Tag Archives: Naked Montreal

New Year’s Resolutions 2012

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Instead of making dozens of resolutions for 2012, I am just going to make one. Because it’s the most important thing I have to do this year:

This year I will finish my novel, edit it, and get it out into the world.

After I’m done with that, I’ve got plenty of other projects simmering and brewing in the back of my mind. But first things first. I will finally finish this giant freaking project I’ve been working on for years and finally get it off my hard drive and into the hands of readers.

I am still debating traditional vs. self-publishing, but at least I will have a manuscript when I am debating it, this time next year. Or, who knows? Maybe it will already be a book by then.

What’s your resolution for 2012?

So, you want to be a novelist

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So, you want to be a novelist, do you? Then I have some advice for you:

WRITE. EVERY. DAY.

And I don’t mean blogs, or Twitter updates, or emails to your friends and family, or To Do lists. I mean write your novel every day.

It’s the hardest simple thing you’ll ever do.

I’m not suggesting writing a novel is simple; it’s not. And I’m not suggesting that to create a novel, you just put one word after another on the page; it’s more than that. But if you don’t start now, and you don’t keep putting those words on those pages, you will definitely never write a novel.

So write every day. Even when you hate your characters. Even when your plot stinks. Even when it’s a beautiful day and all your friends are going to the beach. Even when it’s a miserable day and everything’s going wrong. Even when you feel like a failure.

Especially when you feel like a failure.

Here’s an easy way to stay on target: Don’t Break the Chain. You can even download a free “Don’t Break the Chain” calendar to hang on the wall near your desk, to shame you into doing it every day, no matter what day of the year you start on.

George Orwell did it. So can you. (image via Flavorwire)

I’ve decided I want to finish my novel by the end of this year. December 31, 2011: midnight. I’ve got 36,888 words and need approximately 13,112 more and my first draft will be done. That means 2,186 words per day for 6 days, or roughly 9 pages per day.

It’s not rocket science. It’s butt-in-chair math. It’s doing the work. Shitty first drafts. And then, lots of editing.

But first: the writing. This week is all about it. And the timer starts now.

You say you want to be a novelist. So where’s your novel?

Happy Holidays: 2011 Year in Review

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By way of a holiday greeting, I thought I would share a bullet-point list of items that I call my 2011 Year in Review.

In 2011, I…

  • Bowled in the New Year with a new pair of bowling shoes;
  • Published Haiku for Haters as a mini-book in both print and digital formats;
  • Wrote and revised a bunch of online continuing education classes for a local real estate company;
  • Joined a writing group;
  • Pondered getting back into writing sex columns for a friend’s blog, but decided against it;
  • Paid someone to do my taxes early, for a change;
  • Considered starting an online writers’ salon for southern writers, but decided against it;
  • Worked a day job at a culinary school and wrote for their blog;
  • Bought a manual typewriter;
  • Successfully avoided the circle jerk that is SXSW for the second year running;
  • Participated in an awesome anti-SXSW reading event with my writing group (which was ironically covered by my nemesis);
  • Took the bus more than I ever wanted to, and rode the train to work on odd mornings;
  • Met a super-accomplished, awesome writer who has also been struggling to make ends meet, despite her obvious talent and skill, and enjoyed some conversation and iced coffee;
  • Took part in a day-long “Anticrastination Scribproductivathon” (aka a writing marathon) with my writing group;
  • Quit my writing group when they decided to start working on an anthology I wasn’t interested in, instead of just being the good, fun, supportive critique group I’d originally joined;
  • Joined the National Amateur Press Association, and later became their Director of Publicity;
  • Celebrated my cat’s 1st birthday on April Fool’s Day;
  • Kept plugging away at my novel;
  • Pondered going back to school (again) for my MFA, but decided not to;
  • Read and accepted and rejected hundreds (thousands?) of short fiction and poems for my literary magazine;
  • Continued blogging about Austin and the budget lifestyle for Shoestring Austin;
  • Celebrated my three-year wedding anniversary to the world’s greatest guy (who is still, incidentally, content to be known as “The UnGooglable Man”);
  • Joined WriteByNight as a writing coach and manuscript consultant;
  • Started using car2go to get around town when the bus just wouldn’t cut it;
  • Co-edited a kick-ass anthology of noir fiction with my pal Jimmy Callaway;
  • Joined a local food blogger’s group;
  • Participated in the 3-Day Novel Contest;
  • Read a TON of books;
  • Applied for a TON of jobs;
  • Completed a TON of transcripts;
  • Published several “quickies” on Amazon and Smashwords;
  • Turned another year older and celebrated by—how else?—bowling (and consuming delicious Thai food);
  • Volunteered at the Austin Chocolate Festival and got to sample lots of delicious free chocolate;
  • Joined the Professional Writers of Austin and started blogging for them on a monthly basis;
  • Attended the Texas Book Festival but missed the inaugural Lit Crawl thanks to Austin’s terrible bus system;
  • Attended my sister’s wedding and served as the Matron of Honor;
  • Thought I would work more on my novel during NaNoWriMo, but ended up too busy to do so;
  • Ate a lot of tasty breakfast tacos;
  • Started a weekend ritual of hitting the library every Saturday with my husband, checking out a ridiculous number of books and DVDs, and gorging ourself on media for the rest of the day;
  • Took a gig writing book reviews at the U.S. Review of Books;
  • Took a gig writing book reviews for Kirkus;
  • Took a gig writing news articles for a company that shall not be named;
  • Attended a few holiday parties;
  • Renewed a few domains;
  • Wrote this list and felt a little better about my accomplishments.

What did YOU do in 2011?