Welcome 2013!

Goodbye 2012 and Hello 2013!

Since today is the last day of 2012, I decided that 2013 was going to be different. I decided that 2013 was going to be my year (well, I actually decided this part earlier but anyway…). This was the year that I accomplish some of my writing goals. Then, I had another great idea. To help my writing and my writing career, I would create a Goal Board (other names for this fun project are Vision Boards, Dream Boards and Look Boards). Since I want to make goals this year, instead of resolutions, mine will be called a Goal Board.

To help me get started, I decided to embrace the technological age and join Pinterest (JLCatz – if you want to come and find me). Unfortunately, it didn’t work out the way I had wanted when I first tried it out yesterday, so now I have all these different boards with lots of pictures missing. Oh, well. That’s a project for a different day.

I am going to find all different pictures that embrace my goal as a writer, pin them on Pinterest and then, I will print them out and make a physical Goal Board so that I can see it everyday. What good is a goal if you forget about it? What good is a goal if you’re not reminded of it on a daily basis?

My Goal Board will hang somewhere, where I can see it every day, and remind me of my goal: To be a published author.

I also have some smaller goals and I might create a separate space or another Goal Board for them.

I think that 2013 is going to be a very good year. No, scratch that. I KNOW that 2013 is going to be a GREAT year!

What are your goals for 2013? How do you plan on meeting your goals? What do you use for motivation?

I wish all of you a fantastic 2013 and a safe and healthy New Year that is filled with friendship, love, peace, joy, laughter, tons of books and anything else that helps to make your dreams come true!

Happy New Year and Happy 2013 !! 

Until next year ~

 

12 Things to do Before 2012 Ends

~  12-12-12  ~ 

In honor of 12-12-12, I have created a list of 12 writing/computer things I want to do before that last second of 2012 flies into oblivion and hits the pages of the history books forever.

1. Finish writing my NaNoWriMo novel – December has been a tough month for writing. I needed some recuperation time from November writing spree, I was sick for a while, there were horrible tragedies and the, of course, there is/was the holiday season to get through.

2. Find a (great!) title – I chose a title for my book last month, but I'm not sure if I really like it. It just doesn't seem right and it seems as if it belongs on a different type of book. I'm still playing around with it but I hope to have more ideas once the book is finished.

3. One, two or three books – As I'm continuing my NaNo novel, I keep asking myself: Do I want this to be a standalone book? Do I want a sequel? Do I want a trilogy? Initially, this was just going to be a standalone book. It was pretty much cut and dry. But, as I started writing it, it looked like it was going to expand further than I had originally planned. I really don't want one book to be 500+ pages, for several reasons. So, I have to quickly make this decision so that I have a plan for 2013.

4. Donate to NaNo – For all the good National Novel Writing Month has done for me, I would like to do something to give back. I need to rummage underneath the sofa cushions, check the floorboards, fish around the bottom of my pocketbooks and keep my eyes peeled for loose change in the parking lots. I'm sure I can dig up enough change to earn that halo!

5. Keep blogging – I need to set up a better blogging schedule. I am so envious of the people that are able to blog three or more days a week. That is some dedication, let me tell ya. I think between one and two times a week would be a good start for me. I can work my way up to three and join the big leagues next year.

6. Learn how to use Twitter – I think I am getting a little better at doing this, though I still don't have everything down to a science. What is up with those hashtags? Do people just make them up? How do people find the hashtags that you created? How many are you even supposed to use in one tweet? I read that two or three are a good amount and should be no more than that. I just read a tweet that had ten hashtags! TEN!! Is that allowed? Isn't that overkill?

7. Update my Facebook pages – I've been cheating on this one. I've been using my Twitter account to update my Facebook page. I know, I know, I actually need to post real things on FB. I will really try harder on this one.

8. Internet? What internet? – I have this nasty habit of checking the internet way too often for book details. This isn't necessarily a bad idea, one thing usually leads to another and I wind up looking at a huge laundry list of things when I should be getting back to my writing. Why do people make their information sound so damn interesting so that you just can't help yourself? You just have to click on that one headline, which leads to a different headline, which leads to a completely different idea on the same topic and then some. Ugh! Internet, you are going to be the death of me!

9. STOP PROCRASTINATING!! – Well, this is just too obvious and it certainly needs to follow numbers five, six, seven and eight. Get off the freakin' internet and WRITE!

10. Do not automatically write on the internet – I have lost many blogs, book reviews and comments by writing these things solely on internet pages. Why I keep doing this, I'll never know. I need to put reminders on sticky notes and place them on my computer: Open a Word document first and then write your blog, review, comment, etc. first! Upload to proper webpage second. I only thought of this because my blog is freezing up as I write this, which means I’m probably going to lose this blog. Time to open that Word doc…

11. Get off my butt – I know, I know… the saying is “Butt in chair,” but “butt in chair” leads to several things: a) an overweight writer, b) a cramped writer, c) a writer with horrible back, butt and leg pain from sitting too long, and d) a writer that continuously stares at the same four walls, same computer screen, same objects in a room leads to a writer with limited imagination and limited characterization. I need to get off my butt and explore my surroundings!

12. Enjoy the last days of 2012 – Work, after all, is just work. I definitely need to make time for just myself and to enjoy what life has to offer. My last goal is to do something new; whether is be making a new friend, finding a writing buddy or a critique partner, discovering a new place, generating new ideas or anything else. Because what is life if I’m not learning from what it has to offer and if I’m not enjoying what I’ve been given? I hope to carry this goal into 2013 and learn how to make the most out of my life in every way possible.  :) 


Until next time ~   

 

Loopy and Dysfunctional

Ugh!

