As many of you know I had a very uncertain start to writing. I started my journey not really knowing where I'd end up or if I would even end up at all.
In the past, when I would get a little stuck I would begin to doubt myself and think, what am I doing? There's no way I can write a book, this is just another example of why I can't.
I am pleased to announce that I have crossed a bridge of sorts. I apparently have decided to start believing in myself and I didn't even realize I was doing it for a few days...
It happened last week. I was working on some dialogue between my hero and my heroine and I was just not feeling it. The chemistry wasn't right and I felt like I was jumping the gun on the outcome of the scene. I needed to regroup and rethink the whole thing.
The last time this happened to me, it sent me into a tailspin I had a hard time coming out of.
This time, I realized this wasn't going the way I wanted and after a few seconds I thought, well I'll just fix it later and pushed through to finish up my 750 words.
That's it, that was my revelation and I completely missed it at the time. I think that the fact that I missed it really tells me something too. It wasn't a momentous enough of a thing at the time that I felt I needed to pat myself on the back.
No, it wasn't until about three days later I was actually laying in bed and rethinking my scene. What was I trying to accomplish with this scene? How did I want it to ultimately end up? How was this moving my story forward? Then, what I had thought to myself that night I was writing hit me like a bolt of lightning!
I realized that I thought the scene was no good and I didn't think to myself that I needed to quit because I was never going to become a writer. No, I said, I'll just fix it later.
My subconscious had apparently worked out the fact that I was actually doing this and though it was rough, it wasn't half bad.
It's too bad it took my conscious mind a few days to catch up. My subconscious, she's a sly one! She does this to me all the time!
I think I'm done working on something and then a thought will pop into my head out of the blue and sometimes it's intense enough that I need to share it! My husband is constantly giving me a hard time on my swift change in topics or my ability to be doing many things at once.
So I'm happy to say that writing a bad scene no longer sends me into an emotional tailspin that I have work extra hard to come out of. Those 5 words really changed a lot for me and I had no idea at the time!
It's fun to feel my confidence growing. Of course I only knew my confidence was growing because a scene came along that knocked me down a peg or two.
The difference this time is, I know I will work it out. That's what editing is for! I don't need to compare myself to anyone but me. Just keep swimming and all that Jazz.
I'm going to make it to the end of this, even if it never gets published I will at least know that I was able to do something I set out to do. And you know what, I feel pretty good about that!
Monday, April 29, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
Guest Blogger - Matt
First and foremost let me say this. What happened today in Boston was horrific and may never really be truly understood.
I grieve for the victims of the bombings today at the Marathon's finish line, and I await the day the perpetrator of this heinous act is brought to justice.
Tonight I had an appointment that left little time for me to write a blog entry myself. I asked my friend Matt, who was the subject of last week's post, to write up a little something to keep the momentum going.
So without further ado, I give you Matt.
Let me open with a clarification: I am not Jess. I’m her friend Matt. I’m three days younger, several dozen pounds heavier, and have no internal filter to speak of. You have my sincere apologies in advance.
Jess reached out to me this morning and asked if I’d mind throwing together a ‘Guest Blog’ for tonight, as her dance card was full up for the day, and she wasn’t going to be able to find the time to write her regularly scheduled blog. I took a look at my own brimming schedule for the day, then shrugged and said “The hell with it. Sure.”
I spent some time thinking about some different topics that might be interesting to ramble on about… Writing with Internet ADD… Novels vs Short Stories… The Catch-22 around Agent Desires and Publisher Desires…. But in the end, I decided to basically write a ‘Mirror Post’ to what Jess put up last week – Peer Reviews.
In my opinion, Peer Reviews are incredibly difficult to do properly, because it’s a two person process. Obviously, the person giving the review needs to do things a certain fashion, so that they’re providing good feedback without harping on the minuscule or otherwise tearing the piece to shreds, but just as importantly, the one receiving the feedback needs to have the correct mindset for it.
Last week, Jess hit on some of the emotions that go into letting someone else look at your work… it’s more or less stark, nail-biting, terror. Odds are you’ve worked your ass off writing something and have potentially spent hours on that one section once you start doing revisions. Additionally, there’s a good possibility that you’re completely convinced you might have written trite garbage that no one will ever want to read, and you should probably quit and go take up a different hobby where nobody will judge your work. So handing that piece of work to someone else takes no small amount of guts (and probably a solid shot of liquor or two to steel the nerves).
I had the ‘easier’ role of the two last week… I sent Jess about a half dozen pages from a section of my short story that, frankly, I hated. It was a necessary part of the story, but I just didn’t like what I’d done there (so much so that I’ve decided to shelve that work for a couple weeks and focus on another piece, for submission to a different Anthology. That’s how self-confident I am over what I’d written). Jess came back with some good pieces of feedback, and said that, overall, she didn’t think it was half bad… that definitely helped bolster my confidence a bit… perhaps I wasn’t writing COMPLETE Garbage… at least, there was a chance some of it could be redeemed.
This week, we changed roles a little bit… I reached out to Jess for a couple “What do you think about the formatting of this line…?” questions, and in turn, she sent me the first half of her Prologue to peek at.
At this point, it becomes very obvious to me that, while receiving criticism over your ‘baby’ is hard enough, they should, and probably do, teach college level courses on giving critiques. They’re incredibly hard for me, and I’ll tell you why…
I am the Grammar Police. Stick ‘em up.
If it wasn’t for the fact that I don’t know a ‘dangling participle’ from my own elbow, I’d probably be a good copy editor, as the QA side of my brain has trained me to catch every silly little formatting issue. Spelling errors, punctuation failures, sentences that seem out of order… but for the level of Peer Review we’re doing, I know that Jess doesn’t give a damn. She’s handing me a piece that hasn’t undergone revision, and will be looking through it all again long before submitting it to a publisher. She doesn’t need copy editing, she needs feedback. The other thing she doesn’t need is someone to look at a paragraph and say “You know, here’s how I’d have done it.” – I’m not writing her story, she is. How she wants to use a turn of phrase is up to her, and dictated by her style.
So I turn off the part of my brain that’s looking at the little things, and instead look at the big picture and try and get some feedback for her… I let her know that I think she’s got a good opener… here are a few excellent hooks that caught my attention, and would keep me flipping pages… I like how this piece here is written… and so on. I briefly mention that I noticed some technical flaws that I think a pass of revision will clear up, but don’t harp on them because I want to make sure she’s getting the positive feedback that she’s not off course. Her ship is on the right heading, she just needs to tighten the rigging as it were.
