As long as we work toward FINISHING a specific writing project by sticking to daily or weekly writing goals, it’s perfectly acceptable to occasionally divert our attentions to write on other projects that excite us.
writing
What I Learned as a Writer in 2015 #writerslife #amwriting
In pursuing my ambition to publish great YA novels, here are some things I learned over the past year:
- Beyond the thrill of being able to express my passion for writing and books, there are great benefits to blogging, the best of which is getting to know creative, supportive fellow writers and book lovers, many of whom I now consider friends. I see you, Tracy L. Jackson, Beth @ betwixt-these-pages, Kelly Deeny, Elena Johansen, FamilyRules, Wallace Cass, Annika Perry, Pat Sherard, The Glitter Afficianado, Stephanie @ Eclectic Scribblings, Melanie Noell Bernard, Nate Philbrick, Sabrina Marsi Books, Jennifer F. Santucci, Mackenzie Bates, Stephanie @ yourdaughtersbookshelf, Karen @ MyTrain of Thoughts, Amanda d Bat, Carolyn @ A Hundred Thousand Stories, Erica @ Books the Thing, the bookwormgirls123.
- I am better at editing a first draft on the computer than on a hard copy, even though a lot of advice-givers recommend against it.
- A style sheet is helpful, especially for tracking important plot dates.
- Literary agents are regular folks and book lovers just like us.
- To write first drafts without censoring myself.
- To create headers for each scene in Word so I can easily find them later using the navigation screen.
- To keep a “book blurb” Word file for when I feel especially excited about my novel and get ideas on how to pitch it in future query letters.
- Short stories are not my preferred medium; what I truly love is writing novels (and I’m sort of learning it’s okay to be better at some things than others.)
- Flash fiction is fun…and challenging.
- Collecting images for novel inspiration boards on Pinterest is a blast and really does stimulate ideas.
- It’s still great to be able to hold a book in my hands, but reading novels on electronic devices won’t kill me.
- I want to get more into #bookstagram and #booklr.
- Saving the previous draft of a story before making editing changes avoids a lot of lost good writing.
- All writers, even the most successful ones, find writing novels to be really hard work.
- When I stay away from my novel for too long, I forget I’m actually good at writing it.
- Even when I’m afraid to work on my novel, I do have the discipline and faith to always return to it.
- Daily writing goals and rewards make me a much more productive writer.
- My writing really does improve with practice.
- Beta critiquing other people’s novels makes me a better writer.
- Google Docs is a really handy tool that allows me to work on manuscripts on my phone, home computer, out-of-town relatives’ computers, and hotel lobby computers. . . but I still always keep multiple back-up copies of my work.
- A change purse is a great place to keep a flash drive.
- I really am dedicated to publishing YA novels and maybe, just maybe, I am worthy of success.
How to Motivate Yourself to Finish Your Novel #amwriting #writerslife
As my adored and esteemed writing friend Tracy L. Jackson once wisely said, “Writing a novel is a marathon, not a sprint.” Good advice! Completing a marathon–just like completing a novel–takes endurance. And, despite our hard work and passion for writing, sometimes we lose our motivation. Why? What are the internal hurdles that get in our way?
The main hurdle is fear. I’ve never finished a book before–I mean, really finished, as in multiple drafts rewritten and polished to completion (notice I didn’t say “perfection.”). Over the past couple of years I’ve knocked out first, second, and thirdish drafts of three novels, and the process has taught me a lot, but now I’m working on a novel that I really want to take all the way to publication, and I want to do the story and characters justice.
That’s scary. Maybe there are some writers out there who write and write and rewrite and let nothing stand in their way until their novels are finished. Maybe I’m not that ballsy, but I am no less committed. For me, the process of writing (and finishing) novels includes figuring out how to get past the hurdles.
For example, I recently stood at the glorious precipice of two blissful weeks of winter break: no work to report to every day, pretty much all the free time I wanted, and yet I found myself stalling, stalling, stalling and finding a million reasons not to work on my novel. To get past this hurdle, here’s what I told myself:
Close Your Eyes
Breathe
Shift Perspective
Then. . .
