Go to Writer's Workshops every opportunity you can.
If you want to be a writer and even if you already are there is so much to learn. I had my first opportunity to go to the Pacific Northwest Writer's Association Member's Meeting last night. I was so glad I found a way to go. There was a workshop about Hooks and how to write a synopsis. I learned so much. Most of all I gained great insight into my current novels. I came home and as soon as opportunity allowed, I started applying those changes to my novel and to my thought process. Already my story has improved and I know that my next novel will be better the first time through now that I have learned how best to hook my readers. There is so much more to a hook than you could ever imagine!
I plan to go to more workshops by this group as well as to send my husband to some. It would be ridiculous not to get to as many as we can while we live only twenty minutes away from Issaquah, WA where PNWA hold their workshops. I need to find some writer's workshops for 8 to 10 year olds too. My children aspire to be writers because of the example my husband and I have given them. In reaching for our own dreams we have inspired our children. In that there is more reward than in anything else.
So... Go to Writer's Workshops and make your story even better than it was before!
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Becoming a Writer
In 4th grade I knew I wanted to be a published author someday. I wrote all the time. Stories danced through my mind and demanded to be given life. So many stories were started but finishing was always the challenge. I did successfully finish and produce several stage plays for actors and puppets. Sadly I never finished a novel length book... until now!
On my 33rd birthday I set a goal for myself. By my 35th birthday I would write a completed manuscript for a full length novel. As I struggled through the first few chapters of the story that was calling to me, I despaired of actually reaching to goal of a final first draft, much less a fully revised and completed manuscript. Little did I know that I would find the NaNoWriMo challenge. Days before November 1st 2009 I learned of this National Novel Writing Month challenge which had helped so many reach their goal of writing a novel. Needless to say, writing a novel is nothing like writing a story for a creative writing class. You have to let go. Thanks to learning this from NaNoWriMo I now have... TWO NOVELS!
Two months from my 35th birthday both books are in revisions. The first book is so close to finished that I will work hard to have it revised once through for my birthday. The second one's characters have already shown me the second two books in the series!
So now, with two novels on their way to finished, I am leaping into the scary world of getting a book published. Here you will find my news as I become a writer and my musings about the process and writing itself. I may even share how I juggle life as a mother, artist, writer and person if it will help others reach their dreams too. This is the amazing world of being a writer!
On my 33rd birthday I set a goal for myself. By my 35th birthday I would write a completed manuscript for a full length novel. As I struggled through the first few chapters of the story that was calling to me, I despaired of actually reaching to goal of a final first draft, much less a fully revised and completed manuscript. Little did I know that I would find the NaNoWriMo challenge. Days before November 1st 2009 I learned of this National Novel Writing Month challenge which had helped so many reach their goal of writing a novel. Needless to say, writing a novel is nothing like writing a story for a creative writing class. You have to let go. Thanks to learning this from NaNoWriMo I now have... TWO NOVELS!
Two months from my 35th birthday both books are in revisions. The first book is so close to finished that I will work hard to have it revised once through for my birthday. The second one's characters have already shown me the second two books in the series!
So now, with two novels on their way to finished, I am leaping into the scary world of getting a book published. Here you will find my news as I become a writer and my musings about the process and writing itself. I may even share how I juggle life as a mother, artist, writer and person if it will help others reach their dreams too. This is the amazing world of being a writer!
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