January is (blessedly) in the rearview mirror, though February is charging in with baggage: we are expecting one to two feet of snow in Central Illinois over the next 48 hours. There hasn’t been that much snow around here for many years. I’m equal parts appalled and delighted. The beginning of a new month also […]
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Losing NaNoWriMo & IWSG
Officially, I participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November. Officially, I was aiming for 50,ooo words on my new manuscript. Officially, I failed. I always knew that 50k was a stretch goal — ok, more like an in-the-stratosphere, no-way-in-heck goal — but I was determined to try. I knew I needed a kick […]
Continue ReadingAm I a Writer Yet? (IWSG)
Like many writers, I aspired to earn the title from a very young age. I felt called to writing in a way I did not feel called to other pursuits — a vocation, not just a “career.” For years, that calling scared me spitless. I was worried that if I didn’t get it right on […]
Continue ReadingHurry Up and Wait
“To me, the single biggest mark of the amateur writer is a sense of hurry. Hurry to finish a manuscript, hurry to edit it, hurry to publish it.” Charles Finch When I found this quote over the summer, it was a gut punch. I felt personally called out. (How dare you, Mr. Finch, etc, etc.) […]
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