By Kelly Carey A few years ago, I was at good friend’s wedding and I knew the bride was hoping for a packed dance floor. Three songs in and the parquet square was painfully empty. My husband grabbed my hand and said, “Come on, let’s get this party started.” I love to dance and I wanted my friend to have the wedding party she deserved. So we hit the dance floor. Two twirls around and I lost my nerve. Twenty tables of ten times two eyes – you do the math – it was a lot of eyes and I could no longer hear the music. My feet became blocks of cement and every muscle in my body turned rigid. My husband was left trying to twirl a two by four stuck in a five-gallon drum of cement across the floor. I was a dance partner even Derek Hough could not successful spin around. Our friends at table 4 laughed and waved, but no one joined us. The song mercifully ended and my dejected husband dragged his two by four wife back to her seat. We had failed. The party had clearly not started. Why do I share this humiliating failure? And what does it have to do with writing? The same thing can happen to your manuscript. You can have the best idea, set out onto that empty page completely ready, but a few paragraphs in you seize up, just like I did on that dance floor. Here is how it happens. You stop feeling the joy of your own creative energy and you let self-doubt and fear take over. Instead of using your magnificent imagination to conjure up characters, dialogue, and plot twists, you use all your creative energy generating negative comments by potential readers. You drown out the sound of your own writing melody and BAM – you’re a two by four: stiff, halting, and unable to let a single sentence flow across the page. Pieces of lumber cannot write. When you let the thought of how this agent, that editor, or that critique partner will react to every word, sentence, or paragraph, those imagined criticisms will interfere with the exuberance of your writing. Your writing needs to flow with energy and reckless abandon. Judgment is like a giant dam blocking off your writing. You need to bust through that dam. Take a few cleansing breaths and focus only on that positive creative voice in your head and then just write exactly what it tells you to write. That’s it. No judgment, no critique, no mocking friends at table 4, no cement, no two by fours; just you and the sound of your fingers tapping out brilliance across a keyboard. I failed to fill the dance floor at my friend’s wedding because the other guests didn’t see a woman rocking out to her favorite song. Instead they saw my pain, discomfort and humiliation. Who would want to join in on that? If you want readers to share in the joy of your writing, you need to make the process joyful. Judgment and doubt are joy killers and they have no place in your early drafts. Write like you want a full dance floor. Ignore the tables of eyes, and just listen to your own creative music. Readers will come if they can feel the joy in your writing. Deep breath. Hear your music. Go! Dance! Write!
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24 Carrot Writing is pleased to present a guest blog by the wonderful Lauren Scheuer. Lauren is the author and illustrator of Once Upon a Flock: Life with my Soulful Chickens, published by Atria Books (US) and by Souvenir Press (UK). Her work can be found in American Girl, Birds and Blooms Magazine, at the Roger Williams Zoo in RI, and in her blog ScratchandPeck.blogspot.com. We know you will enjoy Lauren's marketing tips. Your Online Identity ---or---Marketing is Fun! By Lauren Scheuer I’m neither a great author nor a great illustrator. But I do have success as author and illustrator because I have an edge: I LOVE Marketing. Your appeal to publishers is measured not only by your creative work but by your public persona. Your publisher expects you to do a good amount of marketing, and your social media account is an essential platform. A strong online following is something publishers look for in an author. Here are some simple guidelines for marketing yourself on Facebook and beyond: Choose an identity. This one little chicken image is the icon that represents me in all social media, and I never change it. I may not always be writing about chickens, but that’s fine. It’s my art, it’s me. It’s on my business card too. To come up with your own identity, make a list of things you love, or things you write about. Think of a simple image. It could be a cute animal, a a bottle of tequila, a dripping dagger… sketch it yourself or hire an artist to do it. A simple photo portrait would work as well. Maintain a flavor. On Facebook you can post photos, quotes, recipes, whatever you write about. But stay on subject. You are, or may one day be, a public figure. Things I post: •Pictures of my chickens and other critters, and pictures of my artwork. Also, links to my Etsy page when I add a new product, and photos of me being amazing Things I don’t post:
