Category: Publishing

2024 Goals

Here we are in 2024! A new year, with 366 (Leap Year!) new days to make things happen and reach some goals.

2023 was super productive and very successful. I hope to repeat the trend in 2024, only better because I’m taking what I learned in 2023 and refining it to better hit my goals.

Writing Goals

Write 1.5K-2K (Or 1 hour of time) daily one project at a time until Completed

Over the last few months of 2023, I changed my writing practices in an effort to be more efficient and not over do it. I overdid it, with massive word counts, but I did learn how to make my writing more efficient. I found I could consistently get anywhere between 1.5-2K words in about an hour, so I would like to make that a daily practice so I can finish some projects this year.

Finish 5-6 Writing Projects

This goal is a huge goal, but I have done that on purpose. If I continue at the pace I did at the end of last year (and with consistency rather than a crazy race to the finish), I can finish several projects. I’m leaving the projects open, not setting anything crazy, seeing what come along when it comes along.

Finish 2 Editing Projects

There are two projects I want to get through edits this year. The first is the edits from last year I didn’t quite get finished and the second is the novel I finished in December. I can’t quite edit as fast as I write (yet), but I’m hoping to improve this year.

Read 15 Books

Reading is one of the goals I definitely overshot last year. I started with 6 and then increased to 12, but read 19. This year, I want to split the difference and read 15 books. I have a few books left over from 2023, but I’ve been itching to get reading and improve my craft.

Publish Consistently Online

Over the last few months, I’ve upped my online publishing game and I’ve seen the results. I want to publish online consistently and get more exposure. I’ve got three places I publish and I want to stay as consistent as possible throughout this new year.

Publish a Long Work

This year, I would like to publish a novel. I’ve been saying that for years, but with years of practice behind me and the hope of more consistency this year, 2024 will be my year to publish. Whether indie published or traditional, I hope to have something published in the next 366 days.

Personal Goals

Exercise/Get in Better Shape

I make this goal every year, and every year I get fed up and give up somewhere in the first few months. I want to exercise (or at least walk) four times a week. I have a very important big party in September and I want to be my best physically for that and continue the habit for the rest of my life. I haven’t always been the healthiest, but now it’s time to change that.

Hydrate

In November, I started a water drinking challenge and it worked very well. I felt better, I wasn’t as fatigued and I didn’t have as many little aches and pains. I didn’t do the greatest in December (still drinking way too much coffee), but I want to continue tracking my water and hydration goals throughout the year.

January Goals

Writing Goals

Outline Open Projects

I have a lot of open projects from the last few years. I’ve learned I do better with an outline, so I want to outline the open projects I have and decide if they are worth continuing or if they should be put on hiatus so I can work on other things. From there, I will pick the project I want to work on for the next few months or so (depending on how long it takes to finish).

Update Blog and other Platforms

I’ve had the blog for a while and I’m branching out into other platforms. I want to create a cohesive experience where all my bios are inter-connected and easier to navigate. I want to update some things here on the blog and make the navigation more user friendly. Stay tuned for updates!

Publish consistently on the Blog, Medium and Substack

Publishing online has been a positive experience for me so far, now that I have been able to make a consistent publishing schedule. I want to continue to publish and build a routine and challenge myself to improve.

Submit a Short Story to a magazine

This goal, I’ve been thinking about for a few months now. I want to attempt to publish something through a magazine and when I last looked submissions weren’t open yet. They open this month, so I’m going to do something scary and submit.

Personal Goals

Exercise 4x/week

I want to walk and get outside for at least 30 minutes a day four times a week. It shouldn’t be too difficult if I stick to a schedule and make it happen consistently. Part of the battle is motivating myself to get it done. I’m hoping with a decent audiobook, podcast or album to listen to, I’ll be able to be more consistent.

Drink Enough Water daily (with the help of Waterminder)

Drinking water and staying hydrated has helped me feel so much better in the long run. I want to keep it up and drink more water consistently and improve my body from the inside out. Waterminder, an app I’ve had since 2020, is very helpful in tracking my water, and it’s really nice to see the pretty colors of all the different liquids I drink.

Overall, I’m excited for 2024 and all the new opportunities it will bring!

 

December Results and 2023 Year End Wrap Up

December Results

Finish To Have A Heart

I finished the first draft of the novel in December! I finished a day early too!

Now, it’s time to figure out what my next project is!

Publish more online

I have published a lot online this month. I’m happy with what I’ve accomplished over the last few weeks. I took a week off between Christmas and New Years (to write the rest of my novel), but I am excited to get it going again.

Looking forward to more opportunities in 2024!

Publish something

This year, one of my goals was to publish something. Technically, I do have something published (a poetry book that never took off or ended up on Amazon). It’s been a year of learning and growing, but no true publishing yet.

Next year is my year to publish!

