2018 Writing and Reading Goals

2018 means a brand new year with brand new goals!

Reading wise, I’m going to stick to the same goal as always. 45 books. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but I’ve only achieved that once, so I hope this year makes it a streak! If any of you have books to recommend, I’d love to hear it!

Writing wise:

Finish this rewrite of Commissioned. I’ve had several requests, but they always seem to get stuck on page 50. I had an awesome beta reader help me tear it apart, and I’m slowly building back. I think it’ll make the novel much stronger, but it’s a lot of work. I don’t have a set date for this, which is unusual, but the first few months of 2018 might throw me for some unexpected spins. We’ll see.

I’d also like to revise Jackie and the Giants. I had some betas go through it and give some feedback. I’ve finally gone in and fixed the (put science stuff here) sections, and so now it’s time to work on wording and pacing.

I’d like to continue querying Commissioned once it’s polished up again. And possibly get Jackie ready for querying as well.

For NaNoWriMo, I want to write a new book. Which means I have to come up with the idea. I’m not too worried yet, but it’s only January. Ask me again in September.

Also, this year, my awesome group, Rexy Writers, is starting the 500 club, where we write, edit, revise or read 500 words a day. It was suggested by one of my co-coordinators, and I'm already in love with the idea! If any of you want to join us, we would love to have you!

How about the rest of you? What are your goals for this coming year? Need help sticking to them? I’d love a goal buddy or two!

2017 Year End Review

Hello everyone!

Wow. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I think 2017 got away from me near the end of the year. And, to be honest, I’m not expecting 2018 to be much better.

Next year, I’m going to have to focus on realistic goals, and that means cutting back on my blog. Not completely, but enough to give me some breathing space.

Since it’s the end of the year, I want to do a year-end report, and talk about how I did on my goals for 2017.

I finally reached my reading goal! I guess third year’s the charm. I ended up reading 47 books in 2017, and that’s not counting the unpublished ones. I’ll write a post on my favorite books from 2017 soon, I promise, but I’ve got to say, there’s so many good books out there! And if any of you have recommendations for this year, I’d love to hear it!

My writing goals were a little more specific. I ended up rewriting Commissioned in the beginning of the year, and then worked on revising book 2. I also queried Commissioned and I’ve been getting some requests, which has been quite exciting. I also smashed my NaNoWriMo goal for this year, which was to write more words than I did last year. There’s some changes coming into my life, and I had a feeling that 2017 might be the last year I’d be able to get that many words written. I ended up taking a vacation the first two weeks of November and my grand total was 271,568 words in 30 days, which ended up spanning 4 books.

So I’ve got to say, it’s been a good year. A hectic year, but definitely good. And I honestly can’t wait to see how I do next year!

How about the rest of you? How did your goals for 2017 go? Any exciting news?

2017 Goals

 It’s a new year, which means that everyone is focusing on their goals for 2017. For me, I try and look at different aspects of my life, and make a goal for each one.

With writing, last year, I wrote out specific goals, setting deadlines for each, and I’ve got to admit that it really helped me stay on track. This year, I’ve done the same, giving myself deadlines and dates to finish different edits/rewrites and outlines. I’m super excited for this year!

Last year, I fell short of my reading goal. I read 33 published novels, and 3 unpublished. But that’s okay, because I have another year to try again! This year, I’m hoping to reach my goal of 45 novels.

Besides a few personal goals, my other big one is to learn how to play the organ at least decently. It’s something I’ve thought about doing for a while, and I decided that this year is my year.

So how about the rest of you? Any exciting goals for 2017?

2016 Goal Report

At the beginning of every year, I make goals for myself, and I try and share them here so that someone keeps me honest. This year, however, I found a writing partner, and I shared my goals with her. She was the one who kept me going, and I found that I was very successful… mostly.

This year, instead of general goals, I planned out each month. I had long-term goals, and I had monthly short-term goals to keep me on track.

Long term goals: Write more, focus on publishing.

I feel like I’ve hit each one of those. It’s hard to really quantify, but at the beginning of the year, I had a first draft of Commissioned, and a first draft of Hooked. Commissioned went through three very vigorous revisions, went through multiple beta readers, and is now being queried. Hooked has more of a direction, though now that I’ve written book 3 and 4, there will be some obvious changes that I’ll need to address, but that should be easy enough.