•Drunken party-selfies •Family photos at the beach •That amazing plate of nachos I had at the restaurant last night Join groups of like-minded people. If you write about drag-racing, then join all the related Facebook groups you can find: Grannies who Drag, Draggin’ Dragons, Greased Lightning Gals (…to name a few.) Post images to those groups and comment on other posts there. It’s a great way to make new friends. Post regularly. When I’m in enthusiastic marketing-mode, I post to my own Facebook page daily. Otherwise, every few days keeps me on people’s radars. Link to your other social media. For example, you can link your Twitter and Facebook accounts to make it look like you’re tweeting even when you aren’t. * This is only the tip of the iceberg as far as social media marketing. I also use Linkedin, Instagram and Pinterest. Because every bit counts, and because it’s not a waste of time! *I un-linked my Twitter account after November 8, for emotional reasons. Now I use Twitter only for unbridled political rage, while on Facebook I remain a mild-mannered chicken-lover. ••••••••••••••••••• To learn more about Lauren visit her website at laurenscheuer.com/ or visit her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lauren.scheuer . You can order a signed copy of her illustrated Memoir, Once Upon a Flock: Life with my Soulful Chickens, in her Etsy shop at www.etsy.com/il-en/people/lscheuer . By Kelly Carey (foreword by Francine Puckly) If your life is anything like mine, the mid-year popped up out of nowhere and you’re staring at annual goals that you’re hitting, not hitting, or can’t remember setting. June is the perfect time to assess how we’re doing against our annual plans, and Kelly’s 2015 blog – Happy June Year’s Eve – is full of wise words and acts as the perfect reminder to take stock and adjust. So grab an iced tea and pull out your plan. Make a new commitment to realistic goals for the last half of the year! ~ Francine Happy June Year's Eve - Time to Revise Your Writing Goals by Kelly Carey In January, bubbly with champagne excitement and intoxicated by the shimmering crystal ball in Time’s Square, we all set down our writing goals for 2015. Since writers are ambitious dreamers, we probably set very lofty goals. To that I say, good for us! That drive and stamina to succeed will get our manuscripts published. But did you over promise? Did some unforeseen event steal time and attention from your writing? Did your January va-va-voom sput-sput-sputter somewhere in March? Then I would like to be the first to wish you a Happy June Year’s Eve! June marks the mid-year point and is an excellent time to track our progress and make sure we are well positioned for writing success. On June 1, 2015 writing goals and resolutions everywhere can be given a solid scrubbing and be reset, recharged and REVISED for success. You set New Year’s resolutions, now is the time for June Year’s resolutions. As writers, we are not only intimately aware of the power of revision, but we are also experts at revising. It is time to apply that skill not to our manuscripts, but to our writing goals. Read through your goals, keep what is working and toss those goals that just don’t fit or make sense anymore. Maybe that middle grade novel whispered to you on a cold day in March (which frankly could have been any day in March since they were all cold) and you put aside your picture book plans. Perhaps you had a light bulb moment while attending a conference, reading a blog, or while brushing your teeth (true story, just ask Amanda!). Great! Time to make your 2015 writing goals match that reality. Just reminding yourself of the promises you made and the plans you had will refocus your energy for the next six months. This is not a bash session. Do not beat yourself up over missed goals. You are not giving up, you are revising. What writer would forsake revision? I’d like to clink a glass with you on New Year’s 2016 in celebration of hitting our 2015 writing goals. The best way to make this happen is with a serious mid-year goal revision. Happy June Year’s Eve and happy goal revising! By Kelly J. Carey I took a bold step this year and decided not to attend the NE-SCBWI conference. I love this conference, and making the choice to miss out on inspiring lectures, helpful lessons, and the fun of communing with my fellow writer’s was not easy. But here is where I was mentally. I was not lacking in inspiration. I had writing projects in various stages from tidy third and fourth drafts, to word files with a few phrases of an idea, to a synopsis lacking middle grade novel that were all waiting my time and attention. I was not lacking in motivation. For months I had been drifting off to sleep thinking about those projects and waking up wondering if today would finally be the day I would find time to dig into them. Driving in the car, I’m thinking of one of those word files. Waiting for my son’s lacrosse practice to let out, I’m wondering about the third draft of a picture book. I have not lathered my hair in the shower in weeks without ruminating on a plot path of a new story. My desk is piled with notebooks from prior conferences stuffed with craft improving handouts, epiphany inducing notes highlighted with stars, writing prompts that actually make my fingers itch, and sticky-note worthy quotes from authors and editors. I had inspiration, motivation, and tips and tricks galore. What I lacked was activation. I had fallen into the trap of talking and learning about my craft without actually practicing it. At a certain point, you need to take a break from learning and apply what you have learned. You need to write. So that is what I did this spring. I poured over those great notes and applied suggestions on voice, editing, and character to three picture book manuscripts. I employed those fantastic writing prompts to flush out characters and plot in two developing picture book ideas. I still need to write the synopsis for my middle grade novel, but now those motivational quotes feel more like congratulatory toasts. Don’t be afraid to take a pause from learning. I recommend that you shut your door, quiet your brain, and let yourself write. Relax and know that you have skills, that you have worked on your craft, that your mind is open