Hunker Down - (Settle in for the long haul)
Today's workout took more thought than anything. There was nothing to write down, or ten questions to answer to get you motivated. There was only a question for thought. (And it does stimulate some serious thought!)
The major question for today was simple. Do you allow yourself to write, or do you sabotage yourself? Well, at least that's how my brain interpreted it. I won't pose the actual question here, in hopes that you will be interested enough in what I am writing to pick up your own copy and write with me.
Unfortunately, I found myself answering this after about an hour with a resounding..."Oh No! I do sabotage myself!" From my writing hours, my priorities, my wants, and down to my relaxation time, I always seem to let so much come before my writing. If my writing is rejected, I take it extremely personally, and don't want to share it with any other publishing house. (I know I shouldn't.. trust me... I know, but I can't help it.) Once rejected, I go on a writing hiatus. (Why should I write, when I'll never get published.) My self-esteem is completely deflated and I am truly a failure, because I am ACTING like one!
Now, with this great revelation comes the next question that I am going to pose for myself. What am I gonna do with this knowledge? That's a little more tricky. But, the only correct answer is to watch. When I find myself doing these things that I've mentioned above, I need to realize what it is that I am doing to myself and then... move on.
Something inside of me is saying, easier said than done.
Lisa Adams
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Saturday, January 14, 2012
"The Writer's Workout" Day 11 - You mean I can write nonfiction?
Incorporating Nonfiction
So catch up from Thursday night, I only regret one major thing about this particular night and this day's workout. I am a teacher by day, so when I think about writing nonfiction there's only one type that I absolutely know that I am good at... writing Lesson Plans. Blame it on the day job, I guess.
I couldn't get past this day's exercise as well. Thursday and Friday night were spent looking at things that dealt with my job and creating new worksheets and doing a little research. What was the research? Well, it goes back to Day 2's workout and Selling your words. Where on earth could I sell my lesson plans? Well, if any of you have ever just googled "lesson plans", I'm sure you were as amazed as I was. Now, to go along with this story I have to let you know, I've been a teacher for quite awhile. I knew of a lot of lesson plan pages that I could get information from... For FREE! We don't get paid much, so as you can imagine the cheaper the better.
But! I found an amazing website called TeachersPayTeachers and it was all lesson plans and worksheets and everything. Free Membership and the money is paid to the teachers. Worksheets are being sold for a buck! Yeah, I'd pay a dollar for a great worksheet, especially if it covered exactly what I needed. And I guess a lot of other teachers feel that way, too. One of the number one paid downloads was a dollar worksheet and... it had been downloaded over 10,000 times! Which means, with the terms and agreements of the site the author created just ONE worksheet and received almost $5,000 dollars. Oh, I can so do that! And the muse hit me again, right upside the head and I created some pretty cool things to use in a middle grades classroom that focused on certain common core strands.
I have not posted these as of yet, because I was thinking about a whole collection at first for a cheaper amount and then posting them individually at the dollar rate. That way, if the teacher wanted the full collection they could get a discount. But, if the teacher only wanted a worksheet or two then they wouldn't have to spend the whole amount for things they didn't want.
To make a long story short, I'm now two full days behind for the "1 workout per day" that I had set myself as a goal earlier. I'm still not worried. Christina Katz said at the beginning of the book that you should "Take your time". Don't be in a rush to finish. Maybe I was rushing just a little too much.
Lisa Adams
So catch up from Thursday night, I only regret one major thing about this particular night and this day's workout. I am a teacher by day, so when I think about writing nonfiction there's only one type that I absolutely know that I am good at... writing Lesson Plans. Blame it on the day job, I guess.
I couldn't get past this day's exercise as well. Thursday and Friday night were spent looking at things that dealt with my job and creating new worksheets and doing a little research. What was the research? Well, it goes back to Day 2's workout and Selling your words. Where on earth could I sell my lesson plans? Well, if any of you have ever just googled "lesson plans", I'm sure you were as amazed as I was. Now, to go along with this story I have to let you know, I've been a teacher for quite awhile. I knew of a lot of lesson plan pages that I could get information from... For FREE! We don't get paid much, so as you can imagine the cheaper the better.
But! I found an amazing website called TeachersPayTeachers and it was all lesson plans and worksheets and everything. Free Membership and the money is paid to the teachers. Worksheets are being sold for a buck! Yeah, I'd pay a dollar for a great worksheet, especially if it covered exactly what I needed. And I guess a lot of other teachers feel that way, too. One of the number one paid downloads was a dollar worksheet and... it had been downloaded over 10,000 times! Which means, with the terms and agreements of the site the author created just ONE worksheet and received almost $5,000 dollars. Oh, I can so do that! And the muse hit me again, right upside the head and I created some pretty cool things to use in a middle grades classroom that focused on certain common core strands.
