Writing Life This Week

Hey everyone!

I'm trying to update on a regular basis, so this is my update for this week. So far my writing is going okay. I've been keeping a notebook by bed to write in every night. However, I am not the best at this. I have recently discovered something else that will keep me away from my writing: Castle the T.V. show. Then I found out that they are books. I have been watching the tv show pretty much all week right before I go to bed. As a result, not too much writing has been done. Also this weekend I went on a trip to Chattanooga. It was pretty fun. We just kind of hung out and went shopping and site seeing. It was a nice little get away. I did do some writing by the pool, but it wasn't a whole lot. The main thing that I have been trying to do with my writing is to type what I have written into Scrivener. I love Scrivener! It makes everything so much easier to organize!

So here is the plan for this week:
-Write 500 words daily (For my WriteChain Challenge)
-Type everything into Scrivener over the weekend
-Begin to carry around my idea book once more.

I'm getting to the climax in my novel now. I'm so excited to be nearing the end, but I am also nervous. I want to make sure that I don't end it in a cheesy way or completely ruin the book with the ending. Seeing as this is the first major piece of work that I will actually finish, I want the ending to be awesome! Any advice on how endings should be? I don't want the stereotypical Happily Ever After. I'll take any advice you have! Thanks!

-Lizzy

I'm Back!

Hey everyone!

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back on here. I am going to try to make it a habit to post something at least once a week. I have just been so busy with school. However I have finally graduated from college, so I am sure that I will have a lot of free time now to work on my novel and write more in general. I'm excited for that! I want to expand my horizons more so while I will be looking for a better job than Starbucks (which is where I currently work), I will also try to finish my novel and look into self publishing. Things are looking pretty good right now and I am really excited! I think that I will start by setting some goals for myself, since that is where I left off in the last post. We will continue with the one month goal setting. Sure the first of June is still a few days away, but I feel like I can get a jump start on it.

Goals for June:
-Finish my novel (500 words Daily-Write Chain)
-Write one blog post a week, update on life and novel
-Write a poem once a week
-Figure out how to copyright my work
-Look into self-publishing

So, those are the goals for now. I figure that I should start small. I don't want to overwhelm myself. Anyways, I just wanted to say that it is good to be back and I'll be seeing more of you now that school is over!

-Lizzy

GSWC- Day 31

Hey everyone!

I considered grouping this with the last post, but I felt like as the end of the Get Started Write Challenge, it deserved it's own post. As the end to a great month spent on trying to better my writing and knowledge of the writing world, I feel like it's ending should be a good one. I just want to start off by saying that this month of daily challenges has helped me out in so many ways. It has helped me see that all it takes to get a lot accomplished is to sit down and write for just a little bit each day. It has helped me to learn about the things that I will need to do when my book is ready for publishing, and the ways to go about getting them ready. In fact, some of the things that he has had us do, I want to go back and begin working on for my novel (even though it is not done yet). That is how excited I am about all of this! With that being said, I'm on to the next- and last- prompt of the Get Started Write Challenge (My February Edition).

Day 31-
Today's Prompt: For today’s task, sit down and make a list of next steps. How are you going to make next month as successful as this month? How are you going to make it even more successful?

Alright... So I think that a good idea would be to sit down and do one of these for each month. I think if I just take things by each month, I will end up accomplishing so much more! So, I'm going to start with the writing things that I want to work on for March.

March:

• Write at least 1 blog post/update a week
• Finish writing my novel (Write at least 250 words daily)
• Find people to read and help me edit my novel
• Prepare a book proposal for the aforementioned novel
• Come up with an idea for a new novel and begin writing
• Write a poem once a week (start a poetry binder)
• Figure out how to copyright my work
• Work on building my writer platform

I found a post on Robert Brewer's blog (He is the person who did the whole Get Started Write Challenge) and he has a whole other list of daily to-dos that are dedicated to boosting your Writing Platform. It's 30 days, but I feel like it is going to help me immensely and it's something that I am thinking of doing for next month.

Here is the link if you want to look into it: http://robertleebrewer.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-to-build-or-improve-your-writer.html 

So there you have it. These are my goals for March, they may change, but there they are for now. I'm hoping that I can keep up with this, because I really feel like it is going to help me so much on my writing if I can. 

-Lizzy

GSWC Day 29 & 30

Hey everyone!

Seeing as it is near the end of February, I am going to jam these last 3 entries into one day so that I am done at the end of February. I'm really excited that I have done all of these. I think it has been a great experience this month for me to have a challenge like this for every day. I feel like I have learned a lot, and there is still a lot that I need to work on. That being said... Let's get down to work.

