My best friend found herself in the ER today and was admitted to the hospital. Now she is facing lots of scary tests and possible diagnosis. It's not a fun place to be in, personally, nor to watch someone you care about in. It got me to thinking, life is so short. You never know what is around the next corner. And I find myself writing this post today with a thought I wanted to share with you.
If you find something in this life that inspires you, that you are passionate about, then don't hold back....Give thanks for it.....Grab it...Hold on to it....Celebrate in it....Lose yourself in enjoyment for a blissful moment.
Is it the company of a friend? Is it stargazing or watching sunrises and sunsets? Drawing or painting? Or is it a good book? Is it movie night with the family? Is it quiet moments with your spouse or your best friend? Is it skydiving or hang gliding?
Whatever it is that you enjoy, then embrace it and cherish the moments you have doing that activity! If it's someone that inspires you, then pick up the phone or write a note thanking that person and telling them how much they mean to you. If it's something that inspires you, then make sure you make time in your schedule for that activity.
Enjoy those moments that life offers you.
When you find yourself in the middle of chaos, instead of getting insane about it, stop yourself and find something good about it and when you find those things in life that bring you enjoyment, embrace them and don't feel guilty about it.
I find that when you take time out for yourself, then you feel more energized, your soul is nourished and you can administer to the needs of others better. You feel as if you have more of yourself to give.
Sometimes when the kids have thrown me in a tizzy and chaos reigns supreme and I find my temper getting short, I try to stop and think, "One day they are gonna be grown and gone and I'll be old, in this house alone, so I'm gonna enjoy this noise and chaos today because one day I'm gonna be missing it."
I'm embracing those moments of external chaos instead of causing more internal chaos for myself and getting spun up about it.
And tonight, while praying for my friend, I'm enjoying the gift and ability of being able to write. A chance to communicate with you. Getting my thoughts out and down on paper is an extremely therapeutic activity that I truly enjoy and I am getting lost in it tonight....
Thank you for reading my words. If your a believer, I would covet prayers for my friend. Send one up for her tonight, The Big Guy will know who your talking about.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
I love book trailers! Short, sweet and to the point they give you a taste of the novel that you are checking out, except instead of just words they have music and special effects. I think they are very effective for getting your book noticed and an excellent marketing tool!
I'm a huge fan of Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series. I devoured the first three novels (Iron King, Iron Daughter, & Iron Queen) within a week of me finding out about them, and now she's released the final book (The Iron Knight) that will wrap up the story arc for Megan and Ash! I can't wait to read it! If you haven't read this series, YOU MUST READ IT!
Not sure if it's for you? Then watch this book trailer for The Iron Knight and decide for yourself!
I'm a huge fan of Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series. I devoured the first three novels (Iron King, Iron Daughter, & Iron Queen) within a week of me finding out about them, and now she's released the final book (The Iron Knight) that will wrap up the story arc for Megan and Ash! I can't wait to read it! If you haven't read this series, YOU MUST READ IT!
Not sure if it's for you? Then watch this book trailer for The Iron Knight and decide for yourself!
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
National Novel Writing Month (Nov 1-30)
If you haven't heard about NaNoWriMo it stands for National Novel Writing Month and spans the entire month of November. The goal is to write 50,000 words over the course of the month.
It's insane and tons of fun and every year NaNo's get together at write-in's all across the globe and churn out the words. Many complete their novels and some even go on to successfully sell and publish their novels. It can be a great success or an epic failure; depending on your statistics over the course of NaNoWriMo.
Regardless of weather you participate in NaNoWriMo or not, there are some good things to be learned from it. Like:
1. Setting goals. You have a long term goal of writing that novel that's been in your head for the past year, but how do you get there?
By setting short term goals. If you set a goal of a certain word count each day or week to achieve, and do it, then you CAN get that novel written. It's just one word at a time. It's up to you how you want to set that goal.
The goal is to write 50,000 words. Divide that by 30 days and (I'm rounding up here) you get a goal of 1,700 words a day you need to write. If you can do 1,700 words a day then that will actually get you 51,000 words in a 30 day period which is 1G over the winning mark. Personally, when setting goals, I like to hit just a little above of where I actually need to be; it allows me a nice comfort zone so that if I do find myself slacking etc.. with my small comfort zone, I'll still hit my mark.
It's personal choice. You can set your word count goals however you wish. Maybe instead of 1,700 words a day; you want 10,000 words over the weekend. I have seen authors do this. If you aren't on Twitter, get on it, and follow #nanowrimo. You'll be able to connect with other Nano's and participate in writing sprints. Many authors will post that they are going to go for a 1,000 words at the top of the hour and ask others to join them. Competition always makes it more fun! After the hour you get to post if you made it or not. I've seen writers repeat this pattern over and over during the course of a day. So you can easily write a few thousand words over a weekend just by doing this method.
2. Learning how to Outline. I've read the bios of a lot of NaNo's and it seems that those who outline their novels do the best in achieving their goal of 50,000 words. An outline can keep you focused and on task and allow you to use your time effectively. There is nothing worse than spending an hour writing 1,500 words only to figure out later that you'll need to cut them because they don't fit. Or just sitting down and writing a bunch of random crap to end up with 50,000 words, but it turns out that it's such a mess that you're not sure what your looking at, and you decide that it would be easier to rewrite the entire thing than trying to shape that word blob monster into an actual novel.
By writing a general outline for your novel, you can write the storyline in correct order, staying more consistent to where you want your story to go, and before you know it you'll be hitting that wonderful goal of 50,000 words and you'll arrive there with something that you can work with!
