November IWSG Small Victories

Hey IWSGers! Hope you guys and gals had a fantastic Halloween are doing good! October absolutely flew by! I have to keep reminding myself that it’s November already! Oh well. Time flies when you’re having fun so it couldn’t have been too bad can it? ;D

Well a lot has been going on since my last IWSG Post. Before I mentioned that I was working on two different pieces; a novel for my Institute of Children’s Literature class and another for the Harvest Contest organized by the Central Oregon Writer’s guild. I’m very happy to announce that, not only did I finish the first draft of my novel a whole month ahead of schedule, but I also placed in the top ten of the Harvest Contest! There were 52 entries in the contest and it was a tight race. The Awards Night was held October 18^th at the New Hampton Inn in Bend and all of the top ten came and read their pieces. It was great getting to listen to all of them. There was a lot talent and creativity present and it was a lot of fun getting to talk to the other winners afterwards and learn more about them. :)

Now that the contest is over, it’s back to work! ;D I’m going to start on editing and revising my novel and while I’m working on that, I’m hoping to finally finish another short piece for a different contest. Lots of fun stuff coming up! :D

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. There's also a brand new website now so be sure to check it out here.

September IWSG Systems

Hey everybody! Hope you’re all doing fantastic! Today is the first Wednesday of a new month so it’s time again for another IWSG. :D

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of success books and I’ve noticed they talk a lot about systems and habits and how they can make or break you in the long run. I’ve also heard from other very successful writers that they make time to write every day so I decided to create my own system and hopefully in the process, create a habit. I’ve always been a sporadic writer and so for the month of August, I wrote out a chart on my dry erase board with a slot for each day from Sunday to Saturday and told myself that every day I was going to write down a word count of 200 words or more and then record it all on my calendar. The first week I wrote 1,838 words, averaging at about 262 words a day. Not too bad. Then the next week I totaled 1,876 words, averaging at about 268 words a day. Admittedly I did miss a day that week to work on edits, but overall, still not too bad. Then the third week I started gaining a little ground. I wrote 1,992 words and averaged about 285 words. I missed another day for editing, but there was still a pretty good jump in my word counts. Week four saw a big jump. I wrote a total of 2,758 words and averaged 394 words a day! Woohoo! Now for those marathon writers out there that pull in about 3,000 words a day, this might look like nothing, but for me, it was huge! After all was said and totaled up, for the entire month of August I wrote 8,809 words and I’m pulling in more every day. I also find that when I sit down to write, the story comes easier, I’m not fighting myself as much to get the word counts in and I’m mostly stopping for the day because I have to go to bed and get up at a decent time the next day. (Don’t underestimate the importance of a good night’s sleep! It can make all the difference!) Now I’m bumping my goals up a little higher. I’m trying to do no less than 400 words a day and climbing all the time. I no longer feel so behind on my course novel and am feeling pretty good about where I’m at. I also finally submitted to my local writer’s guild’s contest  that I’ve promised myself I’d do for the past two years(hence the two days missed for editing J).

So how about you? Do you have any systems you put in place to help your writing out? Let me know in the comments below! ;D

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. There's also a brand new website now so be sure to check it out here.

August 2014 IWSG

Hey everybody! Hope you’re all doing fantastic! Today is the first Wednesday of a new month so it’s time again for another IWSG. :D

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. There's also a brand new website now so be sure to check it out here.

So I’ve been intermittently working on a Young Adult Faery novel for a couple months now and I’m about a third of the way through the novel and I hate it. All of it. I want to light it on fire and watch it burn. My main character seems to lack a drive to do anything and the story feels flat. The beginning came very easily, but I have to admit beginnings are probably the easiest part for me. I also have a deadline on this project since it is for a class I’m working on so I can’t afford to set it aside for now. What did you do when you completely fell out of love on a project? Was there anything you did that helped you reignite that spark and helped you finish the project you were working on?

Let me know in the comments below! :D

July 2014 IWSG A Tale of Two…Tales

Hey everybody! Hope you’re all doing fantastic! Today is the first Wednesday of a new month so it’s time again for another IWSG. :D

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. There's also a brand new website now so be sure to check it out here.

So I’ve been working hard on a couple of pieces lately, one being my novel assignment for the Institute of Children’s Literature and the other being a short contest piece for the Central Oregon Writer’s Guild’s Annual Contest (which just opened up state wide! :D Woohoo!). They’re both coming along great and I’m really excited about both, but they both also have some upcoming deadlines. The first third of my novel’s rough draft is due in a week or so and my contest piece is due on the first of September. I’ve almost got my novel’s first third done and I’m really close to having my contest piece fully written out, but the editing process is going to take a while. I’ve been having a bit of difficulty switching back and forth between the two; I get focused and then I have to switch back to the other piece. When you’re working on multiple pieces, how do you juggle them? Do you have a system that helps you better manage your time? Let me know in the comments below and thanks for stopping by! ^^ :D

 

May 2014 IWSG

Hey Guys! So seeing as how it is the first Wednesday of the Month, it must be IWSG! So I’ve been a little hiatus lately, but don’t worry, I’m still writing in the background! ;) What I wanted to ask all you writers out there is how you respond when people ask you about ideas you have that you may be currently working on. I was trying to explain one of my ideas out loud the other day and the more I tried to describe it, the more I thought, Woooow that sounds sooo stupid. And the more I talked about it, the more my idea started to lose that magic glimmer that had convinced me to write about it in the first place.

