This Week: Back and Forward (6)

Didn't hit my 5000 words (missed by a couple hundred), but that's okay for this week because I finished the first draft of my middle grade time travel book. After I finished it, instead of jumping right into something else and writing, I took some time to do a little plotting for future projects. Doesn't show up in the current word count, but it's productive nonetheless, so I'm fine with what I did this week. I did start working on a manuscript I abandoned last summer, though, so I'll be writing plenty in the coming weeks. I wasn't happy where that one was going, but I figured out a way to fix it so I'm excited about the story again. If I don't hit 5K this week, I'll be upset with myself, but that should be no problem.

Monday will have a new Speculative Fiction Writing Prompt. Wednesday will be a new blog post. As with last week, I have no idea what it'll be yet, but no worries--it'll get done. I'll have a Friday Flash this week, so look for that late Thursday night. Other than that, I'll be working on the draft I restarted, so I'm sure I'll have a productive week. I hope everyone else has a productive week as well! Happy writing!

This Week: Back and Forward (5)

As I said last week, I had a short story picked up by the online zine, short-story.me. A couple of hours after I made the post, the story went live. Give it a look. I'd love to hear what you think!

I didn't hit my word goal of 5000 words last week, but that's okay. I'll make it up. I don't consider the week a total loss as I worked on plenty of other writing things, but I have to admit I spent too much time reading (though that's a good thing for writing) and watching movies/TV (also not too bad, as ideas come from what I watch). I didn't finish my middle grade manuscript, but this coming week it will be done.

Also in this coming week, I'll have a Speculative Fiction Writing Prompt on Monday, and a blog post of some sort (I have no idea what yet) on Wednesday. No Friday Flash for me this week as it's the off week of my bi-weekly Friday Flash schedule. After I finish my middle grade novel, I'm going to jump right into an adult horror manuscript I started last summer and stopped working on. I got discouraged with it then, but I've since looked it over again, and I really do think it has potential. I'm going to finish it and see if I can mold it into something great. I also plan on plotting a couple of projects, so it should be a busy week.

I hope everyone has a productive week! Check here on Monday and Wednesday for new posts.

This Week: Back and Forward (4)

This week was a nice writing week. I wrote 5868 words, much of it on my middle-grade time travel work in progress, and I'm pretty happy with the progress of that manuscript. I didn't post a Friday Flash because the story I wrote turned out to be a little longer than 1000 words and it was a bit too graphic for what I consider appropriate for Friday Flash. But that's fine; I plan on revising it and sending it out to e-mags and such. Also this week I received a bit of good news on the short story front. One of my stories, "Special Order," has been picked up by the online magazine, short-story.me. You can bet I'll post more about that when it goes live. Sounds like it can happen within the next month, though I was only given a vague date with a promise they'd email me. Either way, it's exciting news for me.

This next week I plan on, of course, writing my 5000 words. That will include a new flash for Friday Flash, as well as a good chunk of the middle-grade novel. I may even be able to finish the first draft this week, which would be nice. Tomorrow (Monday), look for the next Speculative Fiction Writing Prompt, which will be number 91. I already have a blog post written, and I'll post that on Wednesday. It's about my new writing session and how it helps me get words on the page when I sit down at my desk. Maybe it can help you, too.

That's it on the writing front for now. I'll, of course, be around on Twitter and Facebook, so if you need or want anything from me, feel free to hit me up on either of those. Have a great week!

This Week: Back and Forward (3)

Last week I was all hot to trot on writing a novel in one month (my own personal NaNoWriMo), but if you follow this blog, you'll see that this didn't last long. Instead I discovered something about my writing preference (you can read all about it here if you'd like). So now I'm back to simply writing 5000 words a week, which I accomplished this past week with about 5500 words. I wrote the first draft of a short story that I'll be revising in the next couple of weeks to send out to magazines for publication, so that was nice. I hadn't written a short story other than a flash fiction piece for Friday Flash in quite a while. I also sent out quite a few of mys stories that were sitting on my hard drive. And much to my pleasure, one of them has been accepted! It's from the online magazine Short-Story.Me, and I'll have much more on that when it gets published. Even though I'm proud of every story I send out to publishers, it's always a nice surprise when one gets picked up. I'm hoping for more from this batch.

