How writing is like Football

While at the Baylor pep rally last night in preparation for today's Texas Bowl I realized that football is like writing. You can't just pick up a pen one day and expect to be the next New York Times Bestseller. You have to train, practice and persevere.

The Baylor football team has trained and practiced for this day all year but really it goes further back then that. I know that they played football prior to college. The will to be a winning football team can be traced back to then and whenever they began not just physical training but the mental mentality of wanting to be a winner.

As a writer I work to make my own luck and reach my goals. I train and practice and persevere. Like any athlete, all writers must work to continue to grow in their craft and trade. So as the New Year approaches compare your writing to football or your favorite sport. Think about how you can prepare for your 2011 writing career like a football player prepares for a Bowl Game.

In other news I'm hoping that nothing big happenes today because I'll be off line as I cheer my Baylor Bears on to a Texas Bowl victory!!!

Planning out your New Year Resolution

As we welcome 2011 I'm sure many of us are stressing over our New Year's Resolutions, many of which probably include are writing ambitions. Remember to not over work the concept of the New Year's Resolution. Last year I made the resolution to complete my book while maintaining a crazy freelance schedule and I knew that I was going to pregnant while working to accomplish these things. Looking back on it my goals were probably too ambitious. The result though was not failure but knowledge. While working on my YA I learned a lot about myself as a writer. It's still not complete. I've decided to change the point of view but the book will be better for this decision. And I had my writing to keep myself sane while I was stuck on bed rest.
This year I'm setting smaller goals as a means to reach the bigger goals. Instead of saying I'll finish my YA and send it off to my dream agent list I'm committing to writing 2,000 words a day on this project. In addition to that I will maintain my freelance contracts but I'm going to learn to say "no" to knew ones so that I don't overbook myself. To make time for my writing career I'm going to also hire someone to come in several hours a week to watch my daughter. I'll still be there but this should make reaching my goals more attainable.
Decide what you want and set small goals in order to meet your big picture goal. It can be done through a little planning a lot of hard work. And of course we all have the resources of West Houston RWA. Good luck with your goal planning and Happy New Year

Change is good

Fear is the number one reason that writers don't succeed. The best way to tackle the enemy of fear is to change but this can be hard because many of us don't like to change. We're comfortable the way we are. This applies to our writing and our lives.

The past few months I've been playing around with the idea of changing the POV in my YA fantasy. For anyone who has done this to a completed manuscript you realize how hard this is. So of course I didn't want to do it. I am doing it though and after re-writing the first few chapters I can easily see how much richer and epic the story is becoming. This is a good change. Not an easy one but hopefully one that will pay off in the end and bring a better story to the popular YA genre.

So it's not easy to change but it can be for the best. Has anyone else made a major change in a completed manuscript? Share your story below and please share advice!

I won NaNoWriMo now onto revision nightmare

After many painstaking nights and headaches due to my eyes being fixed to a computer screen, I did it. I won National Novel Writing Month which means that I wrote a book in a month. It was insane but the experience helped me learn much more about myself as a writer. Even though I was working on other deadlines for my freelance contracts I was amazed at how much time I could carve away to work on this new novel. And I love it! Thinking about these characters are my new favorite obsession but will I embark on this writing journey again? My answer is no. It really is about the experience and I've done it but I do not feel that I put out my best work when it is a writing sprint. Now I fear that my revision process will be much longer than usual.

The trick now is too not lose the focus that so many of us thrived on during this month of writing chaos. I've finished a new manuscript but that's really just the beginning for this story. I need to evaluate my characters motivations. Check my facts, grammer check and revise for consistency and so on. Now the hard stuff begins but I know that just like I pushed through this month I know that I can make this manuscript work so that hopefully one day before too long it'll find its way into readers' hands. This group of characters deserve that. And I deserve to experience new ways of working in this craft. Writers lead reclusive, private lives driven by odd hours and insane bursts of creativity. This November has been awakening and I look forward to continuing to grow in this wonderful craft.

Family time can also help your writing

The holiday season is upon us and if you're anything like me you are thinking, "how will I finish my draft, meet my deadlines and stay on schedule while spending time with family?" The good news is that you can do both and it may be easier than you think.