Year End Round Up

Write Every Day of 2023

I managed to write every single day of 2023! 365 days of some kind of writing (and a lot of days it was a lot of words!)

I could not be happier and more proud of myself. I thought 2023 was going to be the year of edits, but it was still the year of writing too. I wrote and edited a lot this year. This is the year I truly felt like a writer who had my life together. I can only hope it continues.

Edit Three Novels

2023 was supposed to be the year of edits, and I gave it a good shot, but didn’t quite get 3 novel edited.

-Book of Poetry (edited in March/April)

-MAC/Book 1 (About 10 chapters left to edit)

Thankfully, I got a taste for editing over the year and now I know how to improve my craft over the next year.

Edit Twelve short stories

  • Congratulations- Written Jan 2015; Edited Jan 2023
  • H-E- Double Hockey Sticks- Written and Edited Jan 2023
  • Samson- Written 2014; Edited Feb 2023
  • Thanks For the Hand- Written and Edited April 2023
  • Mad With The Moon-written Feb 2021; edited June 2023
  • Love Lines- written Jan 2014; edited June 2023
  • The Way Out-Written August 2022; Edited June 2023
  • Room 1134- Written and edited July 2023
  • Honeydew- Written June 2020; Edited August 2023 and September 2023

9/12 short stories edited this year. I made an effort, and made some progress. I have plans in 2024 to take the next step with a few of the stories. Stay tuned for exciting updates in 2024!

Read Twelve Books

  • Sing Me Forgotten by Jessica S. Olsen- finished January 2023
  • All Your Twisted Secrets by Diana Urban- Finished January 2023
  • The Will and The Wild by Charlie N. Holmberg- Finished February 2023
  • A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas- Finished March 2023
  • A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas- Finished March 2023
  • A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Mass- finished March 2023
  • Queen of Ruin by K.F. Breene- finished June 2023
  • Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid -finished June 2023
  • A Writer’s Guide to Persistence by Jordan Rosenfeld- finished July 2023
  • Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery- Finished August 2023
  • Soul of Smoke by Caitlyn McFarland-Finished August 2023
  • Anne of the Island by Lucy Maud Montgomery-finished August 2023
  • Anne of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery-Finished August 2023
  • Shadow of Flame by Caitlyn McFarland- finished August 2023
  • Anne of Windy Poplars by Lucy Maud Montgomery- Finished September 2023
  • Truth of Embers by Caitlyn McFarland- Finished September 2023
  • Writer to Writer: From Think to Ink by Gail Carson Levine- Finished September 2023
  • Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery-Finished October 2023
  • Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones- Finished October 2023

19/12 books. I overshot this goal and I am so glad I did. I’ve read a lot of series this year and finished a few I started in 2022 or earlier. The joy of reading has returned after years. I feel such delight when I read a good plot twist or learn something new from reading. I only hope to produce the same in my readers some day.

Publish Something (Either Traditional or Indie)

When I created this goal, I wanted to publish a book, a novel, but that didn’t quite happen this year. Instead, I decided I would put out a short story on Amazon (self published) but I rushed it, so I ended up pulling it back down.

  • Love Lines- Short Story- Published June 2023 (And deleted October 2023)

While I didn’t publish a novel, and I pulled down the short story, I did start a substack (Music That Shaped Me) and I’ve been more consistent writing on Medium and here on the blog. While it isn’t exactly what I had planned for the publishing goal, it technically is publishing. I’m really proud of the consistency I’ve found in 2023.

Participate in Most (If not all) NYC Midnight Writing Contests.

  • Short Story Challenge
    This one was not that bad. 8 days was not enough time because I procrastinated and had to push to write and edit in the last few days to make sure it was submitted on time.
    RESULTS: 5th place. Moved to round 2.
    Round 2: I had so much fun in round 2, and I fully laughed at myself and was able to have fun despite the silliness surrounding it.
    RESULTS: Did not place in round 2.
  • Screenwriting Challenge
    This one, I skipped. I signed up for it with high hopes, but screenwriting and scripts aren’t really my thing under a deadline.
  • Microfiction (100 words)
    I’ve always really liked this one, and not only because it’s short. 100 words is extremely hard to tell a story in, but that’s what makes it fun. I really enjoyed having to write a suspense/thriller in 100 words or less.
    RESULTS: Placed 1st! 🎉 Moved on to second round.
    RESULTS: Did not place in round 2.
  • Flash Fiction
    This is the NYC Midnight challenge that started it all. I have such a fond enjoyment of this challenge and each and every prompt teaches me something new. This time was a genre I have never actually tried to write, so it was fantastic.
    RESULTS: Did not place in round 1
    RESULTS: Did not place in round 2
  • Microfiction (500 Word)
    This challenge I unfortunately did not take part in because I lost track of my days. There’s always next year (I hope)
  • Microfiction (250 word)
    Passed on this one. It was right after November and I was so excited about my novel still and didn’t want to break the excitement. I wanted to finish the novel and not start something new. I also forgot to sign up for it until it had passed, so oops!