Write more. I had the idea of getting Commissioned ready for querying, and hopefully finishing the trilogy. As I expanded, the series turned into four books, and I had an idea for another book as well, a light, science-fiction version of Jack and the Beanstalk. So instead of writing one brand new book in 2016, I ended up writing three.

My other goal was to read 45 books this year. Unfortunately, I did not reach that goal, but if I could count the different novels that I beta read for, I would be pretty darn close. About four books off, and the month isn’t quite over.

How about the rest of you? Did you reach your goals?

NaNoWriMo Report

As many of you know, I participated in NaNoWriMo this year. Last year was kind of a breakthrough for me, because I’d planned my novel. I’d obsessively planned my novel, and by the time that November hit, my writing bible was huge. I’d written three different outlines, expanding them each time, and I knew exactly what was going to happen.

I sat down, and I ended up writing two books, and 177,000 words.

This year, I figured I could do the same thing. In fact, I decided I could do better. I wanted to finish the Commissioned Series, and I had another idea that’s been bouncing around in my head for the past few months. So my goal for November was to write 200,000 words, and three different books. Simple right? On top of that, I’m the ML for the region, so I plan and prepare write ins, encourage them all to keep writing, listen to them when they’re discouraged, and I also created daily writing prompts to get their creative juices flowing.

The one thing I didn’t plan on was my work schedule. I’ve worked night shift almost consistently for the past five years, so when I got my schedule for November, I was a little nervous. I was working nights the first week of November, and then I’d switch to day shift, which would be a personal challenge for me.

But I’m one of those people who has to reach their goals, even if it kills me. My co-ML and I made a goal to reach the first 50,000 in the first five days, and that was simple. Then I had my schedule change, and everything kind of went flip-flop. I don’t know how to be awake during the day. I would get home so exhausted I couldn’t write anything. So I started waking up an hour earlier to try and at least get a thousand words written before going off to my 13-14 hour day.

It was a long month, and I know I pushed myself way too hard, but I’m proud to say I reached all of my goals. 205,000 words, which was a little over my original goal, and all three books are now written. That’s not to say that I don’t have a ton of editing to do, but that’s what the rest of the year is for.

I love November and I love NaNoWriMo because it lets me push myself harder than I do the rest of the year. It isn’t that I don’t write, it’s that I make sure that I write more.

Here’s my final graph for November! How'd the rest of you do?

It's Gonna Be Okay

As many of you know, this November is NaNoWriMo. I'm lucky enough to be the ML of my region, and part of that responsibility is sending out peptalks. They're messages of encouragement, and to keep my region excited to write. Since I'm a little busy this month, I decided to post my peptalks here as well, for anyone else who's doing NaNoWriMo.

As November comes to a close, there’s so much we may regret. All that wasted time, when we should have been writing our novel, but instead, we got busy. Or maybe we got distracted. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we don’t meet our goal.

And you know what? It’s okay.

Look at your word count. Go ahead. Even if you’re nowhere near 50,000.

See that number? That’s how many words you’ve written in November. And the month isn’t even over yet! You can totally add to the word count until midnight ushers in December.

Don’t get discouraged if you’re behind. You’re a writer! You’ve moved your story ahead, whether you wrote 5,000 words or 50,000. You are so awesome, and Mindie and I are so lucky to be your MLs.

Take a deep breath, open that document, and remember:

It’s gonna be okay.

For Love or Money

During our Writers Conference, I was very excited to be behind the scenes. I got to see how things worked, but even more than that, I got to interact with the presenters on a much more personal basis. I'm not super outgoing, and I didn't want to annoy them when they wanted to relax, but as luck would have it, I happened to be in the Presenters Room at the same time as J Scott Savage and his wife. We were the only ones in the room, and I gathered up my courage to ask him about his writing.

After we talked for a little bit, I asked him to describe his typical day, since I just envisioned him sitting at a desk writing for hours and hours on end. His response surprised me. He told me that he still works full time on top of all of his writing. He even stepped outside during the conference to get some work done during a break. He told me that he had tried to work full time as a writer, but even as a best-selling novelist, he couldn't afford it.

