Quote of the Week

"If you're trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. . . But obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it."

Michael Jordan



Well said, Mr. Jordan. Well said.

Joining Short Races

This week's quote has really stuck with me. When I first saw it, I didn't think much about it, but then I realized how true it is. Especially for me right now.

I tweeted a while back that I signed up for my first 5K. Ever. I hate to run, but I needed something to get me moving. And people always told me it's a lot harder to commit to training unless you have a predetermined deadline.

So here it is: my next birthday, June 9, and what a way to start a new year of my life, right? Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. I only have 2 goals for this 5K. #1) run the entire time & #2) survive.

I think those are very reasonable goals.

As I thought through my running goals, I realized how remiss I've been on the writing front. I've been losing all the short races on this side by simply not participating at all. On pinterest there's this little poster:

And yeah, I've been the one sitting on the couch as everyone's been passing by.

Well no more!

If I can get training for this 5K, then I can get back into the writerly swing of things. I've said it before, the getting started again, but if you never start (however many times it may take), you'll never ever finish, right??

Since I've committed to 2 goals for the 5K on my birthday, I've decided I need to commit to 2 goals for my writing to be done by my birthday. #1) get to 40K words in the current WIP (I'm right about 5K right now) & #2) blog twice a week to get back into my writerly groove.

Nothing too crazy or impossible. Not gonna jump into any marathons right away, because that's how you end up quitting before you get started, I think.

Realistic enough goals, but at the same time, a bit of a stretch for me.

How are your short races going? Are they pretty reasonable without being easy reach?

Evolution of Resolutions

It's a new year and I see you over there, going over your list of resolutions. Trying to figure out if what you have on the list are the "right" goals. Reflecting on all that's come to pass over the course of 2010 and trying to decide if you accomplished all the goals you had this time last year.

Personally, I'm one for the evolution of resolutions. Wow, that sounds way smarter than I intended. What I mean to say is that I don't usually sit down and make an entire list of goals at the start of a year. I usually have a few goals that are carryovers from the year(s) before and then as the new year progresses, I add to my goals list.

It's my process and it works for me.

Which, come to think of it, is also how I approach my To Do list. Hmmm, maybe this is why the To Do list is never done . . .

Do you start the year with a list and stick to it? Or do you add to or update your goals throughout the year?

Does your To Do list seem to grow more often than shrink too?

A Wednesday Resolution

I have come to terms with the fact that my characters are not interested in my self-imposed deadline. I don't think they want me to be finished with them just yet. I guess that's okay, it just irritates the crap out of me, but what do you do?

I'm guessing this has a great deal to do with this project being a summer book. It takes place from June to August. And it's not August yet, so I guess they don't want their summer to be over yet.

I respect that.

So I'm giving myself until the end of the summer. Just like the book's timeline.

I know I was just angsting about this yesterday, thank you so so much for all the support. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who goes through this. I just have to keep reminding myself that in the last 4 months, I've been through a lot and yet I was still able to get 50K words down for this book. That's major wordage considering...

I've decided my minor breakdown is because I'm a YA writer and mentally living as an angsty teenager. But we're good now.

I'm totally Zen.

Yeah, right.

So that's my resolution. What about you? Do you have any resolutions you want to cop to?

To Read

Or The Growing Mountain of Books on My Bedside Table that I WILL Read Before I Die.

Last year, about mid-March I decided I was going to read 100 books in 2009. In August, I re-vamped my goal a bit, seeing as I was already 1/4 into the year when I decided on this goal. So new, calendar adjusted goal: 75.

As of my last Recent Reads post, I made it to 34. That is so far short, I am embarrassed to admit it. Luckily, I know you guys are awesome and won't ridicule me. At least not too much.

I thought about why I didn't reach my goal. And not to make excuses, but I just think I wasn't being realistic. Firstly, TIME -- I hadn't counted on how much the day job and a home remodeling (still in progress, btw) would take over my life. Secondly, I reached a point where there was just nothing new I was dying to read.

