THERE'S NOTHING TO IT, BUT TO DO IT!

Hey All!!!
Lately I've been going through a serious reading mode. You know the one, the kind where you devour two to three books a week with no thoughts to the other things you need to be doing, like, *cough, cough*, writing.

I realized that this wasn't healthy writer behavior, so I tried to force myself into a writing schedule, to get myself back on track. That ended with me looking up last night at 9:30 pm, with no writing done, but almost a book and a half cleaned off my plate. At that moment I went back and forth in my brain, determining if it was worth it to sit down for all of half an hour before bed to get some words on the page. I had had a chapter in my head for two days. I knew where I wanted to  go with the story. I just had to sit my tail down and write it out.

I'd almost decided that there wasn't enough time to finish an entire chapter, so it wasn't worth it to start the process, when a thought echoed around in my brain...

"There's nothing to it, but to do it!"

I'd heard that saying while watching Tia and Tamera's reality show - I believe Tia's husband said it one day when they were deciding on whether or not to continue with a project or something - and it just stuck with me.

So, I sat down last night, and wrote out the first section of that chapter...and I feel great about it! Sometimes life doesn't give you perfection when it come to your schedule or even your desire to get the words down. But that doesn't mean that you just wait around for the right timing. Sometimes you have to sit your tail down, even if it's for half an hour, and get some work done. Even a little bit at a time is better than nothing at all.

Happy reading and writing!

CREATING CREATIVE WRITING OPPORTUNITIES

Hey All!!!
Lately the BF's new gig has him hopping around the US of A. And when he's gone, I get to spend some QT with his cutie pie of a dog named Jazz =) (like my main character - and no, I'm not biased at all!). But bouncing around from place to place has forced me to think outside the box when it comes to my writing spaces and how I can make sure to keep to my writing schedule.

Typically I like to sit down with my good ol' laptop and pound out my edits for the day. I close myself off in my room with no T.V. and little distractions, and lose myself in the work. I've found, however, that lugging that laptop all over the place can be a bit...difficult. Especially since I like to frequent the gym after work and am not too keen on leaving my hardware in the establishment locker rooms - I just don't want to chance it. I was about to pull my hair out trying to figure out how I was going to get any writing done when I'm away from home, when a friend of mine turned me on to the awesomeness that is the google drive and google docs.

Using these products I'll be able to work from anywhere - without having to manuveur the dropping off of the laptop dance that I'm all too fond of (NOT!).

What do your writing spaces look like? Have any of you had to battle with thinking outside the box when it comes to where and when you get your writing in?

Happy Writing!!!

THE LIFE OF THE PARTY, I AM NOT: MY STRUGGLE TO NOT SUCK AT SOCIAL MEDIA

Hey All!!!

So, today I got slapped. And I don't mean the light tapping that you give your rambunctious two year old...no, I got the real deal, knock the taste out of your mouth, good ol' slapping.

See, I participated in The Houston Writers Guild Conference today - side note, if you're serious about writing and live in the Houston area this conference is a really good resource - and they spoke a lot on the importance of social media and reaching out to your audience. The speakers talked about how you should build a platform and a brand and how talking to you all on a regular basis was something I must do...and all I could do at hearing that was to hang my head in shame.

I've never been good with the whole "social thing" as I liked to call it in high school. Sure, I was a cheerleader and all, but I got that mostly based off the fact that I had seriously sharp motions, killer jumps, and halfway decent tumbling skills. If it had been the popularity contest it was in my mother's day I would've been toast - no matter how sharp my motions or how superb my jumps were. The life of the party, I am not.

I started getting down on myself in the conference main hall, thinking on how I have this blog that I'm not good at updating and how I need to do better, to be better, and I had one of my awesome ah ha moments.

What I need to do is to put blogging into my routine. I need to have some time framed out at least three times a week to really focusing on you all, and on imparting some sort of information into the void. So that's exactly what I'm going to do.

Come Hell or high water.

We'll see how this goes...and wish me luck!