Please Support Our Thunderclap Campaign!

If you're here to read my A to Z post for L, you can find that HERE!  However, I hope you'll give me a moment here before you head over.

As I'm sure many of you know that the Insecure Writer's Support Group anthology Parallels: Felix Was Here is coming out on May 3rd.  The ten authors involved have been doing all we can to promote the book prior to release, and we'd like to ask for your help!

We just set up a Thunderclap campaign, and if you'd like to lend us your social media voice, we'd be so grateful!  Thank you!

L is for Love

This year for the A-Z Challenge, I'm attempting to act like I know what I'm talking about and offering advice about writing.  Let's see how I do!

Also, don't forget to stop by the Parallels blog to see more posts about the upcoming anthology, which will be available on May 3rd!

If you’re going to be a writer, you need to love what you do.

This isn’t an original or particularly insightful piece of advice, but I’m offering it anyway.  Being a writer requires a lot of work.  Each story may require multiple revisions.  Draft after draft litter my hard drive.  We don’t do this to get rich quick.  Ask a group of successful writers, and most of them aren’t rolling in the dough.  There are those who’ve become mega rich, sure, but they are the exception, not the rule.

That being said, it is possible to get to the point where you earn a decent living from writing, but it will take time to get there.  If you don’t love the process of writing or storytelling in general, then you won’t make it that far.  You have to truly love what you do to put in that kind of work.

At the same time, it’s possible to burn out.  If you’re working so hard that you’re starting to resent the writing process, then you know you need to take a break.  Part of preserving the love of the craft is knowing when to slow down and recharge.

K is for Knowledge

This year for the A-Z Challenge, I'm attempting to act like I know what I'm talking about and offering advice about writing.  Let's see how I do!

Also, don't forget to stop by the Parallels blog to see more posts about the upcoming anthology, which will be available on May 3rd!

Writers need to embrace the pursuit of knowledge.  Research is a key part of being a writer.  Sometimes you need to set the scene, but you’ve never visited the place in question.  Sometimes you need to become an expert in nuclear physics or exobiology in a short amount of time.  If you don’t do your research, your story won’t develop the way it needs to, and that would be a disaster.  Sounds intimidating, right?

It’s not as bad as it sounds, though.  Trust me.  You don’t have to know absolutely everything about a given subject to tell a great story about it.  Learn all you can, then tell a story with passion behind it.  If it makes you feel better, most movies and books have scientific or historical inaccuracies, and while some people enjoy picking them apart, most people don’t care as long as you tell a gripping tale.  Use knowledge to strengthen your story, sure, but don’t let that get in the way of good characters and an interesting conflict.  Don’t let a lack of knowledge intimidate you into not writing a story that’s begging to be told.

Research and give that story everything you’ve got!

J is for Journal

This year for the A-Z Challenge, I'm attempting to act like I know what I'm talking about and offering advice about writing.  Let's see how I do!

Also, don't forget to stop by the Parallels blog to see more posts about the upcoming anthology, which will be available on May 3rd!

One key to being a successful writer is to write as often as you can.  Not everyone has the time or energy to write every day, and that’s fine.  We each need to find our own way.  However, you still need to fit some writing time into your schedule on a regular basis.  If you don’t make the effort, months can slip by before you realize you haven’t put words to paper.

A good way to make writing a part of your daily life is to keep some kind of journal.  Your journal can chronicle your writing journey, or you can use it to document your daily life.  You can use it to jot down witty observations, story ideas, or random thoughts.  There is no limit other than your own imagination.  As long as you try to write in it on a regular basis (daily, weekly, etc.) it can help you flex those writing muscles.

And hey, if something you write in your journal inspires a story idea down the road, all the better!

I is for Ignore

This year for the A-Z Challenge, I'm attempting to act like I know what I'm talking about and offering advice about writing.  Let's see how I do!

Also, don't forget to stop by the Parallels blog to see more posts about the upcoming anthology, which will be available on May 3rd!

