Welcome to Flash Fest December!
I have some author friends who have joined me in this challenge, and are contributing to the prize baskets!
This week’s prize basket:
- $5 Amazon gift card
- Free e-book for Red Wine & Roses, contemporary romance
- Swag bag
- e-book of What We’ve Unlearned: English Class Goes Punk (The Writerpunk Project Book 4)
- e-book of Holiday Fling, contemporary romance
This is how the prize giveaway will work:
Leave a comment throughout the week on any blog post, whether it’s the blog hop, flash, guest spot, or weekend writing warriors. I will select one of the commenters through Randompicker and post it on Monday’s post ( or rather Tuesday as it’s been lately, since my internet connection has been sketchy.) That person can contact me on Facebook or email me at: l.e.mcatee@gmail.com.
The challenge is to write a flash piece, 500 to 1000 words based on a Holiday tune as a prompt. The author was given the option to select their own or I would assign one. Trust me, my list of holiday tunage is anything but traditional!
So, even though this isn’t a flash feature, any comments will still count towards the prizes.
MFRW blog hop week 51 – Advice for new authors. Just one more week to go!
What advice would you give newbies? What advice do you wish that others would have given you when you were a newbie?
Those are the two main questions that I ‘ve been contemplating for this post. I have to admit, it took a bit of contemplating to decide which tidbits to share. A couple of pots of coffee, a few oatmeal cookies – sugar-free of course, to dunk in my coffee, and my trusty notepad to jot down what came to my mind.
These are the three bits of advice that I wish someone would have shared with me. I hope it helps you if you are an aspiring author.
- Decide what you want to write. What genre do you feel comfortable with? What length of work do you feel comfortable with?
There are other options for a writer besides book-length novels. When I first began writing, I wrote articles for magazines, and for a column in our local paper. The short 1000 word articles rolled off my fingers with minimal effort. But, my dream was to be a published author like my idol Katie McAlister. It is difficult to make myself focus on longer length works, but oh so satisfying to hit ‘the end’.
2. Schedule time for your writing. Make it a priority. If you write whenever you have time, you’ll find everything in the world crowding out your writing time. Make an appointment with yourself and KEEP IT! Just as if it were a doctor’s appointment. IF this is what you really want, then make your goals a priority!
3. Stick to one project at a time! (Best advice I ever got from my friend Vicki Locey! Thank you, Vicki!) I’m the world’s worst at having too many irons in the fire, with multiple books in the works. It wasn’t until I made myself focus on one project and stick with it to completion that I got my books published. Notice, that completed does not mean published. I have five books that are completed but need revisions and editing before they are publishable. It’s ok to jot down ideas for new stories while you work on your current WIP. FOCUS is a key factor to success as an author. I have to admit my ADD tendencies fight me on this point. I made myself a system of rewards for tackling the current WIP first, before anything else. For instance, when I have my writing time, lately has been in the afternoons because of doctor appointments, I set my timer, and write until the timer goes off. Now I may get up and get a cup of coffee or cocoa, or run to the bathroom, but during that time I write. Most days I manage about 1200 words. Then I reward myself. Maybe it’s coloring in my planner, it’s one of those adult coloring book planners. Maybe I play a game for a bit or jot down notes for another story. If time allows or if I am really in the zone, I may work on writing for a longer period of time.
If you can master those three things, you are well on your way to success!
You can read other participating authors HERE.
Write on my friends, write on!
quotidiandose 
Sounds like you have a good schedule! Great advice here.
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It has taken me many years to get to this point. I could do better on writing a book of how not to succeed, and how not to get things done.LOL
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“Stick to one project at a time…” Can I amend that to say ‘stick to the project taking up the most space in your head, not the one due in the next six months…’? I forced a brilliant story line to the back of my brain while I worked on ‘the one due asap’…..and now it’s two years overdue. If I’d written it first, instead of the one I wrote literally at the last minute (yeah, I procrastinated!), it would have been written and I wouldn’t have been afraid to open my email that summer.
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Yes, by all means make the amendment! YEs the one that is screaming the loudest, the characters demanding your attention.
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Great advice. I definitely try to make writing a priority. It’s not always easy with the schedule I have. My hours vary and I usually have other things to do when I have time to myself. I suppose I could write before everyone wakes up or after everyone is asleep. But I’m usually tired myself and don’t have the energy to do anything myself. However, I need to make sacrifices if I’m to be a serious writer.
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I can so relate! Trust me with the day job, I have had to make some sacrifices, one being the cluttered house. When it really bothers me I focus on that until it looks like a sterile hospital then turn my attention back to my writing.
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Hmm, maybe a rewards system would help me. I sit down to write, then go off into the weeds on social media, research, etc and barely write anything.
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My ditches are definitely social media and Pinterest.
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Sticking to one project at a time is great advice. Its also really hard to to. 🙂
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In perusing this week’s posts, I haven’t yet seen the idea of rewarding yourself. It’s a good thing to do.
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Something I definitely need to do!
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Great advice to stick to one project at a time- I get distracted by new, shiny stories all too often. Thanks for sharing!
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I must be missing something, because this isn’t about Advice but is a post about a contest instead? 😦
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Not really. I have been doing a flash fiction feature all month long. I am including the people who comment on my regular posts in the pool for prizes for that week. The first part of the post was my promo spiel – sorry if it was confusing. IF you had stuck with the post after the spiel . . . then the MFRW post about advice was there.
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Focus was a big one for me too. I’m learning one step at a time but I want to jump ahead a lot lol.
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