Another Go?

I know, I know. Last time I was on here I was all gung-ho about NaNoWriMo. And nothing ever came of it. I have a cross-country move to blame for that.

Moving from North Carolina to North Dakota was no hop, skip or jump, especially with two young children.

But alas, it’s the middle of June now, which means next month is another round of Camp NaNoWriMo. Guess who’s already got their suitcase packed and ready to go!?!?

That’s right, I’m giving binge writing another go. This time my camp goal is the typical 50K that is expected in November. I’m actually shooting for 62K (a daily goal of 2K), but am trying not to get over-zealous.

I’m using the same story I meant to write in November, but have been mapping out scenes. I find myself once again in the prep phase.

This time, there’s no move, no vacation, no excuses. I WILL write 50K+ words this July and I will finish the remainder of the book in August so that I can begin my first round of edits/revisions in September.

I will have this book through three rounds of edit by the end of 2015, hopefully ready to submit as the new year begins.

I will also update all of you on my progress at least twice a week.

One of these days y’all will be able to read a book of my words instead of just hit and miss blogs.

Thank you to all of you who support me!

Making Dreams Come True

Starting sometime before we can even grasp the idea that one day there will be more to life than coloring and playing, we’re asked what we want to be when we grow up. And this usually changes as we grow and are introduced to new things.

I’m proud to say that in over two decades, my answer has never changed. I’ve always wanted to be an writer, to spend my life, reenacting my imaginary friends’ lives. I am however, ashamed to report that while I’ve written, typed and scrawled MILLIONS of words, not very many people have had the opportunity to meet my friends.

About 10 years ago during my senior year in high school, I was interning with a fellow local writer. My beloved mentor, Kerry was her name, enlightened me on the amazing idea of NaNoWriMo. For those who have never heard of it, that’s short for National Novel Writing Month.

I remember thinking how amazing it would be to finish an entire novel in just a month. But, alas, there weren’t enough hours in my day. I was actually surprised I was able to fit potty breaks into my life that school year.

Then the year after that I was working three jobs and looking for an apartment that didn’t have mice and bullet holes.

And every year after that, I had a new reason why I couldn’t participate.

Not anymore. This year, I’m doing it. No, really, I am.

I participated in Camp NaNoWriMo this summer and rocked that, so I’m fairly confident that I will be able to rock the real deal this November. All it takes is a bit of commitment. And who has more commitment than the girl who’s never wanted anything else out of life?

Knowing that I am most certainly NOT one who can go blindly into this (or pants it, as I’m learning is the unofficial term for such a thing), I have already begun my planning. For next month’s quest, I’m actually using an idea that has been bouncing around in my head for a few years now.

Perhaps that’s cheating a bit, but since I haven’t actually sat down and written anything more than a vague plot idea, I’m calling it fair. Over the next 21 days, I’ll be building up the characters, and plotting out the story in a more detailed outline, so that I have a fairly good idea where the story is going to go.

In July I discovered that writing out of order, with whatever scene was in my head at the moment, instead of going at it sequentially, was a lot easier for me. It kept me from getting stuck as easily as I normally.

Don’t get me wrong, I went through what is known as the second week crisis. That first week or so was amazing. I was writing more than my minimum daily goal every day and I was flying through. Then about Day 15 came around and suddenly, I hated everything I’d written. It was crap. I was crap and I wanted to crawl in a hole somewhere and cry.

But, due to having parental responsibilities (which include not going completely crazy) I was forced to stick it out and ended up falling back in love with my characters just in time to reach the 35,000 word goal I’d set for myself.

My plan is to utilize the resources I’ve discovered since then. Twitter, the NaNo website, and various communities that I’ve stumbled into. I also plan to motivate myself by sharing my journey. I’m going to try my hand at my first ever vlog. I will start it on October 30 on my YouTube channel and I will post a video at the end of every week and then a final video on December 1.

I will also continue my story through this blog. So, please tag along. Perhaps I can help motivate you while I’m pushing myself!

And It Is My Life

For several weeks now I’ve been trying to decide on a direction for this blog to go; a specific topic that I would want to cover or something that holds my interest enough to continually write about. And yet, I’ve come up empty handed. There just simply one area of life that appeals enough to me to focus solely on that. So I’ve decided, at least for now, I’ll focus on the rebuilding of my life and the steps I’m taking to make it all it should be.