Hopefully most of us have our cheerleaders.  These are the people that encourage us to keep writing when we get discouraged.  We should listen to them, because they remind us of how much we love what we do.  On the flip side, we all have our detractors.  They are the people who question whether we should “waste our time” with this writing thing.  These are the people we should try to ignore.  (This, by the way, is not the same as someone offering constructive criticism.) 

It’s easier said than done, I know.  Those words of discouragement often burrow deep, because they piggyback on the insecurities we already had.  Even so, as writers, we’re always going to have our detractors, but if we’re going to keep doing this thing we love, we need to have a thick skin.

How do we accomplish this?  How do we ignore the harsh words?  We should focus on our supporters and make sure we never forget how much we love writing.  If we can’t see ourselves living without writing, we must do all we can to keep that love alive.  We owe ourselves that.

H is for Honesty

This year for the A-Z Challenge, I'm attempting to act like I know what I'm talking about and offering advice about writing.  Let's see how I do!

Also, don't forget to stop by the Parallels blog to see more posts about the upcoming anthology, which will be available on May 3rd!

Writers struggle with honesty when it comes to their own work.  We don’t intentionally lie to ourselves about our work, of course.  We simply don’t have the objectivity required to look at it in an honest way.  It’s our baby.  We worked countless hours to bring it to life.  Every line, every character, came from us.  We may love it so much that we can’t see when it needs to be changed.  When someone suggests that we cut a section of it or switch things around, it may be hard to even entertain the thought.  Why would we destroy something that we worked so hard to create?

If we want to improve our storytelling abilities, we need to consider the suggestions our readers make.  While we as writers must make the final decisions as to how we tell the story, we must also acknowledge that readers may spot things we don’t.  If you get a suggestion that makes you cringe, take the time to read things over and seriously consider it.  Be honest.  Consider it as if you’re a reader.  Instead of resulting in the butchery of your tale, it might make the story stronger.

G is for Goals and Celebrate the Small Things-April 8, 2016

This year for the A-Z Challenge, I'm attempting to act like I know what I'm talking about and offering advice about writing.  Let's see how I do!

Also, don't forget to stop by the Parallels blog to see more posts about the upcoming anthology, which will be available on May 3rd!

People often set goals for a new year.  Some people also take the time to make monthly goals.  These goals can pertain to any area of your life, whether it be health-related, work-related, family-related, etc.  However, it can be especially helpful to make writing goals.

Yearly goals frequently fall by the wayside as time goes on.  Things happen.  Life can go in an entirely different direction than you expected.  That’s why I find it helpful to make goals on a regular basis.  At least then I have a hope of getting something done.  I don't want the image below to apply to me if I can help it.

Sure, I have my yearly goals, but I also break it down into monthly and weekly goals.  I started doing this recently, and it’s been successful so far.  By making weekly goals, I give myself something specific to accomplish in a relatively short amount of time, and I also have to take account of what I accomplished the week before and what I didn’t.  That’s helped me hold myself accountable.

If you decide to set goals, do it in a way that works for you.  However often you set goals and reassess, make sure you do it in a way that helps your productivity.

It's Friday!  Let's Celebrate the Small Things with Lexa Cain!  Tonja Drecker and I are her co-hosts.

Jude had a great 7th birthday.  He brought cupcakes to school to share with his classmates, which made him happy.  My dad also bought him a birthday cake and a K'Nex set, and what kid wouldn't love that?  Though truthfully, I think my husband is enjoying the K'Nex set as much as the kids are.

Jude also had a spring concert on Thursday.  He loves singing on stage.  He loves performing in general, and he'd probably live on the stage if I let him.

Writing is going a bit more slowly this month due to everything else going on, but I'm still writing nonetheless! That's worth celebrating.

I co-hosted IWSG this month, which is always a cool experience.  It's a good way to meet people and get some additional traffic to your blog.  That's a win-win situation if you ask me.

I'm also celebrating the fact that the IWSG anthology Parallels: Felix Was Here is coming out less than a month from now.  May 3rd is fast approaching.  Who else is excited about that?  I know I am.

What would you like to celebrate?