Now, earmuffs kiddies, this isn’t to say that feedback should be a big circle-jerk where it’s all rainbows and smiles. It just turns out she sent me a piece I felt was good. It would have been even harder for me if she gave me something that had real flaws in it, because I’d still need to give her solid feedback in terms of “I don’t understand this character’s motivations…” and “…why bother doing this when she could obviously just do this other thing with a fraction of the difficulty?”, but would need to do it in a constructive manner, that didn’t come across in a way that would depress her… because then I’m not only not helping her process, I’m harming it by sucking away her motivation.
Done correctly, Peer Review is an incredibly powerful tool if you’ve got the right people helping you out. You’ll be able to see things from a reader’s point of view… get a second opinion when you’re wavering on a particular formatting method or story idea… and can generally make sure you’re not heading down a dead branch. The caveat is just that you need to make sure you’ve got the right people helping you out, so you’re gaining, rather than losing, motivation every time you hand a piece out.
I grieve for the victims of the bombings today at the Marathon's finish line, and I await the day the perpetrator of this heinous act is brought to justice.
Tonight I had an appointment that left little time for me to write a blog entry myself. I asked my friend Matt, who was the subject of last week's post, to write up a little something to keep the momentum going.
So without further ado, I give you Matt.
Let me open with a clarification: I am not Jess. I’m her friend Matt. I’m three days younger, several dozen pounds heavier, and have no internal filter to speak of. You have my sincere apologies in advance.
Jess reached out to me this morning and asked if I’d mind throwing together a ‘Guest Blog’ for tonight, as her dance card was full up for the day, and she wasn’t going to be able to find the time to write her regularly scheduled blog. I took a look at my own brimming schedule for the day, then shrugged and said “The hell with it. Sure.”
I spent some time thinking about some different topics that might be interesting to ramble on about… Writing with Internet ADD… Novels vs Short Stories… The Catch-22 around Agent Desires and Publisher Desires…. But in the end, I decided to basically write a ‘Mirror Post’ to what Jess put up last week – Peer Reviews.
In my opinion, Peer Reviews are incredibly difficult to do properly, because it’s a two person process. Obviously, the person giving the review needs to do things a certain fashion, so that they’re providing good feedback without harping on the minuscule or otherwise tearing the piece to shreds, but just as importantly, the one receiving the feedback needs to have the correct mindset for it.
Last week, Jess hit on some of the emotions that go into letting someone else look at your work… it’s more or less stark, nail-biting, terror. Odds are you’ve worked your ass off writing something and have potentially spent hours on that one section once you start doing revisions. Additionally, there’s a good possibility that you’re completely convinced you might have written trite garbage that no one will ever want to read, and you should probably quit and go take up a different hobby where nobody will judge your work. So handing that piece of work to someone else takes no small amount of guts (and probably a solid shot of liquor or two to steel the nerves).
I had the ‘easier’ role of the two last week… I sent Jess about a half dozen pages from a section of my short story that, frankly, I hated. It was a necessary part of the story, but I just didn’t like what I’d done there (so much so that I’ve decided to shelve that work for a couple weeks and focus on another piece, for submission to a different Anthology. That’s how self-confident I am over what I’d written). Jess came back with some good pieces of feedback, and said that, overall, she didn’t think it was half bad… that definitely helped bolster my confidence a bit… perhaps I wasn’t writing COMPLETE Garbage… at least, there was a chance some of it could be redeemed.
This week, we changed roles a little bit… I reached out to Jess for a couple “What do you think about the formatting of this line…?” questions, and in turn, she sent me the first half of her Prologue to peek at.
At this point, it becomes very obvious to me that, while receiving criticism over your ‘baby’ is hard enough, they should, and probably do, teach college level courses on giving critiques. They’re incredibly hard for me, and I’ll tell you why…
I am the Grammar Police. Stick ‘em up.
If it wasn’t for the fact that I don’t know a ‘dangling participle’ from my own elbow, I’d probably be a good copy editor, as the QA side of my brain has trained me to catch every silly little formatting issue. Spelling errors, punctuation failures, sentences that seem out of order… but for the level of Peer Review we’re doing, I know that Jess doesn’t give a damn. She’s handing me a piece that hasn’t undergone revision, and will be looking through it all again long before submitting it to a publisher. She doesn’t need copy editing, she needs feedback. The other thing she doesn’t need is someone to look at a paragraph and say “You know, here’s how I’d have done it.” – I’m not writing her story, she is. How she wants to use a turn of phrase is up to her, and dictated by her style.
So I turn off the part of my brain that’s looking at the little things, and instead look at the big picture and try and get some feedback for her… I let her know that I think she’s got a good opener… here are a few excellent hooks that caught my attention, and would keep me flipping pages… I like how this piece here is written… and so on. I briefly mention that I noticed some technical flaws that I think a pass of revision will clear up, but don’t harp on them because I want to make sure she’s getting the positive feedback that she’s not off course. Her ship is on the right heading, she just needs to tighten the rigging as it were.
Now, earmuffs kiddies, this isn’t to say that feedback should be a big circle-jerk where it’s all rainbows and smiles. It just turns out she sent me a piece I felt was good. It would have been even harder for me if she gave me something that had real flaws in it, because I’d still need to give her solid feedback in terms of “I don’t understand this character’s motivations…” and “…why bother doing this when she could obviously just do this other thing with a fraction of the difficulty?”, but would need to do it in a constructive manner, that didn’t come across in a way that would depress her… because then I’m not only not helping her process, I’m harming it by sucking away her motivation.
Done correctly, Peer Review is an incredibly powerful tool if you’ve got the right people helping you out. You’ll be able to see things from a reader’s point of view… get a second opinion when you’re wavering on a particular formatting method or story idea… and can generally make sure you’re not heading down a dead branch. The caveat is just that you need to make sure you’ve got the right people helping you out, so you’re gaining, rather than losing, motivation every time you hand a piece out.
Monday, April 8, 2013
Help Me, Help You, Help Me
As I have mentioned before a good friend of mine started to venture into the writing world around the same time I did. Like me, he had been sitting on some great ideas for sometime and finally worked up the confidence to jump in and start writing.
We had a really great chat a few months back just talking about how we got started. So one day when we were finalizing the plans for Matt and his wife to come babysit my kids I asked him how the writing was going.
I can't quote him directly but the gist of it was it wasn't going well and he hadn't really committed much time to it lately.
