Fire Star Press: goals

Showing posts with label goals. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Camp NaNoWriMo

For my very first post for Fire Star Press I wrote about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and why it works for me. This month I'm writing about NaNoWriMo's lesser known younger sibling - Camp NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo occurs every November while Camp NaNoWriMo takes place in April and July each year. Elder sibling NaNoWriMo is the extrovert in the family and arrives on the scene with fanfare and confetti, shouting "Here I am!" Camp NaNoWriMo is more introverted and enters the room quietly, not calling attention to itself but willing to chat with anyone who expresses an interest. Camp NaNoWriMo is so quiet I actually forgot about it until the day before it started!

So, how does Camp NaNoWriMo differ from regular NaNoWriMo? Camp is far more relaxed. Instead of everyone working toward the same 50,000 word goal during the month, each camper sets their own goal. Also, instead of connecting to others through "writing buddies" and forums, campers are divided into cabins. Each cabin has a message board allowing campers to communicate and cheer each other to the finish line.

If you've been following my posts you know that writing has been a struggle for me over the past couple of years as my husband and I lost all three of our remaining parents. While things have gotten better, I'm still not back to writing as regularly as I would like. So, I'm hoping Camp NaNoWriMo will help me get back on track. I have set my goal for the month at a modest 15,000 words. Fifteen thousand words added to Dances with Werewolves, the next story in my Kudzu Korners series, will get the length up to where I want it to be without being an over the top goal. Fifteen thousand words is only an average of one thousand words per night for fifteen nights. Easy peasy, right?

Wish me luck! And, if you're interested in joining the fun you can sign up at campnanowrimo.org.

Until next month, happy reading (and writing)!

Amazon Author Page: http://amazon.com/author/isabellanorse

Website: http://www.isabellanorse.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IsabellaNorseAuthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorIzzy

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/isabellanorse/

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

New Year's (Writing) Resolutions

Happy New Year!

I don't make a lot of New Year's Resolutions but I do look back at the events of the previous year to see if there are any trends that I want to change. (Well, the ones that I have control over any way.) The biggest change that I need to make involves my writing. If you've been keeping track of my posts you know that the past couple of years have been an emotional roller coaster which has taken a toll on my writing. This roller coaster continued right up until the end of 2017 when my mother-in-law, the last of our parents, passed away in November.

If I'm being honest, and I always strive to be, I'll admit that I have seriously considered just giving up writing altogether. I mean, it seems that I pretty much have - albeit unintentionally. However, I'm hard-headed (somewhere my husband is muttering "That's an understatement."). I'm not willing to just throw in the towel; I still have stories to tell.

Image courtesy of www.123rf.com

Continuing the honesty trend, I also had no idea how to fix a process that is currently broken. Getting from where I am now to where I used to be when I spent at least an hour and a half every night writing seems overwhelming. Then, I came across a tweet by an author friend that took my breath away. This friend and I have never met, yet we have encouraged each other through the ups and downs of elder care and the death of our parents - her mother died about a month before mine. What I didn't realize is that her writing had also suffered as a result of the events in her life. What a relief to find out that I'm not the only one who hasn't been able to "write through the pain!" So, what did her tweet say that impacted me so? In her tweet she was rejoicing having written a couple of thousand words in a days time because she hadn't done that in months. But, that wasn't the part that took my breath away. In her tweet she stated that her daily word count goal is only 250 words and that most days she doesn't make that. *insert angelic choir here*

That's when I realized - I don't have to go from 0 to 60 in 3 seconds. I'm not a race car, I'm a writer. I don't have to go from only writing maybe once a week to writing an hour and a half a day. All I have to do is take baby steps. So, for now, my goal is to write 500 words a day. If I can write more than that, great. If not, I'm going to try something different and not beat myself up about it. (Wish me luck!) Baby steps will help me remember how to walk. Once I'm walking, then I can learn to run again.

I've also set myself a couple of goals as far as writing projects go - but no where near as many as I planned last year. First, I want to finish and submit DANCES WITH WEREWOLVES, the next entry in my Kudzu Korners sweet paranormal romance series. I wanted to submit it last year but, unfortunately, it's still not much more than a rough draft. Once that's done, I want to write the next entry in my Paws and Effect short story series. After that, who knows? I have any number of stories vying for my attention.

So, here's to new years, new goals, and baby steps!

Do you make resolutions?

Let's stay in touch!

Amazon Author Page: http://amazon.com/author/isabellanorse

Website: http://www.isabellanorse.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IsabellaNorseAuthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorIzzy

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/isabellanorse/

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

I'm a slow writer at the best of times. I'm in awe of authors who churn out multiple books a year. I will never be in their ranks. Most of the time I'm okay with that. Right now it's a bit of a struggle.

I began the year with big plans:

✓ Revise and submit Saved by the Belle (It was published by Fire Star Press on Aug 8th.)

✓ Complete and publish the next entry in my Paws and Effect series (It's Meow or Never was published in February.)

__ Complete and submit Dances with Werewolves, the next full-length novel in my Kudzu Korners series

__ Complete Something Whiskered This Way Comes, the 3rd entry in my Paws and Effect series, and submit it to the Kindle Worlds program

__ Use National Novel Writing Month in November to write a rough draft of my first inspirational romance, Finding Faith

As you can see, I only have two of the items on my list checked off. And, I'm struggling a bit with that. You know from some of my earlier posts that my mom passed away earlier this year. For me, grief and writing were not a good mix.

About the time I started getting my writing groove back, we decided to start looking at houses. My husband and I both grew up in the country (some would say the boonies) and we wanted to get back to a rural environment. Almost every evening after work was spent driving endless miles looking at what seemed like hundreds of houses. As exhausting as it was, the process was totally worth it. We closed on our new house at the end of July and moved in the first weekend in August. The past six (eight?) weeks have been filled with a plethora of boxes (packing and unpacking) and next to no writing. As a matter of fact, this post and a post for my personal blog are the only things I've written in the past couple of months. But hey, it's a start!

Our new house, aka The Cabin

I'm the queen of beating myself up over things both big and small and it would be easy to get discouraged about the lack of progress I've made this year. But, in my ongoing effort to stop being so hard on myself, I'm choosing to look at things from a different perspective. I have six published stories - six. That's not too shabby for someone who, a decade ago, wouldn't even have dreamed of being a published author. Take that, negativity!

Now that we have our house in a livable state, it's time to dust off my laptop, find a quiet corner, and get back to work on Dances with Werewolves. I'm looking forward to that magical feeling that occurs when the words start flowing. After all, the only way to fail is to give up. Right?