How do all you other writers out there deal with this?

Thanks guys! ^^ :D

 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. There's also a brand new website now so be sure to check it out here.

Happy Birthday, December IWSG, and a Movie Review!!!

Hey everybody! So it has been a crazy awesome week! Yesterday was my 22nd Birthday! I got to celebrate with family eating cake and ice cream, topping it off with a night at the movies. Woohoo! ^^ :D I have to say, I don't feel much older, but I've heard that doesn't start to set in until later. Lol :) So for my birthday movie, my brother and my sister-in-law took me to see The Hunger Games: Catching Fire for the second time (My mom took me to see it the first time on the day it came out lol). It was really sweet too, because the lady running the concession stand sang Happy Birthday to me. ^^

                And I have to say, it was AWESOME!!! Frances Lawrence did an excellent job! He created a world so intricate and detailed that even though it passes by in short little bursts, you really get a good sense of it. And the characters I feel got a whole lot better and deeper. The costumes were so great and some totally outrageous (lol Effie J). The first half felt just slightly rushed, but for the time they had, they covered a lot. There were a couple parts that made me giggle…really loudly. :] If you’ve seen the movie or read the books, all I have to say is. Johanna. Hehe. ^^ Of course there were a couple parts that had me tearing up. If you've read the books you know what parts those probably were. It was pretty funny too, because at the end where the big hurrah takes place, my brother and I were both pumping our fist saying Yeah!  

You can really tell the difference between fans of the books versus those that have only seen the movies too because my sister-in-law kept leaning over to explain little nuances to my brother because he hasn't read the books yet. Key word: yet. Between the two of us, I'm sure we'll have him reading them in no time! ;D

Overall, I would give Catching Fire 4.5 stars only because I felt like there was just a smidge where they could've done a little bit more, but like I said: Fantastic job. I'm so glad Frances is doing both Mockingjay part 1 & 2. And after seeing the second one, I'm really glad they split the movie into two parts because that will really allow them to dig into the story and honor those parts that really need it and are huge parts of the overall arc. In my opinion, Suzanne Collins is a genius. I also haven't read any of her other books yet, so I might be biased, but Hunger Games is my all-time favorite book series. Ever.

 

Anyways, before I go all Fangirl over you guys, today is the first Wednesday of December, which means it’s time for another IWSG! 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. There's also a brand new website now so be sure to check it out here.  

 

So every year at the Central Oregon Writer’s Guild, we hold two annual readers showcases where members can volunteer to read their work to the guild and on December 19^th is our next showcase and I volunteered! I’ve never been able to read my work out loud in public before so I’m super excited and absolutely terrified! I’m not a great out loud reader. I tend to skip words and mix up letters within words. I don’t want to read too quickly or slowly especially since I only have eight minutes to read, but for those that have had the opportunity to speak before groups and share their work publicly, what have you found works best and helps you present better? Let me know in the comments below and thanks for stopping by! J

 

Happy Writing! ^^ :D

November 2013 IWSG

Happy Wednesday everyone! And seeing that it’s the first Wednesday of the month, that means it’s time for another IWSG!

 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. There's also a brand new website now so be sure to check it out here.

So I’ve got something on my mind I want to ask all of you out there. I am almost finished with a short story that I have been working on for what seems like ages. I’m thinking it’s going to end up being somewhere around 10,000 words and it is a Science Fiction piece that is very close to my heart. Since I am almost done, I’ve been going back and forth on how I want to publish it; traditionally or self-publish. If I go with traditional publishing, I won’t have to worry about paying for a cover or the editing (I don’t think so anyways. Please correct me if I’m wrong). BUT I also don’t have anything else published yet which means that it could be a little bit more difficult to place than I’m anticipating. Since it is such a long piece for a short story, I’m also worried about where I would publish it, because it would be way too long for a magazine. Maybe an anthology, but I don’t know.

My second option which I’m leaning towards the most right now is self-publishing. If I self-publish, I will definitely need to spend the money to pay for a professional cover as well as an editor. I’m liking this option more because I will have more control of my work on this particular avenue, but here is the crux of the matter. I don’t have anything else out there yet so I am currently an unknown and I don’t have a decent work sample I can offer for free yet. Should I let this be my free piece or should I put a price on it? I’ve worked so hard on it and right now I could really use the money, but with paying for a cover and editing, I don’t know how much to expect or if I should expect any returns all. I don’t know.

What do you think? How did you publish your first piece and if, like me, you haven’t been published yet, what avenue are you planning to use?

 Thanks for stopping by and Happy Writing everyone! ^^ :D

September 2013 IWSG

Hey everybody! So today being Wednesday means it’s time again for IWSG!

