Setting Goals and Keeping Busy

It's been a long while since I've posted that's mostly due to the fact I have been spending all of my time on different writing projects these last few months. In fact, I've barely had a chance to catch my breath. This all has transpired, because I'm trying to set realistic goals for myself and reach them.

My goals for March were...

• Start and finish 2 new short stories
• Complete the 2nd draft for Part 1 of Blood Feud (prologue- chapter 12)

Which I managed to do. Yay! For me!

My 2013 Writing Goals

Oh man, I have to come up with more goals? Don't I already do that almost everyday of the week? And didn't I just kick butt with my 2012 goals? Okay, so maybe coming up with some new things to strive for may not be a bad idea. Here are some things I would like to accomplish in 2013.

Read
This is a goal I still need to keep on doing. I did better in 2012, but I can do even better. My goal to read at least a chapter or short story every single day.

Write
This I have been doing pretty good in, but I'm putting it down as a goal to remind myself not to become a slacker. I must write everyday!!!! 

2 Ways to Be a Better Writer

Writing is a love affair of words and emotion, but there is also much more to it. There is a lot of work that is involved that includes perfecting craft, plot, character and much more. A writer's journey never ends as he or she blazes the trail of art and soul. The further along that trail a writer travels, the more he or she realizes that perfection will never be achieved, only stages of good and bad writing; however, a writer can accomplish better writing by putting into practice two very important things. Are you ready for the most important advice you will ever get?

Writing Challenge: A Challenge for All

Writing is something that I truly love to do, but even that love can falter by my personal shortcomings, so I find that in challenging myself to be better I can plow through some of my procrastination and self doubt. Every once in a while I like to come up with challenges for myself that gets me motivated, drives me forward, and expands my experience that much more.

Right now my challenge to myself is to write 50 articles for www.associatedcontent.com by the end of April. I started at the beginning of March and so far I have 12 articles and have a multitude of others in the works as well as a notebook full of ideas. I'm not sure if I'll reach my magical number of 50, but I've enjoyed the challenge so far. It will not only help me work on a deadline, but it will give me a library of articles to use to help promote my writing abilities, and with every word I write I become better at my craft. If you wish you help support my efforts go to my contributor page to check out a listing of articles.

I also want to throw out a challenge for all fellow writer's everywhere to actively challenge yourself to be better in your craft. You can only become better by doing. Whether it be submitting for a writing contest, writing articles for an online site, or some other self imposed challenge, it is important to constantly try to find ways to motivate yourself to be better. I implore you to take up a torch and let it shine!

Write It Down or Lose It

"It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by.  How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment?  For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone.  That is where the writer scores over his fellows:  he catches the changes of his mind on the hop."  ~Vita Sackville-West

It's a rare thing that you sit down to write and some of your best ideas actually come while your writing. If you're like me an idea will come to you out of the blue when your driving the car, making dinner, working-out, or maybe even watching Television, and if you are also like me and don't write that idea down right away it will disappear into the haze of your memory. It is important to catch those thoughts and place them somewhere so that they don't drift away to be lost forever, because chances are they won't come back. I can't tell you how many great story ideas or ideas period that became lost to my forgetful brain. So what is the cure to this dilemma?

The Building Blocks of Plot

I recently became aware of a detrimental flaw to my works of fiction to find myself unable to complete many of my stories. I began to realize that my problem laid with my fundamental understanding of plot and so I decided to dive into research to try and find a way to fix this problem. During my journey that spanned over two months, I found a lot of helpful information and began taking notes- lots of them. I then decided that there may be others out there with my same problem and so began to write an article on plot, but there was a problem. There was way too much information to fit in a 500 to 700 word article, so I began a series of articles. Then a friend of my suggested putting the articles together to create an ebook, so here is the finished product of all that effort. I place it here for those who would like to read it. Hopefully you too will find some use for it. It certainly isn't a full comprehensive about plot, but it will at give you an idea of what good plot is and how to use it to get that story out from start to finish!

I have the free ebook posted on Google Docs. Check out the link at The Building Blocks of Plot.

Finding Your Writing Style and Voice

Style and voice, as a writer you hear about these two things all the time, usually within the same breath. Some wonder if they are in fact the same thing, but they aren’t. Each is separate from the other, but both rely on each other to make a story great. It’s a marriage of two separate elements that when brought together make your writing sparkle.

 So what is style and voice exactly? Some may be confused about the difference between these two important story elements. I found a great exert posted by illuminara written by T.J Scott entitled Style vs. Voice- A Guide. It breaks both down and makes them more understandable. I found it very helpful. Also, if you don’t already have a copy of The Elements of Style by: William Strunk Jr. It goes over the proper presentation and style of writing. I will attempt to explain below.

Writing Tips for the New Year

In the last few months, I have dedicated a portion of my time to reading more about writing and looking at different things I can do to be a better writer. The following are things I found that have made a big impression on me on my journey of discovery, and wanted to share them with any who might share the same love of writing that I do. Enjoy!

Read, read, read

Reading is the fastest and best way for a writer to become better at his or her craft. I once heard somewhere that a truly avid writer is always in the middle of reading a book and will never be caught saying, “Um… well, I’m between books right now.” Read everything and anything, but mostly read books that are written by writers for writers. Below are a list of books that I have recently acquired that I have found to be treasure troves of information. 

I'm Thankful For...

Yesterday was our writer's meeting. We decided to do a pot luck dinner and talk about the blessings and curses of being a writer. The spread we had was delicious and the company even better. It's so great to have the opportunity to be apart of such a wonderful team. I'm blessed and especially thankful for my family of writers.

The best part is being able to have people to talk to who know what you are going through. It's like a support group for writers. Every now and again we throw out lifelines to those who feel as if they are drowning and sometimes I find myself a precipitant of those lines. Mostly it's a chance to make friends with like-mined individuals as well as have intelligent adult conversation (hard to come by when you're a stay a home mom).

So I'm thankful for my support group of writer's (you know who you are). ;)

The Excuse

Yeah, it's that guilty pleasure that we indulge in way too often called the excuse. It's another way to procrastinate and to tell ourselves it's alright to put something off. I'm exceptionally guilty of this particular offense. If there is an excuse in the book, I've used it and this couldn't be more true than with my writing.

We discussed the issue of 'painful writing' today at my writer's meeting. Some people don't seem to have this problem, but for the rest of us out there who do... well you know what I'm talking about. It's sitting at the laptop and feeling it building as soon as you fire the device up. The worst of it hits full force as soon as the document file opens up. Black and white text stares back mocking you, but you suddenly remember something you forgot to do that just has to be done right that moment, so what do you do? That's right, you jump up to go do it real quick and then conveniently forget that you'd actually intended to get some writing done that day. Yeah, you feel smug because you got so much accomplished for the day, except for the one thing that you really want to do... to write.

Writing Contests

Writing is something I enjoy immensely, but feel I still have a a lot to learn about it. For this reason, I am always trying to find new ways to challenge myself in this area. So I have setup goals to make this happen. One part of my goals is to learn to do better in reaching deadlines, and what better way to accomplish this than to participate in writing contests.