and ready to be creative. Use all your time, energy, and focus to create. The conferences, the lessons, the writing community will be there – but take a moment to just be you and your writing. A productive pause, to apply all the knowledge that you have collected, can be the most rewarding conference you have ever attended. You, your knowledge, and your desire to write – a private conference for three. Have a great conference. By Kelly Carey I love to celebrate the successes of my fellow writers and here is why. I could stand in an empty field in a thunderstorm and wait for lightening to strike. But that sounds lonely and scary. Instead, I’d rather connect with a vibrant group of writers and let the collective friction of our creative energy fire off a spark. When that happens, I want to be connected – to the writer, to their creative process, and hopefully to their manuscript. After all, I don’t want that spark to have to jump very far. Think of a circle of writers holding hands, or a football team huddled with their arms slung over each other’s backs – think how easily that electric spark will flow from one writer to the next when we are that connected. So how do we connect? We connect at conferences when we chat about craft. We build deeper connections when we form a critique group or take a workshop together. These moments offer opportunities not only to nurture our own writing journey, but to nurture the process of another writer. And to really and truly connect, you have to really and truly nurture. That means that when you hear a writer doubting their work after a harsh critique, you offer encouragement. When you read about a new agent looking for a project that describes a manuscript a writing partner shared, you shoot them an email. When you have taken a workshop that was helpful, you spread the word. When your critique partner asks you to read a manuscript, you offer your best and most complete feedback. Your job is to propel every manuscript you touch forward on the road to publication. Yes, I said every manuscript. If you read it – you own it. Give your best feedback, your best advice, and then encourage the revisions and the submissions. Keep that writer on the path. If you bump into them and they have stalled in the process, fire them up again. Challenge them to set writing goals, and help them stick to them. Tell them to join the 24 Carrot Writing Facebook group (shameless self-promotion). When you have done this, then you get to celebrate the success of fellow writers. If you have encouraged them in a moment of doubt, given them a pep talk after a harsh rejection, offered constructive feedback on a manuscript, then you have been a part of their success and you will look forward to the day that they are a part of yours. So, when we hear that a writing friend sold a manuscript – we jump for collective joy! by Kelly Carey Mid-December is a time of great anticipation. Little sugar plums anticipate Santa's arrival, bigger gingerbreads await college admission news, and for me, it’s a time when I purchase a new calendar full of empty squares. It’s a time to think about a whole new year ahead – a time to map out my writing goals, and set some writing New Year's resolutions. This year, I'm enlisting a secret weapon to move my resolutions from goals to habits. I'm going to use Habit List - a high- tech, but easy to use app ($3.99 on I-Tunes, http://habitlist.com/) that will track my goals, remind me to meet them, and give me cool stats on my success. At 24 Carrot Writing we advocate setting two writing goals a month – one craft goal and one butt in chair writing goal. We encourage you to reward yourself for hitting your goals with well-deserved carrots or rewards. The Habit List app can be a fantastic asset in helping you become a 24 Carrot Writer. Let me run you through how Habit List would work using a daily craft goal. Let's set a goal to read one picture book or one chapter of a middle grade or young adult novel every day: 1. Set that goal or “habit” in Habit List. 2. Select the frequency "Every day" (you can pick options like weekly, monthly, every 3 days, or every Tuesday). 3. Ask Habit List to remind you to complete your goal at a set time every day (in my case by 8pm every night – right before I might have opted to turn on the TV!). Habit List becomes my own little sugar plum fairy. Maybe pinging my phone instead of dancing visions in my head, but helping me hit my goals nonetheless. Now you get to revel in every success. When you complete a habit or goal, mark it off for that day, and Habit List will track your progress. The satisfaction of checking off a daily target is invaluable. In a career where we can wait months for feedback, and face rejection more than acceptance, being able to hit “completed” on Habit List becomes balm for the writing soul. You did it. You accomplished a writing goal. Success! Habit List will even let you gloat. It tracks your total completions, your current running streak of success and - for those competitive types - it shows you your longest successful streak. Habit List lets you see how often you've met your target on a weekly basis or a monthly basis. If daily goals aren't you thing. No worries. You can use Habit List to set weekly goals, or monthly goals. For example you may want to work on a PB revision at least 3 days per week. Or maybe you want to make sure you send out 3 submissions a month. You can set each of these goals in Habit List, let your little Habit List Sugar Plum fairy remind you to hit your goals, and feel great satisfaction tracking your progress on the Habit List stat page.