    Finished Projects

  • Little Earthquakes- a novel based off of a Tori Amos album of the same name
  • Short Stories
    -Rocketman
    -Luka
  • Through the Walls- A short story and Poetry Collection (schoolwork)
  • Honeydew- A short play (Schoolwork)
  • Various Fanfictions of popular book and TV series.
    1. The Names That Bind- ACOTAR
    2. You Don’t Need to Love Me- ACOTAR
    3. Hidge Week 2018- Voltron Legendary Defender
    4. Shave and a Haircut and Two Bits of Advice- Anne of Green Gables
    5. Carried Away By Love- Miraculous Ladybug
    6. Futures- A Captain Planet Fanfiction
  • To Have a Heart- A 2023 NaNoWriMo Novel

Yearly Word Count: 483,720

2023 has been one of my best years yet. A lot of amazing things have happened, both writing and non-writing related and I am so happy with where I’m ending this year and starting the next.

Happy New Year!

See you in 2024! 

 

 

 

September Results and October Goals

September has come and gone in a blur of writing and not writing as much as I should have, work, personal accomplishments and everything else in between. If it was mildly important, it happened in September it seemed!

Despite the craziness, I did manage to accomplish a few goals.

September Results

Writing

Edits on Book 1

This month, edits went quite well. I made it all the way through my edits by hand, and slowly but surely I’m making it through the book chapter by chapter. With a month to go, I will definitely have to do another round of edits, I already know that, but I’m planning to still push forward and finish this round.

Publish Something

As much as I wanted to publish something, there’s still a lot of research to do. I had planned to publish a short story to Amazon, but I realized I would most likely have a better chance if I publish a few short stories at a time over multiple platforms. Plans have changed, but I still have the goal. Hopefully soon something will come from it.

Finish Chapters and Sections of Open Works

August was much better than September. September was busy with a lot of life changes and big plans, so finishing as many works as I did in August was impossible. I did finish a lot of parts of projects, mostly chapters of edits, but I still did pretty well.

Personal

Exercise

This month, I did get a few more days of exercise than usual, but there’s still a lot of improvement I want to make. I should be walking more, especially since it helps with stress, so I can only hope to be better in October.

Journal

Journaling was difficult for some reason this month. I had a hard time sitting down and figuring out what to write most days, since there was either so much or so little going on. I hope October will be a better month for journaling, even if I have to do a few days digitally.

Hydrate

This month, I was more aware of the need to drink water, but it wasn’t as easy as I thought. A lot of the days, I forgot to drink water, but drank coffee and tea and everything in between. I’m not sure what I can do to drink more water, but I am doing my best with reminders and at least bringing a water bottle with me when I go places. One of the snags I hit was somehow one of my water bottles needed to be washed and the disgusting taste associated with it turned me off of using it completely. I should really make sure my water bottle is clean and the water is cold, then I should be able to drink more.

Other

September was busy!

First, I officially graduated with my Bachelors in Creative Writing and English. I am not entirely sure what I want to do with it yet, or if I’ll even branch out at all. I have a day job I enjoy a lot, but perhaps some work on the side or something. I’m hoping to begin the master’s program next, but we shall see.

I did a small vows ceremony with my now husband and attended another wedding at the end of the month that is the start of a long (much needed) vacation. A vacation is the best way to start the busy time of the year that will be October and November. I have a lot of goals and I’m excited to take a small break before I push forward again.

Word Count: 18,841

October Goals

Writing

Finish Edits on Book 1

I have somewhere around 12-13 chapters to go based on the outline, but I know that is not correct. I actually don’t know how many chapters I have left or what I will end up with at the end of the month, but I am going to push forward. These will in no way be the final edits, but I want to get through them and have a clean slate when I start a new project in November.

Finish as many chapters/ sections as possible

In November, I plan on working on a totally new novel (that still needs a name) and having that be my only project. To do that, I am going to finish as many chapters as I can in as many works and hopefully pick them up again in December/January. I am excited to see what plot points I leave off on and I hope I’ll be more excited to pick them back up again after a little time away.

Preptober for NaNoWriMo

Starting a new project next month means prep time is needed. I’ve been playing with this idea for a few months now, writing down any and all ideas when the decide to appear. I have a loose idea of what I want to accomplish, but I want to make a solid outline and develop a few if not all the characters. I do like to leave a little room for surprises, but I am excited to prepare for something new.

Inktober

I am not an artist, but I do enjoy trying something different every once in a while. In the past, Inktober has been hit or miss and this year is no different. With everything else going on, I’m looking forward to having a little stress relief and doodling time, even if it’s not every day. Every little bit counts.

