Draft 2 of Blizzard, my novel set during the Blizzard of 1888, turned into something of a beast: it was a complete re-write that took very little material from the first draft. I worked almost exclusively on it from mid-January to mid-May. Along the way, I adapted my writing process and learned some new tricks to help […]
planning
NaNoWriMo, Week 2
NaNoWriMo Week 2 Statistics: Words Written This Week: 11,817 Total Word Count: 25,651 Percentage Complete (assuming 50K words): Just over 50%! Chapters Written: 12 How it’s going so far: I hit a couple of blocks this week. The first was on Wednesday, the day after the election. I woke up exhausted, in shock, and grieving. (I’m still experiencing […]
The Three “P”s of Writing Productivity
I’ve been working on upping my writing productivity this summer. It’s a necessary focus, what with completing draft 1 of my novel, posting fifteen blog posts and two newsletters a month, and managing social media for two websites. If I want to continue on that ambitious path, I need to be super-organized, and I need to […]
The One Type Of List You Should Be Making
When I was a child, I remember wandering into the home office of an adult I knew well, and finding a list of priorities taped to the wall. They were numbered, with the top priorities up high and lesser ones on the bottom. I remember thinking, “That’s weird. Why would someone need reminding about what’s […]
Life Is About… Experiences
Think about your favorite book or movie. What was your favorite part of it? Was it when the main character was sitting around, thinking about her problems? Or was it when she was out solving them? Chances are, you prefer the latter. I do, too. Why? Because doing something is always more interesting and memorable than […]
Plans For Snowdays
Blizzard Nemo kept me and my family stuck in our house for the past day or so, and I loved it. As teachers, my husband and I are good at the snow day thing. We plan ahead for a special breakfast (we actually keep “emergency bacon” in the fridge for this exact reason), we store […]