Serve

This is my post for Day 15 of the 15 Habits of Great Writers challenge.

"The challenge

Ready to be generous and serve your audience? Here are a few ideas (pick one):

1. Do a giveaway of a product or service. Find authors or organizations wanting to partner with people like you, and ask them for donations. Do this to build trust with your readers, and make sure whatever you give away clearly adds value to their lives.
2. Conduct a survey. Find out what readers (or perfect strangers) want, what they struggle with, and create something for them. This can be a blog series or an eBook or a whatever. Just make sure there’s a need for it before you make it.
3. Write something important and give it away. Publish an eBook to Amazon and distribute it through the KDP Select Program. Or offer it in exchange for people subscribing to your blog.
4. Answer all correspondence. Respond to every single email, phone call, tweet, etc. until you can’t possibly keep up. This is how tribes are formed — through accessibility."

Okay, just reading this today, I reaize that I am going to need more time to complete this part of the challenge. 

1. First of all, I need time to find someone willing to partner with me to do a donation. However, like other challenges posed within this Great Writers challenge, I have already done this by getting authors to guest post on my Chapter Book Challenge blog during the challenge and one of them gave away a free critique. I also ran a flash fiction story writing competition where the prize was a book on writing flash fiction (donated by me).

2. I will also need time to get people to fill in a survey and to fulfill the need that they wish me to fill. I have no idea what kind of questions to ask for the survey or even what need I am capable of fulfilling for others. If anyone has any ideas, I am open to suggestions!


3. This makes it sound like it is so easy to write something worth publishing as an eBook! I would love to do this and have considered it many times, but I keep failing on what, exactly, to write. Writing of any kind takes time, and I haven't even finished the books I am already working on, so I am not sure how quickly I can just whip something else out to share with others.  But I will try.

4. I do answer correspondence. I do respond to every single email, tweet (to me) and question asked on Facebook. I constantly run out of time for these things, but I do my best to keep up with it all. I try to be as accessible as possible.

As I reflect on these, I see that I am already doing some of them and working on doing others of them.  I will try and update on how I do as I get through them.




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Writing: Acknowledgement Pages

This is my post for Day 25 of the Author Blog Challenge.


Time for some shout-outs. This may mimic your acknowledgement page, but whom would you like to publicly thank for their help in creating your book or completing it to the point where it is presently?


My books aren't finished yet, so this will be a more detailed list when they are complete. Also, my acknowledgements page will be different for my different books.

I will be thanking my husband for putting up with all of the itme I spend writing and for his help brainstorming during our walks at night. I will be thanking my children for constantly being sources of inpsiration for me. I will be thanking my friend Barbara Mack for believing in me and giving me that push to believe in myself. I will be thanking my writing critique group, the Swindon Free Writers, for their helpful adivce and critiques of my writing. I will be thanking all of my on-line friends on Facebook, Twitter and Triberr for their support, and I will be thanking my blog followers as well. When it comes to my children's chapter book, I will have to thank all of the members of my Chapter Book Challenge Facebook group for their support and encouragement.

As I mentioned previously, this list will be longer and more detailed once my book sare actually finished and ready for publication.


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Build

This is my post for Day 8 of the 15 Habits of Great Writers challenge.

"The challenge:

So let’s build something. You don’t need to start another project you’ll never finish. You already probably have enough of those. Instead, I want you to do something truly creative:

I want you to finish something. Anything, really. Just pick a project — an essay, a blog post, maybe even a book — and finish it. Not tomorrow. Today.

It should never take longer than 30 minutes to finish anything. If it does, you’re not breaking the project up into enough chunks. Which will lead to stalling, your worst enemy."

I just completed a blog post for the Author Blog Challenge, so I started and finished something today already. I start and finish writing goals every day, really. I blog frequently. I write short stories. I write chapters of my books. If I set out to write three chapters of whichever book I am currently working on, I will manage to finish those three chapters.

If I set my mind to do something, I get it done. I just need to be setting my mind towards writing more frequently when it come to my novels and my non-fiction book. Between this challenge and the Author Blog Challenge, along with the occasional short story I write, I am writing between 500 to 2,000 words a day. When these challenges are over, I am going to set my writing goal to write a minimum of 500 words a day and see where that takes me,

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Start

This is my post for Day 7 of the 15 Habits of Great Writers challenge.