He mentioned a lot of distractions but I had a feeling he was letting himself be distracted from writing for reasons he wasn't really telling me. I thought this because everything he was telling me I had heard myself say before to others. I had been in a bit of a slump and looking back now I realized it had a lot to do with the fact that I didn't really think I was doing such a great job writing and I was feeling a little down on myself.
I could see all this mirrored in my dear friend.
So being the bossy, domineering, and loving person that I am, I talked him into having a bit of a working session with me. I told him we could just talk it out. I was by no means an expert but sometimes if you just start saying stuff out loud to other people it starts thought processes you might not have kicked off by yourself.
Matt's story is a short sci-fi story set in the future. So I was asking a lot of questions about his world and the people of that time period in general. He was worrying that his characters didn't seem real and their interactions with each other were forced and unnatural. My hope, in asking the questions I did, was that it would help him better understand his characters and the world in which they live so he might better understand why people might react they way they do.
He had great answers for everything I threw at him. So it was obvious to me that background wasn't really his issue.
Matt was telling me was having a hard time with dialog, so I sent him a snippet of some dialog I had been working on that evening.
Let me just take a second to highlight that last point a bit. I sent him a snippet... of my book... that no one else has ever seen snippets of before...
I jokingly told him to feel special all the while I was sitting on the edge of my seat to see what he might have to say about what I wrote.
Here I was trying to help him with dialog and he could be reading mine thinking, this is worse than mine, she can't help me!
Matt was uncharacteristically quite for a minute or two, I started chewing on my nails. He did respond back but he just continued along with the conversation without mentioning my snippet!
We were doing all this over a chat so its very possible that he was in his own manuscript when I typed that to him and he just missed it. My brain, however, jumped right to the worst case scenario. He must be thinking it is awful.
I took a deep calming breath and reminded myself that tonight was not about me. I was determined to get his butt back in the writing chair if I had to drive over to his house and tie him to it.
We continued on back and forth for a bit longer when I finally said, ok just send me something, show me something you think is just utter crap and I will tell you what I think.
Matt and I have been friends for quite some time, we were once co-workers and we have collaborated on many, many projects in the past. It takes an insane amount of courage to send someone a chunk of your work if you love it, much more so if you hate it. I want to say that I was honored that Matt felt comfortable enough to show me something he felt was so horrible it made him want to stop writing all together.
He sent me about 4 pages of typed material via drop box and I set off to read it.
After a few (very intense for Matt, I'm sure) minutes I came back to tell him what I thought. I told him what I truly felt about it. I didn't think he was far off from the story he wanted to tell.
I think I surprised him. They say writers are their own worst critics and I think that was true for Matt. It's probably true for me too but we'll see.
I'm not a big sci-fi reader but I do enjoy them from time to time. I really enjoyed what I had read, I was able to follow all the sci-fi stuff because the context was well done and I genuinely wanted to know what happened to this guy after the scene I was given came to a close. That's hard to do in just a few paragraphs.
Matt had prefaced the whole thing with what he felt was wrong with it. His character feels like he isn't having enough of a reaction to the news he is given and the dialog felt, for lack of a better word, stiff.
I thought his character was having a reaction, but I could see what Matt was talking about. He wanted him to have a more intense reaction.
With Matt's permission I added about 20 words to a few paragraphs of his work and showed him with a few tweaks you can convey to the reader a more intense reaction without rewriting the entire conversation.
I think he liked what I had to show him, it also proved to him that he really wasn't that far away.
All this led to a conversation about the Show Don't Tell Rule in writing. Which is all I ended up adding when I threw in a few extra words.
This made me feel empowered to show Matt another snippet from my own writing where I am writing about my own character's reaction to something someone else said to her.
This time Matt did comment on it and he liked it, he really, really liked it!
His praise on my 2 small paragraph snippet sent me over the moon!
The whole conversation was just about an hour and I think it left us both feeling pretty jazzed up to do some more writing. In my opinion if that session did nothing more than motivate my friend, it was an hour well spent.
Matt, thanks for having a working session with me. We should be having those check ins every so often. Also thanks for letting me devote an entire blog entry to you and our conversation. If you're up for it, talk about what you've been up to since that night in the comments.
I have been promised that I will get to read his story when he's done! Yay, I can't wait!!!!
We had a really great chat a few months back just talking about how we got started. So one day when we were finalizing the plans for Matt and his wife to come babysit my kids I asked him how the writing was going.
I can't quote him directly but the gist of it was it wasn't going well and he hadn't really committed much time to it lately.
He mentioned a lot of distractions but I had a feeling he was letting himself be distracted from writing for reasons he wasn't really telling me. I thought this because everything he was telling me I had heard myself say before to others. I had been in a bit of a slump and looking back now I realized it had a lot to do with the fact that I didn't really think I was doing such a great job writing and I was feeling a little down on myself.
I could see all this mirrored in my dear friend.
So being the bossy, domineering, and loving person that I am, I talked him into having a bit of a working session with me. I told him we could just talk it out. I was by no means an expert but sometimes if you just start saying stuff out loud to other people it starts thought processes you might not have kicked off by yourself.
Matt's story is a short sci-fi story set in the future. So I was asking a lot of questions about his world and the people of that time period in general. He was worrying that his characters didn't seem real and their interactions with each other were forced and unnatural. My hope, in asking the questions I did, was that it would help him better understand his characters and the world in which they live so he might better understand why people might react they way they do.
He had great answers for everything I threw at him. So it was obvious to me that background wasn't really his issue.
Matt was telling me was having a hard time with dialog, so I sent him a snippet of some dialog I had been working on that evening.
Let me just take a second to highlight that last point a bit. I sent him a snippet... of my book... that no one else has ever seen snippets of before...
I jokingly told him to feel special all the while I was sitting on the edge of my seat to see what he might have to say about what I wrote.
Here I was trying to help him with dialog and he could be reading mine thinking, this is worse than mine, she can't help me!
Matt was uncharacteristically quite for a minute or two, I started chewing on my nails. He did respond back but he just continued along with the conversation without mentioning my snippet!
We were doing all this over a chat so its very possible that he was in his own manuscript when I typed that to him and he just missed it. My brain, however, jumped right to the worst case scenario. He must be thinking it is awful.
I took a deep calming breath and reminded myself that tonight was not about me. I was determined to get his butt back in the writing chair if I had to drive over to his house and tie him to it.
We continued on back and forth for a bit longer when I finally said, ok just send me something, show me something you think is just utter crap and I will tell you what I think.
