! All links are member-locked, so if you’re not signed up for the challenge, you won’t be able to access them.
Challenges
WIP Challenge: Write one sentence on your current WIP
Microfiction Dice Challenge: This month’s big challenge is to see how small a story you can write
Discussions
Building Writer Confidence — Lack of Positive Feedback: Not getting positive feedback? Not getting ANY feedback? There are ways to stay motivated — I'll share some of mine, and I'd love to hear yours!
More Things To Add To Your Spreadsheets or What Else Can You Track?: At GYWO you're already tracking word count or days written. But what other useful information can you track to give you new reasons to build your tracking method of choice?
Plotters, How Do You Plot?: All writers have their own unique way of plotting and outlining their stories. What's yours?
Effective Beginnings and Endings: How can you make both the beginning and ending of your story more effective?
How to Keep Up Momentum with ADHD: Motivation can be hard to keep up for anyone, but it can be even harder if you have ADHD. Here are some tips and tricks to try and keep your momentum going
Creating Unease in Your Reader: One of the fun things about writing is finding ways of influencing the reader without telling them what to feel directly. Here are 3 methods of creating unease in your reader, as well as 3 common pitfalls
What Do Your Writing Sessions Look Like?: Let’s talk about our writing setups, from tools and physical environments to convincing our brain it’s time to write
Support
Chronic Illness Support Post: Writing spaces that benefit us
Share Time: Share your work and get positive reinforcement
Pep Talk: Haven’t started writing for 2025? It’s not too late
Success!: Share a success, no matter how small!
Writing Goals Beyond Metrics Check-In: Share your progress or set new goals aside from your GYWO pledge
Events & Announcements
7 Days, 7 Stories: Write a draft of a story in a day for 7 days
GYWO Yahtzee
Yahtzee Leaderboard & Digest: Fills April 1–April 14
Yahtzee Leaderboard & Digest: Fills April 15–April 21
Monthly Check-In
April Check-In: Don't forget to check in for April! Check-in closes May 5th
June Check-In: Now Open
The June Check-In is open from June 29 through Jul 5.
Report your Year-to-Date (YTD) progress by following the directions on Dreamwidth.
Important Reminders!
Make sure you check in! Missing too many check-ins will result in your removal from the community.
Not meeting your monthly goal will not affect your membership status whatsoever.
If you have a question or concern, please consider leaving a comment on the post linked above or contacting a moderator.
