Merry Christmas! I hope that you're simply having a wonderful Christmas time.
At least, I hope you were before you started reading this, because I'm going to assume your holiday celebrations are over - or at least that you're between holiday activities, and have some free time - or you wouldn't be reading this. Right?
So, with that in mind, on to those writerly links I collected for you before (mostly) stepping away from the computer for the holidays, starting with this reminder of the 85K90 Challenge, which is something those of you wishing challenges like NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) would happen in the quieter months of the year might want to check out, since the aim of it is to get your novel written in the first quarter of the year (January through March). It also gives you 90 days to get your book written, rather than the 30 days NaNoWriMo gives you, meaning you have a lower word count to aim for each day than you would if you were doing NaNoWriMo. It even has months set aside for editing and publishing, so can technically keep you on track all year, and maybe even have you published in time for next Christmas, especially if you plan to self-publish. Check out the link I just posted for full details on how the challenge works.
There's also STORYSTORM in January, NaNoEdMo (National Novel Editing Month) in March, NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month) in April, Camp NaNoWriMo in both April and July, and NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) itself in November, if you need inspiration for other writing related challenges to sign up for next year. I dare say there are others I've forgotten or don't know about too. I've mentioned all of the ones listed in this paragraph on my blog before, but if you don't know what any of them are and want to check them out, a quick search will easily provide you with details, so either find my posts about them, or just type the challenge/event name in to your favourite search tool.
Ah, but should you plan your whole year? Well, that's up to you. But it might be an idea to have some kind of plan, especially if you want to do some of the challenges I mentioned above, or have your own writing goals you'd like to achieve. So, if you're thinking it might be a good idea to plan your whole year, take a look at the post I just linked to for a suggestion on how you might approach doing that.
Just remember, when you're planning your year, to schedule in some rest time, and don't over do it. Is writing supposed to be hard? Yes. But don't make it so hard you get burned out. Look after yourself while chasing your writing dreams. Please. Don't forget about the emotional side of the writing life. Look after your health; both physical and mental.
I mean, it's true that there is no time for 'someday'. But you do need to take care of yourself while doing the things. Plus, you need to allow yourself time to be bored, because it's good for a writer to be bored.
Anyway, here's an excellent post that answers the question, "Are people who write only as a hobby 'real' writers?" Short answer: yes. As long as you write on at least a semi-regular basis, and want to call yourself one, you're a writer.
Remember: while there are plenty of extremely valid reasons to not be writing regularly - or as often as you'd like to be writing, or whatever your personal situation is - make sure they really are valid reasons you're using, and if you are making excuses for not reaching your writing goals, rather than using valid reasons, leave your excuses at the door.
OK, so you're writing. Since that's the case, you might want to check out these tips to writing semi-coherent dialogue, and this advice on what to avoid with internal monologue.
Next, here's a great post that explains how objects tell your story.
Finally, if you got a new eReader for Christmas - or even if you didn't, but just want to get some new books at great prices - you may be interested to hear that the Smashwords end of year sale is now on, and you can go here to check out all the books on sale. Of course, I've enrolled my own books, which you can find via my Smashwords profile. Every one of my books is enrolled at 50% off, with coupon code SEY50 (which should be automatically applied when you add any of my books to your cart on Smashwords, but I'm giving you the code anyhow, just in case). So, if you want to get my books for half their usual price, you can do so exclusively on Smashwords through January 1st. Since my books are made available in all formats Smashwords offers, and they offer multiple eBook formats, this means there will be a format that works for you, regardless of whether you read eBooks via a Kindle, an iPad, your computer, or whatever. So, what are you waiting for? Grab some eBook bargains while you can!
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