Matt and I have been friends for quite some time, we were once co-workers and we have collaborated on many, many projects in the past. It takes an insane amount of courage to send someone a chunk of your work if you love it, much more so if you hate it. I want to say that I was honored that Matt felt comfortable enough to show me something he felt was so horrible it made him want to stop writing all together.
He sent me about 4 pages of typed material via drop box and I set off to read it.
After a few (very intense for Matt, I'm sure) minutes I came back to tell him what I thought. I told him what I truly felt about it. I didn't think he was far off from the story he wanted to tell.
I think I surprised him. They say writers are their own worst critics and I think that was true for Matt. It's probably true for me too but we'll see.
I'm not a big sci-fi reader but I do enjoy them from time to time. I really enjoyed what I had read, I was able to follow all the sci-fi stuff because the context was well done and I genuinely wanted to know what happened to this guy after the scene I was given came to a close. That's hard to do in just a few paragraphs.
Matt had prefaced the whole thing with what he felt was wrong with it. His character feels like he isn't having enough of a reaction to the news he is given and the dialog felt, for lack of a better word, stiff.
I thought his character was having a reaction, but I could see what Matt was talking about. He wanted him to have a more intense reaction.
With Matt's permission I added about 20 words to a few paragraphs of his work and showed him with a few tweaks you can convey to the reader a more intense reaction without rewriting the entire conversation.
I think he liked what I had to show him, it also proved to him that he really wasn't that far away.
All this led to a conversation about the Show Don't Tell Rule in writing. Which is all I ended up adding when I threw in a few extra words.
This made me feel empowered to show Matt another snippet from my own writing where I am writing about my own character's reaction to something someone else said to her.
This time Matt did comment on it and he liked it, he really, really liked it!
His praise on my 2 small paragraph snippet sent me over the moon!
The whole conversation was just about an hour and I think it left us both feeling pretty jazzed up to do some more writing. In my opinion if that session did nothing more than motivate my friend, it was an hour well spent.
Matt, thanks for having a working session with me. We should be having those check ins every so often. Also thanks for letting me devote an entire blog entry to you and our conversation. If you're up for it, talk about what you've been up to since that night in the comments.
I have been promised that I will get to read his story when he's done! Yay, I can't wait!!!!
Monday, April 1, 2013
Blogging is Hard and 750 Words a Day
Every week my blogging task is becoming harder and harder. I think I'm in a good steady state with my writing and I feel like I don't have a lot of new stuff to talk about... yet.
I like writing this blog because its good practice, it keeps me on a schedule, it forces me to come up with a new topic every week and because my adoring fans would be devastated if I missed the opportunity to blog... you know, both of 'em.
Last week I talked about how much my reading impacts my ability to write. I am happy to say that I am back into the reading swing of things and almost finished with a book in which I spent more than 2 months on page 50.
In addition to reading again, I set out with another plan of attack. I had set aside one night a week for writing. For me it was usually Wednesday nights. The entire night was devoted to writing and I did nothing else from the time my kids were in bed to the time I went to bed.
Of course there were a few problems with that. First, I was spending about the first 45 minutes to an hour going back over what I had written the week before to maintain my consistency. I didn't want my character to draw her bow in the scene I wrote tonight if she had already drawn her bow and was holding it in the week before.
The second issue I was having was that I felt like I was giving up all the other stuff I wanted to do just to write. I wanted to write, but I didn't want to sacrifice everything else I love doing in my free Mommy time. I thought back to a conversation a friend and I had about writing. He mentioned to me that he tried to stick to the 750 words a day challenge. So I decided to a little research.
Really the 750 words a day challenge is to get the juices flowing in the morning so you're ready for a day of writing awesomeness. But it can be used just to motivate people to getting some writing done everyday.
Since I don't have the luxury of getting to write as my full time job I thought maybe I can write 750 words a day in my book. I tested myself and 750 words took me about 45 minutes on a bad day. So many shoes on Facebook....
So I decided to commit myself to spending at least one hour every evening I am home to writing. Monday nights is for the blog and a girl has to get her floor hockey games in, but that leaves plenty of other nights in the week.
By doing it this way I found that I actually spend more time during the week writing, and I get a lot more down on paper. I'm also never going more than 2 days since the last time I wrote, so maintaining my continuity is a lot easier as well. I read the last few sentences and I'm off and running. The last thing I found is that since it really only takes me an hour to accomplish this goal, I get the writing done, then it's off to read my book or catch up on those TV shows I can't seem to break away from. I also feel less guilty when I need a night off and decide not to write because I'm only taking a extra day off, not a whole week. That was a slippery slope to never finishing my book.
So this decision has really worked out for me and hopefully it will help me get the manuscript finished up that much faster. I'm sure editing is going to a whole new adventure all its own!
On a side note, I have been hearing a lot from you guys in person or in other messages that you're enjoying the blog. The happiness I feel when I hear these things cannot be described in words. Please keep the comments and chats coming! It's really inspiring and motivating to hear what you guys have to say. I'm even more impressed that so many of you expressed interest in reading the book once its finished! I love talking about what I'm trying to do, this blog, and even your own writing experiences. I'm a very social learner and I love to hear what you've gone through. I am learning from people everyday and maybe I might be able to help you out as well!
Thanks so much for reading. :-)
I like writing this blog because its good practice, it keeps me on a schedule, it forces me to come up with a new topic every week and because my adoring fans would be devastated if I missed the opportunity to blog... you know, both of 'em.
Last week I talked about how much my reading impacts my ability to write. I am happy to say that I am back into the reading swing of things and almost finished with a book in which I spent more than 2 months on page 50.
In addition to reading again, I set out with another plan of attack. I had set aside one night a week for writing. For me it was usually Wednesday nights. The entire night was devoted to writing and I did nothing else from the time my kids were in bed to the time I went to bed.
Of course there were a few problems with that. First, I was spending about the first 45 minutes to an hour going back over what I had written the week before to maintain my consistency. I didn't want my character to draw her bow in the scene I wrote tonight if she had already drawn her bow and was holding it in the week before.
The second issue I was having was that I felt like I was giving up all the other stuff I wanted to do just to write. I wanted to write, but I didn't want to sacrifice everything else I love doing in my free Mommy time. I thought back to a conversation a friend and I had about writing. He mentioned to me that he tried to stick to the 750 words a day challenge. So I decided to a little research.
Really the 750 words a day challenge is to get the juices flowing in the morning so you're ready for a day of writing awesomeness. But it can be used just to motivate people to getting some writing done everyday.