Day 29-
Today's Prompt: For today’s task, define the unique selling point of your book. If you want to impress publishing folk, let them know that you know what your USP (unique selling point) is.

He offers advice on using the competitive and comparative books to find the unique thing about your own. He also suggest somehow incorporating that into your book title. As I have already come up with a title for my novel, I'm not exactly sure about this. I'll have to go back and do this on my own time when I go to compare the books. I have a feeling that there is going to be a lot out there. As stated in my last post, I will update on that one I find more info about it.

Day 30-
Today's Prompt: For today’s task, assemble your book proposal. This will require getting everything together from earlier.

Cover (or query) letter. This better include the proposed title, unique selling point(s), and very brief bio.
Book overview. This breaks down the important parts of the book.
Book outline. Outlines are often done in paragraph form and provide all the major elements of the book.
Author bio. Unlike the bio in a query/cover letter, provide everything that might help your publisher help you sell books.
Sample chapters. Some publishers may request 2-3 chapters, others may want 40-50 pages. Make these sample pages exceptional.
Marketing info. This is where you define your target audience and ways to reach them.
Competitive title analysis. This is where you identify successful books that are comparable and competitive with yours. Remember to identify how your title differs from each.

After the assignment, he talks about how different publishers will want different things for their submissions and to just follow their directions. If you can't follow the directions for the submission guidelines, it makes it hard for them to choose your work because it says you might not be able to follow directions on other things either.

As far as this task goes for me, I am still in the drafting and editing mode of my novel. But I know that this will come in handy for when I am getting ready to submit my book proposal to publishers.

-Lizzy

GSWC- Day 27 & 28

Hey everyone!

The prompt for Day 27 of the Get Started Write Challenge is to write another blog post, and I feel like I can just kill 2 birds with 1 stone and jump on ahead to challenge for Day 28. Since there are fewer days in February, I feel like merging the challenges into a few days is a good and reasonable idea. So here is the challenge for Day 28.

Day 28- The prompt: Our task for today is to take your book idea and find comparative and competitive titles. While books have a better chance of getting published when they’re unique, they also need already existing titles around to show there’s a market for this sort of book.

Book title.
Author(s).
Publisher.
Publication date.
Amazon sales rank.
Similarities in this book with mine.
Differences.

So the task involves hitting up amazon or the local bookstores for books that are like mine. Someone mentioned some Chapters thing... I'll have to look into that too. Though, I think this is something that I will have to do when I have more time, and I will definitely do it in comparison to my own novel. I'm sure there will be a lot of similar ones due to the genre, and that makes me a little nervous. I guess I will just have to wait and see. I'll post an update about this when I have completed the task.

-Lizzy

GSWC- Day 25 & 26

Hey everyone!

Day 25- Today's writing challenge is based on assembling a book proposal. I have to say that this makes me a little nervous, but I realize that it is something that I will probably need to do for my novel once it is done. The exact prompt is: For today’s task, spend the day brainstorming book ideas. Consider your experience, expertise, interests, etc. Look at books on your topics and other topics that might not be related to see if there are treatments that haven’t been applied to your topic. 

For this, I am not sure if I should just go ahead with the novel idea that I have already written and in place, or if I should try to come up with something new. It is a little confusing for me. I think I'm going to stick with my novel idea for now though, I think that will make it easier? I have no idea.

Day 26-  Today's writing challenge is to figure out who your book is geared towards.

The exact prompt:  For today’s task, take your book idea from yesterday and start fleshing out who your target audience is for the book. Age range? Gender? Profession? Hobbies? Etc. Try quantifying, if possible, through organization memberships, magazine circs, etc.

So here is what I think my target audience and everything would be for my book that I am still working on.

Target Audience: 
Age Range: 17-50 yrs. I feel like because of the genre of the novel, many people would be able to read it.
Gender: Female 
Profession: I have no idea... I don't think it really matters in my case, it is more for enjoyment purposes.
Hobbies: Obviously people who like to read. Beyond that, no clue.

I think that I could probably narrow this down more, but I'm not exactly sure how. I guess once I start looking for a publisher and stuff, they'll be able to help me narrow it down... We'll just have to wait and see.

That's pretty much it for that, but on a side, I just wanted to let you know how I did on the writing 500 a day for the last few days... I did 


-Lizzy

GSWC- Day 21, 22, 23, & 24

Hey everyone!