This steady practice of goals will shift your plans from targets you anticipate hitting, to habits you automatically accomplish every day. Set two attainable habits for January – one craft and one writing. Then, assess your progress on your Habit List app and add a second set of habits for February – keep adding and building on your successes each month. This time next year, you will open your Habit List app to discover that you have made being a 24 Carrot Writer a wonderful habit. by Kelly Carey I've been a part of book club with a group of friends for years. I’m sure many of you have too. You gather and chat about a book you have all read. It’s fun and social, and you end up reading some books you might not have picked up otherwise. But, we always read adult books. Recently, I joined a new type of book club, and I want to encourage my children’s writing friends to do the same. The wonderful Julie Reich at The Writers’ Loft in Sherborn, MA started a KidLit Book Group. This group of writers gets together monthly and discusses a YA or MG novel. We look at the book not as readers, but rather as writers, looking for techniques of craft that we can apply to our own work. There are many things that can be learned by examining a YA or MG novel with other YA and MG authors. First, you may be startled to find that we can be tough on the writing of successfully published, acclaimed writers. Hearing someone offer a negative critique of character development, or point out plot holes, or question different literary devices used in telling a story – of a published author – makes me think a bit more cautiously about how I interpret criticism of my own work. For every book clubber who liked a book, there seems to be an equal number who dislike the book. This will be true of your own manuscript. So take heart. Don’t rush to your manuscript and make immediate changes after every bit of advice. Instead, listen to the feedback, look for trends and consistency across critiques and then apply your own writing sensibility to the information before you make changes. Hearing folks offer feedback on a published novel in your KidLit book group will give you the courage to defend your own work. While being in a KidLit book group can help you become less sensitive to critiques of your own manuscript, it can also allow you to really understand the feedback your manuscript is getting. When your KidLit book group is talking about character or dialogue, you will hear how the comments are framed. What do people say when they like a character or feel engaged in a story? You will have lightbulb flashing moments when you recognize that similar comments were made about your own manuscript. You will hear a book group member say why they liked or disliked a scene, and you will recall the same phrasing used to offer feedback on your own work. Being able to examine the feedback directed at someone else’s writing will give you a comfortable distance before you then consider the ramification for your own work. It’s a nice, easy stroll to the heart of a problem that your own writing may suffer from when you hear it discussed in someone else’s writing. This is not to say that a KidLit book group is all about the negative. It's not! The most inspiring, I-can’t-wait-to-get-my-fingers-typing moments are when you feel emboldened to write because you have been uplifted by the talents of other writers. When the group gets excited about a book, and gleefully discusses the expert use of sentence structure to control pacing, or the introduction of a subplot to add tension, you start to feel your hands itch. I imagine this is how a painter feels when presented with jars of wet paint and fresh brushes. You will be inspired by the creativity in front of you. When you look at the tools another author has used, you will want to reach out and grab them and try those techniques for yourself. Finally, so much of writing can be a solitary business, including reading in our genre (something universally recommended in the KidLit industry). A KidLit Book Group is a way to take a lonely component of your writing world and make it a social group activity. You will be gathering with other writers to look at books--folks with a similar passion, discussing from a unique perspective the books we love. It's a wonderful way to get to know each other, understand our reading and writing likes and dislikes, and even find new critique partners. For the nuts and bolt of how it works, I can only share how my KidLit Book Club functions: * We pick a host for every month. The host is responsible for selecting three options of MG or YA books for the group to read. * The group then votes (you will like this type of voting – every option will be a good one!) and picks the book for the following month. * We meet for two hours and the host provides the refreshments. * As a way of starting our discussion, we go around the table and allow everyone to give their overall impression of the book and what they liked or disliked about the writing. This is really all you need to get going. The points folks will bring up in their share time will spur on other discussions and questions and before you know it a two hour book group will have passed and you will have spent it in a productive and completely enjoyable way. Find a