I have been sick with this awful cold for the past few days and it is driving me crazy! I've got a plastic shopping bag filled with used tissues sitting next to me and an almost empty box of Puffs (the regular tissues - I do not like slightly slimy lotion version). My throat is sore, I sound like a scary old lady, I got the coughs, the multiple sneezes, the headaches, the eye aches and the raw nose. Get this - this is always fun - I have one nostril that can breathe just fine and the other one is both congested and runny at the same time! What a hoot! If I could find a way to tape the dysfunctional nostril closed, I would certainly try it. At least I would be able to breathe again! This one nostril, mouth breathing exercise is making my lips awfully dry and my throat constantly sore.

I've also been downing the cheap versions of DayQuil and NyQuil and my head is quite loopy from the medications and the illness. If I turn my head very quickly, objects become unfocused and I swear I see white blurs.

How does one write like this?!

If I close my eyes, I feel like I'm about to topple over (in fact, I almost did that last night while carrying my cat around in the living room). It wasn't a fun experience for me or for my cat! A word of caution: Do not carry anything precious while you are experiencing a dizzy spell. Put the precious cargo down immediately and then fall at your own risk.

Writing is extremely difficult write now (including this blog). I feel like I'm swimming underwater and my fingers are slow moving extensions from someone else's body. It's difficult for me to focus on anything that actually requires concentration. Forget reading! Forget writing! My word count has been so low these past few days and I've now dubbed myself as the Incompetent Loopy Literatus (ILL for short).

Like my main character, I need a nap. It's like heaven when my eyes close and my head touches the soft pillow. Maybe my word count will improve tomorrow? I can be Writing Effectively Like Literatus (or WELL). There's always hope...

Until next time ~


Incompetent Loopy Literatus (ILL)

What I Learned From NaNoWriMo

Before I had embarked on this crazy journey of attempting to write 50,000 words in 30 days, I thought that it was sheer madness. I mean, who would be that insane to forgo their lives, their free time, their jobs, outside forms of entertainment, reading other books and their insanity for 30 days?! And how would a person even get anywhere near 50K words in 30 days??

Last year, I thought it was impossible so I didn't even try it. I thought that those people were just nuts.

This year was different. I thought, "Why not? What have I got to lose?"

So, this is what I learned from National Novel Writing Month:

1. It is possible to start the contest with only having the main character's name and the tiniest idea of what the story was going to entail.

2. If my story starting veering away from my plot idea, I didn't care! I had no worries and no stress about the story flowing in any particular direction. If my main character wanted to fall down, I let her fall with the biggest bang possible.

3. Having a specific word count for the day made writing much easier.

4. Having the graphs and widgets available on the NaNoWriMo website provided a great visual and total awareness of how far my novel was progressing.

5. Week two was a little harder than week one because I really had no idea as to what direction my story was headed.

6.  In the beginning, I was averaging 2300 words a day. This made me ahead of the game and I hit the 25,000 halfway mark before November 15.

7. If I missed some days, it wasn't the end of the world.

8. If I missed a day of writing, I still recorded at least 1700 words for that day. That meant that I had to bust my butt the next day (or whichever day I started writing again) and tackle the days that I lost before I could tackle that day's writing.

9. It does not count as cheating!  :)

10. I could still sleep, watch my TV shows and function without caffeine during the writing month. Sadly, I could not read any other novels because I was afraid that I would be distracted from my own novel.

11. It really helps if you have no children and outside activities to distract you from writing.

12. It is very easy to get drowsy and pass out on or right next to your computer while typing.

13. It is difficult to shut off my inner editor while writing. I would correct any red, underlined words that would pop up and I would occasionally rewrite sentences or paragraphs. I would not, however, take out full paragraphs or scenes.

14. Having my novel filled with grammatical errors, punctuation errors and sentences with wrong words or missing words is OK! I'm not here to revise; I'm here to write as much as I can in 30 days.

15. Having other people reading my novel as I am writing it provides great feedback!

16. I really wanted to attend the write-ins but I couldn't, for three reasons: my laptop can only survive for an 90-120 minutes on a fully charged battery, I need constant internet access, along with my dictionary and thesaurus, I cannot write with a lot of distractions.

17. I do all my best writing in the late afternoon and in the evening.

18. It is possible to write over 8,000 words in one day.

19. I tried really hard no to get too distracted. I never visited the NaNo forums until I was almost done with 50K, I didn't delve too much into the NaNo website during the month (except to check out the important headlines), I didn't fool around with Facebook, Twitter and other known time killers and I didn't play around on the internet unless it was to look up stuff for my novel.

20. If I don't reread what I have frantically written during the past days and weeks, I will forget many things, which will lead to plot holes, a change in characters or impossible scenarios. ALWAYS REREAD YOUR WORDS BEFORE WRITING!!!

21. Fifty thousand words is not a full-length novel. It's barely even half a novel! When I thought that I would be done with this book by the first week of December, I was so wrong.

I have close to 60,000 words written so far and I am still nowhere near being finished with this thing. I thought I was going to write a simple little standalone novel but now, it has turned into a something completely different; it has a mind of its own and it keeps telling my fingers to add more, more, more with no end in sight.

22. I never knew that the NaNoWriMo challenge (for me) would not actually end on November 30. I feel like the Energizer Bunny!

I keep writing and writing and writing...  :)

Until next time ~