Showing posts with label writing challenges. Show all posts

I set myself some goals at the start of this year (see http://www.jolinsdell.com/2018/01/2018-my-plans-for-year-ahead.html). Here's a summary of how I'm doing:

Reading

I'm doing OK with my reading challenges so far. Not brilliant, but OK. I've managed to read books for both the A to Z Reading Challenge and Beat The List. The best part is that the books have all be pretty awesome so far. Here's my update from earlier this week about my reading challenges http://www.jolinsdell.com/2018/01/2018-reading-challenges-update.html in case you missed it.

Writing

My goal or this year was to work on my writing everyday and write a minimum of 500 words a day. January didn't go quite to plan due to health issues and various other reasons but I did make some progress.

I managed to write some more of Shadow (episode 8 in the KOSMOS series), and have been working of edits of my YA thriller Do You LIKE Me?

Book Cover Designs

I really need to dedicate some more time of my book cover designs. Unfortunately I had a major set back this month when my Macbook Pro broke again... this time I don't think there's much hope in getting it fixed. At the moment this makes custom designs a bit hard to do as my other laptop doesn't have the same range of software. This is why I'll be concentrating on premade designs for the next few months until I get the problem resolved.

Publishing

365 Days of Quotes For Writers released on 17th January so I'm off to a good start :)

Freelance Writing

I've not made any progress with this yet and so really need to get my finger out.

Blogging

I've been getting organised with my blogs over this past month and like how things are coming together. I've been posting more often to the Writers and Authors twitter profile and getting better about promoting the posts I do on this blog too.

Promo Day

Plans for this years event are coming together nicely. I have a great line up of presenters set up now and have a few awesome prizes confirmed for the giveaways too. I also now have a sponsor on board. If you'd like to know more about sponsoring the event or promoting your books/services click here. Visit http://www.promoday.net/ and register. It's free!

A Healthier Me

This is one of the hardest challenges this year, but also the one I'm doing best at so far. I've managed to workout nearly everyday so far, only skipping a couple of days when I had hospital/doctors appointments regarding my tests. Despite my cyst issues, I'm also managing to stay pretty positive.

This week I did this exercise routine everyday. Easy, didn't take very long to complete, and all I needed was a chair.

2016 has come to an end. I can't say that I'm all that sorry to see it go. I am however very grateful to have reached the end of it, as many did not. Over this year we lost so many talents. As an 80's girl a huge part of my youth passed on during 2016.

Sadly my MacBook Pro also died on New Year's Eve. Not a nice way to finish a year, and definitely not a good way to start a new one. I'm hoping that I can extract all the files so I don't lose any of the work I did on it. Fingers crossed.

Luckily I still have my old laptop but, as you can imagine, it's just not the same. I'm still trying to work out which programs I no longer have and how I can work around the issue.

On a more positive note, as I backed up my novels by emailing them to myself as I was writing them, I do have copies of those *sighs with relief*

I don't want this message to be a sad one though and so I won't dwell on what was lost. Instead I'd like to focus on what's to come. That said, 2017 please be awesome and don't take any more of my idols.

P.S. a new Mac would be great.

2017

So what do you have planned for 2017? How are you going to make 2017 your best year yet?

Writing

I'm hoping to make 2017 my most productive year yet, and will be starting it with a bang. In January I'll be taking part in the STORYSTORM challenge hosted by Tara Lazar (You can register here https://taralazar.com/2016/12/27/storystorm-2017-registration-is-open/ if you'd like to take part too)

I'm an official participant of #STORYSTORM 2017

For the challenge I'll be brainstorming, outlining, and first drafting a new book each day. I've picked out the projects I want to develop already from my ever-growing list of book ideas. It'll be a mixture of children's books, non fiction, and novels. I won't get bored that's for sure ;)

I'm also going to be writing a serial fiction called KOSMOS to be released in 2017. I'm really excited about this new project, and can't wait to introduce you all to the cast of characters.

I'll be sharing the cover reveal for the first book in the KOSMOS series The Pendant with you next week so make sure you check back on 9th January for an exclusive glimpse at the cover. Did I mention how excited I am about this series?! ;)

I'm also going to be doing the A Story A Week which has the goal of writing 52 short stories in 2017 (one a week).