I don't know about you, but for me, but I have to be in the mood to read certain books. But the mood never struck. So I read, but mostly just old books I'd finished eons ago, which I had defined as books that didn't count toward my 100, er, 75 goal.

So now, I've decided on a more practical goal. Based on what I accomplished last year in 3/4 of the year, I think it would be safe to say 50 is a good goal for me.

It helps that there are a few books I'm eagerly awaiting that come out this year, as well as the fact I've jumped on to participating in some ARC tours!

What about you guys? Aside from the writing goals, do you have reading goals too? Any books you're eagerly awaiting this year?

Have a great weekend and happy reading!

Under Construction

Firstly, HAPPY OCTOBER!! It was freezing outside this morning, which means winter's coming! I'm excited because now I won't look like such a weirdo wearing turtleneck sweaters to work. I swear they keep the office at a nice toasty 50 degrees F year round. People look at you funny when you wear a turtleneck in July around here. Anyway, I digress (yes, already).

So in Utah, we have 2 seasons—Winter and Construction. So honestly, when the road isn't covered in snow, it looks sort of like this:

So I trudged through traffic and construction cones to attend a writers' conference last week. And when I got to the conference, one of our keynote speakers (Brandon Sanderson) said something that was so obvious, I didn’t even think about it. He said something along the lines of "try something new."

Well, as soon as I heard that, I thought to myself this is something new for me. A year ago, I probably wouldn't have known anything about the writers' conference, much less make the effort to register, try to coordinate with the only other person I knew who would be there (though we ended up running into each other by chance), and drive nearly an hour to get there.

Without even planning on it, I realized I’ve been trying a lot of new things recently, so as I work through my wips, I discovered, I am also a wip—a writer, still under construction.

Here are a few of my “new” things. I joined with a couple other fantabulous writers to form an online crit group. I’ve stepped up and forced myself “out there” to meet more people, both online and in-person, to expand my network. I’m trying to branch out in my writing techniques—a pantser trying to outline (if you have any tips, PLEASE let me know!). And I’ve been working on being more Zen about the whole querying process.

What sort of “new” things are you trying out? Are they working? Any tips to share?

All About Quantity

Firstly . . . Happy belated Autumn Equinox!!

I totally scheduled this to post on Tuesday, and then I guess in all the craziness of my being on a work trip (to San Jose, training people about stuff) I guess I didn't hit the Publish Post button. Duh... but anyway here you are!

So... quantity.

How many books have you written?

Me? I've written 4. Each one is less sucky than the one I wrote before it.

As I've written each book, I've seen how much better my writing has become. I've figured out how my flow works. And I feel more like I know what I'm doing when I'm writing.

My QUALITY has improved as my QUANTITY has increased.

I suppose that is what practice does for you, right? The more you practice (write) the better you get. Sweet.

But what about the publishing thing? Well, I think Ally Carter (author of the Gallagher Girls series & upcoming Heist Society) said it best on Twitter:

@OfficiallyAlly ...it all starts with a finished book and with lots of homework. Be prepared and patient and if you're ready an agent will follow.

I believe all the quantity is part of the homework. So is the agent research, the query/synopsis writing, the waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

Then, when Quantity meets Quality. And the stars (or planets) align. And mountains move. And you find a plate of magical cupcakes on your kitchen table. That is when the agent follows.

I am sure of it!

Now . . . where is my forklift so I can move this mountain???

What about you? Your thoughts on quantity & quality ? How many books have you written?

P.S. To those at the writer's conference yesterday, it was great to (finally) meet you! More on my writer's conference experience next week!

Quote of the Week

"I don't know what the future may hold,

but I know who holds the future."

- Ralph Abernathy

WiP Wednesday and a BIG FAT Thank You

A few weeks back (I believe we're at 7 now) ElanaJ over at Mindless Musings threw down the gauntlet, challenging writers to accomplish their goals in regards to ongoing projects. These goals ranged anywhere from writing 500 new words per day to revising a chapter a week. At first it was simply a 30 day challenge, but the community that's been built from that throw down has been amazing.

