This award is so perfect for me! I didn't make this, but I decided to bestow it upon myself, nonetheless. I am definitely the type of writer inclined to be slow. So, with a new year and the tradition to start a new path that is better than the old one from last year, I've decided to set an intention to write everyday.
I realized that if I were to write at least 300 words a day for the entire year, I would have over 100,000 words completed by the end of the year. That's not hard! That's so doable, so this is what I'm intending to do for the year of 2015. 100,000 words written is great for one year, especially for a slowpoke like me. Maybe I'll be able to make this award not apply to me anymore.
The most important trick to making this work is to set a low word count that is so easy to meet everyday, there's no excuse not to do it. Like brushing your teeth twice a day, which takes so little time and reaps huge benefits compared to never doing it. Also, write any sort of fiction, even if it's just free-writing or fanfiction. It all counts toward your overall word count goal for the year, and you can worry about writing a best seller later. Most of what we write as fiction authors never sees the light of day, anyway, so just write!
Happy New Year to everyone!
Any New Year's Resolutions for you writers out there?
Insecure Writers' Support Group (IWSG) is a
really awesome meme that you should be doing along with the rest of us
writers. Unless you truly are happy with your writing and don't feel the
need to vent about your insecurities because they don't exist for you. But, really.... Don't they? IWSG is hosted by Captain Ninja Alex at his blog, Alex J. Cavanaugh.
Nah... I haven't actually written one million words since my last blog post back in September. But, I have decided since then to work my way toward that ultimate goal. I recently read an author's response to a post over on Kindle Boards, and it just made sense that experience trumps everything. And, 1,000,000 words equals those 10,000 hours meant to be spent on becoming an expert in anything.
So, I literally tallied up every word I could find evidence of having written in the past 1o years (since 2004). What a project! Whether fan fiction or original, whether goofing around, or serious, if it was FICTION, it was added to my lifetime word count chart. I didn't go back further than 2004 because I simply don't have anything I wrote that far back anymore, sadly.
I will say that my current total is a little bit higher than I thought it was going to be. Not by much, but slightly, so this actually encouraged me rather than derailed me. But, I'm still nowhere near 1,000,000 words written total. That needs to change and it will now.
Doing this has made me realize that WHAT you write isn't even half as important as the fact that you simply DO it. Just do it! Just write fiction, and it doesn't matter if it sucks or is so amazing, J.K. Rowling will be mad with jealousy. Just write because you cannot add to your word count total that which does not exist.
I have to say, it helped me make a big shift in getting over some of my writing anxiety. Now, I just write and write and write until something someday will be good enough to edit into publishable condition. Someday, it will just have to happen.
And, if I write another 4,000 words before the year is over, I will have surpassed my word count total from 2012, which was my best writing year, by 500 words! (I didn't realize I was so close to having written as much as I did that year. This chart shows you everything that is true!) My other big ah-ha from discovering how many words I've actually written is that I have a lot more compassion for myself. I realize it is so very, very wrong for me to expect perfection from myself when I am such a rank amateur. That might sound like something that should depress me, but it really doesn't. I can't logically expect to be so good at something that I don't have enough experience at to be considered a true professional. Now that I understand this, I'm easier on myself about making mistakes. You can't expect a toddler to run as fast as a teenager, ya know?
Have you ever tallied up your lifetime word count goal? Anywhere near 1,000,000 lifetime words written? (Maybe it's just me who's so far behind. :(
An opportunity to share some underrated TV, films, books or music that just aren't getting enough love! Share your favorite lesser-known gems with everyone in this BLOGFEST, created by the all-knowing, all-powerful Captain Ninja Alex Cavanaugh.
