Past Challengers

2012 Challengers

Allyson

Monthly Goal: Refine 2 articles I want to get published. Create and maintain twice weekly blog posts for my websites www.AlbuquerqueAlive.com and  www.TaosBeat.com.
Daily Goal: 1 hour of solid writing

 

Beer

Monthly Goal: I am revising a memoir to be completed by September of this year, contributing every six weeks to a magazine of long-form work, and doing a little freelancing on the side. So my goals for this month are to 1) draft chapter 19, 2) solve my too-many-volcanoes problem, 3) complete work on chapter segues, 4) devote more time to the second half of the book (chapters 24 through 32), and 5) meet my extracurricular editorial deadlines.
Daily Goal: 1+hr/MWFSun.; 5 hrs/TRSat; i.e. 20 hrs/wk

 

RicciB

Monthly Goal: Working on my NYT best-sellers, one fiction, one nonfiction
Daily Writing Goal: 1500 words

Cindy Boutelle

Monthly Goal: To begin a forum for discussion on different readings.  I miss the classroom discussion that went with writing classes, particularly when we talked about writers’ techniques in published works.
Daily Writing Goal:: At this point, even a brainstorm would be fine.

  

Marisa P. Clark

50 pages toward fiction or nonfiction; blogs don’t count here
Daily Writing Goal: something NOT emails, comments on student work, Facebook posts; blog entry or creative endeavor

 

Dawn

Monthly Goal: Finish dream story
Daily Goal: at least 3 hours/weekday + at least 2 hours/weekend day

 

Wil DeBiasi-Bartleman

Monthly Goal: Possibly finish a few short stories.
Daily Goal: at least 30 minutes

 

Anne DiCarlo

Monthly Goal: Finish the first draft of my novel.
Daily Goal: One section/1000 words per day

 

Donna

Monthly Goal:  Finish 1st draft of “hen lit” novel
Daily Writing Goal: 30 minutes/day

 

Aaron Espinosa

Monthly Goal: One (scary) creative non-fiction essay.
Daily Writing Goal: 45 minutes non-academic writing.

 

Teresa E. Gallion

Monthly Goal: Currently working towards a her next full-length manuscript

Daily Goal: A poem per day

 

gettin jiggy wit’ it

Monthly Goals: to write stuff.  I am a poet and I want to be poetic about poetic things.  I have learned recently that I am a bad person.  I am creating an anthology about my ways, searching for what makes me bad.
Daily Goal: to write

 

Gina

Monthly Goal: I am hoping to write 10 poems. Each poem 20 lines or less as a finished product. I am also taking black and white photographs using a 35 mm SLR camera. Theme is undecided…hopefully it will emerge as creativity begins to flow. The poems and photos should compliment each other for possible display in a gallery once the project is complete.
Daily Writing Goal: 15 minutes or more

 

Lenore Gusch

Monthly Goal: I haven’t finished a short story in a while…That’d be rad.

Daily Goal:: Write/Edit/Research something creative for at least an hour a day.  High school-style journaling does NOT count.  Blogs do.

 

lookingforpemberley

Monthly Goal:: I am a freelance writer now, and have been waking up at 7am to start writing articles about everything under the sun. However, a drawback has been that I am not keeping an eye out for inspiration for my own blog, and struggling to keep up with my contributions to the online magazine I write for. It is nice to have work, but I need to keep reminding myself to write for myself, journal, or write blog posts more frequently. Writing at least 1 page for just myself and not for anyone else will help me continue to be true to my own voice.
Daily Goal: 1 page of my own

 

Michelle Herrera

Monthly Goal: I will be working on short stories, story ideas, my in-progress blog, and submitting my work to publications.
Daily Goal: 30-45 minutes per day of writing.

Johanna

Monthly Goal: My more general role is to just get into the habit of writing daily. I am working most on a novella tentatively entitled “Long Hair”, but I would also like to get at least three poems edited this month in preparation for submission to literary journals.
Daily Goal: One Hour plus daily.

