Sunday, December 18, 2011

Ending Your Writing Year



We are very close to the end of the year. As a writer, I am looking at what I need to tie together, and how I need to tie it together. One project I needed to let go of, and I did. It was my first mystery book, and started during NaNoWriMo 2010. After many false starts, much editing, and a complete change of theme, I made the decision to scrap it, keep the main characters, move the location and revise the crime. January will see me starting anew, using the new online Hiveword novel writing software (Hiveword Novel Writing Software).

I am well into my second Tarot book, so there is nothing to "tie up" there. It is an ongoing project. The same goes for the promotion of my first Tarot book, "Tarot, Birth Cards, and You".

I have been all over the place this past year with schedules, projects, and deadlines. It is beyond trying to keep everything (or anything!) straight in my mind. I will be using Karyn Easton's "Tarot Lover's Diary" again, as it is small, and can be kept right next to my laptop.Karyn's calendar can be found here - Paranormality.com.

The other thing that I did was to go back to using my Google calendar. I have the rest of December and the month of January 2012 programmed into it. As projects and deadlines come up, they will go into the calendar, which sends me reminders via e-mail.I also found out that I could add a background to my calendar ... so I did! Go me! (And thanks to the lovely Catherine Chapman for getting me to start using the Google calendar in the first place!)

How is your new writing year shaping up?

(c) December 2011 Bonnie Cehovet

Saturday, December 3, 2011

'Tis The Season



I love this time of year - the music, the decorations, baking ... the whole nine yards! With three young cats, the decorations are minimal this year - only things that they can't trash! They are cute, but their three little minds can come up with all kinds of stuff to do! (Like the time I looked up from my laptop to see one of them hanging from my curtain rod!) With not too many people around, the baking is being cut way back too. A couple of things that will be gifts to neighbors, sugar cookies, and that is about it. But I am happy with this, and that is what matters. :)

I am bringing things together as far as end of year goes - looking at what works for me, at what I need to release, and what I need to bring in. I was following a conversation on setting up a doc for the #FF for Twitter. There is actually a site that will send them for you automatically! That will certainly save time! You can check it out here - LazyShoutOut.com.

Here are some links that I am going to be checking out to help me get my books out there in good form:

Pricing Strategies For e-Books

Goal Setting For Writers

How To Prep Before Interviewing

Have Passion For Your Writing

Generating Ideas For Blog Posts

How And Why To Write With Power

Re-Finding Inspiration

4 Ways To End Your Writing Year Right

Thank you to Elizabeth Spann Craig of Mystery Writing Is Murder, for sharing an amazing list of resources for writers!

The new year is starting to look really, really good!

(c) December 2011 Bonnie Cehovet

Long Chapters Or Short Chapters - What Is Your Preference?

Does it make a difference to a reader whether the chapters in a book are long or short? It does to me. I like shorter chapters, as they feed...