Personal

Exercise

I want to exercise more this month, even though the weather will be changing with the seasons. I want to try and walk more over these next few weeks and use it to help generate ideas, if not a good few breaks away from the craziness of my goals.

Journal

This month, I will be playing with typing up my morning pages. I will be traveling a bit this month and a little out of my routine, but that doesn’t mean I have to drop it entirely. I might not get every day, but I’m going to do my best not to miss two days in a row.

Hydrate

I need to drink more water. I am chronically dehydrated, or so I feel certain days, but I admit I can be a water snob. It needs to be cold, but not too cold, icy, but can’t have a taste to it. I’m trying to drink more water and keep my preferred water bottles clean. I’ve switched back to a bigger bottle for the meantime, so hopefully that will help me reach more hydration goals.

 

January Results and February Goals

January is now gone (and has been for a few days), and February is in full swing! I made a few writing goals last month, and there are always more goals to come! Here’s how I did in January:

January Results

Write at least 500 words a day:

As hard as I tried to write 500 words a day, it just simply didn’t happen. There were several days where 500 words was just too difficult with work and training. I got the second dose of the COVID vaccine and it knocked me out for at least a week. There were also other days where I got over 1000 without any issue. I did write quite a lot this month, but there were several days where I had zero days on more projects than days I did write. In the upcoming months, I would like to work on finding a balance that works best for me.

Start Edits on another book:

Official edits weren’t started, but notes and outlines and organization happened, so I am officially counting that as a win. I’m ready to get down to editing now that I know what I need to fix and where I need to go.

Round one of the NYC Midnight Short Story Contest:

Despite getting a genre for round one that I was apprehensive about and honestly quite scared to write during these volatile times (political satire), I wrote my short story and submitted it, even though I knew it wasn’t perfect. I’m definitely counting that as a win and growth on my part.

Word Count: 19,076

February Goals

Finish the NaNoWrimo Novel from 2020

I had planned to finish the NaNo novel by the end of January, but it is unfortunately going to be extended into February. There’s still a little novel left to write, but I’m getting quite a bit closer to the end.

Start Official Edits on BOOK A

BOOK A is now outlined and notated and ready to go through another round of edits. I’m hoping to get the final edits done by April of this year so I can start querying.

Continue to Work on open Projects

I still have several open projects open either from last year or a few years ago. I’m hoping to finish at least one of them, if not multiple by the time February is over. February is the shortest month of the year, but I’m hoping I can still be productive and make big changes over the next few weeks.

Wish me luck!

What are some of your goals in the upcoming months?

2019 Stats and 2020 Goals

Here we are again at the start of a new year and a new decade. It seems like just yesterday that it was 2019 (yes, I did make that joke). Here’s some of the cool stuff I did and created in 2019 and the statistics to go along with it, because I enjoy numbers.

In 2019 (And November and December of 2018), I wrote a grand total of 412,699 words through multiple projects. A measly 1,616 were written in December of 2019. That averages about 29K a month, which isn’t bad at all.

In 2019, I finished five projects. Deeper Than Time (book 8 of the series), The Weight of Your Lips (Fanfiction), The Kiss (the series prequel), and Inktober.

In 2019, I had a lot of great experiences, like a writing conference, revamping my blog and creating my own social media platforms.

It was an amazing year for writing, but 2020 will be better.

Here’s what I hope to accomplish in 2020:

  • Write an average of 30K per month.
  • Finish Under Grey Skies (book 9)
  • Begin editing the completed books in the series and begin querying for Girl Disappearing (book 1)
  • Publish something in 2020.

What I Learned Doing a 30 Day Challenge on Instagram

The internet is full of people and ideas and social media platforms. There are hundreds and hundreds of posting challenges happening at any time.

In September, I participated in Instawrimo. Instawrimo is a thirty day posting challenge on Instagram for getting prepared for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

Here’s what I learned over the last 30 days.

1. Be Prepared

This may seem obvious, but if I hadn’t been prepared with some ideas before the challenge started, there would be some days that didn’t get done. For most days, I had at least a general plan, but sometimes it ended up not working out.

There were some days that I had no plan at all and got to fly by the seat of my pants to post anything.

Some days, the plan changed entirely, but it all worked out. I was able to post all 30 days on time.

2. Formatting is Huge

Because the challenge is on Instagram, and they are mainly photo based, the size of the photos played a huge part in what I could post and what I couldn’t. Thanks to Google, I have every single photo I have ever taken or downloaded since about 2014. Some of them, transfering over several devices, or due to the sheer download size, wouldn’t fit in the instagram design effectively. I had to use several back ups when the picture was too big, or it didn’t post correctly.

3. Flexibility Can Save the Day

The prompt list was very open, with several days of the prompts being interpreted different by different users. There were days that I looked at the prompts and had a brief panic and had to think outside the box. I will admit, there are several days that I waited until later in the afternoon and looked up what others had done first.