Once again, I am here writing about the Get Started Write Challenge. I know what most of you are thinking: "Oh my gosh... doesn't this girl blog about anything else?" Well at the moment? No. This challenge is pretty much consuming my entire month, aside from my working on my novel. I want to jump-start my writing and I think that this is a good way to do it, even if I am a month late to the show. As a result- lots of blog posts dedicated to getting this done. I can't wait to see where I am at when this is all over! :D

Day 21- The challenge for today is to interview your characters. Start by asking their names, what they were doing right before the interview, favorite movie, favorite song, happiest moment, saddest moment, love interests (if any), associations, etc. Be thorough.

This sounds really interesting to me and I'm looking forward to going and doing this on my novel. I think that it will help me go back and edit it once I am done, and it will make them seem more human. I also will want to do this for the idea that I came up with a few days ago for one of the other challenges. I think that it will help me in the future to flesh out my characters more, however I am not going to post it on here for obvious reasons.

Days 22-24- The task for these days are to write 500 words a day, which will total to 1,500 in 3 days. I am already in the process of trying to write this many words on my novel each day, but it might be fun to try and write it on a new story. However, I am determined to finish this novel first. Then I will go back and edit it. I'm really excited about it all.  I'll let you know how it all goes in the next post!

-Lizzy

GSWC- Day 20

Hey Everyone!

The challenge for today is just to write a blog post. I've been doing a lot of that lately with the Get Started Write Challenge- attempting to blog and do the challenges every day, so that's not too hard. However today I just wanted to take a step back from all of that.

This month has been crazy busy so far, and I've really surprised myself. I've managed to sit down and actually do these writing challenges. I didn't think that I was actually going to be able to get through them. That being said, it inspires me to keep going on my novel, and I need a little motivation. It's been hard ever since NaNoWriMo. The whole month of November I had this urge to keep writing -CONSTANTLY. Like every minute my novel was on my brain.

Now, as graduation comes closer and school is getting harder and I am working more, it is taking a back seat. Motivation is difficult. Especially if I am working on a difficult scene and the characters aren't speaking to me. That being said, the fact that I am completing this challenge (though a month late) I think is a good motivation for me to get back to my writing. This is something that I am passionate about, something that I love to do. I want to (if possible) make a career out of this, and that means writing even when it is hard. I think I'm going to head over to my tumblr and see if I can find some motivation, or maybe twitter. I have a lot of great people who help me out there. If you're interested, come check it out!

-Lizzy

GSWC- Day 18 &19

Hey Everyone!

I hope you are all doing well. I'm still slowly, but surely going to get through all of these writing challenges. I feel like when I am done I will have accomplished a lot, but I'm starting to get a little worried about what I am going to do once I am done. It's that  "What next?" type of thing... I guess we'll just have to see.

Day 18- Alright, let's get started. The writing challenge for to day is to make an outline of a story. This is a little difficult for me seeing as most of my ideas just sort of flow while I am writing. I worry a little that this will take away from the creativeness of the story, but perhaps it will help. I won't know unless I try.

While he posted his on the blog, I am not going to post mine on the blog. I am just one of those people that I don't want someone to come along and try to steal an idea that I have come up with. While I like to think highly of people and believe that a lot of you have integrity and won't do that sort of thing, I'm not going to post ideas on here unless they are in the format of completed works that have been copyrighted in some format. That being said, I need to look into how to copyright more of my stuff. Haha. Anyways, I'll just jump to Day 19 for now.

Day 19- So, the prompt for today is to come up with the primary and secondary characters that you are going to use in your story. Since my outline was a brief and step-by-step direction that I wanted to take the story, it made it easier for me to come up with these characters. I might have to go back and change this once I actually start to write the story, but for now the categories that they are in will work. We'll just have to see. Obviously my main focus right now is on writing my novel, but I still might use this idea and make a story out of it, who knows?

-Lizzy

GSWC- Day 17

So for today's writing challenge, we have to write about our saddest memory. That is very hard for me, because I have (unfortunately), had a lot of sad things happen to me in my lifetime. A lot of these sad things are in fact very depressing as well. As a result, I am not exactly sure which one I should write about, but one comes to mind and it almost brings tears to my eyes. This event didn't happen to me personally, but I still consider it one of my saddest events in life because of how it affected me.

About a year ago in July- I got a phone call in the middle of the night from my brother. He was crying and it was hard to understand him. He rarely ever cries so immediately I knew that something wasn't right. He told me that something was wrong with his daughter (for anonymity sake I am not posting their names on here) who was barely over a year and she was in the hospital. They were taking her into surgery because her skull was cracked. 