  

"The challenge

Everything starts ugly. You have to start. Make something ugly. And leave it ugly (temporarily). Be okay with it. Then share it with a few people you trust (feel free to use the comments here, if you like) and look for feedback. Find stuff you can improve and slowly move it towards beautiful."

Starting with something ugly. Hmmm. Yah, I'm already pretty good at this part of the challenge.


I started a new werewolf story. It's only about 3,000 words long so far and it's very, very rough. It needs a lot more detail and mood spun into it, as, right now, it is still very basic. It's almost like a slightly-more-detailed-than-average outline.


Despite this, I have shared it with some select friends and family members. I know it's far from perfect right now. But I wanted to let them get a feel for the type of story it will be, the type of story it is becoming.


Even in the ugliest sight, one can find traces of beauty.


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Steal

This is my post for Day 6 of the 15 Habits of Great Writers challenge.



  

"The challenge

Find a quote or a painting or some form of inspiration — and steal it. Make it your own. Attribute it — give credit where it’s due — but don’t be afraid to use it. Let someone else’s work springboard you into your own.


Give up on your pursuit of originality and genius and just find something that inspires you. Borrow from your friends and heroes and mash it all up into something that looks, feels, and sounds like you.


So let’s hear from you: What’s something you’ve stolen recently? Where did you find the inspiration?"

I don't know if this is what is intended by today's challenge, but I often use art to inspire the stories I write. For example, a beautiful drawing of a sad mermaid inspired me to write a sad mermaid story to match the picture (picture not shown).  And a sculpture of a wood sprite inspired a story about one.

I also read a lot of vampire, fairy and werewolf fiction which is why vampires, fairies and werewolves (along with other mythical and paranormal creatures) turn up so frequently in my writing. I'm sure that I draw on knowledge gleaned while reading these stories in order to write my own. It's impossible not to.

It was only after I wrote most of a YA novel of mine about a girl who can see through dimensions and has to fight creatures that come through to her dimension that I started to notice the similarities in the story to the show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." In no way is it the same story; however, my main character is a girl who fights all sorts of creatures and demons, she has a group of friends who help her and she frequently has to save the world, even though she is just a youthful teenager. (That's pretty much where the similarities end though.)

I think it is virtually impossible to not have the things we read and watch on tv or at the movies influence our imaginaton when we write. And that isn't a bad thing. As long as our stories are still our own and are written in our own voices, as long as we don't take too much from what we read and watch, then we can let our imaginations play with the inspiration we gather from it all.


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Prepare

This is my post for Day 5 of the 15 Habits of Great Writers challenge.

"The challenge

See #1. Ship it. Put something out there, anything. Don’t wait; move something forward.


You don’t need to know everything, just the next step. If it’s a big project, you don’t have to finish the whole thing; just finish part of it. But for crying out loud, do something.


Then tell us about it."

This is something I have been working on for most of the year. My novels are not finished yet, but I have started the process of getting what is written so far critiqued and revised.  I've done my best to start entering my short stories into competitions and challenges to see if anything will come of it and to improve on my writing through the practice.

My newest project is the non-fiction one that is really still in the idea stage right now. It will be written as something to complement my weight loss, fitness and healthy living blog Skinny Dreaming. I will happily take any suggestions anyone would like to leave me on how I should format the thing and on what types of content I should cover. My blog includes my weight loss story, inspirational stories about others' weight losses, informative articles on recent research into health and fitness, tips to aid with weight loss and healthy recipes.  Many people have suggested that I write this book, but writing a non-fiction book is a new experience for me, so I think I have been stuck in the planning stage for it for a little too long. And, as this is all about preparing and letting people know about what will be forthcoming from us, I will post about this project over on my Skinny Dreaming blog too.

The fiction book that is closest to completion is my children's chapter book, "The Magic Necklace." I wrote the book, realized it needed more story to it, so am adding in the finishing touches to the story before it goes into final edits. So, to move this forward, I will have the complete story, with the added in parts, done by the end of the weekend.


How are your writing projects coming along?


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Practice

This is my post for Day 4 of the 15 Habits of Great Writers challenge.

