Reflections on my year of writing
With the end of 2006 just around the corner, it is time for a little reflection on this year. It was a year of highlights and lowlights.
Highlights of 2006:
- Trekking the Himalayas in January – simply awesome.
- Getting serious about blogging and being able to write over 800 articles on my three blogs.
- Writing over a quarter of a million words this year, more than double my previous best year.
- Achieving almost 1400 hours of writing, nearly double my previous best year. This figure equates to a average just on four hours per day which is very pleasing seeing there have been quite a few days where I did no writing at all.
- Spending several weeks on holiday with my son and daughter in law in Sydney.
Lowlights of 2006:
- Being diagnosed as diabetic and having to come to terms with managing this condition.
- Supporting my wife through some serious health issues, including several operations.
Over all, however, it has been a productive, though challenging year. I’ve learned a great deal about the writing life, and the blogger’s life in particular and this should help me get off to a flying start next year.
Looking forward to 2007:
- Next year I plan to keep going on my three blogs. I see great potential in blogging, at least in the immediate future.
- I also plan to get really serious about submitting to print publishers. I have quite a collection of manuscripts of novels and picture book texts which need to be submitted for possible publication.
That is the big challenge ahead for me in 2007.
Some Secrets for Writing Success
Angela Booth has listed six very sensible hints on how to have success in your writing career. Most of these I have covered in one way or another over recent months, but it is always good to have a reminder.
Read the article here.
Manuscript assessment for writers
Many writers are turning to the services of manuscript assessment agencies in recent years. Getting into print publication can be a difficult road to walk down. Every piece of help and advice therefore becomes important to the emerging writer. In this process, getting an independent assessment of one’s writing can give you just the advice or edge or viewpoint necessary to make the difference between acceptance for publication or being rejected.
Adelaide based crime and romance writer Kirsty Brooks has written a long article – well, it’s actually in the form of an interview – on the virtues of having one’s manuscripts assessed before sending off to a publisher. Many authors have found such an assessment to be very beneficial. The article can be found on her blog:
- Manuscript assessment for writers – an interview with Kirsty Brooks.
Disclaimers:
- I have never used the services of an assessment agency though I am being mentored by a published author but that is something quite different.
- I have (to the date of writing this post) had no association whatever with the assessment agency run by Kirsty Brooks.
Writing Hint #19 Practice every day
All professional sports people regularly practice the skills relevant to their discipline on a daily basis. They practice the same skills over and over. Musicians spend many hours in practice for even a small performance. Orators rehearse their speeches, actors go over their lines developing all the nuances of the words their parts demand. Firefighters practice their firefighting skills, emergency workers rehearse what to do in different scenarios. Practice of basic skills is a requirement in so many professions.
Do you practice your writing skills?
Here are some ways to practice your writing:
- Write for ten minutes in a journal.
- Write about what you plan to do for the day.
- Write about how you feel about the main news story of today
- Think of a name – any name – and assign that name to an imaginary person. Write for ten minutes about that person.
- Think of some place you would like to be right now. Write about that place and why it is so special to you.
- Think of a species of bird, or an animal. Write for ten minutes all you know about that animal or bird.
The writing possibilities like this are endless, merely restricted only by your imagination.
Angela Booth on her blog has written about what she does to practice her writing skills in this article:
- Writing practice – from Angela Booth’s Writing Blog.
Are you afraid to write?
I’d never thought about being afraid of writing until I read an article on Angela Booth’s Writing Blog. But when I thought about it there is quite a deal of anxiety surrounding the writer’s life.
Some of these fears could include:
- Fear of starting – call it writer’s block, procrastination or whatever, this fear plagues so many writers.
- Fear of finishing – never sure that the written piece is good enough to be thought worthy of being published, constant revising being the symptom.
- Fear of rejection – never sending any manuscripts off to publishers because you might be rejected.
- Fear of ridicule – putting out some of your writing into the public arena is like undressing in a shopping mall; people will see you for what you really are, warts and all.
- Fear of Success – perverse as it might seem this is a very real fear. Some people are genuinely afraid of the demands of being in the spotlight, of being public property and being seen as a role model. It is the same kind of fear that makes strong men shake in terror when a microphone is placed in their hands.
Links:
- Fear of Writing – five tips to calm you down from Angela Booth’s Writing Blog.
Related articles worth reading:
- Overcoming writer’s block – some hints
- Maintaining Motivation as a writer and blogger – some more tips.
- Procrastination and the writer – further hints.