coffee shop, a café at your independent book seller, or a room at your local library and invite MG and YA published and pre-published authors in your area to join your KidLit Book Group. It could be the start of a wonderful new endeavor. by Kelly Carey I’ve never been a patient person. Sometimes this works out great. I’ve completed school assignments days before their due dates. I’m usually very relaxed the day before a trip because I have impatiently packed days earlier. And my kids get a huge selection of back to school supplies to choose from because I make them buy their provisions the first week in August. (My kids would argue that this is a negative.) Other times, a lack of patience is a problem. Like when it comes to long car rides, lines for amusement park rides, and cookie dough (are we sure raw dough can really kill me, because I’ve tested this theory a lot and I’m still here?). And when it comes to a lack of patience and a writing career, waiting to hear back from agents and editors can be a BIG problem. You can try to wile away the time before you sign with an agent or sell your manuscript by diving into a draft of a new story. Or you can distract yourself with revisions, writing workshops, Netflix, chocolate and gardening. But sometimes that impatience demands more - an offering of some sort. I have found the answer for this impatient writing monster. Use Scrivener and Staples to take a sneak peek at your novel and you'll find your impatience soothed. Here's how it works: 1. In Scrivener under File, select Compile. 2. In the Compile screen, choose to Format As: Paperback Novel. 3. Now you have three routes you can take. You can either a) print the pages yourself (print them one-sided only and full 8 ½ x 11) OR b) you can download the compiled document onto a flash drive to take to Staples OR c) You can email the document to Staples and place your order with them electronically. 4. I’m a hands on gal, so I chose the first option and printed the pages. And this may satisfy the harping impatient writing imps in your soul. And maybe you happily three-hole punch the printed document, slide it into a binder and enjoy hugging this tangible evidence of your wonderful creative energy and your impatient writing self lies dormant for a bit.
This actual printed novel version of my manuscript is not only a balm for my impatience but a talisman that I can hold up to motivate my quest for publication and ward off the pitfalls of self-doubt that will come with even the most polite rejections. And my heart does a little satisfied sigh when I come across a family member reading my novel. So go ahead – be impatient and take a sneak peek at your novel.
Guest Blog by: Pat Zietlow Miller Readers who adored Pat Zeitlow Miller's debut picture book, Sophie’s Squash, will be running to the bookstore today (June 28, 2016) to pick up a copy of its sequel, Sophie's Squash Go To School. Writers who adore Pat's work will enjoy this behind the scenes look at her path to first time publication and the sometimes scary route to a sequel. When I first wrote and sold SOPHIE’S SQUASH, I never envisioned I would write a sequel. Why? Well, SOPHIE’S SQUASH was the very first book I had sold, and I was thrilled just to have that happen. And I knew that most books by debut authors glow quietly rather than burn brightly. My hope was that SOPHIE would sell enough copies to earn back the advance I’d received and to ensure Schwartz & Wade wasn’t sorry they’d taken a chance on an unknown author. Also, while I know some authors write a book and already have future sequels mapped out in their head, I didn’t. I had no other adventures planned for SOPHIE, as charming and quirky as I thought she was. But then, then … SOPHIE’S SQUASH started doing better than anyone had expected. It never reached bestseller status, but it did fine. More than fine. Quite well indeed. It got four starred reviews, won or was a runner-up for several very nice awards and became something of a book darling. I started getting pictures from parents of their children holding butternut squash. Schools read the book and planned units around squash. One school even added a butternut squash as an honorary classmate. The squash had a name, a nap mat and several outfits and accompanied the class everywhere. I heard from parents whose children planted their squash and grew new squash plants and from several people who read the book to their elderly parents suffering from dementia and found it calmed them. Interestingly enough, when the book first was published, I worried that it would be too quiet and not stand out enough to make an impact. I remember asking myself, “But what’s its hook?” I didn’t realize the squash itself would become the hook. So when Schwartz & Wade asked if I had any sequel ideas, I said I didn’t, but I would think about options. That ended up being a lot harder than I anticipated. The first SOPHIE’S SQUASH had – if you’ll pardon the gardening pun – grown organically from my youngest daughter’s real-life infatuation with a butternut squash. All the pieces of the story were there. I just had to take some literary license to put them together. My youngest daughter is, if I do say so myself, a very funny kid who has had a dry, offbeat way of looking at life from the very start. So I went