What an eye opener. The more I tell people I write, the more comments I get about how it'll be nice once the money starts rolling in. Or how I can live off of the money I will earn. Speaking to actual published writers, and hearing their stories, I realize that that probably won't be the case for me. No matter how much I write, there's so much uncertainty. There's no guarantee that I will break out as a new author and gain the fame that everyone assumes happens to a writer.

That might be something that concerned me, if I was doing it for the money. For me, writing is a calling, and it's something I love doing. So even if I don't make millions, or become a best selling novelist, just writing and interacting with other writers is a dream come true.

September Plans

Does anyone know where August went? I’m not even sure if we had the full 31 days. It’s been a whirlwind, and unfortunately, it feels like writing has taken a backseat while I try and get my life back on track.

But this month, I’m going to focus on my writing. Now that the vacations and fun time are over, it’s time to buckle down.

I’ve learned over the past year that the best way to get things done is to set goals, and let other people know those goals so they can keep track of me. My writing partners are fantastic at keeping me responsible, but also being forgiving when things get in the way. But I’m also going to post it here so I can remember my goals.

1.       Finish this revision of Hooked. I got about 2/3 of it done during July, and then I’ve only got a few scenes done in August. September is the month to start!

2.       Start outlining for book 3. This year’s NaNoWriMo, I’m planning on writing book 3 of this series. We’ll see if this is the end or not. I need to develop some characters, as well as finalize the sequence of events.

3.       Start preparing for new book. Last year, during NaNoWriMo, I was so excited to write that I blasted through book 1 in 14 days. Fortunately, I had a good idea of what would happen in book 2, so I ended up just writing that book in the remaining 16 days of November. I want to make sure that I have a backup, in case I get through book 3 faster than expected. Also, I’ve been wanting to write this story for a few months now, so this seems like the best time to do it!

Nothing too extreme, but definitely something to work toward! What are your goals for September?

Having a Plan

Because I have a Bachelor’s degree in nursing, I’ve been in various management positions over the years. I’ve learned about the importance of having a business plan, of having short and long term goals, and keeping yourself responsible if you don’t make those goals.

Last year, I made the decision to treat my writing like a job. I wasn’t going to treat it like a hobby anymore, writing when I wanted to, or if I wanted to. I was going to have a plan, with long term and short term goals. That was in October.

My long term goals:

Focus on publishing.

Write more.

Then I created short term goals to accomplish those. In fact, I made a schedule for myself, one that I was going to stick to. In the month of October, I was going to outline for NaNoWriMo. In November, obviously I was going to write Book 1 of a brand new story I’d come up with. I told myself to spend at least 2-3 hours a day on writing.

When I first started, I didn’t think I’d be able to do 2-3 hours’ worth of planning in the month of November. Boy, was I wrong! Giving myself a time limit, as well as a plan gave me the chance to explore this world in a way I never imagined possible. I knew my characters inside and out, I knew the setting, and I had a very detailed outline. With it, I wrote book 1 in 14 days. In the next 14, I wrote book 2, which I wasn’t even expecting to do.

In December, I sat down and planned out the rest of the year.

December 10-February 15th. Rewrite Book 1 (I figured giving myself two months would be enough.)

February 16-March 30th – Rewrite Book 2 and send out to betas. (I was a little more ambitious, since I only gave myself a month and a half)

April – second revision of Book 1 during Camp NaNoWriMo (I figured that this wouldn’t be as extensive of a revision, so it wouldn’t need as much time)

May-June – Rewrite Book 2.

July – final revision of Book 1, fine tuning, send out to betas again

August – start sending out Queries of book 1

September – (didn’t have a plan for September)

October – Prepare for NaNoWriMo

November – Write Book 3

I love having a plan, and knowing what I need to focus on. Obviously, I haven’t followed it completely. I finished revisions of Book 1 by January 30^th, which meant I started revisions on book 2 much sooner than expected. Also, in May, instead of editing book 2, I ended up doing a cut edit of book 1, and polishing it so that I was ready to send it out to agents. By that point, I’d already sent it to two rounds of betas, as well as critters on Scribophile. In June, I started sending out queries and working on outlining for book 3 and preparing book 2 for CampNaNoWriMo in July.

