Welcome to this our third writing club update! See previous writing clubs here. As always I hope you have all had a great month, with a good balance of outdoors and indoors activities.

Here are our participants with stated goals from last month, although anyone is free comment with their own writing progress. If you'd like to join this list of participants, just say so in a comment, with a description of what you're working on and what you'd like to do this month. Easy as pie!

Okay, without further delay, our...

Participants!

• @JacobCoffinWrites@slrpnk.net - August goal
• @grrgyle@slrpnk.net - August goal
• @hazeebabee@slrpnk.net - August goal

Hey sobernauts out there on the clear dry seas lol. The pink cloud is gone, so now I'm just in the daily living part (7mos), but even still, had a bit of a realisation recently.

I got unexpectedly laid off from my job recently, which previously would have been a big trigger to hit the bar. But this time I was thankful that I didn't drink anymore (or smoke for that matter). Not even for the money (although that is one factor), but that despite all my problems at least I don't have to deal with the ravages of booze on top of everything else. I can move forward with real world solutions to my actual problem with a clear head.

It especially hit me when shortly after my layoff, a friend came over with a "care package" of junk food and a light beer, saying to my partner "c'mon not even one beer." But I realised that I wasn't even tempted (though the inertia from old habits could have easily led me to drink).

Anyway, this friend doesn't know how much I value my sobriety (we used to drink together a lot a lot), so I thanked him for the thought, but gave the beer to another friend of mine.

That's the story. My physical addiction to alcohol isn't that great thankfully, so it's not that dramatic, but it still felt like a nice reinforcement that I'm on the right path.

Welcome to the second writing club update! (See the previous update here.) I hope you've had a pleasant month, and are managing to stay cool (this is me presuming northern hemisphere anyway). One short month ago, a month seemed like such a long time. But now I see it for a just a couple of weekends, and a sprinkling of free evenings.

I'm keeping this update brief, since I'm behind on my own goals. But it's raining here, and I don't have to go to work (at my job anyway) today, so I'm excited to get back to it! May you be similarly blessed with dreary weather and lack of responsibilities on this Monday.

Participants

• @JacobCoffinWrites@slrpnk.net - July goal
• @grrgyle@slrpnk.net - July goal
• @hazeebabee@slrpnk.net - July goal
• @Pip@slrpnk.net - June goal

As always, there is no pressure to have completed your goals. But sharing how your month went is super beneficial not just personally, but for the rest of us. Additionally, participants and guests are encouraged to chime in with any comments or questions they may have on project projects, writing club, etc.

Welcome to the inaugural writing club update! This is a brand new writing club, first proposed here. I have some ideas about what I want from this club, but where we go from here is open ended.

So feel free to start new posts or spinoffs in between my monthly posts, as long as they jive with the rules in our gracious host community's sidebar, you have my full support. :)

On to the whole point of this club! The following brave things set to text concrete goals for themselves (linked beside their names, just below). If you'd like to join their number, simply say so in the comments, along with your goal for this month. Okay, here are the stars of our show: 👏👏👏👏

Participants

• @JacobCoffinWrites@slrpnk.net - June goal
• @grrgyle@slrpnk.net - June goal
• @hazeebabee@slrpnk.net - June goal
• @Pip@slrpnk.net - June goal

You don't have to share any of the actual material you've worked on unless you want to (you could even use our local Etherpad to share writing stuff - for example).

Here are some questions to start you off. I'm genuinely interested in your answers, but don't feel you need to follow my script. This is just a prompt:

• How do you think you did on your goal(s)?
• What would you like to accomplish for our next check-in in August?
• Is there a part of your project that you'd especially like feedback on?
• Is there anything about this writing club you'd like us to do differently?

No stress if you didn't accomplish everything you set out to (I fell short and I'm still here hehe). I would love to hear your updates no matter how things went!

I'll share my own progress in a comment below. What I'm hoping from this step is that we treat this as part check-in, and part conversation. This is your chance to really dig into each others' projects (and if someone has done so for you, maybe it would be nice to return the favour and take an interest in their own project? ;))

Screenshot of Mario Kart for SNES with text reading "give up?" And two choices shown: "yes" and "no." The option "no" is selected. Luigi is also pictured on the lower half of the screen.