A few hours later, but what felt like days- I was at the hospital with my parents to see my brother and my niece. I can remember walking in and seeing her strapped to all of the wires, no longer breathing and on life support. My brother was broken, but he had to be strong for the mother of his child. It was maybe a day or two later when they took her off of life support and it was the hardest time for my brother. They had the funeral that weekend and I went to be there for him. I was his shoulder during this tragic time and it makes me sad to remember it, and remember my little niece who we had lost well before her time. I won't go into the circumstances around her death, because they are very dark indeed, but her death is one of the saddest memories I have, and I know that it is the saddest for my brother.

And that is my saddest memory. Being there for my brother. Just sitting her writing it right now makes my heart ache. I wish that this hadn't happened. I still don't understand why it did. It's not something that I like to think about often, because it is so tragic and my family has been through a lot. I wish we haven't but we have and most days we all just have to keep on moving forward.

-Lizzy

GSWC- Day 14, 15 &16

Hey Everyone!

I'm back again for more Get Started Write Challenges!

Day-14 Today's challenge is to set up a Facebook account. I'm not exactly sure if I should do this one or not. I know that Facebook is a good marketing tool and I will probably make one in the future, but for right now I am going to hold off on it. I already have a personal Facebook account that I use, and I think that it would be weird having a Facebook account that is under my pen-name. I don't know. For right now though, I am on twitter and I have this blog and to me that is plenty enough. I think that I can look into it later when it comes time to start getting my book out there. However I am still in the beginning stages and I don't want to overwhelm myself. However, if you are looking on here and interested in that, then here are the tips that he has given to get started:

• Go to facebook.com to sign up. It’s free.
• Complete your profile. The more you add, the more you human you make your profile. That’s a good thing.
• Make everything public. This makes it easier for folks to find you, but with that said…
• Be aware that you've made everything public. Think before you post or share.
• Include a profile pic. Again, it makes you human. Again, think twice about which picture(s) you share with the world.
• Update your status regularly. It lets others know that you’re actively using your account. If you just watch others with the lights off, they assume no one is home.
• Be selective about your friends. There are writing groups, reading groups, and other types of groups on Facebook. Use these to help you connect with people who share your interests–and be aware of spammers.
• Communicate with your friends. Connect and communicate, that’s the way to rock social media. Quantity is not as important as quality.
• Join relevant groups. Like the ones mentioned above, but there are also groups (and fan pages) set up for literary journals, magazines, book publishers, literary agents, and more. These can be helpful for staying abreast of calls for submissions, writing opportunities, and more.
• Bonus tip: If you have a blog, be sure to share new posts on your Facebook profile. Just mention each post once, but it’s a good way to update your status with relevant information.

- See more at: http://blog.writersmarket.com/whats-new/2014-get-started-write-challenge-day-14#sthash.rTgZU6yo.dpuf

-He also had a sub-link to this page which is about Social Media. I think this is something to check out and I will probably come back to it when I re-visit the social media idea. So here is the link: http://www.writersdigestshop.com/author-social-media-kit?lid=RBwmblog01 

-Lizzy

Day 15-  Since these challenges are all along the same lines, I figured that I would go ahead and group them all together. It makes it easier since I am pretty much saying the same thing for each post and I don't want to repeat myself on 3 separate posts. So the task for today is to join another social media group, if you haven't already joined one. Like I said above, I am going to look through everything before I join and see the best way that they can benefit me. Then, I'll think about joining and probably might, we'll just see. So here are the links that he posted for the social media sites that he suggested:

• LinkedIn. A great professional social network.
• Google+. Like Facebook, but run by Google.
• Goodreads. A social network for readers.
• StumbleUpon. A network for sharing fun stuff.
• Pinterest. Image-based social network.
• Red Room. Subtitled: Where the authors are.
• Reddit. Another network for sharing fun stuff.
• BlogHer. Subtitled: Life well said.
• There are more, of course, but these are some of the more popular ones. One tip: Any time someone I know personally suggests I should check out a particular social media site, I do.

