Sunday, October 28, 2012

Success -A Little, Anyway.

Sorry I've been MIA for the past week.  My older son was at Grandma's so it was just Little C. and me for 8 days.  I decided to use the time with only one child to push for some words.  My goal was 20,000, but Little C. got sick. Sooooo... that didn't happen!
But guess, what, guys, I hit 16,000 words!  Whoohooo!!!  That is more than I wrote last month.  And the other thing was, it was FUN.  I think with all no sleep and the stressing about writing, I lost sight of why I love this so much.  I started to feel pressured to finish instead of feeling happy to let the story continue.

Discouragement is pretty easy to get lost in, as a writer.  Sometimes it's a review.  Sometimes it's lack of progress.  Sometimes it's lack of confidence.  I've certainly experienced all three.  My word of the year, as you will recall is Determination.  However, Determination without enjoyment equals STRESS.

Why do I do this?  Why do I plow away, day after day, trying my hardest to finish this series?  Because I love the characters.  Because I love the story.  Because I love the world I invented.  This is the reason I started writing about The Five Tribes in the first place.

Using my WOTY, I've Determined, not to let myself lose sight of why I do this.  I've Determined not to lose my love for writing.  I've Determined to keep this fun, no matter what.

Otherwise, what's the point?

Here are some super interesting articles I ran across last week:
The first is a guest blog by Erin Kern talking about how Indies are the new query letter.  If you'd asked me a year ago if this was true, I probably would have laughed.  Since then I've been approached by both a publisher and an agent, so I'd say I was dead wrong.  Take a look, it's a pretty interesting story.
The second is an article by one of my faves, Kristine Kathryn Rusch.  It's on PERFECTION, which is a big deal for me.  I loved pretty much everything this article had to say.

That's all from me this week.  Hope you all had a successful writing week!
Happy Reading!

4 comments:

Em said...

Sorry your little one was poorly but glad you still managed such a high word count!!

Hope to see you around the NaNo world!!

Anonymous said...

16k rocks! And I hear you on the writing. I have a bad habit of forgetting the love part of writing when things get down to a deadline. It's a labor of passion not a honey-do list. Good luck this week :)

Shan Jeniah Burton said...

About two years ago, I made the commitment to only do things I take joy in.

I'm not perfect at it, by any means, but it does remind me of things that truly delight.

Writing is one of them, and I've rediscovered my passion and joy as I create only what I want to write...

It turns out, I want to write a lot, and often.

Now I revel in my writing, and it's become my playground.

I love hearing how others rediscovering the joy and fulfillment of their writing, too!

Your post gave me the warm fuzzies, and I hope your little one is on the mend!

Deniz Bevan said...

It's true - even when we get down, our characters and the story propel us forward.
I like the idea of indie being the new query letter! I'd much rather have readers see my story than a simple letter...