Since I don't have the luxury of getting to write as my full time job I thought maybe I can write 750 words a day in my book. I tested myself and 750 words took me about 45 minutes on a bad day. So many shoes on Facebook....
So I decided to commit myself to spending at least one hour every evening I am home to writing. Monday nights is for the blog and a girl has to get her floor hockey games in, but that leaves plenty of other nights in the week.
By doing it this way I found that I actually spend more time during the week writing, and I get a lot more down on paper. I'm also never going more than 2 days since the last time I wrote, so maintaining my continuity is a lot easier as well. I read the last few sentences and I'm off and running. The last thing I found is that since it really only takes me an hour to accomplish this goal, I get the writing done, then it's off to read my book or catch up on those TV shows I can't seem to break away from. I also feel less guilty when I need a night off and decide not to write because I'm only taking a extra day off, not a whole week. That was a slippery slope to never finishing my book.
So this decision has really worked out for me and hopefully it will help me get the manuscript finished up that much faster. I'm sure editing is going to a whole new adventure all its own!
On a side note, I have been hearing a lot from you guys in person or in other messages that you're enjoying the blog. The happiness I feel when I hear these things cannot be described in words. Please keep the comments and chats coming! It's really inspiring and motivating to hear what you guys have to say. I'm even more impressed that so many of you expressed interest in reading the book once its finished! I love talking about what I'm trying to do, this blog, and even your own writing experiences. I'm a very social learner and I love to hear what you've gone through. I am learning from people everyday and maybe I might be able to help you out as well!
Thanks so much for reading. :-)
Monday, March 25, 2013
Two of the Three R's go Hand in Hand
As some of you know, I have been in a heck of a reading slump. I started a book at the end of January (2 months ago at the time of this writing) and I am not finished yet. This is pretty unusual for me but it's not the first time its happened.
I read all the time, and once every so often my desire to read wanes slightly and I find myself getting wrapped up in something else. It's usually for only a few weeks and then I'm back to devouring books as voraciously as ever before. I am currently in that state. I blame you, Hellfire!
I joined the Goodreads Reading Challenge this year, as I did last year. Last year I came out ahead of my goal which was pretty awesome. If you haven't guessed by now I am a bit of an over achiever. This year I knew I was going to be putting a lot of effort into writing so I backed down my commitment.
Thanks to this slump I'm currently 3 books behind on making my goal. This is a new state for me, I spent all of 2012 ahead of the game so I'm pretty sure Goodreads was worried. They were likely wondering if I had been kidnapped or if all my books had perished in a fire.
Well I didn't notice it until very recently but I started a different slump around the same time. I noticed that my writing was suffering as well.
I wasn't as motivated to write. When I would sit down I was distracted by Facebook and shoes and I noticed I was only getting about a page or two in a night when, before that, I was getting 5-10.
Not only did going to the Boston Author Event get me motivated to write again it got me reading again too. I wasn't worried about my desire to read coming back. I knew it would and I will still most likely end up ahead on my reading goal.
I have read countless interviews and how-to articles and books that all say if you want to be a good writer you have to be a reader.
And that really resonated with me. I did read a lot. So I didn't really give it a second thought when I started my slump. What I realized is that, for me, reading is a very important part of my writing process.
Some interviews of authors tell stories of alternating between reading books and writing. Others say that they have to read 20-30 pages of a book before each and every time they sit down to write.
I think I might be in the group that needs the latter. It really gets the creative juices flowing and gets me really excited to see how my story is going to play out on paper.
When my reading when on hiatus, so did my writing. Now that I have my motivation back to read I noticed the motivation to write is stronger and so is the caliber of my work.
So chalk this one up to lessons learned along the way!
Now I know.
What about you?
I read all the time, and once every so often my desire to read wanes slightly and I find myself getting wrapped up in something else. It's usually for only a few weeks and then I'm back to devouring books as voraciously as ever before. I am currently in that state. I blame you, Hellfire!
I joined the Goodreads Reading Challenge this year, as I did last year. Last year I came out ahead of my goal which was pretty awesome. If you haven't guessed by now I am a bit of an over achiever. This year I knew I was going to be putting a lot of effort into writing so I backed down my commitment.
Thanks to this slump I'm currently 3 books behind on making my goal. This is a new state for me, I spent all of 2012 ahead of the game so I'm pretty sure Goodreads was worried. They were likely wondering if I had been kidnapped or if all my books had perished in a fire.
Well I didn't notice it until very recently but I started a different slump around the same time. I noticed that my writing was suffering as well.
I wasn't as motivated to write. When I would sit down I was distracted by Facebook and shoes and I noticed I was only getting about a page or two in a night when, before that, I was getting 5-10.
Not only did going to the Boston Author Event get me motivated to write again it got me reading again too. I wasn't worried about my desire to read coming back. I knew it would and I will still most likely end up ahead on my reading goal.
I have read countless interviews and how-to articles and books that all say if you want to be a good writer you have to be a reader.
And that really resonated with me. I did read a lot. So I didn't really give it a second thought when I started my slump. What I realized is that, for me, reading is a very important part of my writing process.
Some interviews of authors tell stories of alternating between reading books and writing. Others say that they have to read 20-30 pages of a book before each and every time they sit down to write.
I think I might be in the group that needs the latter. It really gets the creative juices flowing and gets me really excited to see how my story is going to play out on paper.
When my reading when on hiatus, so did my writing. Now that I have my motivation back to read I noticed the motivation to write is stronger and so is the caliber of my work.
So chalk this one up to lessons learned along the way!
Now I know.
What about you?
Monday, March 18, 2013
How I spent 2.5 hours on a cold Boston Saturday!
Thanks to a good friend I have been invited into a wonderful group of readers. This group of readers, who shall remain Anonymous, is a wonderful mix of authors, publishers, editors, and, of course, romance enthusiasts! They always seem to have their fingers on the pulse of anything book related and are always trying to get to book signings and conventions. If it weren't for this group I would not have been standing on a chilly sidewalk in Boston this past Saturday.
On Saturday March 16th the Boston Author Event was held at the Omni Parker House in, well, Boston. Thanks to my aforementioned friend, I was registered and shuttled down. I really had no idea what to expect so I was looking forward to it but I hadn't really thought much about it.
A lot of authors there were indie authors, and I have to say that I have not read a single book from any of them. I was not dissuaded by this, it didn't really matter that I hadn't read any of the authors there. I was excited that I was going to get a short afternoon away from the kids and be surrounded by other reading freaks (said with love, ladies)! I also thought it would be a great opportunity to hob knob with some people who have been where I am now and remind myself that they did it and so can I.