I have not posted these as of yet, because I was thinking about a whole collection at first for a cheaper amount and then posting them individually at the dollar rate. That way, if the teacher wanted the full collection they could get a discount. But, if the teacher only wanted a worksheet or two then they wouldn't have to spend the whole amount for things they didn't want.
To make a long story short, I'm now two full days behind for the "1 workout per day" that I had set myself as a goal earlier. I'm still not worried. Christina Katz said at the beginning of the book that you should "Take your time". Don't be in a rush to finish. Maybe I was rushing just a little too much.
Lisa Adams
"The Writer's Workout" Day 10 - a brain stretch; getting ready to write
Get Warm! (I started with some lunges and decided to run the marathon!)
First, let me start by saying that I think my original goal of completing this in just a year was a little obtuse of me. On Tuesday, Jan 10th, I started the 10th day of my Writer's Workout and was absolutely outmaneuvered by my muse. Let me explain...
Day 10 is about warming up your brain to do some writing and Christina Katz has some wonderful ways to get you jump started. It was merely a simply exercise of answering questions. But the questions she listed gave me some wonderful insight into things that I could write. And to make a long story short.... I did. So I didn't get on here Tuesday night to let you know how it was going because by the time my husband told me to go to bed, it was 3:53a.m. and I had to wake up for my day job at 6:30.
Wednesday, I came home so ecstatic to get back to writing, it took the kids hounding me to fix them dinner. With regards to the story, it was coming along nicely and with just a few hours of sleep the night before, I found myself typing away and falling asleep behind my keyboard at 1:22. Which of course led my husband to wake me up gently and again tell me to go to bed...
But, though I missed the day per exercise routine that I wanted to aim to hit this year, I'm sure that maybe there will be an exercise or two that I can do on the same day to hopefully catch up. Besides, I don't regret the writing. That's what writer's do, Right?
Lisa Adams
First, let me start by saying that I think my original goal of completing this in just a year was a little obtuse of me. On Tuesday, Jan 10th, I started the 10th day of my Writer's Workout and was absolutely outmaneuvered by my muse. Let me explain...
Day 10 is about warming up your brain to do some writing and Christina Katz has some wonderful ways to get you jump started. It was merely a simply exercise of answering questions. But the questions she listed gave me some wonderful insight into things that I could write. And to make a long story short.... I did. So I didn't get on here Tuesday night to let you know how it was going because by the time my husband told me to go to bed, it was 3:53a.m. and I had to wake up for my day job at 6:30.
Wednesday, I came home so ecstatic to get back to writing, it took the kids hounding me to fix them dinner. With regards to the story, it was coming along nicely and with just a few hours of sleep the night before, I found myself typing away and falling asleep behind my keyboard at 1:22. Which of course led my husband to wake me up gently and again tell me to go to bed...
But, though I missed the day per exercise routine that I wanted to aim to hit this year, I'm sure that maybe there will be an exercise or two that I can do on the same day to hopefully catch up. Besides, I don't regret the writing. That's what writer's do, Right?
Lisa Adams
Monday, January 9, 2012
"The Writer's Workout" Day 9 - Why do you write?
Embrace the reasons
Oh! How I love thee... let me count the ways.
Today's writing workout has me reflecting on all the reasons why I even started to write in the first place. Christina Katz gave me a great list to start with and I have a few of these on this list checked off but I really had to think about quite a few for awhile. Then I realized that the reason why I write was not on this list at all. (Well, the reason I first started writing anyhow.)
I started writing for peace and quiet. It was my own personal time. Something that I had to create for myself with my five children, husband, house chores, and full time job. Today, it still serves that purpose. The ground rules have been set over a few years, and when I'm writing my kids actually go ask my husband for things instead of me all the time.
Now, my reasons have grown and my number one reason now a days is to have accomplished something with all that writing. I want to be published traditionally one day and actually host a book signing at my local Barnes and Noble. There, that's the big dream. That's why I write, in a nutshell of course.
Lisa Adams
Oh! How I love thee... let me count the ways.
Today's writing workout has me reflecting on all the reasons why I even started to write in the first place. Christina Katz gave me a great list to start with and I have a few of these on this list checked off but I really had to think about quite a few for awhile. Then I realized that the reason why I write was not on this list at all. (Well, the reason I first started writing anyhow.)