Book Covers

I'm working on some new pre-made book cover designs and will be launching them soon. Make sure you sign up at http://www.jolinsdell.com/p/premade.html as a Book Cover VIP for first dibs on new designs at discounted prices.

I'm also happy to make custom book covers for both ebooks and print. So get in touch if you'd like to hire me.

Promo Day

Promo Day will be back again on Saturday 6th May 2017 and I'm working to make it the best event yet. Webinars, pitch sessions with publishers, giveaways, and more... it's going to be awesome! As always, you can register for FREE at www.PromoDay.net

In conclusion

My 2017 is set to be a very productive year, and I hope yours will be too. I'll be setting up a new ARC team later this month for you lovely people that can't wait to review my books.

The aim of the ARC team is to collect as many reviews as possible for my new releases. Not everyone will be selected to be part of the ARC team, but those that are will be sent a free advance copy of my new releases for review. I'll share more detail of how it works, and how to be part of it later this month, along with info about how to sign up.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank you again for all your support. Whether it's reading my books, hiring me for illustration work/graphic design, or just being part of my cheerleader team as I throw myself into yet another project, you guys ROCK! I really appreciate your support.

T'was The Night Before NaNoWriMo...

So tomorrow is 1st November and the first day of NaNoWriMo 2016. Despite not being sure about whether I'd be taking part or not this year up until a couple of weeks ago (my health continues to give me problems), I'm actually feeling quite prepared.

You can check out the draft cover design, and read the synopsis here: https://www.jolinsdell.com/2016/10/nanowrimo2016-do-you-like-me.html

This year I'll be writing a YA. There will be a bit of romance, a bit thriller.... should be fun.

I made the most of my kids swimming lessons to write up some plot notes. I always have a notepad and pen in my bag, and so pulled them out as I sat pool side and did some brainstorming, and plotting.

I've written up some very basic character notes for the main, and secondary characters too. Things like; name, surname, age, height, build, hair colour and style, eye colour, and relationship to main character.

I also made a board on Pinterest for inspiration. I've been pinning inspiration pics for locations, and character outfits.

As my book will deal with stalking I've also been researching stalking laws and statistics online.

I even made a word count tracker (you can grab yours here https://www.jolinsdell.com/2016/10/nanowrimo-2016-word-count-tracker.html). I'm all set to be writer-tastic!

What I hadn't banked on was earthquakes. We've had a lot of earthquakes recently here in Italy, and some of them have been pretty scary. Due to damage to some buildings in Rome following the earthquakes, they've decided to close the schools for security checks today. Tuesday the schools are shut anyway as it's festive here. So, whilst I'm happy that they've adopted a better safe than sorry approach, this does not make for the best of starts to my writing frenzy month. I was hoping to have more time today to sort through my NaNo prep, and maybe do some more work on my plot. I may still fit in time for some work on my scene outlines though. Fingers crossed.

In past years I found a good way to increase my word count was to do word sprints. Usually 10 to 15 minute sprints. I think I'll be doing lots of those this year. I've set up an event page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/2203724819766193/ where I'll be posting about my writing progress, and writing sprints I'm doing. I hope you'll join in with the sprints :)

Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? How have you prepared for the challenge?

Throughout July I'm taking part in Camp NaNoWriMo. I'm using the challenge to work on an old November NaNoWriMo project that had the working title of Twice. My goal is to rewrite the manuscript and end up with a completed 50K novel b the end of the month.

As today is the 15th July, today marks the half way mark of this challenge. Here's a recap of how it's been going so far:

The first week was awesome! The words were flying, and I got ahead of my word count goal, despite having a couple of slow days along the way. In fact, I discovered that having slow days is totally fine. For example, on the first Sunday of the month museums and some tourists sites are completely free to visit here in Rome, and so I took my kids to explore the Palatino. We had a lovely day exploring old ruins, visiting the museum, and learning about Roman history. We even got to hear the sound check for the Pink Floyd concert that was happening in the evening at Circo Massimo (located right below the Palatino). All in all a pretty awesome day. Not so great for my word count though. In fact I wrote nothing that day.

