Wednesday, February 6, 2013

February IWSG 2013


Hey everyone! I hope you're all doing well. Happy IWSG!!! January has been a crazy month so I'm sorry I haven't been around much. My grandmother had a stroke two days before I started at a new job and in less than a month, my brother will be getting married! Lots and lots going on, which kind of brings me to this month's IWSG topic: Time. I'm finding that when I get home from work, I'm tired and mostly just want to crash and call it a night. A lady told me today that it can take some time to adjust to working full time versus part time, but my question is: what are some of the ways you balance your time when you don't have a lot of it.

I also just enrolled in another Institute of Children's Literature class on writing books for children and teens. After my first class with them, I learned a lot about short stories and articles, but I'm really looking forward to working on a good length novel one-on-one with my instructor. The way the class is structured is similar to a writer-editor relationship, so I'm very excited to get started. :) If anyone is looking for a good class on writing for children and teens, I would definitely recommend the Institute especially because you send in your assignments so it doesn't matter where you live; it's basically like an online class.

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group is a wonderful place where writers can share their worries and failures as well as their successes and advice. Led by our fearless leader Alex J. Cavanaugh, IWSG meets the first Wednesday of every month and you can join on his site here.

I hope you're all doing well and enjoying the New Year so far. Do you have any plans for Valentine's? Tell me about them in the comments below! ^^ :D

9 comments:

  1. Working full time is definitely an adjustment. I find that I get the most real writing done on weekends. I ride my bike to work and try to go on at least one walk on a break so that when I get home, I can be online or work on smaller writing projects. During Nanowrimo, it's just crazy ;)

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    1. Thank you. :) I've been finding that if I sit down and get started on something right away, I can make some pretty good progress. That must be really nice to be able to ride your bike to work. :D I live too far away from my job to bike, but it always seems like it'd be fun. ^^ :)

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  2. It's hard balancing things when you work full time. I take myself off to bed an hour early and just sit with my laptop and write something for half an hour. It calms my mind so I can sleep better.

    Good luck with the course x

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    1. I usually try to get to bed an hour early to read before I have to go to sleep, but I have to be careful if it's a real thinker cause then I have a hard time turning my brain off enough to go to sleep, hehe. ^^ :)

      Thank you Heather! ^^ :D

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  4. It's difficult to balance work and family commitments with writing. (And I only work part-time.) All I can suggest is to look at your daily tasks and reduce the workload as much as you can by eliminating unnecessary stuff and condensing/streamlining the rest.

    When it comes to writing, remember that every little bit adds to the whole. Doing things like writing a scene and emailing it to yourself when you're away from your writing computer can help. (Just copy the text and paste.) Be creative.

    If you write better in long sessions, then set aside certain days for yourself and shut everything else out.

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    1. Thank you Melissa. :) I do find it helps a lot when I plan ahead and condense my workload. I've been writing about a page during my lunch hour and I find that helps to get that extra little bit in every day. ^^ :) Thank you ^^

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  5. Wow, that's a lot going on, Amanda. I hope your grandmother is all right. Hugs.

    Your class sounds awesome.

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    1. Thank you Mary. My grandmother is doing a lot better. :) I actually got to see her today and the only thing you really notice, and you don't really notice it much, is that she has a little bit of a slur to her speech. I'm so glad it wasn't worse.

      Thank you. ^^ So far it is pretty awesome. It's really nice to have that one-on-one student-instructor relationship. :)

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