So today, instead of just focusing on my wips today, I wanted to throw something else out there:

A BIG FAT

For your encouragement and your kudos. For you kind words and continued motivation. And simply for letting me know I'm not alone in my frustrations or inspirations. Simply put, Thank You!

Now that I've had my emotional moment out of the way, let's get on to a WiP Wednesday update.

Just Maybe:

Finishing final revisions now and hope to begin querying soon. Maybe. You know, after I've coached myself mentally to prepare for the worst and accept that rejection is part of life. I know, think positive, but I'm too pragmatic for that.

4LW:

With much support and encouragement I'm currently just over 45,000 words. I'm thinking this ms should be closer to 60,000, so I'm almost there. That is about a 20K word gain in the last 7 weeks.

Grace:

This is the newest/latest project that was resurrected from the vast beyond of my "Things I've Started But Couldn't Figure Out Where They're Going So They Are Going To Live Here For A While Until They Find Some Direction" folder. I had a very exciting revelation on this towards the end of my day at work yesterday that culminated in a stack of post-it notes that have since turned into a psuedo-outline. I don't normally work from an outline until I'm about 40-60K words in depending on how long the project may end up being, but this one just came at me. Initial inspiration? A certain scene in the movie 30 Days of Night. Mind you, movie is not exactly Oscar-worthy material, but it does have Josh Hartnett and he is cute. But from this specific scene, I've been trying to figure out what to do with it, it just wouldn't leave my head. As of yesterday afternoon, I now know what to do with it. And I'm super excited!

So again, thank you for listening, er, reading my rants and updates. I appreciate each and every one of you!

P.S. I hope I haven't sounded too cheesy-peasy, but with my new inspiration, I just thought I'd reach out to some of those who have helped me get to this awesome new place in my writing. You all rock!

WiP Wednesday: So Many Stories, So Little Time

First things first: Today is my last FULL work day of the week! Huzzah! Tomorrow is a half day and then we're getting our family pictures done. And Friday I'm off because it's the baby's (E) 1st birthday and we're having a family day. Okay, gloating over my last work day done. Moving on...

I've been trying to focus, I really have. With my current wip I'm just over the halfway point, I think. Right about 36K words and I'm looking at hitting around 70K with it.

Herein lies the problem, and I've mentioned it before: I have writer's ADD. Seriously. As I've said, I've been working diligently on 4LW for several weeks now, thanks to the Writer's Throwdown Challenge and my willing myself to concentrate on just the one project. That's where the problem is.

Working on one project at a time is simply NOT in my nature. I'm through and through a Gemini and because of that, I am a multi-tasker by heart. I can't help it. Where is all this random rambling going, you ask? Well...

I started a new project. Well, not started, exactly, it's been there for a while, sitting around for the last year with just over 5K words in it and I had a thought the other day that didn't fit into 4LW and I wrote it all down and realized yesterday where it goes. So now, again, I have 3 projects running at various stages.

JM: (YA Contemp Fic) Finishing up revisions then will set aside to cure

4LW: (YA Contemp Fic) About 51% complete at 36,103 words

and the new-old one Grace totally a working title and actually doesn't mean anything so don't read anything into it...

Grace: (YA ... something. Not sure yet where this is going.) I have no idea how complete it is, but currently it has 8,366 words

My goal is to finish revisions of JM by the end of the month. I've had some great feedback and am currently working that through the ms. I also am really trying to focus on 4LW. I'd like to have a completed first draft by July, then the real fun starts. (I'm totally an editor at heart.) And Grace, well that will just have to figure out what it wants me to do with it. I have some thoughts, but nothing solid and I hope it doesn't end up back in my unfinished projects folder.

On a different note, we had a family trip to the bookstore last night and one of the books P got actually kinda makes me think of myself. The Very Busy Spider ... Very busy indeed. The other one she picked out was Panda Bear, Panda Bear What Do You See?.

Me? I picked up a couple new books too, you'll have to stay tuned to my Recent Reads to find out what I picked up.

Okay, Happy Busy Wednesday!