Since November 1, I’ve written or edited 640,181 words. I’ve done three revisions of Book 1, and two of book 2. I have a clear outline of book 3, and I’ve even started outlining an unrelated book, which I hope to write in November, along with book 3.

The year before, I’d written one first draft, and done three revisions on different novels. I’ve already exceeded that, and we’re not even back to November.

Having a plan works as long as you keep yourself responsible. I don’t use a lot of rewards, but I’m the kind of person that needs to keep to a schedule, even if it’s self imposed. 

Camp NaNoWriMo 2016

April’s almost over! Can you believe it? 2016 is already 1/3 of the way through.

April’s a big month for me, just like July and November. April is Camp NaNoWriMo, which is kind of a spinoff of NaNoWriMo. Instead of separating into regions, you’re put into virtual cabins of up to 12 people, and you can make your own word count goal. I’ve done it before, and been grouped with strangers, and it was interesting, but I didn’t feel entirely comfortable talking to them online.

This year, our region decided to get a cabin together. It’s been so much fun, mostly because I know everyone in my cabin! We have multiple conversations a day, and we can encourage each other to keep writing. Plus, we can also meet in person, which makes it even better.

This month, I really wanted to do revisions on Commissioned. I’ve gone through one revision already, but I’d just gotten responses from my first round of betas, and there were a few things that needed to be changed. I also wanted to double check the voice of both of my characters. I printed off copies, separating them into Nara and Yaru piles, and then started revisions.

I started with Nara, and hers required the most revisions. My betas told me that her motivation didn’t make sense, and didn’t quite fit with her personality. It took me almost two weeks to finish her section, working as feverishly as I could on my days off. Then I got to Yaru’s point of view, and things started to click. Since I changed Nara’s motivation, his made so much more sense. Honestly, it only required a few tweaks, especially in the end and the beginning, but the middle was pretty solid. I finished his revision in one week.

I’m using this last week to go through, put the parts back together, and read it to myself out loud before sending it out to the next set of betas May 1.

So if anyone’s keeping track, that’s six months from November 1. In that time, I’ve written and revised 484,513 words. Almost half a million. I’m still kind of reeling. After deciding to make writing my second job, and devoting an actual amount of time to it, it’s kind of hard to stop.

How about the rest of you? How are your writing goals going? Any other goals for this year? 

Why I Need Writing Partners

Two months ago, I made a deal with my writing partners. We were all at LTUE, and after hearing different conversations about the importance of writing groups and writing partners, we realized we needed to do more. As we were driving home, we made a deal with one another. We all set a realistic goal to finish by April 1^st, the beginning of Camp NaNoWriMo.

After that, we met twice a week to write and work on our goals.

Now I’ve never really had writing partners like this. I’ve had beta readers, and I love them to death, but this is totally different. These are people who know me, my writing style, and my story intimately. I can ask them advice on literally anything in the writing process, and I hope they feel the same way with me. I can’t even count the number of roadblocks they’ve helped me get through.

Plus, it’s fun to have someone who understands my crazy brain.

A few weeks ago, I got a random text from one of my writing partners. She knows how much I love fairy tale retellings, and all she wrote was: What if Cinderella is a code name for an arsonist? That one question led to an hour-long discussion on a possible story from that idea.

A few nights ago, as I was mulling over a story idea, I found a shoe brand called the Golden Goose, which was exactly what the story needed. I was so excited, I immediately wrote both of my writing partners and we started talking about story ideas again.

So how did I do on my goal? I was enthused, and excited to work on my rewrite. I added a whole lot of stuff, and I ended up increasing the word count from 75,000 to 111,000. I was kind of shocked by how much I was able to accomplish, and I finished before my April 1 deadline. 

Final word count on 3/26

I’ve got to say, having writing partners makes the whole process much more fun, and definitely more enjoyable!

Looking Back to See Ahead

Sometimes, there’s a question in a writer’s mind every once in a while.

Am I getting any better? Is all of this practice and writing getting me anywhere?