Here's a few pics from the trip:

Week number 2 involved slow days too. Unfortunately it didn't balance itself out with turbo days though and so I went from being head with my word count to falling behind. I know that a couple of good days will put me back on track though. Not in panic mode yet!

With the kids being off school for the summer break my days are pretty full as it is. Most of my writing has been done in the evening once they're in bed asleep. Only problem with writing in the evening is that I spend all day trying to make them tired so they go to bed, and then I'm tired too.... probably even more than they are.

We have made some fun creative projects together though, including these fab toilet roll puppets. We spent the morning making them, and then the kids spent the afternoon planning a puppet show with them :) Apparently we need to make more of these (these need more characters for their puppet shows).

Toilet roll puppets #CreativeKids #Kidscraft

Although I'm now playing catch up with my word count, I have made huge progress in the first half of this challenge that will, hopefully, mean I meet my goal of 50k by the end of the month. I've done a lot of brainstorming, planning, and general thinking about the story. I've outlined some sub plots that I'm writing in, developed some of the secondary characters, and made some big changes to the initial story idea. One big change is the title of the book. Twice just doesn't fit anymore. The book has taken a new direction and so I've been coming up with ideas for a new title. I'm still not 100% decided on what the title will be, but I've narrowed it down for just a few.

This is my current word count:

Are you doing CampNaNoWriMo? How's it going so far?

November Challenge Prep: The Non Writing Stuff #NaNoPrep #NaNoWriMo #PiBoIdMo #WNFIN

November is fast approaching and so it's time to get organised. This year I'll be doing NaNoWriMo, PiBoIdMo, and WNFIN, so it's important to have a game plan.

Whilst I'm preparing for the challenges by plotting, making idea sheets, and doing some rough outlining, I also need to think about the non writing stuff.

In order to successfully complete these challenges I need a game plan for the other stuff. Stuff like food, staying healthy, keeping the house clean, keeping the kids busy, etc...

So let's break this down and look at each one at a time.

Food

Eating is a must. I have two small kids and so takeaways or junk food are not an option. This also fits into the stay healthy category. Eating health food will not only protect from burn out, it also helps reduce the chances of catching the numerous colds, and other viruses that go around during November.

As time is also an issue I like to stock up on easy meals.

- Lunches that can double up for dinners e.g. make extra meat and veg for lunch and use leftovers to make soup for dinner.

- Pasta is a staple in our house (here in Italy it's a staple for most families). I make a load of ragu sauce and freeze potions, so I just have to heat it up in the microwave. Making extra pasta at lunch (where I eat it as a hot meal) and using the extra to make a pasta salad for dinner.

- Jacket potatoes. These are awesomely easy. Just stick in the microwave and have a variety of toppings on hand.

- I love one pan meals. Risotto is a good one. Just mix up with different ingredients each time.

- Having hams, cheeses, maybe some pickles, and bread/crackers is a good idea for those days when cooking is too much effort.

- Lots of fresh fruit for healthy snacking.

Staying healthy

The first time I did the NaNoWriMo challenge I had to give up half way through. I got an evil cold that knocked me out for weeks. That taught me that a big part of winning the challenge was making sure I stayed healthy.

I'll no doubt be doing lots of sitting during November. It's therefore important to make sure I insert some exercise into my schedule too. The last time I did NaNoWriMo, I also did a fitness challenge at the same time. You can find loads of these on Pinterest. Squat challenge, crunch challenge, there's something for all tastes and levels. I'm going to use some of those I have saved to my fitness board to create a challenge schedule for November. I'm thinking something like 100 squats, 100 crunches, and 100 jumping jacks a day. The idea is to set an exercise goal to make sure your not just sitting around all day. I may also add going for a jog around the block at least once a week. Getting out in the fresh air is good for inspiration ;)

Keeping the house clean

As much as I'd love to forget about house work for a month it's just not possible. Clothes need to be washed, ironed, and put away. Plates, and more importantly cups need to be washed (can't not have cups for tea after all).

I make sure I'm completely up to date with clothing before the challenge starts. This at least gives me a good start.

