How I Write-- Top 5 Ways to Get Writing Done

This week, we were asked what are our 5 top ways to be successful with our goals. Here are some of mine:

1. Oh a shiny!- Yeah, new story ideas are bad. The new characters like to chatter and complain. And oh the muse crack they dangle...I'm completely susceptible to those ideas for new stories. The crack, it's everywhere, I tell ya and just when I think I've evaded one, another comes along.

Many people hear voices when no-one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing. -Margaret Chittenden

There's no cure-all. Only a focus of steel. Writing all these ideas down in a WIP ideas file sometimes helps. But for the stubborn ideas...there are times when the only way it'll leave me alone is to actually write out the scene in my head. Let me be clear on what sticks with me. Sometimes it's the character or the plot, but most of the time, it's a line. One measly sentence that stalks me and repeats over and over again. Usually, it's the first line of a book, but not always. In those cases, I need to write out the scene. If I don't, I can't evade.

2. I want kick-ass fighting and awesome psychic moves and...oh what if I add a... (aka the grass is always greener on the other side)- This is the worse, to always want to do more. Sometimes the simplest scenes are the best. I write paranormal where your imagination is the limit and that can frustrate me because the laws of reality doesn't always apply. I can waste time going back and re-writing because oh I can always add (insert awesomely cool thing). By doing this, I go in circles and it can take more time to complete. This can be one of the hardest procrastination devices for me. Sometimes, I can talk myself out of adding the new awesomely cool thing, other times, I can't and I just have to write it and hope it doesn't change the plot too badly.

3. I'll write 120k in two weeks- Um yeah, not happening. Not that I even write past 80k, but still. The term here is keep your goals SMART. Who knows what will happen in two weeks. There's so many variables you're not in control of. Burn out is real and it can kill your motivation to write for awhile if you're not careful. I won't even get into carpal tunnel or the need for sleep and food. Know your limitiations. It'll help you decide on a more reasonable goal.

4. I have to do the dishes and take (insert pet name) out for a walk and my show is on so I definitely want to watch that and...- Reality sucks. We have things to do. We get sick. When you have kids, it's especially hard to put time aside for you when you have so many roles to play. Not to mention there's those with a job outside of the home. Everyone's situation is different. I get home and I have the intelligence of a slug. I don't feel like writing. I just want to lie there. But then I wouldn't get anything done. So I force myself. Even if it's just for an hour. At least I'm making SOME kind of progress. Actually, first I nap. Yep...as soon as I get home and eat I zonk out for 30 mins- 1 hr. It re-energizes me enough to get through the rest of the evening. Otherwise, I'm a zombie. Writing is one of those things where you need to make time for it...scheduling it in if you need to. Harder to do if you have a life (I don't), but sometimes it's needed.

5. Twitter! Facebook!- The world will not stop if you don't go on for an hour...or even a day. I'm bad at this. I love Twitter (not so much FB). I'm always on Twitter, BUT, I am a lurker. Especially when I'm writing or something. I have my chatty moments, but for the most part, I'm fairly quiet on there. A friend is trying out this internet nanny to block Twitter after a certain amount of time used... but still. Social media is great and all, but balance is important as well.

How I Write-- 2011 in review

2011 Accomplishments

2011 brought interesting developments in my life. It was the year I got a book contract, a dream I'd secretly wished for so many years. Granted, I wasn't prepared all those other years, I see that now. I learned a lot about editing--how to tighten, how to strengthen character goals, etc.

It was also the year I went to New York for the first time for the RWA Nationals. I saw many friends and met a bunch of people. We braved the taxis and street cart "dirty dogs"; and visited the very scenic Central Park. And brought way too many books back.

I also bought my first ereader in 2011, a Kobo Touch I fell in love with and then later on, also bought a Kobo Vox. Since then, I have bought over 60 books on them. I had held off for awhile for purchasing an ereader. Like many people, I still love the feel of a physical book in my hands and didn't really want to read on screen. That all changed and while I have some favourite authors I still purchase the physical books from, the majority of future purchases will be ebooks.

What would I do differently?

To be honest, I'm not sure there is much I would do differently. Everything I did was a learning experience. The only thing I would change would be to not let myself "hide". I'm a very introverted person and for a good part of the year I was off work. That meant staying at home for long periods of time and I got used to being by myself. I become a hermit, dreading leaving the apartment, even just to get groceries. I'm back at work now, but it's an effort to get out of these ways. Looking back, I should have gone out more. I should have taken myself out to coffee shops more than once a week to socialize. I should have made more of a conscious effort.

What about 2012? Or what goals do I want to achieve?

Every year, for the accountability group I'm in, we each have to create our long term goal plan. While I won't bore you with all of mine, I'll list off some of the top goals:

1. Finish at least two books (this does not count Seducing the Shadows which has a deadline of Jan 31st to get to critique partners)
2. Re-vamp the Alexia Reed site. This means updating.
3. Read 100 books. This year I'm doing a challenge where 50 of those books (if possible) will be of main characters who don't fall under the "perfect" category. Characters who deepen their story by being different in some way. I think this is important because I tend to trap myself in reading only a certain kind of book. This year, I want to push that envelope because perfect characters aren't real.


