Tag Archives: Challenges

Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour for January 2013 – Goals

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My goals for 2012, my first year of writing, were pretty loose: Take the Holly Lisle How to Revise Your Novel class (done!), get my 1st book published (done!) and write as much as I could.  I’ve since made some more structured commitments.  So here is what 2013 looks like so far for me, in a list form so I can check things off!

2013

January

– Write 4 Flash Fiction Friday Stories (one per week): On target so far!

– Update my Blog and Facebook Fan page (Both are titled ConniesRandomThoughts) weekly: On target so far!

– Start the Y2N class (2 years) with zette: Started! And so far so good!

– Begin revision of my August Camp NaNo story; Recall: I’m at the writing in phase of the project and it’s also going good so far.

– Start the Writers Career Business Plan Workshop: Started!

February

– Write 4 Flash Fiction Friday Stories (one per week)

– Update my Blog and Facebook Fan page (Both are titled ConniesRandomThoughts) weekly

– Continue to revise Recall

– Begin outlining Short Stories

March

– Write 4 Flash Fiction Friday Stories (one per week)

– Update my Blog and Facebook Fan page (Both are titled ConniesRandomThoughts) weekly

– Continue revision of Recall

– Outline more Short Stories

April

– Write 4 Flash Fiction Friday Stories (one per week)

– Update my Blog and Facebook Fan page (Both are titled ConniesRandomThoughts) weekly

– Finalize Recall if I haven’t already done so

– Outline more Short Stories

– Begin outline for July NaNo

May

– Write 4 Flash Fiction Friday Stories (one per week)

– Update my Blog and Facebook Fan page (Both are titled ConniesRandomThoughts) weekly

– May Story A Day

– Submit Recall to Publisher or Self-Publish

– Begin revision of TriPoint

June

– Write 4 Flash Fiction Friday Stories (one per week)

– Update my Blog and Facebook Fan page (Both are titled ConniesRandomThoughts) weekly

– Continue revision of TriPoint

– Take zette’s SciFi class (date on this is still tbd)

July

– Write 4 Flash Fiction Friday Stories (one per week)

– Update my Blog and Facebook Fan page (Both are titled ConniesRandomThoughts) weekly

– Finalize TriPoint if I haven’t already done so

– Write a Vision article and submit it

August

– Write 4 Flash Fiction Friday Stories (one per week)

– Update my Blog and Facebook Fan page (Both are titled ConniesRandomThoughts) weekly

– Participate in August Camp NaNo

– Begin revising short stories

– Submit TriPoint to publishers or self-publish

September

– Write 4 Flash Fiction Friday Stories (one per week)

– Update my Blog and Facebook Fan page (Both are titled ConniesRandomThoughts) weekly

– Continue to revise short stories

– Begin submitting short stories to publishers

– Begin outline for November NaNo

October

– Write 4 Flash Fiction Friday Stories (one per week)

– Update my Blog and Facebook Fan page (Both are titled ConniesRandomThoughts) weekly

– Continue to revise short stories

– Continue to submit short stories

– Finalize outline for November NaNo

November

– Write 4 Flash Fiction Friday Stories (one per week)

– Update my Blog and Facebook Fan page (Both are titled ConniesRandomThoughts) weekly

– Participate in NaNo

– Submit short stories

December

– Write 4 Flash Fiction Friday Stories (one per week)

– Update my Blog and Facebook Fan page (Both are titled ConniesRandomThoughts) weekly

– Outline short stories

– Take another class, tbd

Game of 7’s, Author Style

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I was going to do something else for today’s post but this came by me this morning in one of my facebook writer groups and I thought it a great idea. The below snippet is from a novel I’m in the middle of revising and I haven’t revised that section yet so you’re getting the raw, unedited, first draft of my novel with the working title of Recall.

Who doesn’t love a Game of Sevens, author-style? Thanks for the tag, Jamie Raintree!

Go to either page 7 or 77 of your manuscript. Count down 7 lines, then copy the next 7 lines to your status. After that, invite 7 more authors to come out and play.

…face. He easily grabbed her other hand and tied it down.
He stood back, his eyes roaming over every inch of her body. She thought she would retch. Tears were running down the sides of her head, soaking the sheet under her head.
Reaching out to stroke her flat belly he said, “My, my, who knew under all those frumpy clothes you were such a firm little peach. Delicious.”

Chapter 17
The door opened and Abernathy stood there in his dockers and polo shirt, feet bare.
“Alan? Hi! It’s late, something wrong? Come in.” His friend looked surprised, then concerned.

From Working Title: Recall

If you’re an author, play along!

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo or NaNo for short)

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Last November, 2011, I entered a challenge, to write 50,000 words of a novel in just 30 days.  The 30 days of November.  It turns out, even though I’d never heard of it until just two weeks before November 1st, that several tens of thousands of people had heard of it.  Not just heard of it but participated.

I’d dabbled, of course, who hasn’t.  But seriously, I never got more than a chapter or so.  I just had no clue how to go about it.  My daughter, the one who challenged me, by the way to enter this challenge, had a book on a way to write a novel.  I read the thing in just a couple of days and given my understanding of it, planned out my novel.

I’d always heard that you should write what you know.  I did, in a way.  I wrote about a segment of our society that really bugged me, the serious take over of our food by mega corporations.  I ‘won’ the challenge.  That is, I wrote over 60,000 words by the end of November.  I got a prize.  If I could get the novel revised by the end of June 2012, I could get 5 free copies of it.

Hoo!  My next step was how to revise a novel.  That’s another post.  Let it suffice to say that I was hooked.  I had a path, I had developed resources and contacts.  I had an avenue of expression that I never had access to before.  I haven’t stopped since.

So, if you’re thinking of writing a book.  Look around.  There are books and other resources out there that will tell you how to go about it.  Find the one method that works for you and write what you’re passionate about.  I’ve over 55, it’s never too late.