Writer's Rebel Creed 2014 & How to Achieve Your Writing Goals article links

This year, I pledge to renew my commitment to writing and to stay accountable to myself as far as my goals - writing and otherwise.

And so, I, once again, take the Writer's Rebel Creed commitment. If you'd like add your name to the Writer's Rebel Creed 2014, click on the image below.

And to help you with achieve your writing goals this year, here are a few links to articles that can give you an extra boost of inspiration and motivation that you need:

How To Meet Your Writing Goals in 2014

How To Set Achievable Writing Goals for 2014

Setting Effective Writing Goals

On Virtues and Struggles of Perseverance and Discipline - (previous article from this blog)

True Grit (For Writers) - (previous article from this blog)



What are you writing goals for this year? How are you planning on achieving them? Know of any other good articles or motivational resources? Please share.

Rebel Writer's Creed 2013

Love it! Wonderful for my motivation and I really wanted to participate, so here goes...

Do you want to honor the Rebel Writer's Creed? Then jump to SA Larsen blog where it's been hosted!
It's going to be a great year!

Writer Campaign - Second Challenge

It's time for the 2nd Writer Campaign Challenge. Here are all the rules and choices. I put a "check" in red against those that I chose to do. If you'd like to take a look at the original post at Rachel Harrie's, please go here. 

My flash and pitch are below the prompts and rules.

Prompt 1: Check

Two people are sitting together under the remains of a concrete bridge. Their backs are against a rusted bridge support. One person’s leg is cut. The other person has wet hair.

Prompt 2: Check

(Source)

Prompt 3 No

(Source)

Prompt 4 No

(Source)

Prompt 5 No

Do one or more of the following:

1. Write a pitch/logline for a book based on the prompts (less than 100 words) Check
2. Write a short story/flash fiction piece of less than 200 words based on the prompts Check
3. Write a poem with a twist using the prompts as inspiration (in less than 200 words)
4. Write a story/poem in five sentences, each sentence based on one of the prompts
5. Write a poem/flash fiction piece (in less than 200 words) about the water pear *without* using the words “pear”, “spoon”, or “droplet”. 

For added difficulty/challenge:

• Complete at least three of the above activities and tie them all together with a common theme (feel free to either state the theme in your post or leave us to guess what it might be)
• Write in a genre that is not your own Check

• Ask Challenge entrants to critique your writing. After the Challenge closes, you may wish to re-post your revised piece(s), and I’ll include a Linky List at the bottom of this post for those wishing more feedback on their revisions (note: revised entries will not be judged, so please label clearly your original post and your revisions. Please do not offer critique unless someone asks for it, as per the usual blogging conventions. If you do ask for critique, make sure you ask for it clearly so people know you want it, and please be prepared to receive feedback that may not be 100% glowing. If you are a critiquer, please be tactful and courteous, and remember to provide positives as well as negatives.) Check

My flash fiction piece is 199 words. Please critique it so I can make it better if I can.

The freezing wind gave me a chill that I was sure would never leave me again. I got drenched when the bomb exploded and the bridge collapsed. I was lucky though, I barely had a scratch on me. My assigned partner, Greg, wasn’t so lucky. I dragged his unconscious body and propped it against a rusted bridge support that left an orangey streak on Greg’s clothes. Among other things, I was trained as a first aid medical nurse. Within the resistance movement, everyone had multiple roles – we couldn’t afford not to. Greg had a deep cut on his left leg. I shuddered and poured the peroxide I had in my bag, and bandaged the wound the best I could, hoping it was enough. I leaned against the other side of the support beam and allowed myself to close my eyes for just a quick minute. An image of my child, dressed in a red coat and running along the promenade, flashed in my mind - the last time I saw her before joining the resistance against the Nazis. I had to get back to her. I had to, I thought as I finally heard the sound of familiar voices.

Pitch for the book (95 words):

When her husband was captured and killed by the Nazi forces, Anna knew the only thing she could do for herself and her child was to join the resistance. With the child safe with her relatives abroad, Anna threw herself body and soul into the fight. She never thought she would find love again, much less with a fellow resistance fighter. But when Greg was assigned as her partner, he taught her that there’s still much to live for. Now, Anna also fights to preserve this love and get them both back to her daughter.

It was interesting to write in a genre that I usually don't write in. I had fun with this.

Writer Wednesday Flash Fiction - Leapling

 

I’m a “leapling”. I was born on leap day. I got my powers on leap day. I was prophesied to die on leap day. 

Would today be that day? I thought as the children of the night pressed around me. 

I hailed from a family of powerful witches who had control over other supernatural beings. Yeah, we weren’t the most popular lot, until people wanted our help, of course. But my power was the strongest yet, being the prophesied “leapling witch”, and all that. I had the power to make vampires mortal. You’d think that all vampires would hate this particular talent of mine, but you’d be surprised how many came to me seeking to regain their mortality. Still, the majority wanted to see me dead. I have been under special protection all of my life, until I got so fed up with it that I slipped my bodyguards. Hey, sometimes a girl wants to play and be free.