Or maybe it’s just me. There’s always those moments of self-doubt. All of this time and effort might seem like a waste if I’m not improving.

Starting in December, I started working on revisions on Commissioned, one of the novels I wrote in November. I started to notice a pattern, and it was enough to give me some encouragement.

Here’s an example of a page I worked on during my fourth revision of Servant of an Empire.

Basically, I rewrote the entire thing. I crossed out each word, each sentence and wrote a new one.

Here’s a page I worked on during this revision of Commissioned. Looks pretty much the same, right?

But here’s the exciting thing. This is the anomaly. Rewriting an entire scene is no longer the norm for me. I’m on my first revision, and here’s a typical page for me.

I’m using more of my original words, and I have less to fix. Even the basic plotline doesn’t require a whole lot of fixing either.

So for me, this is enough encouragement for me to keep going. Practice is paying off, and I believe I’m improving!

How about the rest of you? How do you know when you’re improving?

Brain on Overdrive

A few months ago, I decided to make writing a priority. Well, even more than a priority than it already was. I’m trying to cut out even more time during my day to write, and I think I’ve been successful so far.

I go to the engineering lab with my husband as often as I can, because there’s nothing to do there but write. Our NaNoWriMo group has decided to meet once a month to write, and my co-ML and I meet twice a week. There’s plenty of opportunities.

Since making that decision, I wrote 177,000 words in November, which included 2 books, and a partial of a character sketch, and I’ve almost completed 2/3 of a revision for the first novel.

There’s only one downside, if you can call it that.

I’m having a hard time turning my brain off. There’s always something I have to mull over, something that I need to work on. Yesterday, I was stuck on a scene that I knew needed to be rewritten. I decided to try cleaning, and voila, the answer came to me. Good thing there was a write in for the SCBWI group! 

Last night, as I was sleeping, my brain came up with the bare bones of a query. Query letters are hard for me, because I don’t know how to get all of the ideas into so few words. But my brain figured it out… at 4am. I had to jump out of bed to write it down before I lost it.

I know it doesn’t sound like a bad thing, and maybe it’s not. My brain is solving problems, and I’m getting more writing done than I have in my life.

What do the rest of you do when this happens? How do you tell your brain to relax for a few hours?

2016 Goals

A new year means new goals. For the past two years, I’ve written down general goals, but this year, I’m trying something new. My Co-ML for our region and I have decided to push ourselves to write more over the year, and we’re going to be each other’s ‘whip-masters.’ I’ll keep her on track, and she’ll keep me on track.

In the month of December, we started getting together twice a week for at least two hours to write. Usually, at least one of those days, I’m able to stretch it out into four or five hours. With that in mind, I’ve put together a calendar of goals. What I want to be doing each month, what I want to accomplish each month. That way, it’s not a general idea of ‘revise this novel at some point.’

I’m working on revisions for Commissioned, the first book in my new series, and my goal is to finish by February 11^th. So far, I’m halfway through, so I think there’s a high chance I’ll be able to finish by that point.

From there, I have more goals, which I’ve shared with my whip-master, and I’m more than positive she’ll keep me on track.

So I’m not going to share them all here, but I do have other goals I’ve set. Last year, I wasn’t able to meet the 52 books read, but this year, I’m hoping for 45 books. So far I’ve read two, so I’m at least I haven’t fallen behind yet!

What kind of plans do you have for 2016? Do you have someone to keep track of you and your goals?

2015 Year in Review

It’s the end of the year, which means it’s time to look back on my resolutions and goals for 2015. It’s always a little terrifying, to know that I’ve passed another year, and to see what I could have done better.

1.       Focus on publishing.

This was a little iffy. In January, I set up a query party, and we sent queries through participants, which was a lot of fun. I learned from each of them, and I learned about online critique groups along the way. I also sent out almost ten queries for the year, and received rejections from all of them. I know it may not seem like a success, but at the same time, it means that I actually sent out queries and tried, so for me, that is a significant step.

