Good grief, how can another week of 2012 already have flown by?  But here we are at another #writemotivation check in.  I’m happy to report that I’ve maintained my resolution of writing a tweet tale every day.  And since we’re halfway through January, I think this might possibly be the longest I’ve ever kept a New Year’s resolution.  I even had two personal blog posts this week, so whoo hoo to exceeding expectations!  And even though it’s not part of my #writemotivation goals, I also wrote a bunch of very overdue posts for my movie blog, which lifted a big weight off my shoulders.  So that brings up the big question…have I done any work on my novel WIP?

After last week’s post where I got more honest than I anticipated about my fear of failure, I was bolstered by the support of old and new writer friends and finally read through my WIP again.  It was great for reminding me how much I love my characters and story, but it also showed me there’s more to be fixed than I can squeeze into the time before the Amazon novel contest.  So I decided I’m not going to try to rush a rewrite for the contest.  I’m going to really dig in and identify what’s not working and the best way to fix it.  I made a few notes on my initial read, but now I need to dive back in with the red pen and really go to town.

But since I won’t be frantically pushing myself toward the Amazon deadline, some of my creative bandwidth has been freed up.  So I’m adding two new items to my #writemotivation goals for January: entering the Highlights fiction contest and a Glimmer Train contest.  For the Highlights contest, I’ll need to write a new story based on a newspaper headline; and for the Glimmer Train contest, I’m going to rewrite one of my NYCM flash pieces.  The deadline for both is January 31st.

Part of me worries that turning my attention to these two short stories is just another way to procrastinate revising my novel.  But I love writing short stories, and I have a better chance at doing well in these two contests than I do rushing my novel through a rewrite for Amazon.  And writing is writing, so I've decided that any I do is a very good thing . . . even if the underlying motive is procrastination!

Hope you all are making great progress with your 2012 goals!

How are you doing with your New Year’s resolutions?  Have your goals shifted after these first two weeks?  Am I cheating by changing my goals or is it good strategy to keep things realistic?

Good grief, how can another week of 2012 already have flown by?  But here we are at another #writemotivation check in.  I’m happy to report that I’ve maintained my resolution of writing a tweet tale every day.  And since we’re halfway through January, I think this might possibly be the longest I’ve ever kept a New Year’s resolution.  I even had two personal blog posts this week, so whoo hoo to exceeding expectations!  And even though it’s not part of my #writemotivation goals, I also wrote a bunch of very overdue posts for my movie blog, which lifted a big weight off my shoulders.  So that brings up the big question…have I done any work on my novel WIP?

After last week’s post where I got more honest than I anticipated about my fear of failure, I was bolstered by the support of old and new writer friends and finally read through my WIP again.  It was great for reminding me how much I love my characters and story, but it also showed me there’s more to be fixed than I can squeeze into the time before the Amazon novel contest.  So I decided I’m not going to try to rush a rewrite for the contest.  I’m going to really dig in and identify what’s not working and the best way to fix it.  I made a few notes on my initial read, but now I need to dive back in with the red pen and really go to town.

But since I won’t be frantically pushing myself toward the Amazon deadline, some of my creative bandwidth has been freed up.  So I’m adding two new items to my #writemotivation goals for January: entering the Highlights fiction contest and a Glimmer Train contest.  For the Highlights contest, I’ll need to write a new story based on a newspaper headline; and for the Glimmer Train contest, I’m going to rewrite one of my NYCM flash pieces.  The deadline for both is January 31st.

Part of me worries that turning my attention to these two short stories is just another way to procrastinate revising my novel.  But I love writing short stories, and I have a better chance at doing well in these two contests than I do rushing my novel through a rewrite for Amazon.  And writing is writing, so I've decided that any I do is a very good thing . . . even if the underlying motive is procrastination!

Hope you all are making great progress with your 2012 goals!

How are you doing with your New Year’s resolutions?  Have your goals shifted after these first two weeks?  Am I cheating by changing my goals or is it good strategy to keep things realistic?