3. Networking. NaNoWriMo is a fun time to connect with other writers. When you make your account at http://nanowrimo.org you choose your home area and if your lucky you have people who are NaNo'ing near your home. You can participate in write-ins which are a lot of fun. There's something about being around a lot of other writer's furiously pounding away on their laptops to get your inspired and focused! Your less likely to slack if you see people around you are are passionate about taking their writing seriously.
If you don't have anyone close to you, then you can join write-in's online; many will host virtual write-ins via Google chat and other methods. If your creative you could probably do one on Twitter also. (If you can't tell, I absolutely love Twitter).
Writing is a solitary activity and it can be very isolating. Connecting with other writers is a wonderful opportunity. Not only does it cement it in that you are a writer and that you are striving to achieve a big goal, but it lets you know that you are not alone, that there are others out there just like you. Support and encouragement from real life writers can be as effective as the M&M's and espresso that you promise yourself if you can just hit that next word goal!
National Novel Writing Month is a lot of fun. Crazy, insanity fun! If you haven't done it yet and are thinking of it, go on!!! You'll be surprised at what you can achieve if you take it seriously and set some goals that you consistently work at. You may surprise yourself! Even if you don't hit the 50,000 mark, any amount that you write is better than if you'd never tried. You'll have a start! Everything gets written, one word at a time!!!!
If you are participating, please leave me a comment. Let me know your user name and I'll add you to my buddy list. It's so much fun to connect online. Feel free to add me to yours also. My username is maliyah_ash. I look forward to seeing you achieve those word goals this year!!
Wishing you much success this year!!!!
It's insane and tons of fun and every year NaNo's get together at write-in's all across the globe and churn out the words. Many complete their novels and some even go on to successfully sell and publish their novels. It can be a great success or an epic failure; depending on your statistics over the course of NaNoWriMo.
Regardless of weather you participate in NaNoWriMo or not, there are some good things to be learned from it. Like:
1. Setting goals. You have a long term goal of writing that novel that's been in your head for the past year, but how do you get there?
By setting short term goals. If you set a goal of a certain word count each day or week to achieve, and do it, then you CAN get that novel written. It's just one word at a time. It's up to you how you want to set that goal.
The goal is to write 50,000 words. Divide that by 30 days and (I'm rounding up here) you get a goal of 1,700 words a day you need to write. If you can do 1,700 words a day then that will actually get you 51,000 words in a 30 day period which is 1G over the winning mark. Personally, when setting goals, I like to hit just a little above of where I actually need to be; it allows me a nice comfort zone so that if I do find myself slacking etc.. with my small comfort zone, I'll still hit my mark.
It's personal choice. You can set your word count goals however you wish. Maybe instead of 1,700 words a day; you want 10,000 words over the weekend. I have seen authors do this. If you aren't on Twitter, get on it, and follow #nanowrimo. You'll be able to connect with other Nano's and participate in writing sprints. Many authors will post that they are going to go for a 1,000 words at the top of the hour and ask others to join them. Competition always makes it more fun! After the hour you get to post if you made it or not. I've seen writers repeat this pattern over and over during the course of a day. So you can easily write a few thousand words over a weekend just by doing this method.
2. Learning how to Outline. I've read the bios of a lot of NaNo's and it seems that those who outline their novels do the best in achieving their goal of 50,000 words. An outline can keep you focused and on task and allow you to use your time effectively. There is nothing worse than spending an hour writing 1,500 words only to figure out later that you'll need to cut them because they don't fit. Or just sitting down and writing a bunch of random crap to end up with 50,000 words, but it turns out that it's such a mess that you're not sure what your looking at, and you decide that it would be easier to rewrite the entire thing than trying to shape that word blob monster into an actual novel.
By writing a general outline for your novel, you can write the storyline in correct order, staying more consistent to where you want your story to go, and before you know it you'll be hitting that wonderful goal of 50,000 words and you'll arrive there with something that you can work with!
3. Networking. NaNoWriMo is a fun time to connect with other writers. When you make your account at http://nanowrimo.org you choose your home area and if your lucky you have people who are NaNo'ing near your home. You can participate in write-ins which are a lot of fun. There's something about being around a lot of other writer's furiously pounding away on their laptops to get your inspired and focused! Your less likely to slack if you see people around you are are passionate about taking their writing seriously.
If you don't have anyone close to you, then you can join write-in's online; many will host virtual write-ins via Google chat and other methods. If your creative you could probably do one on Twitter also. (If you can't tell, I absolutely love Twitter).
Writing is a solitary activity and it can be very isolating. Connecting with other writers is a wonderful opportunity. Not only does it cement it in that you are a writer and that you are striving to achieve a big goal, but it lets you know that you are not alone, that there are others out there just like you. Support and encouragement from real life writers can be as effective as the M&M's and espresso that you promise yourself if you can just hit that next word goal!
National Novel Writing Month is a lot of fun. Crazy, insanity fun! If you haven't done it yet and are thinking of it, go on!!! You'll be surprised at what you can achieve if you take it seriously and set some goals that you consistently work at. You may surprise yourself! Even if you don't hit the 50,000 mark, any amount that you write is better than if you'd never tried. You'll have a start! Everything gets written, one word at a time!!!!
If you are participating, please leave me a comment. Let me know your user name and I'll add you to my buddy list. It's so much fun to connect online. Feel free to add me to yours also. My username is maliyah_ash. I look forward to seeing you achieve those word goals this year!!
Wishing you much success this year!!!!
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