I also do a deep clean of the house at the end of October. Cleaning the fridge, behind the sofa, and all those other jobs that don't need to be done daily. This means I can get by with more superficial cleaning during the challenge. I have a points system to get the kids to do some chores too ;)

Keeping the kids busy

Luckily the kids are both now at school full time so this year will be easier than in the past. I'll therefore be doing most of my writing in the morning and early afternoon. That will mean I can take a break in the evening and step away from my computer. Keeping a balance is a must... for everyone in the family.

My kids love getting involved in the challenges I do though, so some things we do together. They are both awesome sounding boards for PiBoIdMo. Doing the fitness challenges together makes them so much more fun to do too... and helps the kids burn off some energy ;)

Getting out and about with the kids after school does us all good. A trip to the library can be awesome for getting new ideas, entertaining the kids, and sticking up on books and DVDs to keep them busy when we get back home.

Other things I include in my preparations are hanging out with friends, and sleep.

Time with friends

November will be a super busy month with little free time. I therefore make sure I catch up with friends in October (and let them know my November plans so they know if they don't hear from me, they know why).

Sleep

Sleep is so important. It's really easy to get so wrapped up in the challenges and everything else that you forget how important it is to get enough sleep. Starting off well rested is a good idea. It's also a good idea to work in some nap time during November, and to make sure you don't have too many late nights.

One thing I make sure I do, is have a bubble bath night once a week. One evening, once the kids are in bed, I dedicate to pampering myself. A nice, long soak in a bubble bath. Maybe a face mask, manicure or pedicure, followed by an early night. It does wonders for restoring energy levels.

What non writing planning are you doing? Share your tips for November challenge survival in the comments section below.

How I Publish 10+ Blog Posts a Week (And Still Manage to Work on My Books)

On average I publish over 10+ blog posts a week. Some here, some over at www.writersandauthors.info, and some guest posts for other sites. No, I'm not torturing myself. I love blogging. It's good return on investment too.

I often get asked how I manage to publish so much and still manage to work on my books and other projects. Whilst I love what I do, at times it can be challenging to come up with so much content week after week. Over the years I've learnt a few tricks to keep me productive whilst avoiding burn out.

How I stay Productive:

Create a swipe file.

A swipe file is basically a list of ideas to pull from when you have no ideas. I keep separate lists for each blog to make life easier.

Some ideas are quite general. Others are more specific. Sometimes I take one idea and then brainstorm it from different angles for multiple posts.

When I draw a content blank, I just hop over to my list and pick an idea.

Use an editorial calendar.

This follows on from the swipe file. An editorial calendar is basically a calendar of what to post, when, and where. I have separate editorial calendars for each blog. I personally like to print out a page per month calendar and pencil in the posts. The reason being that I spend a lot of time on my computer. By having a paper copy I can step away from electronics and think over my schedule without distractions.

As I take ideas from my swipe file and allot them specific days on my editorial calendar, I know my deadlines for each post and can create posting themes. For example, in November writers get into a writing frenzy doing challenges like NaNoWriMo and PiBoIdMo. In November I tend to schedule posts on the Writers and Authors blog about how to write faster, beating writers block, creative motivation, etc... I know that lots of my readers will be doing the challenges and will be looking for related topics to read. Those not doing the challenges will also be interested in reading the articles though as most are not challenge specific. They are evergreen topic... that just happen to fit well with the challenges happening at that time.

Write everyday.

This is the most important. Sorry, no magical answer. You need to write. It's that simple, and that hard. Getting into a writing routine helps though.

I write every morning. It's not always easy but it is doable. Some days the words flow from my fingers. Others days I go at snail pace.

I'm so used to writing everyday now that the days when I don't something feels wrong. It's become a habit.

I work on blog posts and other content in the morning. This is when I have the most energy and so can normally punch out several posts in just a couple of hours.

I work on my books in the afternoon/evening (depending on my schedule and if my kids allow it). If I'm working on illustrating projects my kids will often join me and we'll have an art session. They also like to read my children's books and so when I'm working on one of those we sit and read together. They are great at giving input into what works, and what doesn't, in the story. If they are playing nicely I can usually get an hour or so to work on my other books (normally broken up into 10 minute intervals as they interrupt with "mummy can I have...", "mummy he did....", "mummy look at this..., etc....). I still get to increase my word count though.

This is what works for me. I make writing a priority and get it done. No magic tricks. Just writing regularly.

What works for you? What tips would you add to this list?