4. A Healthy Dose of Fear Helps

Before I started this challenge, I probably posted original content on my instagram like once in a blue moon. The last post before the 30 day challenge was from February of 2018. I was terrified nearly every day before I posted, some days more than others, but I did it anyway. It was a huge confidence boost to just post and then to have people respond was even better.

5. Continuous Posting (the right way) Helps You Get Seen.

I have to say, what I most enjoyed about this challenge is that it was only once a day for 30 days. It was an easy 10 to 20 minutes a day for one post, but by the end of the month, I had 30 new posts and a lot more content than I had before. It helped me get more followers, helped me make new connections and even better, there was no spamming involved.

The Bottom Line:

Participating in a 30 day challenge was fun and informative and I’m looking forward to continuing to post and continue to build my social media presence.

If you’re interested in what I posted for the prompts, you can find the first one here.

More Blog Posts Coming Soon!

I have been so busy with work and writing that I have let the blog fall to the wayside and I apologize. 

June is going to be hectic, as I am trying to edit one novel, and type up my handwritten draft of another before June 30th. 

Hectic? Yes!

Blog-worthy? Maybe…

Stay tuned! 

The first ten pages of the novel edited
The sections and chapters to be edited

Writer Life Lesson #22: Every Piece You Write is Important… Even Fanfiction

What are you writing right now? Is it a novel, an essay, a smut filled fanfiction, literally anything else where you put words on paper?

First: Good for you! You’re writing. 

Second: Don’t stop writing and don’t ever throw it away. It’s important to your writing craft. 

Every Piece You Write is Important. 

Think about your whole writing career for a second. Whether you started writing yesterday or two decades ago, you have a writing career. Now think about all the stories you have worked on, finished or not. 

Whether they were published, or thrown into a drawer never to see the light of day again, they are important to how you see yourself and how you build yourself as a writer. 

Even those fanfiction stories you wrote in middle school and high school. 

Just by writing, whether it’s a short story for school or a long novel series, or even something small like one great sentence, you are improving your writing career and getting one word closer to finishing that story, or chapter, or book, or even series. 

By trying things in stories, even if that story will never be published, or be seen by readers, you are improving and gaining knowledge of how to make things better the next time you decided to use that idea. 

That is why I love fanfiction. Both writing and reading it. It gives me a chance to try things in a novel I hope to eventually publish and see how people react to it without actually using it in my novel yet. 

An example would be the parallels between my novel and a fanfiction story I was writing last year. 

In my novel series, a character suffers from amnesia (cliché ? Yes, but trying to make it less so). In the fanfiction, a character wakes up after an OD with amnesia, and I got to play around with how to both write and format flashbacks between the characters without it being too clunky or boring. 

Every piece is important to our growth as writers. 

Stuck on how to write something? Why not try fanfiction and see what happens!

Good luck in all your writing endeavors! 

Tuesday How To: Female Characters

Over the past three weeks of How To Tuesdays concerning characters we have talked about how to find characters, how to name them, and how to develop characters. This week, is not necessarily a new How To, it is an addition to the rest of the information we have talked about.

This week, we are going to talk about female characters and how to write great female characters. For  a lot of people, this lesson will come as news, just because it’s one of those things that some writers do not realize until it is pointed out for you, and for others some of it might be obvious, but some of it might not be so obvious.

So without further ado: Writing Female Characters

Write Them as People

For as long as people have been writing characters, they have been writing women. The difference is the idea that women are people. Some writers write their female characters as stepping stones for their male characters or plot devices to move other characters forward. This is not the way to write female characters. They deserve to be people in your work and not just a plot device for your male characters. An example of what not to do is called the Sexy Lamp Test.

The Sexy Lamp Test is easy. If you can replace your female character with a lamp and the plot stays exactly the same with no changes, then you really should rewrite your female characters.

Another common theme is to write female characters as a plot advancement for your main character. The most common way that I have seen is to kill the female character, usually a mother or a lover that motivates the main male character to go after the villain or learn a new skill, etc.  This needs to stop in popular media, but it needs to be noticed by writers, readers and viewers first.

If you write your female characters as people, your work will shine, and you will avoid the usual cliches of female characters as cardboard cutouts.

Give Them Their Own Goals and Motivation

Just like any other character, your female characters need goals and motivation too. This will help a lot with making them feel like real people. Everyone has goals and motivation, whether it is something huge like to be a scientist, or a master shopper, or a small goal like wanting to wake up on time the next morning to not be late for work.

When you don’t give characters goals, whatever their gender, you create them as cardboard cutouts just revolving around a plot. However, there is an extra element to female characters if you leave out their goals and motivations. They become cardboard cutouts with sex appeal, and this is not necessarily what you want for your female characters.

Another issue about goals and motivations. Please don’t make your female characters only goal to get laid or be laid by the main character. Yes, it is a goal, but they should have more goals than to just be a sex object for the main character.