Day 16-  The challenge for today is to go and join the twitter chat. Seeing as I am a month late to that party, I will not be doing that, however I will go back and read what people have said via the hashtag #gswc. I think that will help some and maybe I will find something useful. I also read a post that he had linked to, connected to some sort of old blog of his. It talks about websites that are useful for Twitter and these are two that he mentioned that seemed interesting to me and I will more than likely use them in the future:

http://wthashtag.com/   (This allows you to keep track of the hashtags that are currently trending and follow the convorsations)

https://bitly.com/  (This allows you to shorten any url that you tweet, allowing you to save space in your 140 character limit)

Both of these are definitely helpful! So, there you have it. My responses to the days challenges. Sorry that it is so long, but I hope that it is useful to you. Thanks!

-Lizzy

GSWC- Day 12 & Day 13

Hey Everyone!

I'm combining these two challenges and you will see why in just a moment. :)

Day 12- The challenge for today is to submit a query, and seeing as I have yet to write one, I won't be able to do this task. Right now I have been just trying to focus on my novel and working on it. I still feel as though I have no experience with queries whatsoever- nor do I actually have a story written up with which I can in fact query about. Thus- skipping this and I will come back to it when I have something ready.

Day 13- The challenge for today is to set up a blog and make your first post about the Get Started Write Challenge. Seeing as I already have a blog and have been blogging about the challenge for a while now, I'm skipping over this challenge. However, I did click on the link that he had posted about blogging tips that pay off immediately. I read through that and will post what I have found now.

Pick a niche and stick to it. As writers, we often have diverse interests, and it’s not uncommon to hear writers say things like, “I’m interested in everything.” Me too, but for the purposes of blogging, it’s best to pick a subject that is wide enough to hold your interest but narrow enough that your readers know what to expect from you and your blog. Speaking of which…

Connect with your audience. Great ways to connect with your audience is to comment on other blogs in your category and friend/follow folks on social networking sites whose interests align with your blog. Bad way to connect with your audience is to go around saying things like, “Read my blog,” or worse, “I’ll read your blog IF you read mine.”

Give. A lot of writers make the mistake of thinking of what they want to get out of blogging and social media. Instead, writers should be focused on what they can give. Share helpful links, information, calls for submissions, etc. Anything related to your blog’s niche, try to give what you can. When the time comes for sharing “exciting news” (like a book or online course), you’ll have an engaged audience excited to get their hands on your “exclusive” content/services.

Make posts easy to share. From a technical perspective, this means that you include social sharing buttons for Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, etc. From a more content-related perspective, make sure your posts are loaded with great content (give, give, give) and/or take a stand on something and/or are over-the-top hilarious/shocking/sweet/etc. Great content is always easy to share.

Write evergreen content. Evergreen content in my business (the publishing business) is content that never goes completely out of style. For instance, these tips on blogging are just as relevant today as they were 5 years ago, and they’ll be useful in another 5 years. Timely posts are fine, but real growth comes from content that people find and share today, tomorrow, and two years down the road. (Many of my posts from years ago are still found and shared today.)

Be concise. Short paragraphs. Short sentences. Lists (bullets or numbered). Keep posts between 300 and 1,000 words in length when possible.

Finally, always reach deep and give a little more. I promised six tips, but here’s my seventh:

Develop your voice. This is sort of connected to giving, but be sure to release your persona on your blog. Be a human being, and you’ll make it so much easier for other human beings to connect with you.

See more at: http://blog.writersmarket.com/whats-new/blogging-tips-that-will-pay-off-immediately#sthash.yvE5Rcxu.dpuf

So yeah. That about sums it up for today. Thanks and see ya later!

-Lizzy

GSWC- Day 11

So the challenge for Day 11 is to make a spreadsheet where you can keep track of your writing submissions. Here are his directions on how to set it up:

• Open a spreadsheet program. Excel works fine. Using the Google spreadsheet is fine. Whatever you’re most comfortable using.
• Label first column Submission. In this column, you’ll keep track of the query idea, completed story, poem, etc.
• Label second column Market. In this column, you’ll keep track of which markets you’ve submitted your work.
• Label third column Sub Date. In this column, you’ll keep track of the date you submitted.
• Label fourth column Accepted. In this column, you’ll either mark Yes or No. Hopefully, it’ll have more acceptances than rejections.
• Label fifth column Notes. In this column, keep track of any extra information. For instance, when to follow up–or if the piece is accepted, what the terms are, when the piece is due, payment, etc.

Keep it simple at first. As you find more success and submit more, you may find that more columns will help you sort information easier. But the organization outlined above is just right for your first submission spreadsheet.