What are your 2012 goals? What would you change of 2011 if you could? Check out my friends' sites: Danie Ford Emma G. Delaney Kimberly Farris Kristen Koster

Writing journey through the POV of my book

You'll have to ignore my silliness in this next How I Write addition. The question asked was all about our writing journey (where we were ten years ago, five years ago, a year ago, six months ago). While my goals stayed pretty constant (the learning curve for me was a long one), the process for me, was the biggest thing. I always knew I wanted to be published, even when I was tracing the goo from Goosebump books on a made up cover and pretending I was going to write one just like that. If I could have done anything differently, I wouldn't have wasted a bunch of years. Yes, there was school and yes, I learned a lot from writing RP, BUT, I could have used those years better.

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In the POV... of my book:

My journey of conception was not an easy one. While some books were created simply by a spark of an idea and then went on to maybe one or two…sometimes a few more drafts before being finished, I was not so lucky. While my creator started to jot down ideas and scenes twelve years ago, my journey was a slow one at first with her school work. Luckily (or maybe un-luckily), she had no life. She would go home, sit at the computer and write (in between homework of course). And when she wasn’t doing either, she became addicted to Playstation war and fantasy games. Oh and we won’t mention the horrendous music she played on repeat. So many boybands…*sigh*…we also won’t talk about how she named the hero after one particular lead member.

Ten years ago, I had already been through the ringer three times. Three draft that she tore viciously into, abusing me as she deleted scenes and re-wrote, all in the name of ‘working on characterization’ or ‘learning how to pace the plot’. It didn’t end there. A story can only claim amnesia so many times, you see. Scenes were amputated from me and tortured so viciously that when they were re-inputted, they were completely different. I became Frankenstein incarnate. In order to keep some kind of sanity, I had to regress into myself, because I could barely recognize myself over the new following years.

I got some rest while she was away at university studying. Well no, that's not true…she abandoned me. I was suddenly not good enough anymore, and that does a number on a book’s ego as well, let me tell you. (Although, now that I think of it, it was probably more Stockholm’s Syndrome.) I may sound bitter, but she was the one who cheated on me a bunch with a bunch of role playing stories she co-wrote with a friend. Cheated on ME.

About five years ago, she did a re-vamp of her life. She’d ditched the RP stories and had crawled her way back to me. I thought NOW I could be finished. NOW I would go out and make my query rounds, but oh no. She was not done with me. She’d decided I wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t enough that she’d already taken so much away from me before. It wasn’t just the characters who suddenly became strangers or the plot that mutated until it got out of control.

Now was when the fun would start, she told me. Lies. Her definition of fun and mine are completely different. She cut me down to the first few pages and started over. Again. For the hundredth time. Re-write after total re-write. Edit after edit. She even handed me over to her friends. I won’t even speak about what they did with their red ink as they inserted “comments”. Fun? I don’t know if I’d ever qualify it as “fun”.

Between that point and a year ago, I lived in a fog. All I remember were the rejections and how ego crushing it had been for them to turn away from me. Until I was entered into a pitch contest and the very awesome Mallory Braus took me in. Oh I won’t lie, the edits these last six months have been life changing. I thought I knew all the secrets that went on within me but somehow, she was able to work with the creator to get more out of me. More than I knew was possible…but now, I have a home or will have one, at Carina Press.

Check out the rest of the writing journeys of my friends: Danie Ford Emma G. Delaney Kimberly Farris Kristen Koster

2010-- means new year, new goals... new game plan

It's year 2010!

Kind of scary when I think about it. I've gone so far since 2000 that I can barely imagine just where I'll be in ten more years. So I'm part of a goals accountability group created by Bria Quinlan and one of the things we needed to do was create our 2010 goals.

Easy right?

Not quite because not only do they have to be realistic, they have to be measurable. So saying that I'll get... let's say 8 books done, so not realistic. LOL. Oh it'd be awesome but so not going to happen either with work. Not just with work either, there's other things to consider like editing.

This year, I've decided to work on something new. Mostly because it's a time-sensitive idea. It will be a trilogy, shorter than most with deep ancient Greek roots in a modern day setting. This doesn't mean I plan on setting aside anything however. Not really. I'm just shuffling workloads a bit.

Where Fatal Visions is pretty much where I want it to be, there is still Fatal Temptations that need to be edited. I know I'm dreaming big, but we'll see what happens.

But I have new goals this year as well... goals that don't revolve around writing. Things such as learning French again and creating a list of archaeological digs/museums that I can maybe volunteer at next year. That's something I've always wanted to do so I'm putting it down now, to start planning. Goals are a fluid thing... they shift and change constantly so it'll be interesting to see just what I get done by the end of the year.

Either way, it's bound to be interesting!