I’ve been looking over Molly and Maureen’s posts and wondering what the hell can I add to this.
Discipline has come up a lot and it’s a huge topic for me. I spend far, far too much time on the internet, checking blogs, stupid entertainment websites and in general, wasting time.
I’m going to try and cut that in half. Not cut it out completely. I’m not ready to go cold turkey, but half I think I can manage.
Over the past few months I’ve thought a lot about what I can control and where I want to take my books. This is the core of my writing resolutions.
1) Write without thinking of anyone but me. Shut the door, close the blinds, get lost in my head kind of writing. Give license to every crazy, bizarre plot point that comes to mind and try them. If they suck, I’ll fix them later. But sometimes those are the ideas that make a book different, unexpected, and enthralling.
2) Screw trends. They don’t work for me and never have. I’m not going to up the sex scenes to make the book erotic because erotic sells well. I just don’t do that well. I’m not going to add a paranormal element because those are flying off the shelves. At all times, I’m going to try and serve the story.
3) I too am going to learn about commas, and dangling participles(whatever the hell they are) and the other nuts and bolts of my craft that I have ignored for too long, because, I am lazy.. and should have improved my grammar skills a long time ago.
4) I am going to work harder at getting my books on the market. I have a tendency of finishing a book and letting it sit in a drawer. No longer. Everything I finish gets sent out to agents and editors.
5) Finish at least two more books this year. This could be a tough one, as time might be in short supply, but sometimes writing these things down helps me accomplish them.
6) Find great entertainment. Be it books, TV, and movies, well written anything makes me think, gives me great ideas for myself and challenges me to be smarter and sharper. This is never a waste of time, and we need this to recharge our batteries. That said, HGTV is not great entertainment. I need to watch fewer cooking shows. Especially considering I’m a crappy cook.
That’s it for me. Enough resolutions to keep me busy for the next year. Did we miss any important resolutions this past year?
4 comments:
I love your resolution about trying to get your completed books out to market. This is one that I'm guilty of as well. I would be happy to write and never submit, but that defeats the purpose of trying to get published. :)
I know, it takes time and effort to get the books out there, plus they need another edit usually and I'd much rather be working on the next project.
It's a really big resolution for me. I've been terrible with that over the past couple of years.
Good luck with it as well.
Sinead, you are the most disciplined writer I know (and yes, I'm including M.Y. in that list, too) so it scares me a little that you plan to get more disciplined. But good for you!
You're so right about the trends and writing for yourself. Everytime I hit a set back, I think... maybe I should try erotica... maybe I could write a paranormal, an inspriational--okay, even I know that one's a crazy idea for me -- but I know I just have to write books I like that I think others will like and trust that the market will come around to not being glutted again.
I love how you've managed to squeeze watching tv into the resolution list -- I'm adding that to mine too -- nothing is as inspiring as watchig or reading something good and since the reading is getting harder and harder - we've got to get our fix from somewhere.
DWT will be here to remind you of your resolution to get more books out there...
Let's never talk about trends again -- can we do that? Haven't we all been burned by them now?
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