Exciting News!

If you build it, they will come.

If you build it, they will come.

Or rather,

If you declare it, they will come.  Opportunities, that is.

I declared 2013 "The Year of the Writer."  I set my goals, put my butt in the chair, and started to make the motto my reality.  And I have been wonderfully rewarded!

I received a notice this week that I was accepted as a freelance writer for the online site www.FamilyShare.com.   I had applied near the end of last year, but I hadn't heard anything for months.  I figured either my application had been lost or I just wasn't a good fit for their program.  Happily, I was wrong on both accounts.

I will be contributing 20 articles a month.  That's about one per day, five days a week.  I've finished and submitted my first article, and I'm now waiting for editing.  I'm almost finished with a second, and have started a third.

I've already found a pattern for writing that seems to work well for me.  I start the article in the afternoon.  Then, I go to bed, thinking about problems with it or changes I want to make.  I wake up and finish the article.  Then, I'm ready to start the next one in the afternoon.

I believe this will help advance my writing.  It will give me the opportunity to write a lot.  Practice makes perfect!  I'm sure to see an improvement in my writing that will spill over into my fiction.  It gets my name out there and builds my resume.  Being a paid writer is a little more prestigious than being one of so many aspiring writers.

I'm excited for this new stage in my writing journey!

What good news have you received lately?

25 Words

25 Words

2013: The Year of the Writer has officially hit its first bump in the road.  Don't get me wrong, I didn't let writer's block get the best of me.  I put my butt in the chair and added to my story every day.  But some days, it sure felt like work.

Then, I heard about this great technique that I think will help me be more successful.  Perhaps, ahem, 1000 words a day was a bit, shall we say, ambitious.  Some parts of my story just aren't ready for 1000 words.  Sometimes I need to take a step back and get a little more research done before I can make a scene work.

Like yesterday, for example.  I needed to craft a knife fight.  But, you see, I've never been in a knife fight.  The closest I've been is watching my sons whittle with their pocket knives, or chiffonading spinach for an omelette with my chef's knife.  I needed to learn a thing or two if I wanted to make it authentic.

Needless to say, it took me awhile to eke out my 500-word scene.

I decided I needed a more manageable goal. And a friend of mine came up with the perfect solution:

25 words.

Now there's a daily goal I can manage!

It makes perfect sense.  Twenty-five words is just enough to get your creative juices flowing.  It's like a piece of chocolate or Lay's potato chips: you can't eat just one, you can't stop there, you have to keep going.  And if not?  Well, it's still an accomplishment.

So what tricks do you use to jump-start your muse?

Good Things, Good Times

Ladies and Gentlemen, drum roll please........

I have made it eleven days into the New Year with my resolutions intact!

(pause for vociferous applause)

Why thank you, thank you very much. *bows*

It has been an exceptionally good week for me.  I have been putting my "butt in the chair," and it is paying off.  I have made some great progress on my current project, my second short story in the Freeborn series. 

You know, I was having some trouble with it at the beginning of the week, and I couldn't figure out what was wrong.  Then, I was reading a book on editing, and the topic was point of view.  It suddenly dawned on me that the fast pace of this story required a first person present point of view.  I need Nick to tell me his story as it's happening.  Once I stepped out of the way and gave him free rein, Nick completely took over.  I found his voice, and my story is so much more interesting and entertaining.  That Nick is pretty funny.

My second victory came from my new online writing group.  We met this week to choose a name.  I groaned inside; I'm terrible at this sort of thing!  I sat back and let the others brainstorm a few ideas, thinking that they were so much more clever than I.  Then, someone mentioned the name Cyber Scrawlers, which I really liked.  My brain took a walk, playing with the word "scrawl," and I thought "Scrawl Space."  I typed it in, nervously, I have to admit.  Well, they loved it!  We voted unanimously to adopt "Scrawl Space" as the name for our group.

Dang, I felt so proud of myself!  And I really do believe The Universe was reinforcing my determination to make 2013 The Year of the Writer.  I needed that small validation.  I am a writer, and I am creative.  The Universe said so.

I've noticed that I have a tendency to do other writing exercises when I'm feeling blocked on my projects.  So, I guess it's a good thing that I didn't really have time to do much blogging and exercises this week.  I'll still dabble from time to time, just to keep me on my toes. 

So, how are you doing with your New Year's resolutions? 

Fess Up Friday

Ah, it's always nice when you have nothing but good to confess, doesn't it?

The Year of the Writer has started off with a bang.  I've done my morning pages each morning, and I've certainly kept my butt in the chair.  I've written at least 1,000 words a day, and the creative juices are flowing.  I've gotten invaluable research done on my current project, and I'm ready to bust out the next few scenes.

I'm happy.
I'm excited.
I'm a writer!

Fess Up Friday

I finished all my Valentine's chocolates.

I haven't done yoga since Monday.

I skipped my afternoon rest so I could finish a game of Civilization IV.

My kids had to eat boxed macaroni and cheese for dinner.

And they had to make it themselves.

I have three loads of clean laundry sitting in laundry baskets.

I didn't do any writing for half the week.

I missed Fiction Friday.

Fess Up Friday

Time to see how I did for the week:

I added 5,752 words this week, just 248 shy of my goal.  Woohoo!
I have a total of 25,254 words written in my work in progress.

More importantly, I slogged through my major slump and learned something important about my novel.  Of course.  I always seem to struggle most right before I discover something significant.  I have a few ideas that I can work into my novel that will help me around some of the issues I've been having.  I'm a little closer to figuring out who my main character.  I'm not going to panic if I don't really know her yet; Leo Tolstoy took several revisions to come up with his Anna Karenina.

Um, did I just compare myself to Tolstoy?  Sorry about that.  *blush*

Overall, I'm pleased at the progress I've been able to make this week, especially in spite of dealing with the unexpected and unpleasant (a root canal).

Here's hoping I get into a nice rhythm this upcoming week!  It would be nice to surpass my goal for once.