Challenge,  Fun Stuff

Challenges for the New Year

December 12, 2022 /

We Have Four of Them To Help You…

If you are looking around and trying to set some goals for the coming writing year, consider taking a challenge from WMG workshops.

There are four of them on Teachable.

THE GREAT CHALLENGE is to write and send me a short story every week for 52 weeks.

NOVELLA CHALLENGE is to write and send me a novella every month for 12 months.

NOVEL CHALLENGE is to write and send me a novel every two months, and then publish the book in a paperback and send that to me at some point down the road.

PUBLISHING CHALLENGE is to publish one new major book every month. Major books are collections, novels, and novellas.

The cost is $600, but if you miss along the way, you get that much in workshop credit, so basically the challenge is free.

If you hit the challenge, you get your choice of any of the WMG Publishing lifetime subscriptions. That’s a great carrot to keep you going, but more than anything, what you will learn about your own writing and ability to get things out will be very valuable. Plus over the year you will have a lot of new stories and books.

The beginning of the new year is a great time to start a challenge, but once you sign up, you can tell me exactly when you want to start.

(Note: I will not read or critique your work. I will look at what you send in to heck on how you are doing. I am the deadline, basically. However, in the novel challenge when I get the paper books, I often have read them, and with the publishing challenge, I have often bought one of the books that looked interesting.)

(And yes, my eye is getting better. Almost back to reading without expanding the text. At this rate another week or so.)

Check them out on Teachable and any questions about them, just write me.

 

6 Comments

  • Nadine Travers

    December 12, 2022 at 9:17 am

    Hi Dean,

    I have a question for that challenge, which I hope to have for 2023 BUT I write my book in French and publish them in French. Will it be an issue?

    I just wonder, since I know the course is $600 but also for me I have to add 30% of US dollars exchange (living in Canada). It’s part of my Christmas wish list, but that could depend on your answer to this.

    I love all you do, planning to take more courses with you, which includes the challenge, but I just wonder about that question before investing in myself.

    Thanks,

    Nadine Travers

    • dwsmith

      December 12, 2022 at 9:34 am

      Nadine,

      French would be fine and you would still need to send them to me, inside the deadline for electronic and at some point near the end in paper. Or maybe wait until all are done and send me a picture of them all together in paper sitting on a table. That would be good enough instead of spending the postage.

  • Zoe Cannon

    December 12, 2022 at 12:34 pm

    I’m starting the publishing challenge in January (picked it up in the last sale), so this month I’ve been getting my 2023 publication schedule hammered out, and I’ve got a technical question about publication dates. I usually publish on the first Friday of the month, but if I do that during the challenge, it means some books will fall outside the date window (if I publish the first book on January 6th, that would make all the other books due by the 6th of the month, if I understand correctly—but there are a couple of months where the first Friday falls on the 7th). I’m doing the challenge either way; I just want to know if I should adjust some publication dates to keep the books inside the deadline (which is easy enough), or if I can use a day-of-the-week deadline instead.

    Also, the address listed for where paperbacks should be sent is a PO box in Lincoln City. Do you still want paperbacks sent there, or do you have an updated address?

    • dwsmith

      December 12, 2022 at 11:45 pm

      Lincoln City is the home address of WMG Publising. No worries, I get the books just fine from there.

      As for the date, can only be one month after your start date on the publishing challenge. Otherwise I can’t keep track of exceptions six months from now. So I track the start date and can know from there, so you will need to adjust. My suggestion, publish the Friday BEFORE your deadline, since so much of publishing is tricky. Give yourself a week of leeway just in case.