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.

Quote of the Day

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. 

~ Thomas Edison

Quote of the Day

Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives.

 

~ Tony Robbins

Quote of the Day

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.

 
~ Jim Rohn

Quote of the Day

It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.

 
~ Leonardo da Vinci

Quote of the Day

If you have the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed.

  ~ David Viscott

Quote of the Day

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.
Ayn Rand

Quote of the Day

The great and glorious masterpiece of
man is to know how to live to purpose.
~ Michel de Montaigne

So what are my non-resolutions for 2013?

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm not making resolutions this year the way I do every year. However, it doesn't mean that I don't have a list of them. I just call them goals.

It's going to be a very busy year for me and my hubby (including buying a house) but I'm going to be working hard to achieve these goals.

Here are some of those goals:

Finish my individual novel

Finish a couple of works with my writing partner

Write a few short stories and maybe enter some in contests

Keep studying the craft

Keep up with the blog schedule and produce interesting good content for my readers

Make scrap books of hubby's and my travels

Get to the next level of my career at day job

Keep up with my new fitness routines and work on a healthy lifestyle plan (and stick to it)

Read at least ten more books then last year (I got to almost 40 books this year)

Get even more involved in the online writing community

Continue to support and raise money for animal anti-abuse, rescue and preservation organizations


These are just some of the goals, and and I'm sure there will be more as the year rolls along.

I'm looking forward to meeting 2013 with enthusiasm and enjoying every step of the journey to reach these goals.



2013 - The Year of Non-resolutions

For better or worse, every year I like to make my resolutions for the New Year. I approach the New Year with excitement and hope, as well as enthusiasm for the work to be done - whether on the fitness front, the writing front, professional front or anything else. But so does every else - for better or for worse.

Every year I, along with thousands of other people, make some of these resolutions and goals and don't make others. It's an old story, probably as old as time itself.

Well, this year I'm changing it up for myself. I decided that this New Year's I'm not going to make resolutions. Now, it doesn't mean that I'm not looking forward to completing old projects, working on new ones, cultivating great habits and working on general self-development. The next year (2013) is going to be a year of more hope and excitement for me than in a long time, as a matter of fact. Between hubby and I buying a new house, working on various writing projects (individually and with my writing partner), and working on some professional goals, I'm hoping for a great year! I will work hard and try to bring all my goals to fruition. I will not, however, beat myself up anymore if some of those goals are not quiet at the fruition stage by the end of the year. I will just keep working hard the year after that. And after that. Well, you get the point.

Whether you're making resolutions or not this year, I wish each and every one of you out there a great New Year. May all your dreams come true, may it be smooth sailing (even with hard work) for you to reach all your goals. As long as the journey towards those goals makes you happy.

Here's to a great New Year, 2013!

My Unnofficial NaNoWriMo

November is well known in the writer community to be the NaNoWriMo month (the National Novel Writing Month). It is a time for writers, novice and experienced, to push themselves forward and try to write a first draft of a novel in a month. Or, as the creators of NaNoWriMo say, it's "30 days and nights of literary abandon."

This is a great way for writers to unite in the common goal of producing words and to feel they have a mission to accomplish. I love the idea of it!

I have never done NaNoWriMo officially myself, for various reason. November is often a hard month to dedicate completely to this pursuit. Last year, I did a blog a day when I signed up for NaBloPoMo. I was excited when I was able to accomplish that goal and it had me writing a least something every day.

However, this is not enough anymore to keep me going, to keep me writing. This year has been a bit tough, as a lot has been going on and I was not always able to dedicate the time to writing as much as I wanted to. This stuff also often sapped my energy, which in turn sapped my inspiration, creativity and motivation. And I hated the feeling.

Lately, I seem to have gotten that inspiration and motivation back, and have been actively pursuing creative efforts. So when November rolled around, I decided I need to use it to push forward, to get the momentum and keep it going.