As for this next week, I'm not yet sure what I want to accomplish. I have options, so I'll get it figured out later today. I have a middle grade novel that I'm in the middle of writing, as well as an adult paranormal/horror story. I also have a few ideas for short stories that I may start writing instead. In addition to these actual writing projects that will get me words towards my goal of 5000, I will also begin planning another novel or two. Busy, busy, busy!

As for this blog, you can expect a new Speculative Fiction Writing Prompt tomorrow (Monday). Wednesday will bring a book review blog post, and Friday will bring another Friday Flash. Have a good week, everyone!

This Week: Back and Forward (2)

This past week, I read a book called No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty, the founder of National Novel Writing Month. I'm not going to get into the book here, as I'll devote a blog post to it sometime later this year, but I will say that it inspired me. I've attempted to write books without the benefit of an outline before, and it never ends well. Reading Mr. Baty's tips and encouragement, however, excited me to give it another go, in 30 days, no less! Yes, my own personal NaNoWriMo. I started writing a Young Adult horror story about a demonic Magic 8-Ball (that's all you get about it for now, though), and after two days am almost on pace. My goal each day is 1667 words, which will make 50,000 words in 30 days (50,010 words if your nasty). I wrote 1364 on Friday and 1885 yesterday, leaving me just 85 words shy of pace so far. But I'm not worried--the book also gave me a tip on writing time that I think will work wonders for word count once I get into it. I'll see if it works for me this week, and report back on it if it does.

I'm still shooting for 5000 words each week, which should be no problem these next few weeks with my NaNoWriMo experiment. Ended up with 5449 last week. Didn't quite make up for my slow first week, but, as I said, I'm not too worried about that. It'll all even out. I was happy about my social media experience this week--I was on Twitter quite a bit, tweeting and retweeting my writer buns off. I'm still giving thought to how I'm going to handle my author page on Facebook, but I think I've got it figured out. Last week I wrote a few health tips and a writing tip. I think I'll continue that a couple times or more a week. I looked through my Google Reader account each day, and even commented on some blog posts, which I need to do more of. I didn't use Google+ much, and I doubt that'll change. It simply feels redundant to Twitter and Facebook. I'll change my tune if necessary, but I'm not going to worry about it now. I did post my links to my blog posts, and I'll continue doing that.

This coming week will be a busy writing week with my personal NaNo. I also will have a new Speculative Fiction Writing Prompt on Monday, a blog post on Wednesday (a book review of Page After Page by Heather Sellers), and I'll do my best to have a Friday Flash on, you guessed it, Friday (though, honestly, I usually post them in the late evening on Thursday). That's it for now. I'll have another one of these looks back and forward next Sunday. I hope everyone has a productive writing week!

This Week: Back and Forward (1)

This past week, I wanted to write 5000 words, as well as be more of a presence on social media sites. I did not hit my weekly word goal, but, honestly, I didn't expect to. I basically took December off from writing (part of the reason why will be addressed in this week's coming blog post; look for it on Wednesday), so I didn't expect the words to flow. That's okay. I knew it going in, and I also know I'll make up for it over the course of the year. As for my social media presence, I feel I did fine. I've been on Twitter quite a bit, and I feel like I've reconnected with some people I've largely lost track of in the past several months, as well as meeting some nice new people. I also posted daily on my Facebook author site, something I've decided to keep up throughout the year. Some days will be me pointing out links to this blog or other type things, while other days will be quick writing tips. I also plan to post exercise and nutrition tips, since this is often (from listening to complaints by writers on Twitter and Facebook) that many of us can use reminders of every once in a while. I feel I'm qualified enough to make these occasional tips--I lost 60 pounds last year, dropping my pants size from a 44 to a 34. So these exercise and nutrition tips are proven to work!

This next week I pretty much have the same writing goals. 5000 words and keeping a strong profile on Twitter and Facebook (Google+ needs to be addressed, too, but not sure if that'll be this week or not). I will be getting back into writing the first draft of a middle grade novel I started last year, so hopefully that'll pile up the words. If you're looking forward to my blog posts, I'll have a new Speculative Fiction Writing Prompt on Monday, and a post on Wednesday about why I didn't write in December. There will likely be no Friday Flash story on Friday as I don't think I'm going to carve out the time that weekend to read the story of other authors, and I dislike posting my own story if I can't read others.

That's a look back at last week and a look forward at this coming one. I'll be posting these updates each Sunday to keep myself honest.