Monday, July 23, 2012

Weekly Goals

Good morning everyone!
It feels good to not only be writing, but posting on a regular basis. Before I delve into what's on my plate for the week, I hope you'll stop by my friend Annie Bancroft's blog. I am her guest blogger and I'd love to see you over there! You'll find out 8 things you may or may not know about me, including which two authors I'd most love to chat at length with.

Bob comes home on Wednesday so I'm trying to get a jump on posts for the week. I've discovered the auto-post feature on blogger so I can write my posts the night before and set them to run the next morning while I enjoy coffee on the deck with my real-life hero.

Last week I was able to finish one of the contest entries for OCW. They're due the end of August. I also mapped out and researched for a second entry and know where I'm going with a third. My goal is to get the roughs of the contest entries out of the way so I can focus on the novel again for NanoCamp in August. Any of you participating?

Traditionally for Nano events you are supposed to write 50,000 words of a NEW piece. Well, for August I'm going rogue and hopefully finish the rough of my HonkyTonk Hearts target novel. I can't start something new right now. If I can get it finished then I'll reward myself with a whole new concept in November for the official NaNoWriMo2012.

Here's to another fabulous week on the writing journey.
Angela


Thursday, July 19, 2012

Writer's Tip Thursday


Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very;” your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~Mark Twain
(from: http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/art-of-writing/)

Did you know Samuel Langhorne Clemens took the name Mark Twain from his time as a river boat pilot?  Back then a line - or a 'twain' as it was called - was used as a depth finder as part of the navigation process. They would drop the line and when they had 12' of clearance they would 'mark the twain' - meaning 'clear to go'.

As a river boat Captain, I'm glad my husband has much more modern methods of navigating the river.

Monday, July 16, 2012

A Busy Week Ahead

Wow! Where does the time go?
Even though I've not been here, I've been trying to write while keeping up with my granddaughter. I honestly do not know how you published mom's do it! Seriously. My plans to write for 2 hours in the evening after she went to bed fell apart as I fell into bed. All I wanted was 30 minutes to unwind so I could go to sleep. She went back home on July 5th and I've been full steam ahead trying to catch up. I think I'm getting there.

This week I have several things to keep me busy. My blog posts ran well on last week (except for a couple) and this week is looking promising. Hey, it's still Monday!
Even though the list has been posted on the OCW website since April, I finally took a look at the contest entry opportunities yesterday. I didn't want my head working on potential story scenarios while I was trying to finish up other projects. I've chosen eleven possible categories to enter. Today, some of the seeds of ideas began sprouting.

Goal for this week: Rough draft 3 of the 11.

#1 - Write a 500 word piece of 'saleable' fiction. Easy enough. But the catch - Do NOT use any words containing the letter 'E'.  I tried this category last year. I wrote an 'Avatar' kind of story. It didn't place. This year, I think I'm going to play with a paranormal.

#2 - 1500 word Travel article. Write as if you were sending it to a reputable travel magazine. I admire the contest sponsor. As much as I love Texas, I think I'll stay out of his home state :-)

#3 - 2000  nostalgic short story about family life.

Friday, we'll check in on my progress.

Tomorrow would normally be Guest Blogger Tuesday. I've not had the opportunity to line anyone up so I'm taking tomorrow to kick-start these writing projects. I'll be back Wednesday to give you my perspective on the recent ORA Con and tell you about an AWESOME FREE writing course I'm taking. I hope you'll join me.

Happy Writing!
Angela