So while I did not sign up for the official NaNoWriMo, I decided to do an unofficial one. I told my husband, so he could keep me accountable and put pressure on me if I slacked off. My goals are not necessarily to finish a first draft of a novel in a month, but to write as much as I can during the month and see how far I get. Instead of word count goals, I'm making daily time goals that I have to keep or raise up. I'm also occasionally doing Word Wars with writers on Twitter (#wordwar), and other times plant myself at my desk and make myself just write without over-analyzing or editing of any kind for a period of time.

And I finally feel happier about where my writing is. With a short story that is going to be published in an anthology, coming soon, and two novel projects (one with my writing partner and one individual), things are looking up.

Those of you who are no participating in NaNoWriMo, keep in mind that you can still benefit and be inspired by the resources at NaNoWriMo. Check out their articles, follow them on Twitter (@NaNoWriMo) and connect with people who are participating to see what they're doing and how.

On virtues and struggles of Perseverance and Discipline

per·se·ver·ance : continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition (Merriam-Webster Dictionary: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perseverance)

 dis·ci·pline : training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character (Merriam-Webster Dictionary: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perseverance)

We all have moments of looking at ourselves, shaking our heads and wanting to give up. Moments when we want to crawl under the covers, get into a fetal position and shut the whole world out. Moments when life gets tough, the brain refuses to function much and the body is an exhausted mess. Oh, how we want to give into these moments sometimes. And it's ok to allow yourself to feel that for a moment - but not more than that. Because while you're feeling all out of sorts and like it's all too much, you're taking yourself out of a whole world of options, opportunities and achieving your most precious goals. 

 And what I recently found out was that when I push myself at a point where I don't think I can do anymore pushing - I find a whole new reserve of strength and energy and even passion within myself. And that newly found reserve pushes me onward and makes me happy. As long as I remember this revelation, I'll be able to push myself forward. As long as I remember that pushing myself to get past exhaustion and do a 3-hour cross-training twice a week suddenly gives me more physical energy and the excitement of training my body hard, I'll do it. As long as I remember that pushing myself to get past the fog in my head at the end of the day and write, even for half an hour, gives me an immense feeling of satisfaction and urges me to keep writing more, I'll do it.

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments. -Jim Rohn

So what does all this have to do with perseverance and discipline? One is married to the other. If you want to persevere and endeavor in reaching certain goals, you will find the discipline to do it. And as long as you have discipline that guides your life, you will persevere in reaching those goals. But more than that, being disciplined will open up amazing new opportunities and even make you fearless. Because you will know that with discipline you can overcome so much, you can push yourself so far - and be happy doing it!

 We start learning the principles of discipline when we're children. Children need structure, they can't run around doing whatever they want. In the same way, we as adults need structure and discipline to become the best that we can be, to realize our potential. We often tend to forget this, or just not care enough about it, when we become adults. Yes, life can get in the way - but only if you let it!

The whole attitude of perseverance and being disciplined in your life brings an inherent satisfaction all by itself. A lot of people seem to be happy letting life dictate their actions and attitudes. They are happy to sit on the couch at the end of a hard work day because it just feels easier. But down the road, they become depressed and dissatisfied with what they do and how they act. They realize that they are not going anywhere, that there's an emptiness within them that is extremely dissatisfying. They realize that they are not able to reach for the stars that way - and isn't that what most of us intrinsically want?

 So get into the habit of pushing yourself a little more each day and watch a whole new world of satisfaction open up in front of you. Mold yourself into being the best human being you can be. Be disciplined about what you want to do, what you want to achieve. And in between the pushes, don't forget to take restful breaks and recharge, so that you're able to push yourself harder the next day!

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!

Keeping The New Year's Momentum going

Keeping The New Year’s Momentum Going

You’ve made the New Year’s resolutions, the way you do every year. January 1^st, you’re all primed to go. You’re psyched and excited about accomplishing all your goals. This will be the year you do it all!

