The year is starting slowly for my writing but I'm keeping my Hello 2010 philosophy front and center. It's not quite the end of the month but I've decided the rest of my spare time will be filled with seeing a Cirque Du Soleil show and visiting the Grand Canyon.
2010 - Calm. Not so much this month. I guess travelling to another continent by yourself for two weeks will do that. It was good to remember that the craziness was a temporary thing.
I only managed 8 writing days this month but I did realise I'd made it half way through the alpha revision. If 2010 snuck up on me then NaNoEdMo is continuing the trend. The site will open all refreshed and shiny on February 1st so you can get ready to edit for 50 hours in March. I thought I would have the alpha revision of Family Trust finished by March but if not I've resolved (just now) to have it finished by the end of March.
It's busy at Kiwi Writers HQ and something you'll see straight away is weekly klog posts focused around a theme each month. In February we'll all be writing about our favourite thing to do or have when writing. There'll also be a 4,000 word version of the Waitangi Weekend Word Wace since Waitangi Day falls on a Saturday.
With a shiny new theme for the blog I want to keep making improvements both with the layout, features and content. One of the things that has kept me going with the Family Trust revision is teasing my muse with new ideas and new challenges. In fact, those two things crashed into each other and I thought of 10 Ideas in 10 Days. There are so many ways to generate ideas and if you can come up with 10 there's bound to be a great big shiny one in there.
One of the best ways to learn about writing is to read books. This month I've only finished one book: Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. It's a plot driven novel that kept me interested when I was reading but didn't pull me back after I'd put it down. I like stories that aren't just a treasure hunt for the sake of myth, prophecy or fantasy but that really use the character's decisions to drive the action and the consequences. Just like most of Neil Gaiman's stories they are a great lesson in world building.
Here's to 2010. *clink* I'm feeling cautiously optimistic.
Spring is bright, colourful and cheerful. Spring is full of new life and new beginnings. Spring is rebirth and regrowth, optimistic and full of opportunity. This is the way I want to feel about writing. This is the way I have felt about writing and now my little corner of the web represents this.
There are some new things around the page. You'll find some tabs above these posts that take you to pages about me, the blogs I read and the writing communities I hang out at. There's also a selection of labels to the right and a search box up the top right corner to help you browse previous content.
But speaking of new content... I haven't written anything this week. I've been preparing for a two week trip to Las Vegas. It should be a nice balance of work and play and writing but posting may continue to be a little sporadic.
Enjoy the new look!
8 days of writing in January sounded quite good on the 14th and I realised I'd made it past halfway. It crept up on me and it was a pleasant surprise. I'm feeling a little behind now after a weekend with some girlfriends. Now I have life kicking me in the pants again as I get ready to go to Las Vegas for two weeks (more work than play). I am keen to keep making progress though!
I found a blogger theme that I loved a while back but I couldn't work through some of the teething issues. Until now! I've used a test blog to get it all configured and make sure it can do everything I want the new look for No Excuses. Just Write. to do.
I've thought about when I could launch the new look. I'd always thought that I would do it when I had Family Trust to submit but that could still be a month or two away. I thought I could do it at the beginning of March, the beginning of my Spring because that matches the feel of the theme. But I don't know if I can wait that long and why do I need a coinciding reason anyway?
I know how disorienting it can be when a blog changes its theme. Especially if you read blogs through an RSS feed when you might not know which blog you're going to be reading next. So to ease the transition I've decided to give you a sneak peak at what No Excuses. Just Write. will look like in the near future.
In the next week or two you can expect a better, brighter blog living right here.
I'm giving myself the gift of writing. I've got through Chapter 5 and rearranged the scenes to form Chapter 6. Now that writing is a gift to myself it fits into my life. It fits into my evening routine. I can write comfortably on the couch without getting distracted by the TV. It just seems to happen.
It is still early days but I'm full of renewed writing energy.
This has to be my most cringe-worthy typo or misspelling. Misuse there/their, where/were and I'll want to break out the red pen to correct it. Misuse lose and loose and the sword shall be mightier than the pen, so help me!
Lose - to miss from one's possession or from a customary or supposed place.
Loose - not rigidly fastened or securely attached.
More definitions can be found at Merriam Webster online.
It's never usually one single thing that makes you stop a reconsider something. There's always one final thing that brings it all to a catalyst but when things happen in such quick succession as for me in the last 12 hours it makes you sit up and pay attention much quicker.
Last night I said to my husband that I still had two scenes to write tomorrow (now today). He replied, "You have two scenes you want to write." I quickly corrected myself. Indeed, I have two scenes that I want to write today. No one is really going to care if I write them today, if I write them at all, except me.
Holly Lisle announced her big life changing New Year Resolution a couple days ago and her blog post today was the first in making that happen. She shares how we can make our lives what we want them to be, how we can find the dreams to change our worlds, the dreams that matter to us. The bit that really caught me was this: "If you feel guilty because you aren’t doing it, the reason you aren’t doing it is because it doesn’t matter to you." I think all writers have felt guilty about not writing but WHY? Most aspiring writers acknowledge that they are writing for themselves but why does it matter to you?
A cat of impossible colour linked to a fitness blog that twists New Years Resolutions right on their head. They talk about giving yourself a gift in 2010. If you resolve to lose weight there is an inherent struggle in just those two little words. If you think about why you want to lose weight, why it really matters to you, what you will be getting out of losing weight, then you find the gift to yourself. That gift of feeling healthy and have more energy is what will motivate you to lose the weight.