 

Cody Jones

Monthly Goal:  Minimum of 7 hours a week of writing creatively. 1 draft + revision done by March 14. Either a second revision of said draft or a completed rough draft of a second story by the end of the month.

 

Felicia Karas

Monthly Goal: A draft of a new story, submitting some old stories, and maybe some work on my longer manuscript.
Daily Goal: Spend time every day doing it!

 

Jennifer Lynn Krohn

Monthly Goal: To write everyday.  I’m hoping to produce more poems and to keep up on my blog.
Daily Writing Goal:: Three hours a days

 

Maria

Monthly Goal: Mostly, I am useless to the world on weekdays and have been doing a bulk of my writing on the weekends, but I want to try spending ten minutes a day jotting down notes and such. I think this will help the weekend writing not so laborious. My weekly goal, as part of my writing group, is to write 5 new pages a week for the novel I still have not finished.
Daily Writing Goal: Ten minutes?

 

Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco

Monthly Goal: Progress on long writing project / maybe-novel / thing.  Also: more poems that I don’t hate the next morning
Daily Writing Goal: 30 min/day

 

Sarah Mowrey

Monthly Goal: At open mics, tell new jokes every week. Write 4 sketches that are longer than “blackout” (short) sketches. (Typically due on Saturdays.)  Write one blog post a week.
Daily Goal: A premise a day.

 

Daniel Mueller

Monthly Goal: Stories and essays

Daily Goal: To devote a little of every day in March to writing fiction and/or creative nonfiction.

 

Sarah Osman

Monthly Goal:  I would like to work on more of my own personal work. I am currently working as a contributing writer for a few blogs and I am looking to expand into writing for more magazines. While this is all a lot of fun, I have not had the chance to finish a really good short story or creative non-fiction piece in a while, and I would like to.
Daily Goal: to work on Stories/Essays

 

Cynthia Patton

Monthly Goal: Working on my 3rd draft of memoir and maintaining my blog.
Daily Writing Goal: 30 min

 

Jula PDX

Monthly Goal: Poetry and a short story…it’s been too long since I’ve written either!
Daily Goal:: 15 min a day 

 

Michelle Dyer Peterson

Monthly Goal: Really, I just want to generate.
Daily Writing Goal:: Write creatively every day in March, even if it’s crap. Taking out periods and changing conjunctions does not count as writing.

 

Ava Riley (April Gutierrez)

Monthly Goal: I am working on the third novel in a series and would like to finish it hopefully this month, but to at least get as close to done as possible.  My specific writing goal is to write at least 1,000 words a day, AT LEAST.
Daily Goal: 30 minutes

 

Bob Sabatini (A.K.A “burqueboy”)

Monthly Goal: No specific goal in mind, just following the daily goal to make sure I stay in the practice of writing every day.
Daily Goal:: 1 blog post of at least 250 words

 

Katie Spain

Monthly Goal: Ummm, a lot of poems, some of them good enough to do something with. Hopefull some of them specific enough to put in a little book I’m working on. Or at least R & D for that project, in the long run.
Daily Goal: one to three poems per day

 

Serenity (Jervon)

Montly Goal: My goal is simple; start writing again. For too long I have made excuse after excuse to not write (not even a daily journal).
Daily Goal: Do a form of writing a few pages each day (diary, draft working, free write, etc.)

Jennifer Simpson (Thursdays Fridays with Jenn)

Daily goal:  5 hours a day. Revising some parts of my manuscript, re-visioning other parts, ripping out some words, adding some others, hopefully better ones.

Monthly goal:  Draft of Reconstructing My Mother printed out and submitted to my committee by March 29.  (note: defense scheduled for Friday, April 13)

Reading goal:  Read a chapter a day of writing that is not my own.

 

Samantha Erin Tetangco (that’s me)

Daily Goal: 75 minutes/day

Monthly Goal: To built the habit of writing daily.  I’d like to have a “submittable” draft of my novel done in April.  That said, if I could to a place where I can really focus on the ending, I would be very happy.