- See more at: http://blog.writersmarket.com/whats-new/2014-get-started-write-challenge-day-11#sthash.cEpe6tA8.dpuf

Thankfully I am currently taking a computer class on Excel. I was able to make this little table with ease and I saved it in my writing folder. Hopefully I will get a lot of use out of it. I kept it simple, and maybe it will change as 2014 progresses, but write now I have yet to submit anything so there is nothing on there. I am just trying to focus on my writing so far. Once I get that down and no longer am worried about my book, then I'm sure that I will be able to give submitting things a go. But for now, it's just writing.

-Lizzy

GSWC- Day 10

Woohoo!

I finally caught up to where I am supposed to be today. The down-side? I still feel like crap. My head ache is getting worse and I feel like I got a lot of ick in my lungs. Sooo not fun! But still I press on- to day 10!

Alright... the challenge for today is to write about a sweet moment. So last week was about a happy moment and now it is about a sweet moment. Honestly, I am not entirely sure that I know what the difference is between the two, but I will try.

When I think of what a sweet moment is, I honestly think about a lot of things. I think about time spent with my parents, my brother...my boyfriend. However, the thought that came to mind for me about this prompt is one that is sweet, a little sad, and deeply personal. 

As a young child, I went through a lot of difficult times- things that lead to me being taken away from my family and placed into the family that I have now, with parents that I love in spite of the many differences that we have and with a brother who I love, in spite of all of the bad choices that he has made. I'm not going to go into the details about what lead to all of this- like I said, it's personal. However, my sweet memory has to do with my background, thus I have to establish it somehow.

Anyways, my sweet memory is about my Oma (grandmother), and a letter that she wrote to me when I was first adopted. I still have it in a box in my room. Write now as I type this, I don't remember it word for word, but I do remember the meaning behind it. The letter that it wrote spoke of how God put me into my parents lives for a reason, how they had come into my life for a reason. It went on to say that even though she personal hadn't yet met me, she loved me, had prayed for me and that she was someone that I could always turn to if I ever needed her. She has always been true to her word since. She has been someone that I can talk to and someone that I feel comfortable and safe around. I love my Oma and I am so grateful for the unconditional love that she has shown me, and I always will be.

So yeah, that's my sweet memory. It really means a lot to me thinking about it. And I do remember it bringing tears to my eyes when I first read it. I had gone through a lot as a child and didn't understand how someone could be like this. My Oma is an amazing person and I'm grateful to have her in my life.

-Lizzy

GSWC- Day 8/Day 9

Hey everyone!

Again, I am here on the same day because I am not feeling well and I am just trying to knock out some of the challenge posts that I missed. I've decided to combine two of the days since I am not entirely to the point where I can do both of the challenge.

Day 8- The challenge for today is to jump on twitter and have a conversation with everyone about this. The only problem with that is that this thing was a month ago and here I am today trying to do it. So instead what I have done is searched the hashtag- #gswc to see what people have been saying and what sort of ideas are being tossed around about things. I'll read as many as I can to get a feel for how things are.

Day 9- The task for today is to write a query letter. He said to take the story pitch we wrote on day 5, our bio from day 6 and to write the query letter with a personalized slant to the market that we found on day 7. Seeing as I have no idea how to write a query letter, as well as I did not do day 7, I am going to skip over this challenge for now. I think that I'll end up coming back to this challenge later when I am in the process of writing query letters for the novel that I am working on. Seeing as said novel is still in the writing phases and will have to undergo intense editing, I am going to hold off on this. Though I do find it useful that I will have some place to come back to to figure out how these things work.

-Lizzy

GSWC- Day 7

Hey Everyone!

Still behind on these things so I am trying to post a few of them in one day since I have some time and I am not feeling well. I have to admit that the further I get into these challenges, the harder that they become. Especially since the idea that he wants us to run with is the one that we came up with on like the 3rd? day? I don't even know where I was even planning on going with that idea. However, I can see why he is making us do these exercises. I think it's so that we know how to query our novel and what market to try and advertise it to. That is actually the topic of today's prompt.

Today I have to find a market to pitch that short story to... This should be easy... Not.

These are the ideas that he gave for how to find a good market:

Use a market listing resource, such as WritersMarket.com or another third party source. There are listing resources for Christian markets, Canadian markets, Australian markets, and more.

Go to your local magazine stand. If you have a bookstore, check out the magazine rack. For instance, my local Books-A-Million has a magazine rack stocked with hundreds of magazine titles–rotating in new titles regularly.

Go to your local library. While the pickings may be slimmer here, your local library is always a great free resource for doing research–even when searching for magazine markets.