"The challenge

Find a way to practice in public. Here are a few ideas:

• Pitch a magazine you want to write for. Follow some of the templates in You Are a Writer. This article might help, too.
• Ask a friend (or stranger) to guest post on his/her blog. Here’s another useful post.
• Publish something on your blog you’ve never shared with anyone. Take a risk (we’ll be doing more of this soon).
• Submit that book proposal. Don’t “work on it.” Finish it. Send it off. And say a little prayer."

These suggestions aren't things I can do overnight. But here is the plan.


I haven't really been considering writing for magazines much lately. I already write for a monthly publication, but as that is only monthly, it wouldn't hurt for me to research which magazines would be a good fit for my writing style and pitch to them. I already have some ideas for topics.


Anyone want me to guest post on their blog? Give me a topic and I'll come up with something! (that would fulfill idea number 2 above, and I must admit, I like to guest post on others' blogs as it opens my writing style up to the scrutiny of a different segment of people.


I can not think of what I could share here that I have never shared with anyone. Those of you who know me on Twitter and Facebook may have noticed that I talk a lot. I am not really a very private person and have no problem sharing pretty much everything about my life. The only thing I really never talk about is my first marriage. (It was a disaster and feels like a different life now.)

My novels are not complete. I am writing daily in order to complete them, but they still have a long way to go. Only one of them was finished, and after sneding it off for edits, I have found that it needs a lot more writing done on it. I have researched a place that will let me submit the first five pages of my unfinished manuscript though and will be doing this as soon as I have completed the edits on those pages. (They have to be as good as I am capable of making them!)


And since this part of the challenge is supposed to be about practicing in public, I have decided to link to some older posts of mine that I believe are worth reading, even though many of them are from different blogs of mine.

Teaching Our Children to Have the Courage to Dream

Ten Ways to Inspire Your Child to Write

The Courage to Dream

Finding Magic In Everyday Life

Kick Self-Doubt to the Curb

Ten Things Children Can Teach Us About Staying Active

Number One Tip for Making Your Dreams Come True

How to Keep Fairy Magic Alive for Your Children

We Need to Be Healthy for our Kids

You Are Beautiful NOW!

Making Choices

Dads, How Are You Raising Your Princesses?

Prince Charming?

You've Lost Your Muchness

See the World Through Fairy Eyes

Why We Need to Believe In a Bit of Fairy Magic

Feel free to read one or all of the posts. They are posts found on my author blog, my health and fitness blog, my princess blog and my fairy blog. If you decide to read any of the posts, please leave me a comment!

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Initiative

This is my post for Day 3 of the 15 Habits of Great Writers challenge.



  The challenge: Choose yourself. Then, I want you to start something you’re scared of.

I am already doing this. Joining a critique group was scary. Letting others read my stories (in the critique group and here on the blog) was scary.  Submitting my stories to competitions was scary. Letting my family read my stories was scary. (I have a lot of writers in my immediate family.) Letting my friends read my stories was scary.

I promised myself that I would spend this year writing, improving my writing and sharing my writing.  Until this year, I never shared my writing with anyone, with the exception of my blog posts. I was too afraid that my writing wasn't worthwhile and that people would think less of me because I wasn't good enough.  I still struggle with self-doubt. I still think, when someone makes a nice comment about something I wrote, that they might just be trying to be kind.

I know I still have a lot to learn when it comes to my writing. I want my novels published and out there already, but I know they aren't ready yet. That's why I have started writing short stories. Some of my short stories are better than others, but I am sharing them and finding out what people think, and, hopefully, learning something about my writing in the process.


And the best part about all of this writing and sharing of my writing is that I am starting to find my voice.

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I am a writer

This is my post for Day 1 of the 15 Habits of Great Writers challenge.



  
I am participating in Jeff Goins' 15 Habits of Great Writers, and the first challenge is to declare that I am a writer. I do not find this challenge all that difficult. I already see myself as a writer. I write on my blogs frequently. I write health articles for a monthly magazine. I am writing children's stories and Young Adult novels and even a self-help book.

My novels and my self-help book aren't finished and have not been published yet, but that doesn't make me any less a writer. If I stopped writing, then I would no longer be able to call myself a writer. If I stopped believing in my abilities as a writer, stopped learning and improving and gave up my pen (metaphorically speaking), then I would have no right to the title of "writer."

But I am never going to do that, so here I am, a writer still striving to write something great, still hoping to share what I have written and maybe entertain someone or help them in some way.

I have too many stories in my head that want me to write them to ever give up writing.

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