Visualize Your Success
For me, visualizing success means seeing a row of my published novels sitting on a shelf. That simple, but it still wasn’t getting me working on my novel. There were FAR too many other, fun, easy ways to occupy my vacation time: playing with the dogs, checking out my husband’s woodworking projects, blogging, finding out why the neighbors are moving, playing online word games. Everything except writing. So I asked myself:
Do You Want to Publish Novels?
Of course, my answer was a resounding yes. So . . .
Find a Way to Get Excited about the Novel
I reached into my bag of tricks and found something to get me excited about working on my novel–the kind of excitement and enthusiasm that supersedes fear.
In this case, I recalled how one of my dream agents told me that, even though she’s currently closed to queries, she will accept my mine. . . as long as I send it before the end of January 2016. (Yikes, that’s coming up soon). Remembering this got me excited and served as a powerful motivator to work hard at finishing my novel.
Set Goals and Track Progress
Setting writing goals has helped me enormously over the past few years, so when I hit that “stall wall” at the beginning of winter break, I sat down and decided on a reasonable writing/editing goal of two hours day (including weekends). Then I did something I’ve never done before: I created an Excel spreadsheet to track the time I put in each day. “Clocking in” on that spreadsheet and seeing my writing time add up has been indispensable for keeping on track with my writing goals. Here’s a copy of my Writing Time spreadsheet in case you’d like to give it a try.
Reward Yourself
Most of us probably can’t afford to reward ourselves with new cars or spa days for achieving our writing goals, so what I did was pay a visit to OrientalTradingCompany.com and buy myself a set of stickers. Yep, that works for me because, in my world, no one is too old for stickers! And I’m not too proud to admit that I gleefully pore over that sheet of stickers and choose exactly the one I want to reward myself with when I complete my writing goal for the day.
Doing all of this helped me climbed the “stall wall” and, as always, the more I work on the novel, the more I fall in love with it, which makes me WANT to return to it each day.
–Eve Messenger
Infinity Dreams Award #writerslife
Thank you to the ever-classy Caitlyn @ Rhodes of Reading for nominating me for this Infinity of Dreams Award. Caitlyn is a teacher who adores YA fiction, so of course she’s one of my favorite peeps.
Rules:
1. Thank and follow the blog that nominated you
2. Tell us 11 facts about yourself
3. Answer the questions that were set for you to answer
4. Nominate 11 bloggers and set questions for them
Eleven Facts About Me
- At major crossroads moments in my life, I’ve had a hummingbird fly out of seemingly nowhere and hover right in front of me, which I see as a sign that “everything is going to be alright.”
- As a kid I enjoyed scary stories. I’d save up to buy graphic novels about ghosts and hauntings then moved on to Edgar Allan Poe stories and Stephen King novels. Maybe it’s because of my overactive imagination, but now scary stories freak me out.
- I love riding my bicycle, especially through nature.
- I am calm in crisis situations. Afterward is when I get nervous and shaky.
- Because I’d love to be able to enter them all into Goodreads, I’m bummed I can’t remember all the books I’ve read, many of which were randomly grabbed off library shelves with barely a glance at the title.
- I enjoy collecting coffee mugs to commemorate trips I’ve taken.
- Before writing fact #6, I had to look up the difference between “coffee cup” and “coffee mug.” If you’re curious, too, here’s the link.
- My lucky number is five, so on all the athletic teams I played on growing up I liked having five as part of my jersey number.
- Whenever I take left-brain/right-brain tests, my results are always exactly in the middle.
- On the rare occasions that I feel overwhelmingly distraught, I drive to the parking lot of a nearby congregation/compound for nuns (though I’m not Catholic), and it makes me feel better.
- I love dogs and am like a little kid at the dog park.
Questions from Caitlyn
- If you had to choose, would you rather be a contestant on The Amazing Race or The Great British Bake-Off? (Or The Great British Baking Show…depending on where you’re from!) Sorry to say I’ve never seen either show, but I enjoy baking.
- If you were on a deserted island and only had one book with you, what book would it be? Moby-Dick because if it’s the only book I own, I might actually finish it.
- Cake or pie? Pie, definitely, blueberry or peach, please.
- How many different cities have you lived in? Seven.
- Hot chocolate or apple cider? Hot chocolate.
- What super power would you want to have? The ability to speak and understand all languages.