Get social. As a writer and editor, I’ve found many new magazine listings through sites like Facebook and Twitter. Plus, many of these magazines will put out special calls for submissions through social media–so follow the ones you like.

Attend conferences, conventions, etc. Getting out to writing events is a great way to find new markets and opportunities. Plus, writers often have the opportunity to network with actual editors, agents, and other freelance writers.

So.. For now I am guessing I will just skip this and come back to it. It is difficult for me to jump in with this just yet seeing as I don't have time to go to the library today (plus I am not feeling well) and the writersmarket website that he listed requires you to pay a subscription fee for access. As I currently do not have much money to shell out, I am skipping this for now and  I will come back to it when I actually have a story ready to market.

-Lizzy

GSWC- Day 6

Hey Everyone!

I'm starting to get a little behind in these Get Started Write things, and it's because of school and the fact that I am starting to get sick. :( Being sick is no fun at all. So I'm going to try to catch up on these the best that I can. I can't promise that they are going to be any good, because I am not feeling well, but I am going to try.

So here it goes:

The prompt for Day 6 is to write a bio about yourself that is less than 50 words. I think this is going to be pretty interesting for me, considering that Elizabeth J. Harper is my pen-name. I guess that just means that I write about myself and use it under the name Elizabeth J. Harper... So here is my attempt at a bio:

Elizabeth J. Harper is a soon-to-be graduate of Lipscomb University. She is an aspiring author with a Pre-Law Major and a Criminal Justice Minor. When she is not occupied with school and working as a barrista at Starbucks, she likes to embark on adventures to other worlds and write them.

Made it in exactly 50 words. I think that's pretty good considering I just did that off of the top of my head.

-Lizzy

GSWC- Day 5

Hello Everyone!

Today I am working on the Day 5 challenge for Get Started Write. The challenge is to come up with a pitch, that is based off of the idea that you came up with yesterday.

For fiction writing, the requirements for a good pitch are:

• Use the Title somewhere in the first sentence
• Give an estimated word count
• Include a brief 2-3 sentence summary (Though helpful, doesn't really have merit for the story. The work will end up speaking for itself)

So... I need to come up with a pitch for a story idea that I have yet to write, and I have no idea how long it will end up being. Sounds easy, right? 

Anyways, here it goes:

It is The Last Night of Spring Break [??? words], and one of Gabby's friends, Jamie have gone missing. It's up to Gabby and her friends, along with the police to find her.

GSWC- Day 4

Hey Everyone!

So the challenge for Day 4 for the Get Started Write Challenge is to sketch out a short story idea. So I'm just going to sketch out whatever idea comes to mind. He didn't say anything about really elaborating on it and trying to turn it into a story, but it's supposed to be good practice and help us to I guess flesh things out on paper and get the creative juices flowing.

So here is my sketch idea:

Short story about a girl who is on vacation in Florida for spring break with a group of friends. They hit up all of the parties and are having a blast playing games on the beach and being free of adult supervision. "It's always fun and games until somebody gets hurt."  Two days before they have to return home, one of her best friend's goes missing. Can she and the rest of the group, along with the police, track her down before something fatal happens? Or will this be the last party any of them attend?

So yeah, that was the idea that just popped into my head, and I think it's a rather good one. I will probably end up running with it and writing a short story about it. I'm actually pretty surprised that that idea just came into my head. I didn't really think about it much. I wonder how much more creative ideas are floating around in there, and will I ever be able to get them down on paper?

-Lizzy
(a.k.a: Elizabeth J. Harper)

GSWC Day 3

Hey everyone!

I'm skipping ahead to Day 3, even though it is still only the first day of February. I figure that since this challenge was for the month of January (which has 31 days) and I am doing it for the month of February (which only has 28 days), that it's okay for me to skip. :)

So the challenge for today is to write about one of the happy memories in your life. For me, this is going to be a really hard thing to do, because the sad memories immediately come to my mind. I have, unfortunately, had a lot of sad things influence my life. However, in the end I feel like those things have helped form me into the person that I am today and have helped me become a better writer through writing about them.

So, this is me trying to write out my happy memory. I have no idea where to begin. The more I think about it the more happy memories come to mind, but I think I will just pick one for now. I can always come back and write about the other ones later.