Amy, my friend, had registered us a while back. The event was going to be scheduled from noon to 4pm and we had an arrival time of 2pm. Amy and I have never done anything like this before. Yep, total noobs! We figured since they gave us an arrival time we should be able to get in either right at that time or pretty close to it.
Amy picked me up at 1 and off we went! We were both giddy about our upcoming adventure. We chatted happily on the way down and Amy was giving me the run down of what she planned to accomplish while she was there. She had to deliver wax (she sells Sentsy) to one author, she had a bottle of wine for another, she wanted to finally meet one of the authors she beta read for and pick up a book she had pre-ordered from yet another. This was all not counting the few other books she had with her to be signed by authors planning to attend. She was like the ever prepared boy scout heading out into the wilderness to survive on her know-how and gumption. Me, I felt like the slacker kid who shows up to the camping trip wearing all the wrong clothes and without the proper supplies.
It was ok. I just told myself, and Amy, that I was going to ride her wave and be happy for the experience.
Oh boy, did that pay off for me.
Just before 2pm I am navigating Amy toward the Omni Parker House and we lucked out and found a parking garage pretty close to where we were supposed enter reader heaven!
We pulled into the parking garage and hopped out. I hoisted my purse up onto my shoulder, Amy did the same. Then she hauled out her boy scout preparedness supplies, aka the tote bag full of stuff she brought with her. OH and did I mention that the tote bag was actually from the event itself? For our convenience there was a list of all the authors present at the event printed in a lovely teal color right under Amy's elbow!
We move into the elevator, the excitement building. We thought we were going to have to walk a few blocks to get where we needed to be. I started punching in the address in my phone to get the walking directions. We picked a door to walk out of a very opulent looking lobby. As soon as we walk out the door we can see the Omni Parker House. It was across the street! We couldn't have found better parking if we tried!
That was the good news, the bad news was, the line was stretched all the way down the block and around the corner. Amy and I looked at each other. It was going to be quite a wait. We should have come much, much earlier.
As we were walking down the line Amy spotted a few friends of hers from the group. After a quick chat we felt we had better take our place in line if we had any hope of getting in!
We quickly discovered that the line queued up next to the Beantown Pub. That's right, an Irish Pub... on Saturday... March 16th... In Boston!
At least we were thoroughly entertained by the endless amount of people walking by in green clothes, orange wigs, funny hats, headbands, glasses and any other St. Patrick's Day novelties you can think off. Most of the wearers of all this regalia were heavily intoxicated. I could probably write an entire blog entry on just what we saw and heard but I won't. If you really want to know, ask. :-)
As we stood in line and realized there was a distinct possibility that we may not get in to see anyone, we were starting to come up with a Plan B. This plan mostly consisted of joining the celebrations at one of the dozen or so Irish Pubs we passed on our way in. We started to do something that I have heard many people say happens when waiting in line for things like this. We stuck up a conversation with 2 ladies standing in line behind us.
I have read blogs of people who attend conventions of all kinds and have even heard from some of my convention going friends that the excitement and shared love of the same thing spark heartfelt discussions and quick friendships. I have never really experienced anything like this.
After some time the duo behind us was joined by a third. We found out that 2 of the ladies were budding authors. One, Mina Vaughn, has a book coming out in August. Another, Daisy Prescott, was in edit for her book and the third, Traci Olsen, works for a romance publishing company!
Here I was standing in line waiting to meet authors and other people in the book writing world and I was lucky enough to be standing right next to a few in line.
We had some wonderful conversations and even spanned topics like cosplay and videogames, though I'm sure Amy wasn't so excited about those. :-)
We shared some writing stories, I learned what a Geoduck was, we all offered to shoo event squatters away if any of the ladies were signing books at an event, and we all struggled to stay warm standing in a man made windtunnel.
The afternoon started to get late and some of the organizers of the event started walking the line asking if people were interested in seeing just one or two of the authors. Worrying that we may not be able to get in at all if we didn't take this offer I let Amy pick two authors off her tote and jumped at the next opportunity to get in.
We found out that we would be escorted in, we would see the 2 authors we picked and then we would be walked right back out again. They were having a hard time with occupancy maximums, excited attendees hanging around and organizers who were a little too nice to shoo people along. Pair all of that with a larger number of attendees than planned for and you have a recipe for long lines and long waits.
Amy was able to see almost everyone she wanted to see. She didn't meet the author she bought the wine for, but don't worry, we didn't let it go to waste! After waiting in line for 2.5 hours we were really only inside for about 10 minutes.
Please don't take anything I say the wrong way. I had a blast! I now know what people talk about when they say they spent hours sitting in line but had the best time! It really has to do with the people you end up next to in line.
We also had some lessons learned. Next time we will be earlier to get in line, we'll bring more line provisions like snacks and extra mittens, and we will be sure to strike up conversations with those around us in hopes of meeting people just as great as the ones we met in line this year.
Amy, thanks for taking me along on your adventure! I had so much fun. To the ladies I met in line, I wish you all the best of luck and I hope we continue to stay in contact. I want to read all your books or pre-read anything that you're willing to float out there!
To the organizers of the Boston Author Event. Great job getting the authors in town and letting us all know about it. I'll see you next year! And next time I'll be sure to read books from a few of the authors.
Scouts honor!
On Saturday March 16th the Boston Author Event was held at the Omni Parker House in, well, Boston. Thanks to my aforementioned friend, I was registered and shuttled down. I really had no idea what to expect so I was looking forward to it but I hadn't really thought much about it.
A lot of authors there were indie authors, and I have to say that I have not read a single book from any of them. I was not dissuaded by this, it didn't really matter that I hadn't read any of the authors there. I was excited that I was going to get a short afternoon away from the kids and be surrounded by other reading freaks (said with love, ladies)! I also thought it would be a great opportunity to hob knob with some people who have been where I am now and remind myself that they did it and so can I.
Amy, my friend, had registered us a while back. The event was going to be scheduled from noon to 4pm and we had an arrival time of 2pm. Amy and I have never done anything like this before. Yep, total noobs! We figured since they gave us an arrival time we should be able to get in either right at that time or pretty close to it.