Of course, I wasn’t counting on the biggest vampire clan in the city to find me within an hour of my brilliant escape. And now, the creepy immortals surrounded me on all sides in a dark alley, their silence and slow movement more terrifying than anything else they could have done.

"Nice going", I muttered and squeezed my fists in preparation to raising protective energy.

Before I could raise my hands, a man walked in front of the rest. He was tall and beautiful. I may have been sheltered but I could appreciate a gorgeous male specimen.

“Don’t be afraid, Talia,” he said. “We need your help. Agree to work with us, and we’ll return you safely to your family.”

We stared into each others eyes, and I felt like I was drowning. In a bizarrely pleasant way.

I nodded my agreement. As if I could refuse. No, this will not be the leap day I die.

I'm a Platform-Building Campaigner

Whoo, 3rd post of the day - that's a first...

I'm excited to announce that I joined the Platform-Building Campaign (thank you to Tina Moss for letting me know about it). This will be my first time participating. The Campaign is such a wonderful chance to meet new writers, discover new blogs and help build my own platform! I'm looking forward to connecting with all those who are participating.

Rebel Writer's Pledge 2012

Even though I posted my goals (writng and non-writing) for 2012 last month, today I'm posting them again due to joining an amazing group of writers in the Rebel Writer's Pledge 2012! 



 As every year, 2011had its ups and downs. The highlights, as far as my writing is concerned, was signing with the awesome Jennifer Mishler and Frances Black of Literary Counsel. My writing partner Tina Moss and I couldn't be happier about that.
Tina and I also started on the sequel, book 2 in the Keys Series.

I also started an individual project (as has Tina) but more about that in the new year's goals.


So what's ahead?

My writing goals for 2012 are quiet ambitious, and I'm going to start the year with the sense of optimism that all of these goals can be reached successfully. So here's the list of the goals and how I plan to achieve them.

1. I pledge to  finish my WIP. It is very important to me to finish my novel within 6 months. It will be a challenge but a welcomed one. In order to do this, I will change my method of writing a bit. 1) I will start making brief outlines of each chapter to have an idea of what I want to include in the chapter and the general direction it will take. This has proved to be very helpful when I work with Tina (my writing partner) on our Keys Series. When working on my individual project, I tend to just sit down and write, but that is not always an optimal way of doing it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Making an outline of chapters assures that I can always sit down and know what to write (even if it's in more general terms).

I pledge to be more diligent about keeping the smaller goals of a certain amount of time spent writing a day/a week and/or a certain amount of words written a day/a week, etc.. Hopefully, there will be a very visible rise in both the time spent writing and the words written in the beginning of the year vs. the end. For the beginning, my goal is 250 words a day or 1500 a week (hopefully going up to 1000 words a day towards the end of the year). To accomplish this, I will experiment with a few different methodologies and see what works the best for me. I'll be tracking this experimentation and the results in blog posts throughout the year.

2. I pledge to finish book #2 in the Keys Series with Tina Moss. I love the process we've established while working on book 1. We put our heads together - and sometimes bump them - and we divide up chapters and hash them out. Then we write them and come back together to read over them, then edit each others chapters. Lots of good ideas and good times ensues.

3. I pledge to keep up with the blog post schedule and expanding and developing the blog further. I would like to do another months or two of NaBloPoMo challenge. During the rest of the months, I will be happy posting 3-4 posts a week. I would like to have my features written in advance and be ready to posted when the time comes. These features are Writer Wednesday Flash Fiction and Friday Art & History Feature. I also plan to have a collection of articles on writing that I can use whenever I need to have a post up but don't have time to write it that day. This will allow me to always keep a reserve of articles and keep up with the blog posts even when I'm focusing on other work and cannot devote a lot of time to the blog. It is my intention for my blog posts to inspire and motivate other writers.

4. I pledge to read at least 50 books (various genres, the majority urban fantasy/paranormal romance and historical fiction, as well as YA). Also I pledge to read at least 1 book on writing craft a month.

These are the major writing goals I'm setting for myself in the new year. On top of the writing goals, here are a couple of non-writing goals:

1) I pledge to start to train for my second black belt degree and am hoping to test sometime during the next year.
2) During the next year, I pledge to start a couple of campaigns to raise money for the organizations that work for preservation of big cats and of wolves. Stop by the blog in the next few weeks for more information on this projects. 

Check out Failure...Use it (On Management of Goals and Plans).

Share your writing (or non-writing) goals and how you plan to reach them. How do you motivate yourself and what advice do you have for motivating other writers?

Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.
Aristotle

Don't forget to check out Rebel Writer's Pledge 2012!