Will Be Back Soon

I'm taking a couple of weeks off of posting writing tips on here.

Why?

Well, I'm 9 months pregnant and due literally any day now. Plus, there's school to contend with.

But I love this blog so I'll be back ASAP with more tips!

Meanwhile, be sure to check out the newly updated Writing Resources page! You'll find all kinds of stuff to help you write, get critiqued, and get published!

Wish me luck and keep writing!

Check This Out

I just vastly updated the Writing Resources page. It just went from a handful of things to a huge list of all kinds of writing resources. You'll find sites for everything from tips to technology to connecting with writers to critiques to self-publishing...

You'll want to check these out. Enjoy.

You Do Have a Writer's Journal, Don't You?

Every writer should have a writer's journal, at least to keep track of random ideas or thoughts. 

A good writer's journal can do so much more, though. Here are some ideas on what can go into one and how you can keep it organized. 

Project Notebooks or Journals

You can keep several journals or notebooks for different projects, novels, and stories. They can contain tabbed sections for:

• brainstorming 
• drafts
• plot
• world building
• language creation
• setting
• character sketches
• research notes

These kinds of journals are great to reference back to when you are in the middle of writing and you can't remember specific details such as eye color or town names. Or when you're writing the fifth novel in your series and it's been a few years and you can't remember what your fantasy characters call that magic ritual.

General Writer's Notebook or Journal

It's also advisable to keep a general writer's journal or notebook. This notebook can contain a variety of things to keep you organized as a writer. Keeping everything in one place will be handy when you have to travel or just want to carry your writing stuff around with you. So what should go into your writer's journal?

• short story drafts
• poems
• ideas and sketches
• memoirs/diary entries that might inspire you
• long-term and short-term writing goals
• reading list
• writing markets you want to submit to/have submitted to
• quotes/articles that motivate or inspire you
• writing how-to articles 
• writing templates (such as character templates)

Note: Depending on how long you've been submitting writing pieces to markets, you might have a notebook just to keep track of submissions, rejections, acceptances, and other places you want to submit your writing to. 

How to Keep Your Writing Journal or Notebook Organized

These are some big lists. How are you going to keep everything in there organized? 

Easy. With a table of contents. 

If you're doing this in a journal, leave the first three to six pages blank, depending on how many pages are in the journal. If you're using a binder, you can leave a couple of pages and insert more as you need them. 

These first pages will serve as the table of contents. Let's say your journal has 100 pages. You are going to number down the lines until you get to 100. You can do front or front and back of the pages. 

Every time you write something or insert something into your notebook or journal, you are going to label it with a page number. It can be in a corner or wherever. Then, you're going to turn to the table of contents, find the right page number, and label accordingly. In a journal, things will probably out of order. The good thing about a notebook or binder is that you can rearrange things so they're in sections. But it's up to you. 

So when you're out of ideas and you want to look at your list of writing ideas, you open your notebook, and instead of flipping through pages and pages, you go to the table of contents. You look through a few pages, find what you're looking for, and go to the page indicated writing ideas.

If you already have a writer's journal, good for you. Maybe you found some ideas to make it better. 

If you don't have a writer's journal...what are you waiting for? 

What else should go into your writer's journal? 

5 Tips to Stick to Your Writing Resolutions in 2012

Starting a new year is great. It's the time to refresh and decide what opportunities and adventures one will explore for the next twelve months. The slate is wiped clean. The possibilities for the year are endless. Lots of people enthusiastically embark on shiny and ambitious goals at this time.

Unfortunately, most of those people never reach their targets. Their resolutions fall by the wayside and are completely forgotten a few months into the year.

Has this been you so far? Don't feel bad.

The other day, I found my 2011 resolutions. I had completely forgotten about that list. I met one goal. I wrote my first novel. I did something new when attempting to reach this goal. And I was successful. Here is what worked for me.

1. Break big goals up into smaller goals. In other words, make long-term and short-term goals. Goals will become less daunting and intimidating when you think in daily, weekly, and monthly terms. For example, if your yearly goal is "Write a novel" then you might decide your monthly goal would be "Write 10,000 words a month." This breaks down to 2500 words a week. That would mean your daily goal (let's say you just want to write Monday-Friday) would be around 500 words a day, depending on the month. 

Or if you're starting out with a daily goal, you need to make long-term goals along with it. If your daily goal is "Write 500 words each week day," then your weekly goal should be "Write 2500 words per week." And your monthly goal might be "Write 10,000 words each month." This adds up to 120,000 words a year. Before you know it, you'll have met your yearly resolution of writing a novel. Maybe two.

2. Make your goals specific. Instead of having a daily goal that is "Write novel" make it "Write 350 words for novel between 1 and 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. This way, you know exactly what you have to do and when you are done. Cross off your met goal every day. You'll be amazed at how great you feel.

3. Look at your goals every single day. This means you need to write them down or type them out and print them. Then, put them where you will see them every single day. Get a corkboard, whiteboard, or a notebook that you look at every day. Every day, whether your meet your goals or not, look at those goals.

4. Reward yourself for meeting goals. Do this daily, monthly, and yearly. Watch your favorite show or have your favorite snack if you meet daily goals. Go somewhere nice to eat or splurge on something nice for yourself if you meet monthly or yearly goals.