Reading Goal: A novel per week

 

Faerl Marie Torres

Monthly Goal: I am working on several drafts of a few flash fictions and CNF essays. I would like to have three final drafts, ready to submit by the end of the month. I am also working towards 3 posts a week on my style blog.
Daily Goal: 1 hour a day

 

Melanie Unruh

Monthly Goal: To get four of my short stories ready to send out/to be a part of my collection…that’s one story per week!
Daily Goal:: One hour per day and at least two per day for Spring Break

 

2011 Challengers

Cathy Arellano: Goals: TBD

Randi Beck: Daily Goal: 30 minutes/day.  Goal for the month: To finish her short story, “Six.” (If she finishes it this month, it will make the one year anniversary of its beginning.  In other words, she’s been working on the same story for a year and wants to finish it.)

Lisa Chavez: Daily Goal: 1500 words/day.  Goal for the month: Still TBD, “but it might be vaguely something that I can send out for publication, though I expect some of my writing, like today, will be on the blog.”

Marisa P. C.: Daily Goals: at least 30 minutes per day every day, with these exceptions:at least 90 minutes per day over spring break, time off on driving days to and from L.V., any days I miss must be made up, hopefully in March but in April if necessary. Goal for End of the Month: work on the new blog (Morning, with Birds), finish draft of Gaga paper, already at 8600 words complete nearly completed first draft of short story tentatively titled “Pound Puppy,” look at the behemoth

Blas Falconer: Goals: TBD

Rick Raab-Faber: Daily goal: 30 min/day.  Goal for the month: “Let’s say, for grins, 4 raw chapters” of his novel. 

Teresa E. Gallion: Goals: 1 hour/day for poetry.  To write a poem.

Karen Hogan: Daily Goal: 4 hours/day.  Goal for the Month: TBD

Maria Elena Howard: Daily Goal: 30 min/day.  Goal for the month: a swift kick in the butt to . . . get going on all kinds of writing projects I’ve neglected for far far too long.

jkreg (aka Joy.  Last Name Unknown) : Goals: TBD

Jennifer Krohn: Goals: TBD

Casandra Lopez: Goals: TBD

Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco: Daily Goal: 45 minutes.  Goal for the month: 1 poem/day.

Merimee Moffitt: Daily Goal:  ”my set goal was to write + for much more time than I had been and at least two to three times a day.”  Goal for the month:  tbd

Darlin’ Neal: Goals: TBD

Cynthia Patton: Daily Goal: 3 hours/day for month of March. Monthly goal: to make as much progress as possible on the 3rd, and hopefully final, draft of my book but to at least complete a totally awesome first chapter (because it sure as heck isn’t the chapter currently labeled #1). Additional goal: to submit 3 things (essay, poem, grant, etc) per month for the entire year. 2 months already completed–YEAH!!

Bob Sabatini:Daily Goal: 200-500 word blog post every day. He’s been blogging daily for 200 days and wants to keep the ball rolling.  The blog name, however, he’s keeping anonymous

Jennifer Simpson: Daily Goal: 5 hours/day. “My vision is work from 9am to 11:30am, then go to yoga at noon, home by 1:30 and put in two and a half more hours (and eat lunch).” Goal for the month: Complete next draft of COMPS.

Katie Spain: Daily Goals: TBD.  Month Goal: TBD

Dawn Sperber: Daily Goal: 5 hours/day.  Goal for the month: ”to tighten up as many stories as i can to get my story collection completed. I’d love to finish it up, and will see how it goes.”

Carmela Starace: Goals: 700 words/day.  Goal for the month: TBD

Chris Strickling: Daily Goal: 1 hour/day.  Goal for the month: Chris is working on a book proposal and will also need to rewrite a chapter.

Elizabeth Tannen: Daily Goal: 1 hour/day.  Goal for the month: 20,000 (the first chunk of her dissertation/memoir project)

Samantha Erin Tetangco (that’s me): Daily Goal: 3 hours/day.  Goal for the month: 100 pages (revised & rewritten) and the “third” draft of her novel

Melanie Unruh: Goal: 75 hours over the course of the entire month.