I started writing for peace and quiet. It was my own personal time. Something that I had to create for myself with my five children, husband, house chores, and full time job. Today, it still serves that purpose. The ground rules have been set over a few years, and when I'm writing my kids actually go ask my husband for things instead of me all the time.
Now, my reasons have grown and my number one reason now a days is to have accomplished something with all that writing. I want to be published traditionally one day and actually host a book signing at my local Barnes and Noble. There, that's the big dream. That's why I write, in a nutshell of course.
Lisa Adams
Sunday, January 8, 2012
"The Writer's Workout" Day 8 - You CAN get published!
Forget Fretting
Wonderful words of encouragement on today's writing. Christina Katz delves into the time old question of, "Can I actually get published?" The overwhelming and completely positive answer? Of Course, in fact according to Christina, and some independent research I've done on my own, there are actually more opportunities for a beginning writer to be published than ever before.
Yes, I know. E-books are it, right? Not exactly. Yes. E-books have made self-publishing easy, but self-publishing can be extremely difficult to market unless you have an awesome plan. And let's face it, most of us aspiring or "prepublished" authors are looking to write for at least enough to pay the water bill one month. The electric bill would be a bonus! (Small achievable goals.. remember?)
Beyond self-publishing there are probably hundreds of NEW e-publishing houses out there that are simply putting up your book to sell on the web and reaping the benefits of being the middle man. (I can actually think of two that I am somewhat suspicious of exactly that.)
But, traditional publishing is still around and is actually more efficient than ever. Most companies have updated their services and allow you to send query letters and synopsis through e-mail. This actually speeds up the process tremendously and what used to be a 6 month wait has now decreased in many publishing houses to only 3-4 months.
As I stated in my last post, I own quite a few copies of "The Writer's Market" and every year I see more and more publishing houses that accept new authors, unagented authors, and the publishing houses themselves are growing in number every year as well.
So even though the number of actual people trying to write has increased, the publishing houses have expanded as well to meet our demands. So don't worry about it! You CAN be published, and you will. You just have to write something first!
Lisa Adams
Wonderful words of encouragement on today's writing. Christina Katz delves into the time old question of, "Can I actually get published?" The overwhelming and completely positive answer? Of Course, in fact according to Christina, and some independent research I've done on my own, there are actually more opportunities for a beginning writer to be published than ever before.
Yes, I know. E-books are it, right? Not exactly. Yes. E-books have made self-publishing easy, but self-publishing can be extremely difficult to market unless you have an awesome plan. And let's face it, most of us aspiring or "prepublished" authors are looking to write for at least enough to pay the water bill one month. The electric bill would be a bonus! (Small achievable goals.. remember?)
Beyond self-publishing there are probably hundreds of NEW e-publishing houses out there that are simply putting up your book to sell on the web and reaping the benefits of being the middle man. (I can actually think of two that I am somewhat suspicious of exactly that.)
But, traditional publishing is still around and is actually more efficient than ever. Most companies have updated their services and allow you to send query letters and synopsis through e-mail. This actually speeds up the process tremendously and what used to be a 6 month wait has now decreased in many publishing houses to only 3-4 months.
As I stated in my last post, I own quite a few copies of "The Writer's Market" and every year I see more and more publishing houses that accept new authors, unagented authors, and the publishing houses themselves are growing in number every year as well.
So even though the number of actual people trying to write has increased, the publishing houses have expanded as well to meet our demands. So don't worry about it! You CAN be published, and you will. You just have to write something first!
Lisa Adams
Saturday, January 7, 2012
"The Writer's Workout" Day 7 - So what have you done?
"Take Stock"
Day 7 exercise has me feeling a bit unaccomplished. As I went through the day's writing tip, I realized that the main objective was not to seek approval for your writing. You must be comfortable with what you write and confident enough to realize that you've done your best so that you can move on to your next project.
So, why do I feel unaccomplished? Today's assignment has you list all your past writing-related accomplishments. To help you get started, Christina Katz provides her own list of 13 things that you can use as jumping off points for what you have done so far. My problem is that of those thirteen things, I can only write about two of them.
List all the milestones in your writing career. - For me my first milestone came when I put my first query letter in the mail. I count my first rejection as a milestone, too. Add my second submission to that list as well, namely because I didn't just give up after the first :-) There are dozens more like contests I've entered, published authors that I have spoken with, and every class that I complete that is writing related.
List all the people who have helped you in your writing career - Currently, it's Christina Katz, my personal writing coach. I also have to remember all my family members and especially my husband, who are all extremely supportive (though not good critics.) My best friends, Tammy and Samantha, who encourage me and celebrate every success and failure right beside me, my writing friends on e-harlequin and a slew of others that work with me on Critique Circle and in real life.