We were in Florida, my parents, myself and one of my best friend's Emily. My parents and I make a trip to Florida every year while I was growing up. My brother used to come with us a lot, but as we have gotten older and more busy, he has not been able to make it. This was one such time when he hadn't come, and on this particular day, we went out to go jet skiing on the ocean. While we were out on the water, we saw dolphins that swam fairly close to us. However, the highlight of the day was being able to drive the jet-ski. When it was Emily's turn to drive the jet-ski, she tried to do a doughnut and the two of us went flying off. It's something that we still laugh at to this day. 

Well, there it is. I know it is not my happiest memory, seeing as I can't really put a finger on that one, but I know that it is one of the happier memories that I have. That day was just about being relaxed and care-free and it was something that I really enjoyed. I didn't have any stress in my life and I just got to spend a day out in the sun with my family and one of my best friends. It's something that I would love to go back to.

-Lizzy
(a.k.a- Elizabeth J. Harper)

GSWC- Day 2

Hey everybody!

So I got a little impatient and I kind of want to get jump started on all my writing and everything. I think that I am going to go ahead and just do a few days of these prompts. I'm kind of an impatient person, it's something that I need to work on, especially with my writing. I get so caught up in my writing that I just want to jump straight to the end. Anyways, I'm getting off subject.

So the prompt for Day 2 is to make a road map for how you are going to reach your goals. Here is a refresher on what my goals were, but I've tried to narrow them down some and elaborate on them.

Short-Term Goals

• Finish writing my novel- To do this I am going to try to write 500-1,000 words a day. I figure that it will be easy for me to write this many words a day and once I get writing I will hopefully write more. 
• Edit my novel- The first step to this is to go back and read my novel/ edit it myself. Once this is done, I will try to find others to read it for me and to give me feedback. Then I will go back and re-read the novel, look at their feedback and edit it. 
• Compile my manuscript- I can use Scrivener (the software I use to write) to compile my novel into a manuscript, and look online to see what the best way to format them is.
• Publishing- Look into what it takes to find and agent/ publisher and decide what is best and work towards it. 
• Blogging- Once I am done with all of the challenges, I will try to post a blog post once a week. I also want to set up a page that is connected to this one where people can go to read my short stories/poetry.
• Write Something New- The goal is to sit down and write something new each week. I will give myself an hour a day to work on something new and then I want to post it to my blog for people to read. 
• Scenes- Sit down and write scenes that come to mind, maybe I can use them in my next book or in the book I am working on . 

Long-Term Goals

• Get Published- even if publishing my novel doesn't work out the first time, keep trying.
• Make it a career- I love writing and would love to do it for a living. I will keep trying, even if it is not the thing that is bringing in the most money at the moment. 
• Next Novel- Begin planning for my next novel and start writing. I want to always be looking forward and trying to come up with my next piece of work. 

There are my goals and how I plan to get to them. I need to come up with more long term goals. However, right now my main focus is to finish the novel that I am working on now. 

-Lizzy

(a.k.a: Elizabeth J. Harper)

GSWC- February Version!

Hey everyone!

I know that it has been a while since I have posted on here. I've been busy with school and work lately. I graduate in May so there is a lot of prep work for getting it done. Also, I have been trying to write more on my novel. Even though I finished NaNoWriMo, my novel is still not done. That means I need to write, write and write. Then, when all of that is done, I can finally look at editing and hopefully, publishing. However, this is my first novel, so I have absolutely no idea where I am going to go with that. I guess I'll just have to cross that bridge when I get there.

Therefore, in order to get me going, I have decided to take on the Get Started Write Challenge. (Of course I know that this challenge was meant to be throughout the month of January, but I feel as though I can switch it up and try it all throughout February) The idea behind this challenge is to offer me writing prompts and challenges to help with getting my book done. I think this will help me get into the habit of writing on my book every day and hopefully I'll finally be able to get it done. I'm really excited about it all.

So, the task for Day One:
Make a list of your short-term and long-term goals, with short-term being something I can reasonably complete in 2014 and long-term something that would take longer.

Short-Term:
- Finish writing In the Eyes of the Enemy
- Find people to help me edit my novel
- Look into what I need to do to compile a good manuscript
- Try to sit down and write something new each week, even if it is just a random scene that isn't connected to any of my WIPs.
- Blog more/ Have a blog page set up to display my short stories.

Long-Term:
- Try to find someone to publish In the Eyes of the Enemy
- Plan out my next novel
- Begin writing my next novel


That's all I can come up with right now for my lists, however I think that they will probably end up growing the deeper that I get into this challenge. I also think that a lot of my short-term goals may end up going under the long-term goals just because of the whole editing/publication process.

-Lizzy
(a.k.a: Elizabeth J. Harper)