Liam Livings
Twitter
  • Home
  • Books
    • Kieran series >
      • Kieran's Out
      • Kieran's Pride
      • Kieran's Prince
    • Kev Series >
      • Adventures in Dating...in Heels
      • Rocky Road of Love...In Heels
      • Kicking Up My Heels...in Heels
    • Regiment of Majestic Gays Series >
      • The Regiment of Majestic Gays
      • I Should Be So Lucky
      • Say You'll Be Mine
      • Don't You Want Me
    • Christmas Books >
      • Plus One Christmas Elf
      • Coincidental Christmas Boyfriend
      • Bear Best Friend
      • Mistletoe Kisses
      • A New Life For Christmas
      • Silver Daddy Jingle Bells
    • Standalones >
      • And Then That Happened
      • Wrong Room, Right Guy
      • The Guardian Angel
      • The Player and the Geek
      • The Journalist and the Dancer
      • Unlocking the Doctor's Heart
      • Guarding the Prince
      • Wild for You
      • Love on the Dancefloor
      • Finding Home
      • Perfect Catch
      • The Trouble With Rent Boys
      • When Robbo Met Daniel
    • Non-Fiction >
      • Marketing the Romance
  • Contact
  • GHOSTWRITING SERVICES
  • Liam's Lovely News

Writing goals for 2013, and how I accidentaly did my own Nanowrimo in January

7/2/2013

2 Comments

 
First, I want to share my writing goals for 2013. I don’t really do new year’s resolutions, as based on past experience, they’re usually dashed against the pointy and hard edges of the two most difficult months of the year - January and February  - and only a source of guilt from March, as part of a forever-not-done-to-do-list. 

So here they are: I’ve tried to keep them achievable and realistic. After all putting ‘Get Best Friends Perfect’ published isn’t really in my control (unless I decide to self publish, which is a whole separate ambition in itself) so here they are...
1.Submit Best Friends Perfect to publishers.

2.Continue to develop this website, including: blogging two weekly; adding videos of me reading extracts from Best Friends Perfect; adding a writers resources links, (this is an idea I’ve completely stolen from Jo Myles, as a way to curate interesting web resources for me to read later, but also so other writers can read them too).

3.Do some guest blogging on other authors’ sites. (I know it’s a bit vague, but I didn’t want to say “10 authors’ sites”, as I don’t actually yet know ten authors who I’d be able to approach, so I kept it vague)

4.Help plan and attend 2013 UK Meet

5.Finish first draft of The Second Book (TSB)

How I accidently did my own NanoWrimo during January

Talking about goal 5, I’ve given myself a 4,000 weekly word target since January, when I started to actually writing The Second Book. I was managing that ok, thank you very much. So based on Best Friends Perfect being 200,000 words (yes I know it’s long, I like reading long books, so evidently I end up writing long books. What is it they say ‘Behaviour breeds behaviour’) that would take me...50 weeks to complete! Then I read a link Jo Myles’ posted on her resources for writers, from Rachel Aaron, about how to increase your word count from 2,000 to 10,000 a day, and it’s literally changed my life (writing life anyway).

I really encourage all of you to read it, if you haven’t already done so, and I do not claim ownership of this technique, but I can report on how it’s worked for me since starting it.

The basic premise, as explained in Rachel’s helpful diagram is as follows:

Knowledge: Make sure you know what you’re writing. Plan what arguments your characters are going to have, plan where they’ll go, go into the detail of this, so you don’t have to work it out, while actually writing. Include as much or little detail here as you like, but all the same, do plan something for each chapter/scene etc.

Time: Work out when you’re most productive. For me this away from readily available internet. Create that productive space (I have banned email and the internet during writing sessions).

Enthusiasm: be excited about what you’re writing. If you’re struggling with a scene, is it really that great, if you think it’s boring won’t readers too? Make all the scenes you write great fun, full of conflict, or fun dialogue, or great descriptions, all of which carry the story through. If it feels like filler, it probably is, so get rid, NOW.

Since the start of January, I’ve written 43,000 words on The Second Book, averaging more than 1500 words an hour. One morning in four hrs I wrote 4,700 words! I left my desk to make tea, but apart from that I wrote solidly for four hours, no internet, no 'I'll just checkmy email,' and time just few by, while the words flew onto the screen.

This means I’ve inadvertently done my very own JanoWrimo for January! Can you see what I did there? All by using Rachel’s technique.

I have a week and a half at my New Forest Retreat (also known as my Mum’s house) to write more of The Second Book, and catch up with friends. I’ll let you know how I get on in the next blog post towards the end of February.

What techniques do you use to make the most of available writing time? Have you tried this approach and it hasn’t worked? What are your goals (writing or otherwise) for 2013? I’d love to hear from you.

Liam x



2 Comments

    Liam Livings

    Gay romance & gay fiction author

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Archives

    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.