2.       Participate (and win!) both Camp NaNoWriMos and the regular NaNoWriMo.

April was an interesting month for me. I participated in the first NaNoWriMo by writing a daily character sketch to try and get ideas for NaNoWriMo. It was a frustrating experiment, but it did give me two characters that ended up being the sole inspiration for NaNoWriMo. During July, I did a full revision of The King’s Councilor. November was an incredibly productive month. I was able to write not one, but two different novels, the first two in the trilogy. I wrote 177,000 words in 30 days, so I would say I definitely met this goal!

3.       Read 52 books in the year 2015

I didn’t get to 52 books this year, but I did get close. I read 44 books this year. One of the most amazing things that I’ve ever learned was that reading teaches me almost as much about writing as writing itself. I’m starting to notice trends, things that I like, things that I don’t like, even what works and doesn’t. I’m finding writers that I enjoy reading, and even popular books that just don’t quite work for me. I hope to read just as many books next year as well.

Well that’s my year! How have your goals and aspirations been in 2015? 

Post NaNoWriMo

It’s December 7^th, which means that NaNoWriMo has been over for a full week now.

It’s been a long week. It doesn’t help that I did push myself way too hard the last week of November, between picking up extra shifts at work, hosting 3 write-ins and getting together with family the other spare moments I had.

Not that I would have changed any of it…

But last week, I did take a full 3 days off and relaxed. I cleaned, did laundry, FINALLY put up the Christmas tree. I’m the kind of person that pesters her husband into putting up Christmas decorations starting the beginning of November. This year, I was so busy that I didn’t even think about it until December 3^rd.

But I know that it’s not safe to spend too much time away from my writing. I’ve spent the past 30 days creating a habit. Habits are easier to break than make. Fortunately, I have awesome writing friends, and we’ve grown even closer this NaNoWriMo. My Co-ML and I have decided to get together twice a week to keep writing. Plus, I know how much better I work under pressure, so I’m creating my own goals and schedule for her to use to monitor me.

I’ll keep her going too.

So what’s my current goal? Since I finished Commissioned on November 15^th, I felt like enough time had passed for me to start a revision. I did a quick read through on Friday and Saturday so that I could get an idea of what needed to be fixed.

Honestly, it’s a few minor things here and there (add setting, flesh out characters), but nothing like previous novels. I’m not having to delete sections or add entire plot twists. Obsessive planning and plotting have their benefits! I’m hoping to finish this revision by LTUE, my first official writer’s conference! I’m going with a few friends from my NaNoWriMo group, and I’m super excited.

Those are my goals for now! How about the rest of you? How are you doing post NaNoWriMo craze?

Reading Through a Writer’s Eyes and Thoughts on Marissa Meyer's Winter

An interesting phenomenon when you spend a great deal of time editing and revising is that you start noticing mistakes. In everything. Especially in books of bestselling writers, because, let’s face it, everyone has a different opinion on art, and what one person likes isn’t necessarily what another person likes. I’ve heard other writers and editors complain about it. The inability to turn it off long enough to enjoy the story.

It’s true, to an extent. This year, I’ve really pushed to improve myself as a writer. I’ve advanced in ways I wouldn’t have imagined in January. I’ve critiqued and revised, even started a new series. I also made a goal to read 52 books this year.

This week, I read Winter, the final book in the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. If you haven’t picked up the books, I highly recommend them. I found them last year and blasted through Cinder and Scarlet. Then I had to wait for Cress to come out. I thought that was torture, but then I had to wait for Winter.

I’m a huge fan of Marissa Meyer. I love her writing style, her characters, and her story. I also love the fact that she’s a NaNoWriMo author. Both Cinder and Scarlet were written during NaNoWriMo. If that’s not motivation, I don’t know what is.

While I’m working on my current novel, I’ve also been thinking about revision. I’m not a stranger to revision, out of the five novels I’ve written, I’ve probably done an average of 3-5 revisions on each. But as I work on the Orange WIP, I realize that maybe I’m not doing it as effectively as I could. As I researched revision, I found Marissa Meyer’s blog, and she gave an incredibly helpful and detailed summary of how she revises.

One of the things that popped out to me was that in her first revision, she asks what she can do to make things worse for the character. How she can make it less easy.

Knowing that, I read Winter with new eyes. There were moments when I could almost see her going through, thinking, nope, this is too easy. Time to make them suffer.