back through our favorite family stories about her looking for another gem – and found it. When she was in preschool, she came home very distraught because of a little boy who repeatedly tried to hug her and told her he was going to marry her. Three-year-old Sonia wanted no part of this plan and described to me everything she’d do to prevent a wedding from happening. I knew I couldn’t write a picture book about preschoolers’ marriage plans. But what if the annoying classmate just wanted to be friends, but Sophie felt that she already had all the friends she needed with her two squash, Bonnie and Baxter and had no interest? That might work. First, I had the story set around Valentine’s Day, but it quickly became apparent that a first-day-of-school angle worked much better. While I’m extremely happy with how the final book, SOPHIE’S SQUASH GO TO SCHOOL, turned out, it was much harder to write than the first. Why? First, I was writing on a deadline with not as much of a fully formed idea as the first time. Second, there was pressure. When I wrote SOPHIE’S SQUASH, I was unpublished and not sure I ever would be. When I wrote SOPHIE’S SQUASH GO TO SCHOOL, the first book had done well and I felt an obligation to not let Sophie’s fans, Schwartz & Wade or myself down. There were times I wasn’t sure I would pull it off. But, fortunately, I loved Sophie and her family. I knew them. And getting back inside their world and remembering all the great things about it made it possible for me to write a story I like as much as the first one. Whether others feel the same way remains to be seen, but I hope they do. Pat Zietlow MIller has also published The Quickest Kid in Clarksville, Sharing the Bread, and Wherever You Go. To learn more about Pat, her new projects and upcoming publications please visit her website http://www.patzietlowmiller.com/my-books by clicking the link below.
A big 24 Carrot Writing thank you to Pat for being a guest blogger and sharing her wonderful insight. I'm off to my independent bookseller to pick up my copy of Sophie's Squash Go To School! by Kelly Carey It's June and so it is time to assess how your annual writing goals are progressing. Use June Year's Eve to take stock of your accomplishments, reinvest in those goals that need more attention, and set yourself up for success in 2016. To that end, I am re-posting a blog from June of 2015 and wishing you a Happy June Year's Eve! In January, bubbly with champagne excitement and intoxicated by the shimmering crystal ball in Time’s Square, we all set down our writing goals for the year. Since writers are ambitious dreamers, we probably set very lofty goals. To that I say, good for us! That drive and stamina to succeed will get our manuscripts published. But did you over promise? Did some unforeseen event steal time and attention from your writing? Did your January va-va-voom sput-sput-sputter somewhere in March? Then I would like to be the first to wish you a Happy June Year’s Eve! June marks the mid-year point and is an excellent time to track our progress and make sure we are well positioned for writing success. In June, writing goals and resolutions everywhere can be given a solid scrubbing, and REVISED for success. You set New Year’s resolutions, now is the time for June Year’s resolutions. As writers, we are not only intimately aware of the power of revision, but we are also experts at revising. It is time to apply that skill not to our manuscripts, but to our writing goals. Read through your goals, keep what is working and toss those goals that just don’t fit or make sense anymore. Maybe that middle grade novel whispered to you on a cold day in March (which frankly could have been any day in March since they were all cold) and you put aside your picture book plans. Perhaps you had a light bulb moment while attending a conference, reading a blog, or while brushing your teeth (true story, just ask Amanda!). Great! Time to make your writing goals match that reality. Just reminding yourself of the promises you made and the plans you had will refocus your energy for the next six months. This is not a bash session. Do not beat yourself up over missed goals. You are not giving up, you are revising. What writer would forsake revision? I’d like to clink a glass with you on New Year’s Eve in celebration of hitting our writing goals. The best way to make this happen is with a serious mid-year goal revision. Happy June Year’s Eve and happy goal revising! I took a peek at my 2016 writing goals and was thrilled to see that I am ahead on some of my benchmarks. For example, I've already hit my target goal for the number of workshops and conferences I had hoped to attend this year. Cue the big smile, the feeling of accomplishment, and the internal "you go girl". Then I noted some areas that I hadn't even realized were being neglected. I am way behind on writing query letters, and - what do you know - I had set a goal of revising a middle grade novel in progress. I had totally forgotten about that lofty goal. Lucky for me I celebrate June Year's Eve and can use the fizzy euphoria of this wonderful holiday to reinvest in my goals for the next six months of the year. Pop some champagne and set yourself yp for writing success this year! |
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