Change of Plans

New words (since last update post): 0
Chapters edited (since last update post): 11

I'm falling a bit behind on the blog. Must come from having spent this past weekend stretched a bit too thin!

Friday night worked with HsJ Entertainment to put on a charity even too benefit the Lupus Foundation. Thanks to everyone who came out to support and make the event a success!

Saturday we had a family wedding. Traditional Laotion weddings begin early in the morning with the ceremony at the bride's home. In the evening there is a reception that runs until super late. So 2 nights in a row of not getting home until 2 AM. Seriously, I'm too old for this.

Sunday was a catch up day. On sleep mostly. I did get in a good chunk of editing and also got some reading in too. Keep an eye out for some new Recent Reads posts!

This made me think about my priorities a bit more and at least for the week, I revamped my #RSthrowdown goal. I am focusing on the editing side of things for JM. I've received a lot of good input from critiques and as it typically is, when you're the writer, you get so close with your projects, you can't really see what needs to be fixed. Luckily, I've had a few people who've given me the proverbial slap on the back of the head and brought me to my senses. So I'm hoping as I work through this round of revisions, JM will get the love it needs and end up in a better place. Hopefully by next week things will have calmed down enough and my brain will be back to fully functional and I can make up for lost time on the writing side. I feel like I'm neglecting 4LW.

Well, have a great day, all. See you on the next page.

Keeping Up - Just Barely

Weekend word count update: (Fri-Sun): 4610
Weekend Chapters edited: 4

In the interest of health, well-being and hanging out with my kiddies, I took an extra vacay day from the blog. That and I had so many technical difficulties yesterday, I was nervous to try anything more fancy than checking email and writing.

But I was productive. I swear. For a holiday weekend, it was crazy busy and I was still able to keep up with the #RSthrowdown and #wordathon, but I think all the late nights caught up to me Monday and I didn’t get hardly anything done on the 2 projects I’ve been focused on. (The rain outside is really just reminding me of how guilty I feel for already missing my goals and we’re not even an entire week into #RSthrowdown yet!)

Mostly, I write at night. Really late at night. So late sometimes, some would consider it early morning. My husband does. So I’m shifting my daily goal (500 words & 1 chapter edited) to look at it from the 24-hour perspective instead of a Monday-Tuesday-etc. time frame. We’ll see how it goes.



This forum has really helped me stay motivated and I'm thankful to ElanaJ for organizing and for everyone in the group for being so positive and supportive!

And finally, there were a few writing contests publicized throughout the past week. I’m sure you’re aware of all of them, but just as a refresher here are some links:

Miss Snark’s First Victim: Secret Agent (now closed – go critique when the postings go up!)

QueryTracker: One-Line Hook (now closed, I believe)

The Knight Agency: Book In A Nutshell (closes April 20)

Good luck to anyone who entered. Good luck to all my peeps in #RSthrowdown with your goals! I figure, I still have until 10 PM tonight to make my Monday night goal – lol!



See you on the next page!

Throwdown!

Current WIP (FLW) Wordcount: 26,097 - Goal: 60,000

Yesterday on her blog ElanaJ issued a Writer's Throwdown for anyone interested to commit to a writing goal. I threw my hat in right away. I have heard other writers say they have goals of 1,000 words a day or the like, but I had never committed myself to this. This is where the guilt came from. Because I didn't have a goal to be accountable for and anyone who may check in to help keep me motivated, sometimes I would go days and days without writing anything new only for this to culminate in a week of sleepless nights and several thousands of pent up words spewing forth. For some people, maybe this is still a good route to go. For me, it didn't used to be a big deal. But now, with two small children who do not understand the concept of "sleeping in" this is not really a great option anymore.

So the goals I've committed to?
500 new words/day for the next 30 days. This will make 15,000 new words in the next 30 days.
Also, a secondary goal is relating to my completed ms (JM) which is in revision stages. This is to edit 1 chapter a day, with 26 chapters, it will be pacing right along with the WIP project.

So here I go.

Good luck to anyone else joining the Throwdown!