5. Don't beat yourself up. Sometimes life happens. Look at the first of each month as a way to get back on track if you fell off to the wayside. Don't try to catch up if you miss a day or a week. Just try to reach that days's goal.

I had wanted to start writing my second novel by the first of January. But I also have to remember that I am nine months pregnant. I simply don't have the same energy as before. Not to mention there are last minute things to get done before the baby gets here. 

For you, it might be getting sick or a family member getting sick. Or something else that requires your attention. I'm not talking about a television marathon. But sometimes things come up. When this happens, adjust your goals and keep writing. 

And on good days when you meet or go over your daily word count goal without even realizing it, write a little bit more. You never know when you might need those words. 

Here are my resolutions broken down into small goals if you want an example.

My 2012 Writing Resolutions Broken Up Into Manageable Bites

1. Write second novel starting in January and finish by end of June. 

     I will write 500 words daily (Monday thru Friday), most likely in the late morning or early evening. I will write 10,000 words each month until I am finished. I will use Camp Nano in June to catch up or do any extra writing in order to finish on time.

2. Revise first novel starting in March and finish by end of April. 

    I will spend one hour each week day researching, revising, and editing. This means five hours each week and about 20 hours a month. I will do this for two months, but will adjust goal if more time is necessary.

3. Write third novel in Camp Nano August. 

    I will plan the first week or so and begin writing (500 words a day) in July. I will continue writing in August (1667 words a day). I will finish by end of August. 

4. Revise second novel starting in September and finish by end of December. 

    I will spend one hour a day, five days a week, revising and editing. This means 20 hours a week. I will do this from September until I finish, with the exception of November.

5. Start writing fourth novel during Nano '12 in November. 

    I will plan two weeks before and write 1667 words a day in November. I will have 50K words by Nov. 30th and will finish at my regular pace in December. 

6. Keep up blog. 

    I will post at least once a week and update once a week.

I keep all goals written in a notebook and big goals on a whiteboard. I keep daily, weekly, and monthly goals for everything in the notebook and check things off every day. 

I'll be posting a page with these goals on this blog.  It will help keep myself accountable and see how much I can really achieve. At the end of the year, I will compare how much I did to my list of resolutions. Wish me luck :)

What are your 2012 writing resolutions? Other big resolutions? How do you plan to achieve those goals? Have your succeeded or failed in the past? Why? What's going to be different this year for you? Or are your against the whole idea of yearly resolutions?

Changing Priorities...

Hi everyone,

I hope you're all doing great and enjoying the holidays. 

I just wanted to let you all know that I'll be posting once a week from now on. My hopes had been to post three times a week but with the last month of pregnancy here, it hasn't been easy to keep up with everything. My writing has also suffered so that's why I'm making writing more of a priority by making blogging a second priority. I'm still working on planning my second novel. At this rate, I might or might not start writing the first draft by January 1st. Not to mention in January I start school again and the baby will get here! Really excited but am also being realistic. I need to focus on getting ready for the baby and writing. I'll post here once a week on what I'm learning as a writer and probably on how my writing life will be changing. 

I'll also be working slowly but surely on getting the Writing Resources page updated. I have already checked out all the resources. Now I need to get the list together along with descriptions. It's a big list!

Be back next week, most likely Wednesday or Friday. Keep writing! 

My 2012 Writing Goals and Three Ways You Can Meet Yours

Hi everyone,

I know I've been missing for a while. Had last minute projects and finals to do not to mention some family issues.

However, while I have neglected this blog, I haven't completely neglected my writing. I've been planning my second novel. Now that I am completely done with school for the semester, I should have lots of time to finish planning and get started on writing.

My plan is to start writing the first draft on January 1st, 2012. If I get done planning before then, though, I will start writing. I can't wait to start this novel. My first novel, the one I did for Nano, was action. I mentioned that I never thought I would do that kind of novel.

Now, I'm shifting gears to fantasy. I have lots of of fantasy ideas in my head, and I think that's what I'll be focusing on for novels to come. However, I don't see magic being the center focus of these ideas. I think what makes these ideas fantasy is that they take place in other worlds. Think Narniaesque kind of places where animals and trees may or may not talk. I think the focus is more on culture. The cultures are way different. But I'm still developing the ideas.

With this second novel, the first thing I did was set my writing goals. Starting in January, I want to write at least 500 words every weekday, totaling at least 10,000 words a month. I'll be doing InkyGirl's 500 Words a Day Challenge to help keep myself accountable. It's a neat thing. There are also the 250 and 1000 Words a Day Challenges. To the left are the badges you can put on your blog or website to show that you are doing your words. There's also a Facebook page to connect with others who are also doing the challenges. You should check it out!

In March, when EdNoWriMo begins, I will revise and edit my first novel. I will also keep working on the second novel, but perhaps at a slower pace. I'm estimating the second novel to fall around 60-80K so hopefully I'll be done by late summer. Talking about summer, I also plan on participating in Camp Nano, maybe as a rebel if I'm not done with the novel by then. Then it'll be on to the third novel and getting beta readers for the first novel. I really hope to eventually electronically self-publish it.

Meanwhile, I'll also be making the Writing Resources page a lot better. There are so many resources I have been looking into that I want to share so be on the lookout for that update.

What are you up to now that Nano is over? Any of you doing Camp Nano? Will you be writing throughout the year or wait around for Nano to come up again?

Keep writing!