Give your characters goals and motivations and let them exist in your story not just for your main characters, but next to them.

Make Them Show Emotion and Change Throughout the Story

There is nothing worse than a character that does not react or change during the plot and action of a story. Whether they are male or female or anything in between, if they don’t change and react, then they might as well be a cardboard cutout or a lamp. This is especially important for female characters, because so often they are just there as plot devices and motivation for other characters.

Let your female characters react as people, let them show ugly emotions like anger and hate and let them react as real people would. Don’t keep them shiny and pretty, let them get dirty and downright ugly. Let them react and show them as you would a male character. Make them cry, or scream, or yell and be more than just sex appeal.

Make them change throughout their story, but make them change for the right reasons. If the only reason your character changes is because they get into a romantic relationship, then you need to examine your plot and try something new. This plot device is so overused, and so not the message we want to send to our young people. This is a common theme in teen romances that it needs to be corrected somehow. It starts with us, the next generation of writers and authors and creators.

Let your characters, whether male, female, or anything in between, be human and your writing will be the best it has ever been.

Happy Writing!

Writer Life Lessons #19: Learn Everything You Can

Some of you may be looking at this title and thinking “Learning? But I’m a writer and I already know what I want to write about”. I understand where you are coming from, and I know how daunting it sounds to learn new things, but there is a reason for it.

Learn Everything You Can because you never know when it will come in handy for your next draft, or even in your own life. If nothing else, it’s interesting factoids at parties. Entertain yourself and your friends!

When you have a voracious appetite for learning, it makes writing easier. Not only do the ideas flow better, because you know more base information to come up with ideas, but you more easily can identify plot holes and glaringly obvious mistakes that might have made your reader put your book down and never pick it up again.

I’m not saying that you should go to college, or back to college, just because you want to write about astrophysics. I am saying learn what interests you. With the addition of the internet and smart phones, tons and tons of knowledge is at the tip of our fingers. If I wanted to learn Mandarin Chinese tomorrow, all I would have to do is type it into my nearest search bar and find the link that interests me most.

The learning doesn’t always have to be online either. There are books and podcasts and shows on television, groups in your area. If you can think of a way to learn, it is probably out there in your community. Anything and Everything is out there if you know where to look.

I take this lesson very personally, because as of now, I have been in school for most of my life and am just starting to break out into the workforce. I have learned a lot in all the schools that I have been in and all of the classes and units that I have taken. Even now, after I have graduated, I still am learning new things everyday. I want to know as much as possible, so my characters, my scenes, my writing can be as amazing as real life, and so I can help as many people as possible in my life.

Recently, I learned the basic information about computers and laptops, and brought my old laptop back to life with a few parts from my lovely boyfriend, and the assistance of my dad. It’s running great now, and it is what I am using to write this post right now. Sure, I could have just bought a new laptop, when I get a job, but I get the satisfaction of knowing that I fixed it and that I have a new experience and new knowledge to fall back on.

So go out and learn something new, and be proud of that knowledge!

And as always:

Happy Writing!

Writer Life Lessons #18: Finish Your First Drafts

Progress is measured in several different ways. If you are an athlete, progress is measured by how well you perform at your sport or sports. If you are an artist, progress is measured by your art portfolio. If you are a writer, progress is measured by words written on the page, and the amount of pieces you finish.

Can you call yourself a writer before you finish a piece? Of course. If you are putting words on the page, or the screen, or whatever you write on, you are indeed a writer. Can you call yourself an accomplished writer? Sure! But do you have anything to show for it?

When I first started writing, by hand, in pencil, in spiral-bound notebooks, I used to read unfinished pieces to my best friend. Yes, I was a writer,  and yes, I wanted to feel accomplished. Some of those drafts I finished, but a lot of them I just left him hanging, waiting on the next cliffhanger, for the next chapter or sometimes even word.

The lesson for this week is: Finish Your First Drafts.

There are tons of quotes out there about finishing what you start, how blank pages are ugly and how you can’t edit a blank page. All you have to do is google the words “writing advice” or “writing quotes” and you’ll get a ton of advice on how to write, how to finish your drafts, and even how to edit them.

Yes, this advice (Well most of it) is true. To move on, to mark your progress and to grow as a writer, you need to finish your first drafts, or at least move on to a new project if you get stuck. There is nothing worse than looking at an unfinished piece years later and thinking “Now where was I going with this?”.

Yes, you can leave your pieces and come back, but eventually you should try and finish them. This is an area where I need to take my own advice, I have about three times the amount of works in progress than I do works finished. The point is: I do intend to go back to them once I finish current projects, or if I don’t continue them I at least plan to rewrite.

Finish your first drafts, even if they suck, because there is always room for improvement. There are some pieces that I look at, from several years ago, and when I reach the point where I stopped writing for whatever reason, I wish there was more there. Often times I think “I wish I could remember where I was going with this”.

