Story A Day September

This September I’ll be participating in StoryADay with Julie Duffy.  Each day a prompt will be emailed to participants. You can choose if you want to write a short story every single day of the month, or just on certain days.

 

I first heard about StoryaDay through a diyMFA event, and I was hooked on the idea of trying to write multiple short stories during one month.  For next month, my goal is to get at least ten short story fairytales. In my current WIP, the heroine has a book of beloved fairy tales and these will be stories I will use for that book, which may be something I will use as a giveaway at some point. I also want to write five other short stories which I will be posting here on my blog, so keep an eye for those!

Another cool thing I found on the StoryADay website is the Which Famous Author Are You? quiz.  Here’s my result:

And I’m totally okay with that (though I do write a lot of fantasy)! I love Patterson’s books. I haven’t read anything by JoJo Moyes yet, but now I think I’m going to have to. 🙂

Since I always have more than one choice for these quizzes, I took it a second time and got this result:

This is pretty accurate as most of my work tends to be YA fantasy with a fairytale twist. And I’m pleased with these results as well! 🙂

What about you? Have you ever participated in StoryADay, or another event like this? Let me know in the comments!

 

Camp NaNoWriMo Goal Planning with Downloadble Template

Hi all, Camp NaNoWriMo starts today! I can’t believe it’s already July.

I am participating in Camp again, but I realized as I was prepping that I really needed a weekly goal sheet to help me stay on track. Since I’m not writing a novel, but rather making revisions and edits, there are a lot of pieces or small jobs that go along with that: rewriting a chapter, fleshing out some research, rearranging scenes and coming up with a satisfactory timeline, and so on.

To help me keep track of what needs to be done when, I created a weekly goal sheet that helps me outline all that, and I wanted to share it with you all as I know some of you may be doing the same kind of thing for camp.

I’ve added the Google link to the document here.  For those who would rather print it out here’s a word doc.

What about you? Are you doing Camp NaNo this year? What are your goals and how are you tracking them? Let me know in the comments! 🙂

Using Bio Poems for Character Development – #authortoolboxbloghop

There are a lot of questionnaires and sketch activities out there to help you develop your characters, but I recently discovered a shorter technique that helps me nail down my characters’ interests and personalities – the bio poem.

Bio poems are not long (11 lines), but they cover some of the most important things you need to know about your characters, and they always follow the same format.

Here is an example of my bio poem for my main character of my current WIP.

Marianna

Intelligent, Curious, Kind, Perceptive

Sister of Annette, Daughter of Henry and Paulina

Lover of books, learning, and adventure

Who feels love, curiosity, and fear

Who needs to find real friends, the truth, and the strength to face it

Who gives kindness, friendship, and help

Who fears the unknown, Crothingham’s spooky hallways, and Dusten

Who wants Will to still be living, her family to be safe and provided for, and to be free of Bludington

Resident of Prosera

Locklear

I’ve also included a template you can use for your own characters: here.

How about you? What techniques do you use to develop your characters? Let me know in the comments!

On an unrelated note, I’m about to start Writing Down the Bones. Who has read it and what did you think?

This post is part of the #authortoolboxbloghop hosted by Raimey Gallant. To find out more or join in the fun, go here.

10K words in a Day – #authortoolboxbloghop

Today I’d thought I’d share about a challenge I participated in and found helpful, the #10kwritingchallenge. It is hosted monthly by Mandi Lynn, and you can find all the details about the challenge here. (she also has a lot of other great resources for writers 🙂 )

The object of the challenge is to write 10K words within one day. I know that sounds like a lot, but it is more doable than you might think. I have participated once in the challenge with plans to participate again soon.

A few things to keep in mind when deciding to do the challenge:

Be sure it is a day on which you can dedicate a significant amount of time to your writing. I plan for these days (I actually put it on my calendar), so I know I can’t be doing a lot of other stuff on these days.

Make a plan for the day. Are you revising work or writing from scratch? Do you have the outline or notes you need? What chapters/pages do you need to get finished?

Prep your writing space. Set up a quiet place where you know you can be productive with all the tools, snacks, and drinks you might need.

Plan for breaks. Obviously, you’re going to need to take breaks. What kind of things get you most inspired? You could go for a walk outside, or do whatever kind of exercise relaxes you. The key is to get up and move around so that when you come back to the keyboard you are ready to write.

These were all things I did to help me reach my 10K goal.  And spending a day working on my manuscript proved quite beneficial.

I found that I became excited about my manuscript once more, and I wanted to delve deep into my story’s world. I had more confidence in my novel as I had made a significant amount of progress on it in just one day, and I gained more confidence in myself as a writer, knowing that I could accomplish this thing I had set my mind to do. I also had some enlightening moments where I was able to figure out how to fix some things that were not working in my story.

What about you? Have you ever participated in this challenge or one like it? What kind of things do you like to challenge yourself to do to help you stay motivated and improve your writing skills? Let me know in the comments.

This post is part of the #authortoolboxbloghop hosted by Raimey Gallant. To find out more or join in the fun go here.