Amy picked me up at 1 and off we went! We were both giddy about our upcoming adventure. We chatted happily on the way down and Amy was giving me the run down of what she planned to accomplish while she was there. She had to deliver wax (she sells Sentsy) to one author, she had a bottle of wine for another, she wanted to finally meet one of the authors she beta read for and pick up a book she had pre-ordered from yet another. This was all not counting the few other books she had with her to be signed by authors planning to attend. She was like the ever prepared boy scout heading out into the wilderness to survive on her know-how and gumption. Me, I felt like the slacker kid who shows up to the camping trip wearing all the wrong clothes and without the proper supplies.
It was ok. I just told myself, and Amy, that I was going to ride her wave and be happy for the experience.
Oh boy, did that pay off for me.
Just before 2pm I am navigating Amy toward the Omni Parker House and we lucked out and found a parking garage pretty close to where we were supposed enter reader heaven!
We pulled into the parking garage and hopped out. I hoisted my purse up onto my shoulder, Amy did the same. Then she hauled out her boy scout preparedness supplies, aka the tote bag full of stuff she brought with her. OH and did I mention that the tote bag was actually from the event itself? For our convenience there was a list of all the authors present at the event printed in a lovely teal color right under Amy's elbow!
We move into the elevator, the excitement building. We thought we were going to have to walk a few blocks to get where we needed to be. I started punching in the address in my phone to get the walking directions. We picked a door to walk out of a very opulent looking lobby. As soon as we walk out the door we can see the Omni Parker House. It was across the street! We couldn't have found better parking if we tried!
That was the good news, the bad news was, the line was stretched all the way down the block and around the corner. Amy and I looked at each other. It was going to be quite a wait. We should have come much, much earlier.
As we were walking down the line Amy spotted a few friends of hers from the group. After a quick chat we felt we had better take our place in line if we had any hope of getting in!
We quickly discovered that the line queued up next to the Beantown Pub. That's right, an Irish Pub... on Saturday... March 16th... In Boston!
At least we were thoroughly entertained by the endless amount of people walking by in green clothes, orange wigs, funny hats, headbands, glasses and any other St. Patrick's Day novelties you can think off. Most of the wearers of all this regalia were heavily intoxicated. I could probably write an entire blog entry on just what we saw and heard but I won't. If you really want to know, ask. :-)
As we stood in line and realized there was a distinct possibility that we may not get in to see anyone, we were starting to come up with a Plan B. This plan mostly consisted of joining the celebrations at one of the dozen or so Irish Pubs we passed on our way in. We started to do something that I have heard many people say happens when waiting in line for things like this. We stuck up a conversation with 2 ladies standing in line behind us.
I have read blogs of people who attend conventions of all kinds and have even heard from some of my convention going friends that the excitement and shared love of the same thing spark heartfelt discussions and quick friendships. I have never really experienced anything like this.
After some time the duo behind us was joined by a third. We found out that 2 of the ladies were budding authors. One, Mina Vaughn, has a book coming out in August. Another, Daisy Prescott, was in edit for her book and the third, Traci Olsen, works for a romance publishing company!
Here I was standing in line waiting to meet authors and other people in the book writing world and I was lucky enough to be standing right next to a few in line.
We had some wonderful conversations and even spanned topics like cosplay and videogames, though I'm sure Amy wasn't so excited about those. :-)
We shared some writing stories, I learned what a Geoduck was, we all offered to shoo event squatters away if any of the ladies were signing books at an event, and we all struggled to stay warm standing in a man made windtunnel.
The afternoon started to get late and some of the organizers of the event started walking the line asking if people were interested in seeing just one or two of the authors. Worrying that we may not be able to get in at all if we didn't take this offer I let Amy pick two authors off her tote and jumped at the next opportunity to get in.
We found out that we would be escorted in, we would see the 2 authors we picked and then we would be walked right back out again. They were having a hard time with occupancy maximums, excited attendees hanging around and organizers who were a little too nice to shoo people along. Pair all of that with a larger number of attendees than planned for and you have a recipe for long lines and long waits.
Amy was able to see almost everyone she wanted to see. She didn't meet the author she bought the wine for, but don't worry, we didn't let it go to waste! After waiting in line for 2.5 hours we were really only inside for about 10 minutes.
Please don't take anything I say the wrong way. I had a blast! I now know what people talk about when they say they spent hours sitting in line but had the best time! It really has to do with the people you end up next to in line.
We also had some lessons learned. Next time we will be earlier to get in line, we'll bring more line provisions like snacks and extra mittens, and we will be sure to strike up conversations with those around us in hopes of meeting people just as great as the ones we met in line this year.
Amy, thanks for taking me along on your adventure! I had so much fun. To the ladies I met in line, I wish you all the best of luck and I hope we continue to stay in contact. I want to read all your books or pre-read anything that you're willing to float out there!
To the organizers of the Boston Author Event. Great job getting the authors in town and letting us all know about it. I'll see you next year! And next time I'll be sure to read books from a few of the authors.
Scouts honor!
Monday, March 4, 2013
The Adventures of the Disillusioned Learner and his sidekick Crap Writing
Whenever we make up our mind to do something, we want to be good at it. Yes? No one sets out with the goal to be lackluster. No, we get excited about the new adventure. We dream about what it be like when we master the task and become, dare I say, proficient!
According to a leadership training seminar I was in a few years back a person in this stage is known as a Enthusiastic Beginner.
This person is all starry-eyed and full of visions of a successful venture into whatever they have chosen to do. They are excited. This is something they very much want to do. They're not thinking about all that it's going to take to accomplish their goals. They're not thinking about the challenges ahead. They are most likely aware that there will be challenges and even hard work ahead but they don't want to think in specifics. All they care about is taking that first step on the road to being successful.
It's only after they start and they hit that first bump that the road starts to look a lot longer and full of more potholes than they ever imagined. They start to realize that they are not going to be as good at this as they thought. This is going to take some real work and lot of time to become good.
This stage is known as the Disillusioned Learner. They have just enough of a taste of what the task entails and a better understanding of what it's going to take to get to the end where they are successful in whatever they set out to do.
Everyone of us has experienced this. In college I found this to be true when I decided to take up snowboarding. I went to school at the foot of the White Mountains of NH. I was 30 minutes or less from some of the best skiing in the Northeast. My friends, roommates, and even my boyfriend was doing it. I might as well give it a try.
I had visions of myself swooshing down the mountain, the wind blowing through... well, nothing I hate the cold so I was going to be bundled up pretty well. I was going to be able to engage in an activity that my friends were doing and loved and I would get to share this with them.