- Who’s the last person you texted? A friend.
- Do you buy DVDs or watch movies online? Online streaming all the way.
- Which 3 people, dead or alive, would you want to invite over for coffee? I’m curious about historical mysteries so, first, I’d invite my 5th great-grandfather for coffee and chat about why he assumed a new name at the turn of the 19th century, find out what his real name was and where he came from. Assuming we could understand each other’s languages, I’d also invite one of the last surviving Picts and inhabitants of Easter Island to ask what happened to their civilizations and find what all their cool stone structures were for.
- What’s your favorite accent to hear people speaking with? (British, American, Spanish, etc.) The sound of a Scottish brogue makes me pretty happy.
- Would you rather have a pet dragon or be a centaur? Both are pretty wonderful, but I’d go with the pet dragon since it can fly me places, which would come in quite handy during rush hour.
I nominate. . .
Mary Cathleen Clark
Abbielou @ Café Book Bean
Beth @ betwixt-these-pages
Madi Uram @ Writing Every Which Way
Sumaya @ Sue’s Reading Corner
Nate Philbrick @ You Write Fiction
Jennifer F. Santucci
Josie @ Josie’s Book Corner
Kelly Deeny
Melanie Noell Bernard
Lila @ The Bookkeeper’s Secrets
Jesalyn @ Life: Books, the Arts, and Nature
Your Questions
- If you had two weeks and unlimited funds, what would be your dream vacation?
- What was one of your favorite books as a child?
- What was one of your favorite recent reads?
- What is your dream/life’s ambition?
- What three things would indicate you’ve achieved your dream?
- What is your favorite board/card/casino game?
- Would you prefer camping in nature or staying at fine hotel in the city?
- If you could write like any author, who would it be and why?
- If you could visit any historical time period, which would you choose and why?
- Romance or adventure?
- What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?
What Were Your Favorite Writerly Gifts This Year? #writinglife #amwriting
Writerly Christmas Haul 2015 – Eve Messenger
Ho, ho, ho! ‘Tis the season for displaying, flipping through, hooking up, playing with, and just all-round jump around with glee about our favorite “writerly” and “readerly” Christmas, Hannukah, and Kwanzaa gifts. Here were my favorites this year:
- Stephen King’s On Writing, the only craft book I wanted to own. I was so happy to find it under the tree.
- New speakers handcrafted from curly maple wood by my talented husband. Now I can listen to music in style.
- Bananagrams, a fun, fast-paced anagram/crossword game that I adore. Now I just have to find people brave enough to play me. . .
- A Barnes & Noble gift card (yessssss).
And. . . wait for it . . .
- A Kindle Paperwhite with graphics so similar to real paper that when I first opened it I kept trying to peel the label off. Except it wasn’t a label–it was the graphic that appears on the screen when it’s shut off, haha. I doubt I’ll ever fully give up the familiar, tactile joy of reading real books, but it’s great to have a close electronic equivalent plus all the conveniences of being able to read in any kind of light, access more books at lower prices, and contend with fewer stacks of read books.
Oh, and I can’t believe I almost forgot. I got a new printer! It’s exactly the kind of black-ink-only workhorse I wanted for printing manuscripts. We haven’t had a working printer in our home for so long, and then I went and broke my classroom computer by printing out too many novel manuscripts (sorry, boss).
Here he is: Brother HL-L2380DW. Isn’t he handsome?
What if You’re Not a Natural Born Storyteller? #amwriting
Thankfully, one of the many great things about writing novels is that there are unlimited opportunities to revise and rewrite until we get our stories right—to make them great, even. Writers who are natural storytellers (those lucky devils) might have an easier time coming up with great plot ideas, but those of us who aren’t necessarily born storytellers have more work to do. We are readers and lovers of novels, so we know when a story is good. It just might take more time for us to get our own stories to that point.
Writer Do Nots
This advice is so spot on that more writers deserve to see it.
Take this advice to heart:
- Never write a novel to prove something.
If you are going to be a novelist, then just do your job. Publishing a novel is not a way to prove something. The objective of a work of fiction is to transport the reader to another world created in print. It is not meant to impress people who have no intention of being transported and probably only will be looking for faults in your work anyway. - If you write for your own therapy, it’s not for publishing.
