exploring the writing world
How to speed read – monster finger optional.
I've been trying to make the most of this season over the past couple of weeks. Large blocks of time for sitting down to write are out, due to my daughter being home on her summer school holidays and the rush of the season, getting ready for Christmas, all that.
But these hot summer days down under have some bonuses – I have time for some luxurious reading. Part of this silly season is also about goals and tasks or resolutions, of course.
Here’s the second Weekly Report Card.
As I’ll be away for a week or so, this blog will be going on another short break from tomorrow. This time around, I’ve only prepared a couple of simple scheduled posts. I will also not be able to approve comments or respond to communications for a few days. Thanks for your patience.
For most writers I know, it’s summer time. Yay you! Spare a thought for us down-under writers who may be shivering inside and outside. But no matter the hemisphere, most of us share the next few months with some school holidays to manoeuvre through, if parents, and some definite intentions to make the most of the months and get some writing done.
If you’re looking for some community motivation and cheering on, there are a couple of options in blogfests to join.
Continue reading “Care for some Writing Goals Support? ROW80, Ready Set Write! and Ninja Teams”
I’m now dedicating this month to prep-work for April’s upcoming A to Z Challenge and CampNaNo. Although I can’t write the blog posts in advance, even coming up with some posts formed around the A to Z theme, and outlining the work keeps me involved for several hours each day.
Should be : What I Did Last Summer, because technically it is still officially summer here in Australia. But last weekend, we certainly didn’t know it. Torrential rain, all weekend. All the Saturday sports and many other events were rained off, and many people up north have had some severe flooding – again.
For me, the rain was a good thing (apart from the leeches). At least for some of my writing life.
Continue reading “#ROW80 What I Did Last Weekend – a Review of some Online Writer’s Conferences”
How’s everyone going on your writing goals? Here’s my quick update on my own for the last week.
Writing World has another edition of the free yearly planner for writers. The 2013 Writer’s Planner is available as a free to download PDF or excel spreadsheet. There is a new edition with days broken into half hour sessions, or the classic edition has quarter hour sessions. A print version is available via lulu. There is also a submission tracker in PDF and Excel format, available to download also.
Use it to plan your schedule, organize your tasks, record your achievements, track your goals and progress, and keep track of important deadlines. Each week opens with a place to list your priorities and upcoming deadlines, and ends with an inspirational quote about writing. Each day, there’s space to make note of your achievements, tasks completed, and progress.
In the previous post, Laura Orsini’s infographic on writing goals gave me an idea. Being a visual person I love infographics – good ones with charts and things. So why not create one for myself?
Update – After the first ROW80 challenge of the year also pointed out I could list my goals, I decided to double up and point out this post to my fellow ROw80 participants.
Seems like every second (okay, fifth, tenth?) writer’s blog out there is already talking about setting some writing goals for 2013.
So soon?
But if you insist…here’s some thoughts from down my own road.
Continue reading “The Goal Rush – What’s your 2013 Writing Goals?”
It’s been quiet on here lately, for a reason. I’ve just returned from a trip back to New Zealand with my daughter. This was my first return to my home country for 14 years, and my daughter’s first trip to a country that is partially her birth right. We stayed with an old friend in her new country estate north of Auckland.