For this Blogfest, which is brand new, as far as I know, I love having the opportunity to share obscure gems with other people who are not aware of some amazing things out there that I know about. I'm going to separate things into categories:
TV
This TV show hails from Japan and it's quite popular over there, but here in the U.S., it's only hugely popular with the anime-loving crowd. Needless to say, that's not a very large segment of the population. *sad face :(* I'm a very big anime and manga (Japanese comic books) fan, so if I'm recommending an anime TV series to people who never watch anime, it's because this one is so different from the norm.
Shingeki no Kyojin, a.k.a. "Attack on Titan" is like Japan's
version of "The Walking Dead" American TV series. But, these zombies are HUGE. Imagine having to battle zombies as large as skyscrapers! Yeah, it's a very harrowing, terrifying series, but so satisfying. The characters are genuinely freaked-out about their circumstances and not too prepared for what they have to deal with. Many twists and turns abound, so be sure to give this one a few episodes to really show its true nature. Don't expect this show to go easy on you--many characters die. DIE very horrible deaths, even the ones you come to care about.
When the man-eating giants called Titans first appeared, humans retreated behind massive walls. After a hundred years of safety, a colossal-sized Titan smashes through the defenses, unleashing a flood of giants and carnage in the streets. Eren Jaeger watches helplessly as one of the creatures devours his mother. He vows to kill every Titan walking the earth.
Eren and his surviving friends enlist to fight against the insatiable monsters. The future looks bleak, but there's more to Eren than meets the eye: he may be humanity's last hope against extinction. From the director of "Death Note" and "High School of the Dead" comes the series Anime News Network calls an intense, visceral, and graphic thrill ride. The Titans have come to feast. Anything can happen. No one is safe.
Available to watch on Netflix streaming in its original Japanese audio, or on Cartoon Network's Toonami block on Saturdays at 11:30pm in English dubbed voice over.
MUSIC
I'm going to be schizoid and jump from this very intense, terrifying TV show to my favorite music composers of beautiful, ethereal music. Try and keep up....
Adrian von Ziegler, an independent composer from Switzerland, has had my ear for the past year now with all his gorgeous high fantasy and dark gothic music. This guy is seriously a genius and needs to be hired for film and video games of every kind. He bases himself on Youtube and has quite a good following, making a living for himself from the sales of his audio tracks. Take a listen below!
Brunuhville is a contemporary of Adrain's and a good friend.
Bruno hails from Portugal and composes very similiar-sounding music to Adrian's, but in a very different style. If you end up liking Adrain's music, you're almost sure to like Brunuhville, as well. He, too, is based on Youtube and has a very nice-sized following, so far. He has a fantastic ear for extremely emotional music. Watch out or you may end up balling your eyes out!
I'm just so happy to have found these masters of music! They are very young and have full careers ahead of them. I can't wait to hear what they dream up next.
STAND-UP COMEDY
Now, I'm going to keep up my unpredictability with a plug for a fantastic, but lesser-known stand-up comedian that I have recently discovered. Brian Regan is an American comic who has been doing stand-up since the 1990's, although I've never even heard of him. Maybe you have, since he's been around for so long. He's absolutely hilarious and a very clean family man. You can enjoy his comedy with your teenagers, since the younger ones might not get his jokes. Then again, maybe they will!
And, there you have it! Have any of you ever heard of these lesser-known gems? I'd love to hear from others who like any of this stuff, too.
Labelled a nerd for most of high school, Livi sees her first year of university as a chance to redefine herself. She can finally enter the popular crowd and maybe even land herself a super hot boyfriend. But Livi’s about to discover that the price of popularity may be more than she's willing to pay, and that what—and who—she wants most has always been right in front of her.
Rachel Morgan was born in South Africa and spent a large portion
of her childhood living in a fantasy land of her own making. After completing a
degree in genetics, she decided science wasn’t for her—after all, they didn’t
approve of made-up facts. These days she spends much of her time immersed in
fantasy land once more, writing fiction for young adults and those young at heart.
She is the author of the Amazon bestselling YA fantasy series, Creepy Hollow, and the lighthearted contemporary romance Trouble series.