Every writer has a book that is not meant to be published. We might call them private journals, notes, fiction for my own consumption, whatever. If you write something for yourself, keep it to yourself. There is nothing shameful about writing something that cannot be published. And things that are written for your mental well being rarely accomplishes the objective…
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Happiness, Like Opening Your Eyes to See Other Bright, Kind Fishes Swimming Alongside You. #amwriting
You know how sometimes you’re moseying through your life, teaching classes, reading great books, tending to the family, house, groceries, and pets, writing each morning before work (like you promised yourself you would, yay), and then someone says something nice to you out of the blue like, “You’re pretty,” or “You told me something wise in high school that stuck with me,” or whatever it is, and suddenly life feels more sparkly? There’s a shift. The current changes, and you feel as if you’re not swimming upstream anymore, or maybe your eyes are open wider to see the other bright, kind fishes swimming alongside you.
Three things happened this week that made me feel that kind of happiness, and they all have to do with writing since that is my life’s ambition and mostly what I blog about here. 🙂
- Melanie Noell Bernard invited me to post a guest blog in a special series she’s running in January. I really love Melanie’s blog, and it’s an honor to be asked. (I hope I don’t let her down.)
- My first reblog–thank you, Elizabeth Huff of the Well-Rounded Writer.
- A writer I crossed paths with during NaNoWriMo 2015 messaged me through the NaNo site (it’s crazy that I decided to check my message box there six days after the event ended) saying he “liked my style” in the WIP excerpts I posted in the forums and asked to be a beta reader for my novel. Wow, someone WANTS to read my book.
It’s been a good week.
–Eve Messenger
#RockMyTBR Challenge #amreading
Hello, fellow book junkies! I know it’s early to be saying this, but I am getting so excited for 2016. Not only will it be the year that I start querying my own YA novels, it will also be filled with reading many, many great new books. I’m stunned, amazed and grateful for all the talented new literary voices emerging in the world of young adult fiction (Becky Albertalli, I’m looking at you). I want to read every single one of those new books and also get to the older ones I’ve been thinking about for so long. (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, will I ever know you?) Speaking of which…my pile of TBR books is getting dangerously high.
That is why I’m especially grateful for Sarah K, The Book Traveler’s, fabulous new “Rock My TBR” challenge. (Also worth noting is that Sarah K creates the most beautiful book trailers you’ve ever seen.)
The Rock My TBR Challenge is to…
- Read a minimum of 1 book per month you already own (published book). This challenge is totally what YOU make of it! You can do 5 books a month, 10, WHATEVER! Anything you accomplish is fantastic.
- Buddy Reads: Make a list! If you can, create a list of books you own and want to read then post it, tweet it, video it and try to find others who want to read the same book. Buddy reading is so much fun! It’s great having other people to fangirl/fanboy with while you’re currently reading. This is optional but I think it’d be fun!
Here’s more info in case you’re interested.
This is a list of books I own that I’d like to read in 2016. I’m shooting for reading two a month (in addition to others I’ll surely buy or borrow along the way). If there are any books on this list that you would also like to read, please drop me a line so we can read them together, kind of like having a workout partner to stay motivated.
The Diviners by Libby Bray – read Jan. 2016
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan – read Dec. 2015
The Door That Led to Where by Sally Gardner – read Jan. 2016
The Future of Us by Jay Asher – read Jan. 2016
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith –buddy read with Jan and Beth @ betwixt-the-pages Feb. 2016
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab –read Feb. 2016
Vivian Apple at the End of the World by Katie Coyle – read Feb. 2016
Angelfall by Susan Ee – read Feb. 2016
Casquette Girls by Alys Arden – read March 2016
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld – read April 2016
White Cat (Curse Workers #1) by Holly Black – read May 2016
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North–read June 2016
A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray-read June 2016
The Cost of All Things by Maggie Lehrman-read July 2016
Made You Up by Francesca Zappia-read September 2016
The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster by Scott Wilbanks
Mistborn by Brian Sanderson – planNED to buddy read with Sarah K @ The YA Book Traveler mid-Feb. 2016 but just not feeling it.
