Hello and welcome to the first installment of the Community Coordinator's potpourri blog series for 2021! We decided to share some of our creative/writing goals or things we're challenging ourselves to do creatively this year, with all of you. Make sure to keep us accountable as the year goes on

| M A G E M A D I |

Hey folks! For those of you who don't know me, I'm Madi, one of the Ravenclaw CC's now for about 2 and a half years who recently also added the Social Media Coordinator staff hat, which is why you see my name in bright blue and not grey like the other CCs. Surprisingly (or not) 2020 was a rather difficult year for me creatively with some grad school burnout and some family things that happened on top of the pandemic, but I still managed to win my first ever official NaNoWriMo and have a lot of inspiration for this year creatively!

Creative Goals/Challenges:

• Write a second draft of Planetary Boundaries screenplay
• *Actually* enter the challenges I've said I will so far + any that come up later in 2021
• Get back into the habit of doing daily writing, even if it's just a couple hundred words a day
• Write a comprehensive backstory & journal for the FFT DnD campaign I'm DM-ing
• Write and submit/publish at least two (2) scientific first-author papers
• Read all the books I currently have unread on my bookshelf
• Finish my Waitress fic
• Write some Arc of a Scythe fic like I've been meaning to for the last two years
• Read & review at least two (2) different fics every month!

| S H A D O W Y C O R N E R |

Hi y'all, I'm Eli and fairly new to the CC team. I tend to be quiet and stay in the background sometimes, but I strive to change that every day. Please don't hesitate to say hi to me anytime While I still love writing and reading fanfic, and have a few ongoing projects I really hope to finish, I am seriously trying to focus more on Original Fiction this year, and it's very scary but also exciting. I love writing, though it would seem I enjoy talking about it more than doing it, lol. Goals somewhat help, so here are mine:

• participate in a Short Story writing competition
• finish first draft of NaNo project - Myths of Ruin
• edit the 1st part of April NaNo - Spring Eternal (maybe post on the archives?)
• finish Memory Dust (my ancient Romione)
• enter and complete a challenge for once!
• read and review more diverse fanfics (create a Reviews Offered thread)
• find a writing partner with whom I could exchange parts of our draft and do critique

| J U L S |

Hey there! I'm juls, a community coordinator on the green team (aka Slytherin.) I'm originally from a town near Buffalo, New York. It's also pretty close to Niagara Falls, which is a beautiful area to visit. Growing up I didn't need a passport to visit Canada, and went with various groups up there to visit. (Science Museum, Canada's Wonderland and the great Chinese restaurants that line one of the boulevards up there.)

I now live in Tennessee, in a city near the Georgia state line (trying to be slightly vague here!). The state is rich in history, and it's not too far from one of the battlefields from the Civil War. (One of my things is visiting battle sites and old forts. Near Niagara Falls there is Old Fort Niagara that I went to as a child with school a few times, and when I got my boyfriend up there a few years ago - I dragged him there. He was hooked, and we've been to some in Florida and South Carolina also!)

I'm also one of the older FFTers, and between our adult kids we have seven grandchildren. We also have three cats, Cleo, Ginger and Rufus. (Three rainbow bridge kitties also - Patches, Rusty and Missy.)

I love writing and reading stories of all sorts. I'm currently reading the many volumes of Percy Jackson. I'm on the third of Riordan's books, The Apollo series. I think he's a fabulous writer.

As a preteen, I aspired to be like Laura Ingalls Wilder and Louisa May Alcott. I read their books as well as the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys and Trixie Belden series of mysteries. My original fiction story on the archives is a vampire!cozy type mystery. (Yes, I love vampires.)

Right now, I don't have many goals for the year other than:

1. Writing more
2. Reading more
3. Getting my AC1 under control (Yes, I'm a diabetic. So was Laura Ingalls Wilder - not exactly what I wanted to emulate of her.)
4. Being a bit tidier. (Don't look at my room!)

| R O N S G I R L F R I D A Y |

Hi all! I’m Melanie, been on the CC team for a little under a year now. As hellish as 2020 was, I will say I churned out a lot of fanfic last year. It remains to be seen how 2021 will be for me in terms of available time for writing, but I have a lot of fanfic content still flying about in my brain that I’m excited to write, and I’d also like to start devoting a significant amount of my writing effort to OF as well.  I get way too distracted from existing projects by inspiration in the challenges forum and procrastination in the form of new one-shots, so overall this year I’d really like to dedicate myself to a few long-term projects:

• Finish my long-time WIP Irrational (and, uh, resist the temptation to start a sequel?)
• Draft at least a quarter of my Regency-era AU and start posting
• Get an outline/ roadmap/ beat sheet done for at least one of my OF novel ideas
• Submit an original short story or flash fiction for publication (...somewhere)
• Become more familiar with screenplay/stageplay format and maybe try my hand at that
• Read an average of one book a month, most of them new but maybe a few re-reads of old favorites (thinking about going back to Percy Jackson!)

| M A L F O Y S A N G E L |

Hey Y'all, for those that don't know me, I'm Tasha and I'm the other CC on the Slytherin team. I'm from Texas and currently in my last semester of a creative writing degree. Currently I reside in the Dramione corner of the HP fandom but I'm working on branching out into other ships and fandoms as well. I can often be found in the Slytherin CR club or screaming at @ice fairy abhorsen. over her latest vic/gallagher fic. 

This year, I don't have too many writing goals since my school program takes up a lot of my time and once I'm done, I'm taking a break from writing for at least a month or two  but the few I do have include:

1. Graduating. (August here I come)
2. Putting together a short story collection of everything I've written for school and getting it ready to self publish. 
3. Creating a story bible for a stand alone story and having it ready to start writing by the end of the year. 
4. Updating my portfolio to send out to potential employers
5. Find a job in my field. 

What kind of creative/writing goals/challenges are you setting for yourself this year?

______________________
credits:

writers: madi, eli, juls, melanie, tasha
header: branwen
compilation: madi