We’ve all experienced this, year after year. I definitely have. The problem is not with setting goals and making resolutions. The problem is keeping the momentum going. And not just through the first week or two of the new year but throughout the whole year. That is the only way to look back on December 31^st and realize that this really was the year you reached your goals.

As all of us know, keeping the momentum is easier said than done. That is the trick of tricks. So how is it done?

One psychological trick is not to start on January 1^st. Start your resolution on December 30^th on January 3^rd when you go back to work after the holidays. This is a cheat but it works. Why? Because starting on January 1^st can seem exciting and scary at the same time. After all, it’s a special, “magical” day, the cutoff of things old and beginning of things new. This thought can be daunting. What if you screw it up, this new beginning? Purely psychological manipulations of human psyche but we all do it. The other, simpler reason for starting a couple of days later is that we’re still often in the holiday mode. We are still with family and friends, eating and drinking and being merry. We might not go back to our regular work lives until 2-3 days past January 1^st. And if we fail to jump straight into our resolutions during those days, our excitement might dim, our determination may waver.

Once you’re ready to jump into our resolutions with both feet, you have to remember to have SMART goals:

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Realistic

Timely

If these five factors are not accounted for, it is much harder to keep the momentum going. We all need smaller realistic goals and time frames to push us forward.

Keep in mind that “realistic” is specific to your life and your every-day demands. What’s realistic for one person may not be realistic for another. For example, for someone who works full time and has kids realistic, let’s say, writing goals might be very different from someone who can write at home all day. To be successful, it is imperative to be reasonable and realistic with your goals as applied to your life. And only you will know what those are.

It is also very important to review where you are in relation to your larger goals/resolutions every week or so. This serves a dual purpose – it lets you see what you have to do next and it also raises the level excitement and satisfaction at seeing how much has been already accomplished.

Writing During the Holiday Madness

 Holidays are fun, full of good cheer, family warmth and hopefully rest. They can also be crazy, stressful, full of little annoyances and things to still be done. For some it's the time where they can find a few hours of solid uninterrupted writing time. For others (probably the majority) it's the time where writing just cannot fit into the equation, where there's too many other priorities to be taken care of and where "uninterrupted" is no longer in our vocabulary.
So how can we still fit in that precious writing time and feel like we can stay sane?

 Here are a few tips.

1) If you have any kind of vacation time from your day job (if you do have a day job), rejoice in the opportunity that you have and make sure that your family and friends know that you need time to write. You can even present it as having to work, if the demands get too much on your personal time. Who's going to blame you for having to do some work? Once you get those precious hours, make sure you put them to good use. Even if those hours are few, you can accomplish enough with a little prioritizing and by making sure there are no unnecessary distractions, such as hanging out on Twitter and answering emails.

2) If you're doing any sort of travel during the holiday season, you can either bring a laptop with you, or have a simple notepad and pen to keep you company while you're waiting for that plane or while you're on a bus. Your hubby can read a book or play games if they're waiting with you. If you  have kids traveling with you, doing your own stuff may not be as easy. But even if you don't have the opportunity to actually write, keep a notepad with you and jot down ideas about your characters, scenes, etc..


3) While you can tell your family and friends that you have to work, don't think of writing during this time as work in your mind. Think of the time you can sit down and write as a mini-getaway from the stress and demand of the holidays, a mini-retreat. If writing makes you happy and reaching a goal of a certain amount of words on paper brings feelings of satisfaction with it, chances are once you're get back to the holiday world, you'll feel recharged and ready to take on everything else. Writing can be meditative. If you think of it that way, your mind will follow.

4) If you decide to take a break from writing to concentrate fully on the holidays and the demands (and joys) they represent, don't feel guilty about it. Once you made the decision, go with it. Think of it as a way to immerse yourself into the holiday spirit and to recharge your batteries for the next year. But make plans for the year ahead and think about what you want to achieve with your writing. Then dive in once the holidays are over.