You can take a break from pieces, but at least write a little outline so you know where you left off, or even a little note in the margins that explains what happens next. You will thank yourself when you come back to it later.

Finish your first drafts so you can edit them and make them shine later.

Happy Writing!

The Fear of Editing

Writers write. Or so you would think. Do artists art, or musicians music? Well, yes, in a way, but there is more to being a writer, artist, and musician than just a word that describes what we do. Being a writer is more than just putting words on a page, it’s also reading and editing and rewriting. Being a writer is way more than just writing.

I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I didn’t realize that for a long time during my first decade of writing. I think part of it is the media that surrounds writers. When an author comes out with a new book, we, as consumers don’t see that struggle, we don’t see the sleepless nights, and the thousand or so cups of coffee that went into fueling that masterpiece. We just see the finished product, all shiny and new with a stunning cover and a title that makes us want to read it as soon as we touch it. I think media has a lot to do with the notion that writers just write. Think of any movie that has a writer as a main character, does it show the editing process, the struggle to rewrite? Chances are, it doesn’t.

This is a huge reason why editing, and rewriting and whatever else editing entails, can be frightening. All the doubts that maybe we didn’t encounter when we wrote the first draft, can jump out at us. The improper word choices or clunky phrasing can jump out like monsters from the closet. Even the names of characters and places can make us scream like frightened children, afraid of the dark. The fear that the first draft is the best draft you can get could quite possibly eat you alive!

There is no one way to edit. It could be all your piece needs is a line edit here or there, or whole sections could need to be rewritten or scrapped. Maybe it’s everything under the sun needs to be changed, and the whole piece needs to be written from scratch. There is no “catch-all” formula for editing. It all really depends on you, and your writing, and what it means to you.

When I first started even thinking about my first novel Spark before I even augmented the title, or even realized it was meant to be a series, I wrote an outline of what I wanted including characters, places, and a bit of plot. I had planned to write the whole thing, first book, from one characters perspective, but at the last minute changed it to third person. I followed the original outline pretty closely, but found that the last chapter would be too many pages and that I still had so much to say. I ended up splitting the last chapter into four more chapters, which worked at the time. I thought I was done when I wrote those last words. Done, copy, print, send it out to an editor.

Then the book then became a series, first of three books, then of seven books, and then finally nine (or so I hope). I read through the first book again, after it was so graciously printed for me, and there were some sections that I cringed at for what felt like days. It was pretty bad for a huge chunk being written in 30 days, then left alone for nearly four months and then finished pretty quickly in the three months following. It was terrible, but I didn’t know how to edit it, what to add, what to take out, where to move things. It was a disaster.

So how do we, as writers and editors, get over our fear of editing?

The simple answer is: We dive right in.

Let it Sit For A While- Like a fine wine, let it age for a few months. Distance yourself from your piece, as strange as that may sound. Work on something else for a while, so when you return to it, you can view it as a reader instead of the author. The recommended time really depends on what the purpose is, if there is a deadline, and how long the piece is. If you spend 15 years writing an epic, you’re not going to let it sit for a month and dive right back in. Give it enough time to become interesting again so you don’t remember every plot point, character dialogue and plot twist. When you are ready, usually when you forget what it was based on the title, or forget exactly what the characters names were and why you chose them, move to the next step.

Make A Backup Copy- This step is SUPER IMPORTANT! You may think that you don’t need to make a backup copy, but let me assure you, yes you do! It may be cringe worthy, and you may never want to look at it again, but you should still keep a copy. Why? The simple answer is this: That was the original, the first draft where you just put your ideas down unedited, unfiltered. If you decide to go back, that you’ve edited too much, that you want to keep something from that first draft, you have that copy to fall back on. Finishing something is a milestone, and you should keep a copy of it, even if the first draft sucks.

Read Your Work- This step should be a no brainer. You have to read it to know how you want to fix it. And why would you not want to read the finished piece in its entirety? Especially after you’ve let it sit and age. You could surprise yourself with the ideas, or the words you added. You have a right to be proud of it, and enjoy it just as a reader would. Read it several times, make notes in the margins, read like an editor would, finding words or phrases or scenes that don’t work. After reading it through, anything can happen. The choice is yours.

There are some people out there who think that writers shouldn’t self edit their own work. I can understand why, we’re too close to our own projects, we don’t know the business as well as professional editors, we don’t know grammar and the rules as well as we should… the list is endless, but that doesn’t mean we can’t give our work a once over and make it tighter.

As writers we should learn the tools of our craft, and put our best work forward, instead of focusing only on the work of others. Sure, you could pay to have a professional editor go through your draft, but they can be pretty pricey, depending on your number of words, and it could be weeks and weeks of waiting. Why not learn a new skill yourself, and get that satisfaction of editing, and not have to wait on someone else?

