We can learn from our mistakes. (I mean experiences)

I have been writing furiously on a few different projects lately and have come to discover that sometimes I don't like what I'm writing. I'm not saying that my story is junk, I'm just saying I'm not feeling the love for it right now.

I've been forcing myself to finish a story thinking the only way I could get better at writing was to finish it and learn from the experience. While I believe that is true, it is also true if you don't write what you love and love what you're writing then no one else will.

I had a partial request that just came back as a "no thank you". And while it was dissapointing that they didn't want it, I also discovered that I feel relief knowing the next project I work on doesn't have to be the follow up that would go with that story. This is the thing I've been working on recently and what I did my NaNoWriMo project on.

So in my last post I made myself a challenge to do a mini writing month and get 30,000 words written. I am still going to do that, but as a writer/creator I can decide what project it will be on. I have another story that's been percolating in the back of my mind that I'll be jumping into. I'm excited to see where it goes.

There are also a few blogs and things I've read recently that I thought I'd share so you can benefit too. I hope they are as helpful to you as they've been for me.

Reading this blog post from Natalie Whipple gave me some much needed reminders and lessons I can learn through her experience. Check it out HERE

Betsy Love, a friend of mine online, though I feel like I know her in real life though I've never met her had this on her blog.It's some great information about what agents and editors really care about. Check it out HERE

Also a couple of agents or blogs or podcasts about writing I think are great

Writing Excuses

Nathan Bransford

Rachelle Gardner

Please share in the comments some blogs or websites I should look into. Thanks

Laura

Another month filled with words.

I enjoyed the writing abandon of NaNoWriMo so much that I'm going to do my own month of writing here in March.
I managed to churn out the 50,000 words in November, though some of them were repeats and do overs, and begin agains, I was able to keep at least 30,000 of those after doing an edit to get the story straight in my mind again. So my goal for this month is to write 30,000 new words.

I plan to write them on the same story I did in November, which happens to be a follow up story of my most recent completed novel. I figure doing 30K is a realistic goal and I have a group on FB I'll be reporting to so I'll have incentive to keep going. Plus, getting this story closer to completion is always a reward in itself.

So you fun readers who see my blog. What other kind of reward should I give myself if I accomplish my goal. (Can't cost more than $10, but free or low-low cost would be even better) And what should be my consequence if I don't complete it? I need your suggestions.

Laura

I love a good writing challenge.

I totally rock at writing lots of words. When I have a motivation or a challenge, or when there is someone to check up on me.

For instance, a writer friend of mine started Sprint Writers Central. Check out the widget on the side. It's a place where you can go and write while other writers are in the chat room. They've got a timer where you can do little sprints of how ever long works for you. I just did 2 thirty minute sprints for a total of an hour. Guess how many words that produced. 1, 807. That's about 30 words per minute.

Now if I didn't have someone to race against, or even just the timer, or even just my imaginary writing friends when no one else is on the site at the same time as me, I wouldn't write nearly as much.

I'm also part of a Facebook group page that has challenged each writer to write at least 500 words per day for six months, and that would equal about a 90,000 word novel.

This might not work for another writer, but for me, it's been a great motivator.

So get together with a writer friend or two and challenge yourself.

Wanna join us? Let me know and I'll get you hooked up on the Facebook page. But just click that little sprint writers central widget to join the other one.

Laura