What Kind of Writer Are You?
I’m in a place in my writing career where I’m spending a lot of time trying to understand exactly who I am as a writer. What genre do I write? Who is my audience? Am I writing to send a message or for entertainment? Maybe you’ve asked yourself these questions from time to time. I think we all have. But a couple of weeks ago, I came across a question I hadn’t even thought to ask. When setting my goals at the beginning of this year, I decided to not only set...
Read More1,000 Ideas in an Hour
My first order of business once I decided to focus on character building this year was to go online and shop for a character-building book. I am locationally challenged when it come to educational opportunities and right now, even an online class would be difficult to commit to. But writing craft books are great because I can pick them up whenever I have a few spare moments to get inspired. I had never heard of Characters & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card before but the reviews on Amazon...
Read More2012 Writing Progress Spreadsheet
NOTE: This post is repeated from 2011 but the spreadsheets have been updated for 2012. Enjoy! It’s the start of the new year and the end of my goals series and I have one final present for you: the redone, revamped, ridiculously awesome Writing Progress Spreadsheet. You may remember it from last year but you definitely won’t recognize it. Let me re-introduce you. The first thing you’ll notice (for 2007 users) is that there are multiple worksheets. The spreadsheet will open...
Read MoreResearching Story Locations
While preparing for the second draft of my WIP, I finally had to face the fact that my fantasy was about to become a reality. It was time to create timelines, fact check and do research to make sure all my ideas lined up with the possibilities of real life. I had a concern about the location of my story and whether or not it’s weather was in line with the ideas I had for my plot. Since I’ve only been to my story’s location once in my life, for just a few days (and while my...
Read MoreBird by Bird, Word by Word
Is writing a part of your life or is writing your life? Is it an escape or a way to further experience the little details of every day? These are the questions that plague me as I place another book face down on my nightstand, feeling more attuned who I am than ever before, the aftertaste of the words still buzzing beneath my skin. Feeling more certain of my fate. As I opened my copy of Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, I expected it to be good. In fact, after all the hype I’d heard from...
Read MoreKeeping Track of Your Writing Goals with goalforit!
Now that you’ve created your writing goals, it’s time to start tracking them. Keeping your goals in the forefront of your mind is the trick to succeeding. Of course you can keep track of them in a notebook or an excel spreadsheet (I do that too), but you know I live for a good website or program to do the hard work for me. And so I present to you Goalforit.com. Just the name gets me excited. And the website doesn’t disappoint. With features to set and track goals, create...
Read MoreMy Favorite Writing Tools
Every single writing blog I read is alive with buzz about the new year today. We’re all about setting goals and starting the year off right. Very admirable! Since my goals are all in order (and hopefully yours are too), I’m going to start off the year with some things that might make those goals just a little bit easier to reach. Writing, novel writing in particular, isn’t just about the writing. There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes and in preparation...
Read MoreI Love to Make a Scene
Throughout the month of November, in order to keep me motivated and writing at my best (despite the insane time constraints), I read Make a Scene by Jordan Rosenfeld. This book already came highly recommended by many writers, including my friends at Routines for Writers, so I knew it must be good. Well, it exceeded my expectations. There are a million books out there about writing and I’ve read…a lot of them. There are books about craft, saleability, editing, plotting, character...
Read MoreThe Creative Process
Writing is a process; albeit, a creative one, but it is still a process. Being creative, it’s different for everyone. Some people can sit down and start writing without any forethought while others plan everything down to the minute details before writing a single word. Writing my last novel has taught me a lot about the process that works best for me. I started out with very little planning and just started writing at first. As organized as I am, outlining didn’t appeal to me. ...
Read MoreJamie Raintree
Jamie writes what she likes to call everyday fairytale love stories, featuring the little moments in life that are truly magical. She lives in Northern Arizona with her husband and daughter and is currently editing her second novel.
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