My life has been a mess since before I graduated high school. It’s been a ball of chaos for nine years now and I refuse to believe that this is really what adult-life is cracked up to be. Is it all so complicated? One life-altering battle after another? Surely not. Surely there’s a way to make it settle down and even out enough that I can focus on bigger goals than making it through this one day

 

 

 

Some time ago, I hit rock bottom. Again. I suppose this time I was afraid to start climbing again because it seems as if I simply made a lean-to for my daughter and I to seek shelter in and made myself comfortable.  I keep peeking at the rocks around us, trying to decide which one would be best to start on and I just can’t figure it out. Scattered on the ground around me are rocks that say things like “school”, “income”, “social life”, and “relationships”. Instead of concentrating on which one would be the best foundation for the rest of my life, I keep tossing around a little one that says “dreams”.

I think for now, I’m content working things out with my feet planted firmly where they are. No need to start the climb again before I have a plan, just to land right back down here where I am. If you stick with me though, this could be a wild ride. I plan on documenting my climb, when I eventually start it, in this blog. 

Baby steps into Freelancing

I’ve recently stumbled across Yahoo! Contributor Network and have been writing little articles up a storm. It’s pretty amazing that I can either accept specific assignments, some for upfront payments, or write about whatever I feel like writing about. Mainly the pay is based off page views and will be slow coming, but that’s ok. I feel I need a small step for my first one. 

I’ve had seven article published already, two of which were for upfront payments and to me that’s rather exciting. Until now I’d never been paid for any of my writing. I’ve come up with a few mini goals for this outlet that I want to accomplish before I push forward in any other area. 

On Y!CN they have their own “academy”, a series of little courses to read through and complete a short quiz at the end. There are three levels to this academy plus some elective courses. I want to “graduate” and complete all the electives. It supposedly makes your profile look better and you will receive higher paying assignments. If this proves true, then the time used to read through this material is worth it and therefore justified. So my first goal is complete all of these little courses by the end of next week.

As of right now, I’ve had a mere $6.17 deposited into my Paypal account for my work on this site. While it’s something, and definitely a start, I’m looking forward to making more. Once the assignments I’ve claimed are completed and published I will have a total of $42.17. My next goal, before allowing my focus to open to other outlets as well, is to have generated a deposited income of $75 from this one source. 

These are baby steps. I’m looking forward to swimming in the deep end of freelance writing but am ok with testing the waters first. Once my toe is accustom to the temp of the water, I’ll put my whole foot in. Then I will most likely dive on in. I’m looking forward to publishing my first Ebook and of course my first printed book will be a dream come true, but with so many creative people out there, those seem to be goals you have to work up to.

Please, Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Hi. My name is Sonja and I’m addicted to the written word.

(Hi, Sonja!)

I suppose it all started shortly after I learned to read. I indulged in one adventure after another, absorbing every word. After each book, my imagination would take over and I would become the main character, reliving the same adventure over and over in the backyard. Then, when bedtime would come, my imagination would take it a step further and I would go on new adventures. Adventures unlike things I’d ever experienced. Things not even the characters in books I’d read had done. I’d wake up amazed, not knowing what to do about those new adventures except to play them out in the backyard.

Then one Christmas, I got my first journal and it wasn’t long before it was full. Full from front to back with the adventures I’d had in my dreams, tales of fun and excitement and everything good in this world. But then I had a problem. My journal was FULL!!! What was I supposed to do with all the new adventures? The adventures had started filling my head even during the day by that point. I started using my school notebooks for it, as well as my school time. While my grades never slipped because of it, my teachers did notice a lack of attention and my mom noticed an increase in notebooks I required for “school”.

Needless to say I got in trouble, though that certainly didn’t discourage me. Soon I was entering Young Author contests at school and writing for the school paper. Eventually everyone I knew had told me to give up my “hobby” and focus on the “real world” at least once.

Unfortunately for all of those people, it wasn’t a “hobby”. It was, and still is, a DREAM and I will never give it up. I’ve finally gotten it to a point where it’s making a minimal profit. As it turns out, all these little fantasy worlds that I’ve created are my real world and I strongly feel with just a tad more persistence, I’ll finally be able to show all those Negative Nancy’s that dreams do happen.