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.

So this week I want to ask all you lovely folks out there about creativity, and to put a twist on a used and abused question we writers get all the time, I want to ask you, not where you get your inspiration, but where you get your creativity. Or rather, how do you feed your creativity? At a writer’s group about a year ago, I got talking to a gal about getting those creative juices flowing and she said that she loved pottery and that when she worked on her pottery that she found she had more creativity to put towards her writing as well. I suppose you could translate that into something along the lines of: Creative things breed more creativity. Whether that’s true or not remains to be seen, but I wanted to see what all of you found helped you tap into your creativity and apply it towards your writing. Let me know in the comments below and thanks for stopping by and reading! ^^ J

June 2013 IWSG

Hey everyone. Happy June! I still can’t believe May is over and June is here. And being that today is the first Wednesday of the month it’s time again for IWSG, which is hosted by the amazing Alex J. Cavanaugh so be sure to check out his site and say hello.

So yesterday I joined a brand new critique group. I loved the group I was in before and they gave me great feedback, but after I started at my new job, my full time schedule did not allow me the time I needed to meet with them during the day and thus I have been without a group for about six months. Well just yesterday I met with a great group of gals forming a new group and I’m proud to say, I have a critique group again!!! XD The only problem is that it’s been sooo long and I’ve been sooo out of practice critiquing that I find it hard to articulate what it is I want to say. What do you find helps the most when starting a new group?

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. You can view the list and join the group on Alex's site here.

Happy Writing! ^^ :D

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

ISWG 2013!!!

Wow! Sometimes it’s hard to believe another year has come and gone. 2012 was full of so many good and bad memories, but now 2013 stands before us like a clean slate waiting to be utilized. A lot of times when I get new journals, I hate to mar the brand new cleanly, pureness of the pristine white pages, but this year, I plan to make the most of it and so I’m going to mark those pages up until there’s no blank space left! ^^ Okay maybe there will be a little white space in there somewhere, or else I’d probably have trouble reading it, but you get the idea, right? J

Around this time of year, everyone starts making their resolutions about what they’re going to do more of, different, or better. Well…I’m not going to do that. Or rather, I’m not going to make resolutions. I was thinking this morning about resolutions and how I never seem to hear that many people doing anything to accomplish their resolutions. I always hear things like, “Oh well. It’s just a resolution, so it’s okay. At least there’s always next year!” So I’ve come up with a plan. I’m going to write down one goal and the steps it takes to reach that goal, kind of like an outline or a road map, and hang it up somewhere I can see it every day. Studies have shown that people who write down their goals are more likely to accomplish them. Even more so are the ones who put what they wrote somewhere they can see it.

With that in mind, I’d like to share one small goal I’ve set for myself.

My first goal for 2013 is: Complete a full outline for my novel.

I’ve never actually been good at outlining and as such, I’ve avoided them like the plague, but more and more I feel like I really need one. In order to accomplish this goal, I’ve started using index cards to write down scenes that are vital to the plot and organized them into the three different parts I have planned for my book. So far I’ve got a good feeling so we’ll see! ^^

Today is also the first Wednesday of the month so Happy IWSG!!! 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.

Thanks for stopping by everyone! Got goals for the New Year? Share them down below in the comments! ^^ J

Happy New Year’s everyone!!! ^^ :D

 

November IWSG

Hey everybody! Today is the first Wednesday of November so it must be that time again! J Since my last IWSG post, which was my first IWSG post, I’ve been getting back into the heart of my writing bit by bit and it’s great! I’ve also been reading a lot more writing articles as well which is kind of great, and at the same time, not so great. I’ve found a lot of great tips and techniques, but the more tricks I learn, the less I focus on moving my manuscript forward to stop and do tons of edits. Editing is a good and necessary thing, but I’ve found I really don’t make any forward progress when I switch out of my actual writing mode. I guess if I were to boil it down to one question I could ask my fellow IWSGers, I guess I would probably ask how do you go about your editing? Do you write out a chapter at a time and edit what you have? Or do you write the entire manuscript and then go back and edit?

If you're interested in joining IWSG, Alex Cavanaugh is the wonderful host and you can find his website here.

Happy writing everyone! ^^ :D

Insecure Writer's Support Group

I’ve been meaning to join the IWSG for a couple months now; ever since I discovered it really. J It’s so cool to be able to share the things that have sent me on writing ups and downs and know that not only am I not the first one to experience these things, but also that others have experienced it before too. Plus you get to hear all the awesome success stories from authors dealing with the same kinds of things and that they overcame them! How cool is that? ^^ :D

I’ve been coming off of a writing slump and have been working to sit down and write every day even if it’s in the ten minutes I have been before heading into work. It’s going alright so far, and I even got to sit down for a couple hours today and do some much needed editing from my critique group’s notes on my novel’s prologue.  Woohoo! It’s progress, even if it’s little by little. ^^ J

If you're interested in joining IWSG, Alex Cavanaugh is the wonderful host and you can find his website here.
Happy writing everyone! ^^ :D