I think we all know where this is going... My first day out I ended up butt down in a hole off to the side of the trail. It was full of water and worse yet, my feet, both still firmly attached to the snowboard, were up over my head. Thank goodness I was 21, I spent the rest of that afternoon in the bar.
It was as my boyfriend's roommate was pulling me out of that hole (Think of a someone being stuffed in a trashcan with their feet and head sticking out of the top) I realized that it was not going to be as good at this as I thought I was going to be.
As I predicted it would, the same happened to me while I was writing.
I knew it was going to come. I think it was part of the reason why I put off writing for so long. I wasn't sure I was going to be good at it. I didn't know if I could actually do it. I hate not being good at things and I hate failing.... Seriously.
It happened two weeks ago. A moment I was looking forward to for some time had finally arrived. My two main characters, the focal point of my whole story, were going to be in the same place at the same time and actually, *gasp*, talk to each other!
I sat down knowing what I wanted to convey to the readers. I made them wait this long to get the two of them on the same page, literally. The problem was I didn't know from whose point of view I should be writing. This derailed me. I went into a bit of a tailspin. I couldn't concentrate. I ended up spending the most of my writing night on Facebook (lots of shoes to look at).
I finally picked a POV and just went with it. I think I picked the right one but I couldn't stay focused. I only ended up writing about 200 words that night when I had been averaging about 4 times that per writing night.
As I wrote my 200 words I realized something awful. This is the first time they are supposed to meet. It's supposed to be intense, its supposed to be sizzling, its supposed to be.... interesting. It was none of these things. It was reading like two people chatting at a bus stop, and this is NOT a bus stop!
After that, I was really demotivated. I found it hard to get back into writing. I even skipped my writing night last week. I know. One of the rules is even if you don't feel like writing you should just write anyway.
And to top all this off, I'm in a pretty bad reading slump so I couldn't get motivated that way either.
I found my motivation again when it occurred to me how I could fix my scene. While I was washing my hair of all places...
So I would like to introduce myself. Hi, my name is Jessica and I'm a disillusioned learning at writing.
I would add snowboarding too, but I think you actually have to be doing it to count yourself a learner.
I gave up on snowboarding. Ultimately I think it was because my heart just wasn't in it. I spent a year after that incident with the "puddle" trying to get better but I didn't get far. The very last time I ever went I was able to get off the chair lift without falling down. I figured what a way to go out!
I don't want to let writing follow down the snowboarding path. I actually care about becomimg good at this.
I keep reminding myself that I'm new at this and I should cut myself some slack. But I can't cut myself so much slack that I'm not doing it anymore either.
The only way I'm going to get better is with practice. A LOT of practice.
According to a leadership training seminar I was in a few years back a person in this stage is known as a Enthusiastic Beginner.
This person is all starry-eyed and full of visions of a successful venture into whatever they have chosen to do. They are excited. This is something they very much want to do. They're not thinking about all that it's going to take to accomplish their goals. They're not thinking about the challenges ahead. They are most likely aware that there will be challenges and even hard work ahead but they don't want to think in specifics. All they care about is taking that first step on the road to being successful.
It's only after they start and they hit that first bump that the road starts to look a lot longer and full of more potholes than they ever imagined. They start to realize that they are not going to be as good at this as they thought. This is going to take some real work and lot of time to become good.
This stage is known as the Disillusioned Learner. They have just enough of a taste of what the task entails and a better understanding of what it's going to take to get to the end where they are successful in whatever they set out to do.
Everyone of us has experienced this. In college I found this to be true when I decided to take up snowboarding. I went to school at the foot of the White Mountains of NH. I was 30 minutes or less from some of the best skiing in the Northeast. My friends, roommates, and even my boyfriend was doing it. I might as well give it a try.
I had visions of myself swooshing down the mountain, the wind blowing through... well, nothing I hate the cold so I was going to be bundled up pretty well. I was going to be able to engage in an activity that my friends were doing and loved and I would get to share this with them.
I think we all know where this is going... My first day out I ended up butt down in a hole off to the side of the trail. It was full of water and worse yet, my feet, both still firmly attached to the snowboard, were up over my head. Thank goodness I was 21, I spent the rest of that afternoon in the bar.
It was as my boyfriend's roommate was pulling me out of that hole (Think of a someone being stuffed in a trashcan with their feet and head sticking out of the top) I realized that it was not going to be as good at this as I thought I was going to be.
As I predicted it would, the same happened to me while I was writing.
I knew it was going to come. I think it was part of the reason why I put off writing for so long. I wasn't sure I was going to be good at it. I didn't know if I could actually do it. I hate not being good at things and I hate failing.... Seriously.
It happened two weeks ago. A moment I was looking forward to for some time had finally arrived. My two main characters, the focal point of my whole story, were going to be in the same place at the same time and actually, *gasp*, talk to each other!
I sat down knowing what I wanted to convey to the readers. I made them wait this long to get the two of them on the same page, literally. The problem was I didn't know from whose point of view I should be writing. This derailed me. I went into a bit of a tailspin. I couldn't concentrate. I ended up spending the most of my writing night on Facebook (lots of shoes to look at).
I finally picked a POV and just went with it. I think I picked the right one but I couldn't stay focused. I only ended up writing about 200 words that night when I had been averaging about 4 times that per writing night.
As I wrote my 200 words I realized something awful. This is the first time they are supposed to meet. It's supposed to be intense, its supposed to be sizzling, its supposed to be.... interesting. It was none of these things. It was reading like two people chatting at a bus stop, and this is NOT a bus stop!
After that, I was really demotivated. I found it hard to get back into writing. I even skipped my writing night last week. I know. One of the rules is even if you don't feel like writing you should just write anyway.
And to top all this off, I'm in a pretty bad reading slump so I couldn't get motivated that way either.
I found my motivation again when it occurred to me how I could fix my scene. While I was washing my hair of all places...
So I would like to introduce myself. Hi, my name is Jessica and I'm a disillusioned learning at writing.
I would add snowboarding too, but I think you actually have to be doing it to count yourself a learner.
I gave up on snowboarding. Ultimately I think it was because my heart just wasn't in it. I spent a year after that incident with the "puddle" trying to get better but I didn't get far. The very last time I ever went I was able to get off the chair lift without falling down. I figured what a way to go out!
I don't want to let writing follow down the snowboarding path. I actually care about becomimg good at this.
I keep reminding myself that I'm new at this and I should cut myself some slack. But I can't cut myself so much slack that I'm not doing it anymore either.
The only way I'm going to get better is with practice. A LOT of practice.
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