Whatever you do for the holidays, may they be full of joy, family, laughter and good times. And perhaps some wonderful writing time!

Half Way Through NaBloPoMo - update

NaBloPoMo Post #20

Well, it's half way through the NaBloPoMo challengee, and I'm happy to say that I have been able to hang in there so far and post every single day, no matter how busy I get, or how sick I feel. I feel great satisfaction knowing that I have been making an effort to write more every day, not just for the blog but for the WIPs. I meant November to be a challenging writing month for me, even though I decided not officially commit to NaNoWriMo this year. This month is giving me the opportunity to see how I can adjust my schedule and what I have to do every day in order to accomplish this goal.

Next month, the holidays will be a great chance to write more during the break at my day job. I'm organizing my thoughts and ideas presently on my WIP (the individual one, vs. the 2nd book we're working on with my co-writer Tina Moss).

The whole argument of the pantster writer vs. plotter has always been very interesting to me. I consider myself very much a mix of the two, but probably a bit more on the pantster side. That is a topic that I will approach in another post.

Running to write now.

True Grit (for Writers)

                               

As I’m sitting down to write after a 2-hour karate training tonight, my thoughts turn to the article I recently read in Women’s Health Magazine. The article’s title is “True Grit or Determination: How to Get What You Want” and you can read it by following this link: http://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/success-secrets?page=1.

The advice in the article can be applied to absolutely any area of your life, any goals you have. For me, it also resonates strongly with what my Sensei (karate teacher), also known as my husband, always says: people can be smarter than you, stronger than you, faster than you, more athletic than you, etc.. However, do not let anyone outwork you. Perseverance, hard work and keeping your goals always in front of you is what will put you ahead of others, and will make you successful. Angela Duckworth, Ph.D. defines “grit” in the article as “working strenuously toward challenges and maintaining effort and interest despite failure, adversity, and plateaus."

The article also addresses the issue of how to keep going and not lose sight of the goal, even when things get tough and motivation starts failing. When you hit a snag in the road, sometimes it’s seems much easier to just give up. The snag can be anything from being in physical pain and being exhausted from physical workouts to being disappointed by a rejection of a query for the novel you just finished. Even being too busy with other things, and not having the energy to sit down and write some days can be a major downer.

So how do you keep the goals firmly planted in front of you and keep marching forward to achieve them? There are a number of ways to help with that. Here’s a few:

• Visualization. Visualizing the end result of your goal is a great motivator. For an athlete, it’ll be visualizing finishing a race or getting that coveted black belt. For a writer, it could be seeing your book on the shelves of a bookstore (or for sale on Nook/Kindle), going on tours or just holding your finished manuscript in your hands.


• Setting little goals to achieve the big ones. Big goals are often scare because they seem too far away and well…just big. Setting smaller goals, not only brings us closer to the major ones, but also gives the satisfaction of achievement throughout the whole journey. This feeling of satisfaction with achieving one small goal makes you feel so good that you want to get to the next one just to have that feeling again. So make small word count and/or time spent writing goals every day. Expand them a little every day, and eventually it’ll be hard not to do it!


• Talk yourself through negative thoughts and plateaus. Cultivate a more positive attitude. And if you have a hard time with that at any point, use the “fake it ‘till you make it” attitude. It’s been proven that if you smile when feeling gloomy, you will eventually start feeling happier. This can be applied to cultivation of positive attitude in all things.


• Keep visual reminders of your goals. This can include looking at books of your favorite writers and knowing that you can be someone’s favorite writer one day as well. Keep any positive feedback on your work in a folder where you can easily access it anytime you need a little pick-me-up. Post pictures of scenes you want to write or that motivate you in any way.

Besides working very hard, passion is of the outmost importance to the success of achieving any goals. Do whatever you have to do to make sure that the spark of that passion is always present.