So...
I'm sitting here "wanting" to revise five scenes a week on Family Trust because:
- Five scenes a week is a realistic goal.
- Five scenes a week will result in one chapter a week and one chapter a week will result in the book completely revised in a couple months... why do I want the novel revised?
- So I can write something new! But I could stop now and write something new.
- I want to know I can finish revising a novel. But you know there's more you could revise from reading Revise Your Novel lessons. Do you really want to keep working on it for another six months?
- No, no, no! I need to revise it to my level of knowledge at the time. I've sent it to beta readers. I'm revising to their comments. Why do I want the novel revised?
- So I can submit it to agents and publishers. So I can get experience submitting and being rejected. So I can learn from the experience and improve my writing. So I can become published.
"I write to challenge myself, to test myself and push myself beyond what I think I can accomplish. I write to learn about people, about places, about culture, about life and about myself. I write to entertain, to create, to teach and to inspire."
It's that last sentence that leads to writing for publication. It's right there on the blog, just on the right, but how often do I read it? How often do I remind myself that this is the gift I give to myself whenever I write, whenever I revise, whenever I offer my stories up to the world? This is only the second time that I've paid this little paragraph the attention it deserves, the attention I need to give it. No wonder I'm having so much trouble!
- Cassie shows us how to get an idea and reminds me that the New Year Novella has begun!
- One of the most informative blogs I found in 2009 talks about New Year Resolutions for Writers.
- PBW begins her year by letting go, a little, of her organising/planning ways just as I intend to.
- Possibly the most useful writing blog to appear out of 2009.
- Exciting new writing resource from Lani/Lucy from Will Write for Wine.
- Andrea doesn't do traditional resolutions or goals but chooses a word to describe how she'd like the year to be. Hers is mindful. Mine is calm.
- Eileen shares a magical Christmas story about how Think Sideways has changed her life as well as her writing.
- JA Konrath shares his every growing list of Writer Resolutions.
- Discover International Plot Writing Month. It happened in December and now all 31 days of hints and tricks are there for the taking.
- Take Emily's lead and find 10 Magical Books that will help your writing but not in the way you think.
Revise your novel that is. Now until January 9th you can sign up for How To Revise Your Novel at the cheapest it will ever be. The information provided in this course will give you a whole new way of looking at revision. If you want to learn how to do a revision in one magical pass this course will teach you how.
I've spent over two years revising one single novel and I expect to spend another 3 months at it. It has been a long and painful process. I've learnt a lot and I've still learnt some great things out of the first couple lessons of How To Revise Your Novel. I am certain that I could have completed this revision much quick with Holly's guidance.
This course might not be open again until the end of the year. There is a whole lot packed into this course. You don't have to work through it all straight away. You can download the lessons and work through them at your own pace. Don't miss out!
I've spent a lot of these first days of 2010 catching up on blogs, reading the writerly resolutions of others and being comforted that I'm not the only one that 2010 has caught by surprise. One of the more unique approaches to the new year was to pick one word that you'd like to sum up the year. I thought this was a great way to focus your goals for the year.
My focus word for 2010: Calm.
2009 has been such a frantic year and I'm so surprised I managed to keep as on track with my writing as I did. I'd like 2010 to be a lot calmer. I know to do this I'll need to keep my goals realistic, my mind clear and my surroundings tidy and organised.
Usually I'll have a lovely list of goals for the year that cover all the important areas for a writer: writing, reading, learning and paying it forward. Just look at 2006, 2007, 2008 and you saw the results of 2009 yesterday. This year, perhaps to start the decade, I'm doing something completely different!
I'm only looking ahead to the next two months. I know that once Family Trust is finished I'll need to re-evaluate, re-fuel and re-focus my writing.
- Finish revising Family Trust, send to beta readers, polish and submit to identified publishers and agents.
- Prepare for National Novel Editing Month in March.
- Administer Kiwi Writers.
I've also been on the hunt for a new blog theme. I started thinking big, dramatic and colourful but couldn't find anything to suit the personality of my, my writer or the blog. Now I think I'll have more luck finding something clean and simple with a splash of colour in a very suitable header. But of course, if any talented reader out there would like to design something for me I'd be absolutely thrilled.
Here's to 2010. *clink*
So it's 2010. Wow, okay. That sure snuck up on me. Can you tell? Does the lack of blogging over the last couple weeks hint at it? Ahem. Well, Happy New Year. I hope 2010 has started well for you. Before I can look ahead I'm going to take a sneak back at my goals for 2009.
- Submit "Rebuilding Retehoro" to New Zealand publisher(s).
- Complete and graduate from Holly Lisle's How to Think Sideways course.
- Submit 3 short stories to paying markets.
- Complete the first draft of a new novel.
- Critique 3 pieces of fiction.
- Participate in 3 writing challenges: NaNoEdMo, SoCNoC and NaNoWriMo.
- Read 3 non-fiction books on writing.
- Develop 3 novel ideas.
- Read 3 books per month.
- Identify 12 new story ideas.
I'm actually pretty pleased with these results. I'm always very ambitious and very demanding on myself. So, goodbye 2009 and thanks for all the fish.