And suffer they did.

But because I still had my ‘writing goggles’ on while reading, I was able to pick up on those small details that I might not have noticed otherwise. I loved the book, and I was depressed when it was over. But I have a feeling that I’ll be going back to those books over and over again, probably with my kids as well. And when I start revisions, I will be taking Ms. Meyer’s process in mind, making things as physically and mentally difficult as I possibly can for my characters. 

50,000 Words in 7 Days

Last week was a productive week. I was able to use a little extra free time to get an extra word count in. Add that to double up day, a day when NaNoWriMo headquarters challenge everyone to double their word count (and their donations), I was able to reach 50,000 words in just 7 days.

I’m kind of shocked that I did it. It wasn’t easy. There were some days I didn’t even want to write.

Here’s the secret: Do it anyway.

I’ve had a lot of people in our NaNoWriMo group who have said they had a hard time writing, that they have no mojo, no juice. They couldn’t get words written.

With one of the girls, I challenged her to a writing war. Ten minutes of writing to see who can get the most words in. We did it twice, and suddenly, the block she’d had was gone.

The best solution to writer’s block is writing. It sounds odd, but it’s the only solution I’ve seen that actually works.

How are the rest of you doing? Going strong?

NaNoWriMo to a Non-Writer

My husband is fantastic. I know I’m bragging, but it’s really true. He has supported my writing in ways I really wouldn’t have expected. Out of the two of us, he’s more afraid of my work getting stolen online. He lets me attend all of the writing classes, seminars and meetings in the area, and even lets me take the car when I need.

He understands my passion, though he doesn’t always feel the same way.

Last night, we were talking about NaNoWriMo. He and a friend went to where my group was having a write-in, and his friend asked him why I was in there with my computer.

Here’s the story as he told it to me.

Husband: Let me explain to you. (Though, in his accent, it sounds more like asplain).

You know how the gringos are weirdos and always have a day for everything? October was breast cancer, a few days ago, they had cat day. 

Friend: No, I didn’t know that.

Husband: Well, they do. Those gringos have a party for everything. Now November has two things. One is for prostate, and that’s Movember. The other is NaNoWriMo, which is National Writing Month.

At this point, I interrupted him, to tell him that it’s National Novel writing month.

Husband: I don’t care. Anyway, Krista and other people try to write 50,000 words in all of November.

Friend: Wow, that’s a lot of words.

Husband: I know. I told you they were weirdos.

So there you have it. If that’s the way that a supportive non-writer looks at NaNoWriMo, then I’m assuming the non-supportive ones thinks we’re raving lunatics. (For those curious, he learned the word weirdo from me.)

How about the rest of you? Do your friends and family understand your crazy November antics?

Just Write!

This month, I’ve had the chance to talk to a lot more writers than I normally do. It’s amazing to see the different levels that writers are in. I’ve seemed to spend more time with brand new writers, ones on the very beginning of the journey.

What’s really surprised me, is that many of these writers find that the prewriting process, the idea, is much more important than the writing. One young man told me that he’s found that the writing part is most difficult. He told me that he’s written about five pages in the past six months or so. I had another writer tell me that she’s hoping to use NaNoWriMo to finish her novel, since she’s been working on it for about five years.

I don’t know that I’ve ever had that issue. I hear the excuse of ‘no time’ a lot. To me, that seems like an excuse for those who doesn’t make writing a priority. My senior year of college, the last month, right before finals, and before I took one of the most important tests of my life, I wrote an entire novel. Three weeks, while studying for finals, and I wrote over 50,000 words. My Co-ML has 4 kids. Last year, she worked full time, took care of her kids, and finished her 50,000 words in almost 20 days.

It’s possible. Time is something that everyone struggles with. We all get the same amount. 24 hours in a day. What we do with it really shows what we find most important.

This month, I’ve realized how much I’ve let my own writing slip. It’s not been a priority, even though I say that I want to be a writer. I want to write.

I’ve been adjusting my schedule, making sure that I put the time into writing so that I can’t use an excuse when I realize I haven’t been as productive as I meant to be.

How do you find time to write? What kind of sacrifices have you had to make so that you can get writing in?