Another tip: It doesn’t hurt to really be in love with your work, whatever it may be. It’s ok to put it away for a while, but make sure you want to come back to it.

That first book I was telling you about, I’m still editing it and learning as I go. Right about now, I’m about to start draft 4, which means more rewrites, but it’s getting closer to that first image of brilliance I had almost 5 years ago (And even better with editing!)

The first draft and part of the second. Still in edits, even after 4 years.

What has been your experience with editing and the fears that sometimes follow?

Publishing in the Modern World

When we write, when we put words down on the page, we often want to be heard, we want our words to mean something. Sometimes that means just putting words on the page, and sometimes that means something huge, like publishing. Publishing is one of the best opportunities for writers, and it is a huge step, no matter what path we,as writers, choose for ourselves.

There are many options and so many choices to make when we decide to enter the publishing world. There is everything from publishing on a blog for just a few followers to sending your work to one of the big publishing companies for millions upon millions to read (if you’re lucky). In between, there are more options and so much to decide in a short amount of time. There is a lot you should know about publishing, and so much you should research for yourself. Publishing has changed so much since books began to become mass published and there are so many terms and conditions that may be confusing to first time researchers.

These are only for short story markets so far, but some do cross over to novels and non-fiction.

Simultaneous Submissions- This refers to how many submissions you send into separate publishing companies. Say you have a story called “Bob’s Lunchbox” and you think it’s the most amazing story ever so you send it to Company A, Company B and Company C. That would be a simultaneous submission and most publishing companies frown on that. They usually prefer that you wait to hear from them before you send your masterpiece somewhere else.

Multiple Submissions- This refers to how many submissions you send to that same company. This means if you have more than one great masterpiece, “Bob’s Lunchbox”, “Purple Robe”, and “Rest for Bob”, you send them all to the same company, Company A. Most publishing companies don’t like that either. They prefer you send one story at a time so they can process that one, decide what they want to do with it, and then get back to you before you submit your next piece.

Previously Published- As writers, we should know what “previously published” means, but with the internet and so many types of art becoming readily available, that definition becomes a little fuzzy. Most literary magazines, publishing companies, and online publishers define previously published as “Anything that has been distributed for audiences on websites, print, or digital”. This means on social media, writing websites, and yes, your blog. But don’t fret when you print it on your home computer, in print refers to anything with a barcode. Say, the createspace option for winners of NaNoWriMo. It may be amazing to have your book in print, but if you want to publish it, and publish it seriously for mass audiences, skip the offer.

These are just some general terms that are on most submission guidelines pages. There are probably a lot more options out there and a lot more terms to research, but these are just the tip of the iceberg. You should do your own research for your own publishing ventures and carefully decide what path you want to pursue. I am not an expert, I am a researcher, just like you, and a writer that wants to inform and protect my fellow writers.

Best of luck if you decide to publish, and best of luck in your writing!

Publishing can be scary, but you will learn a lot just by researching

Do you have plans for publishing? Where are you going to start?

Facing Our Fears

Sometimes, we don’t know what to call ourselves. Are we writers, novelists, authors, all of the above? When people ask us we often just shrug and say “I write stuff I guess…” or just kind of “I’m a writer but not published or anything” Does it matter what we call ourselves or what we say, as long as we write?

I used to struggle with calling myself a writer. I thought that no one would care, no one would appreciate it unless I had something to show for it. I used to write in secret, and I used to let only one person, or a few read my works (and those were first drafts!). I still don’t completely share all of my works yet, but maybe someday I will.

I started to call myself a writer pretty recently, when more people started calling me a writer. As I got older, I got more comfortable calling myself a writer, telling people what I do, what I want to do, what I feel I must do to enjoy this one life I have. So now, when people ask, first I say I’m a soon-to-be nurse (since I’m technically waiting to take the test that will make me a real practicing nurse), and then I say I’m a writer. Depending on who asks, it’s usually switched. I have been a writer way longer than I have ever even wanted to be a nurse.

An author, in my mind, is someone who makes money from their writing. I am not yet an author, but I want to be. Someday, you will all see my name on bookshelves everywhere. I just have to face the fear and dive into the publishing pool head first. And it is scary. The waiting and the rejection and the possibility of having my words out there is three parts exciting and one part pure and complete terror. So I cannot yet call myself an author, but I will someday.

I made the first step toward calling myself an author today. It’s a baby step, but I researched short story publishing today. There are a lot of choices, and so many more steps, but it was a start. It’s terrifying, but I am so glad I did it. It might be a while, but it is going to happen, and I am going to keep writing until it does happen.

Our fears may be frightening, looming before us like huge gates, holding us back from what we can achieve, but amazing things can happen when we face them. Courage, not fear, is the way we make our dreams come true.

This quote is so inspiring. Learning to live with my fear was one of the best things I ever did

What is your biggest writing fear? How do you plan to face it?