Tomorrow in the wee hours of the morning the husband, baby and of course, Oscar our dog will begin the long drive from Little Rock to Houston where we'll have a jam packed week of family time. This involves making time for all family members which are dispersed throughout the large city. The good news is that they all want time with the baby and I'll let them have it. With eager arms wanting to hold baby that means more time for Mommy to write.

Now, as my husband always reminds me, don't be anti-social. I'm not implying for you to lock yourself up in a room and spend Thanksgiving typing away but when you're with family take advantage of their help. Let them play with the kids/pets if you have them. This will easily allow you to carve out a few hours of writing.

Also, don't forget to set your alarm. It's easy to write in a quiet house before everyone wakes up. Plus when the family wakes up you'll be wide awake probably on that second cup of black tea or coffee and ready for a writing break to talk and catch up.

And don't forget to use your family for some brainstorming help. This will let them all know how serious and productive you're being with your writing career and it is always a good idea to bounce ideas off others.

Have fun and enjoy the holiday season while still making time for writing. It can be done. Trust me!

November: The perfect month to get re-energized

If you've seen all the Twitter hastags then you know that November is NaNoWriMo. If you don't know what this funny sounding word then I'll fill you in on this crazy month for many writers. November is National Novel Writing Month. Many writers celebrate this month by writing a novel in a month. Sound crazy? It can be but then again what writer isn't crazy? We make up stories in our heads and that's seen as being OK in society.

For those of us that are participating in NaNoWriMo it's this time of the month when you might be thinking the following: What did I sign up for? I've been thinking the same thing. Writing a novel in one month while caring for a four-month-old, meeting my freelance deadlines and trying to revise my current YA manuscript can all be a challenge. And I didn't even mention my dog and personal writing assistant, Oscar who requires lots of love and kisses! But the truth is that writing is hard. The month has nothing to do with the nature of this business. Writing is always hard but this is a great month to reevaluate your writing career and get re-energized.

I attended a two-day writing working shop this weekend. New York Times Best Selling author Bob Mayer was in Houston teaching his Warrior Writer and A-Team workshops. They were both wonderful and very helpful. Now with new drive I'll be continue my quest for NaNoWriMo just after posting this blog.

What are you doing to re-energize in the middle of NaNoWriMo?

Learn more about author and teacher Bob Mayer here. And don't miss his publishing company, Who Dares Wins Publishing's blog where they're posting tips for NaNoWriMo participants. And the advice is good for all writers even if you're not NaNoWriMoing.

Tomorrow, I'll be back on my way home to my family. And it couldn't come soon enough. Evidently Oscar has been stealing pens from my desk and munching them. Apparently since he hasn't been with me to assist on writing that he is taking things over for me in the office. For the sake of my BIC pens I must return soon! Tomorrow night I'll be reevaluating my pen supply and apologizing to Oscar for leaving town.

NaNoWriMo: Yes, I'm doing it!

OK so if you are an author or aspiring to be one then you've probably heard of NaNoWriMo. The month of November is National Novel Writing Month. It's basically when writers both professional and amateur get behind their keyboards and write an entire novel in one month. Yes, it sounds crazy but it may be the kind of craziness that I need to get my Middle Grade sci-fi finished.

I've been so wrapped up in my baby, my move into a new house, finishing my YA fantasy and my freelance work that I've been neglecting some very annoying characters and a story that needs to be written.

A little background...I won the State Scholastic writing competition in the short story category my freshman year of high school. I has forgotten that story for years until at some point during my pregnancy I had a vivid dream of the story and it hit me that it could easily be a series. There was a whole world and universe that I was failed to see when I was in 9th grade. This story had depth and purpose and it had to get written. I took Laurie Campbell's Plot Via Motivation class and used this story for the exercise.

So now I've had this amazing story but until now it has always fallen on the back burner. I'm now changing that and hoping that with the motivation of NaNoWriMo that I can make it happen. I'm committing to this project and I guess experiment. I'm hoping for this story to be around 60K so we'll see how well I manage it and all my other projects.

But seriously I've spent a year on the YA. It's time to wrap it up in a neat package and send it off while I give this MG a chance.

Are you working on a project for NaNoWriMo? If so, what are you doing to get ready for the month of literary craziness? Do share!