The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon
Yes Please by Amy Poehler
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
Gambit by C.L. Denault
The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg
The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
How about you? What are some books you’d really like to get around to reading in 2016?
Writing and Balancing Social Media #amwriting
graphic courtesy of Ryan Lanz @ A Writer’s Path
As writers, most of us have four jobs: our day job, family life, writing, and social media. For obvious reasons, we have to spend time at our day jobs. We also have to spend time with our families because, well, relationships make life worth living. As for writing, that’s non-negotiable. Except it is. Even when our life’s ambition is to publish novels, we don’t always make enough time to write, and sometimes (often) the culprit is our fourth job, social media.
If you’re like me, you worry that you might be spending too much time on social media. Try not to beat yourself up about this too much. Marketing experts and industry specialists universally agree (I know, that surprised me, too) that, if you’re serious about building a writing career, social media is necessary. Authors must be visible to the public, accessible, and connected to what is happening in the publishing world.
Yay, so we don’t have to worry that we’re spending too much time on social media!
Well, maybe.
How Do You Know You’re Spending Too Much Time on Social Media?
Most of us have an innate sense for when we’re spending an unhealthy amount of time online. And our manuscripts definitely know because they’re not growing as fast as we’d like them to.
According to literary agent and writer’s-best-friend, Jane Friedman, “If it’s starting to drag on your resources and time to do other things more important to you (such as writing), then it’s time to re-assess.”
Why is social media so tempting?
“When we go on these sites, our underlying drive is to satisfy that innate need to connect to others. It comforts us and fulfills us to know that we are not alone.” Well put, Melissa Joy Kong.
Speaking mostly for myself, I’ll hazard a guess that writers are particularly susceptible to social media’s siren call. Since we writers are not the world’s most extroverted creatures (hence, we immerse ourselves in imaginary worlds), the “comfort” of social media is logically a huge temptation.
Now for the Big Question . . . How to Balance Writing and Social Media?
#1 Set Goals and Prioritize
Just like setting goals for your writing, also set goals for the time you spend on social media. Joshua Graham recommends that you “Make to-do lists every day and put tasks in priority order.”
#2 Quality over Quantity
Don’t try to do it all; stick to social media platforms you enjoy and do them well. If blogging every day doesn’t negatively impact your writing time, then go for it. However, Chuck Sambuchino suggests, “It’s very possible to have a platform with the ‘less is more’ philosophy, as long as you focus on the absolute quality of your efforts.”
#3 “Batch” Your Time
There’s this term efficiency experts use called “batching” time. This means setting aside blocks of time for, in our case, writing. During that time block, all you should do is write. Then you can set aside other blocks of time for blogging and each social media platform. You’ll get far more accomplished if you’re not constantly switching between blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr and, of course, all-important writing.
If resisting social media during your writing block is too difficult, consider downloading the Anti-Social app ($15), which you can program to block overly tempting websites during time periods that you set.
#4 Frontload Blog and Social Media Posts
During your “blog time block,” frontload blog posts. For example, set aside each Sunday afternoon to write all your blog posts for the week. You can also write and schedule social media posts in advance using programs like Hootsuite.
#5 Set a Daily Limit on Your Social Media Time
What is a reasonable amount of time to spend on social media? “It varies from person to person” is an answer I hate, so I won’t say that. Instead, I’ll give you Jody Hedlund’s wise answer, which is: “The time we give to our writing should be greater than the time we spend on marketing.” This makes sense, right, writers?
Here’s my favorite answer. (Way to be bold with your very specific answer, Katie Wagner.) In her video blog, Wagner says you should engage in social media for “fifteen minutes, three times a day.” During each fifteen-minute social media block spend:
- Five minutes posting;
- Five minutes responding to posts from others;
- Five minutes reading and commenting on other people’s blogs and social media accounts.
There you have it. If you follow all these suggestions, you will never again have to worry about spending too much time on social media.
Right?
Well, except that we’re writers and we’ll always find reasons to worry. Plus, we’ll probably still spend too much time on social media. But even if you incorporate one or two of these suggestions into your daily or weekly routine, you’ll be making more time to write, which will move you ever closer to your ultimate goal of publishing novels.
If you’ve found other ways of balancing writing and social media, please share!
— Eve Messenger
Eve Messenger 