Oh wait! There's one more... List all the writing career development books that you have read - Unfortunately, this would take more space on this blog that I am willing to spare and I'm sure you are not willing to read. I have two whole bookshelves dedicated just to the craft (not including the Writer's Market books I have that date back to 2005.)
So, I've taken stock now of all the different things I have done in my career and added a few here to share with you. I have some knew ideas based off Christina's list that can help me further my career, and I just know that at the end of it all (359 more days to go) I'll have learned so much and done even more to make my writing career grow.
Lisa Adams
Day 7 exercise has me feeling a bit unaccomplished. As I went through the day's writing tip, I realized that the main objective was not to seek approval for your writing. You must be comfortable with what you write and confident enough to realize that you've done your best so that you can move on to your next project.
So, why do I feel unaccomplished? Today's assignment has you list all your past writing-related accomplishments. To help you get started, Christina Katz provides her own list of 13 things that you can use as jumping off points for what you have done so far. My problem is that of those thirteen things, I can only write about two of them.
List all the milestones in your writing career. - For me my first milestone came when I put my first query letter in the mail. I count my first rejection as a milestone, too. Add my second submission to that list as well, namely because I didn't just give up after the first :-) There are dozens more like contests I've entered, published authors that I have spoken with, and every class that I complete that is writing related.
List all the people who have helped you in your writing career - Currently, it's Christina Katz, my personal writing coach. I also have to remember all my family members and especially my husband, who are all extremely supportive (though not good critics.) My best friends, Tammy and Samantha, who encourage me and celebrate every success and failure right beside me, my writing friends on e-harlequin and a slew of others that work with me on Critique Circle and in real life.
Oh wait! There's one more... List all the writing career development books that you have read - Unfortunately, this would take more space on this blog that I am willing to spare and I'm sure you are not willing to read. I have two whole bookshelves dedicated just to the craft (not including the Writer's Market books I have that date back to 2005.)
So, I've taken stock now of all the different things I have done in my career and added a few here to share with you. I have some knew ideas based off Christina's list that can help me further my career, and I just know that at the end of it all (359 more days to go) I'll have learned so much and done even more to make my writing career grow.
Lisa Adams
Friday, January 6, 2012
"The Writer's Workout" Day 6 - Dare yourself to write!
"Tap your Chutzpah"
Chutzpah? What? Christina Katz tells us that chutzpah is a yiddish word, with a loose translation of "nerve". This particular day's workout spoke volumes to me. Within the first two paragraphs, she defines the difference between an actual writer and an aspiring writer. Just six complete sentences and I realized... I can't categorize myself as an ACTUAL writer. Actual writers write. I am definitely an aspiring writer. I do all the things that a wanna be writer would do. What separates me from an actual writer? I don't put words to paper as often as I should.
I believe that this book is helping me to be better at that. Keeping up with the Day 1 workout of writing a minimum of a page a day, is at least adding to the word count of my current WIP.
I also believe that this blog is helping me as well. Keeping up with the workout in a diary format really helps keep it all in focus. And to those of you reading me... well, thank you and I only hope that you will stay with me on this journey, or better yet... JOIN ME!
If you have been thinking about really preparing and getting yourself ready for a real writing career, buy "The Writer's Workout" by Christina Katz, work through this year with me, and Dare yourself to be an ACTUAL writer and not just an aspiring one.
See you soon,
Lisa Adams
Chutzpah? What? Christina Katz tells us that chutzpah is a yiddish word, with a loose translation of "nerve". This particular day's workout spoke volumes to me. Within the first two paragraphs, she defines the difference between an actual writer and an aspiring writer. Just six complete sentences and I realized... I can't categorize myself as an ACTUAL writer. Actual writers write. I am definitely an aspiring writer. I do all the things that a wanna be writer would do. What separates me from an actual writer? I don't put words to paper as often as I should.
I believe that this book is helping me to be better at that. Keeping up with the Day 1 workout of writing a minimum of a page a day, is at least adding to the word count of my current WIP.
I also believe that this blog is helping me as well. Keeping up with the workout in a diary format really helps keep it all in focus. And to those of you reading me... well, thank you and I only hope that you will stay with me on this journey, or better yet... JOIN ME!
If you have been thinking about really preparing and getting yourself ready for a real writing career, buy "The Writer's Workout" by Christina Katz, work through this year with me, and Dare yourself to be an ACTUAL writer and not just an aspiring one.
See you soon,
Lisa Adams
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)