Tag: Writing Goals

Riding the Query Coaster

Donna Judy Curtin Leave a comment

How is it almost June? JUNE! 

Now I ask you, fellow writer, considering we are half-way through the year, have you achieved your writing goals?

Photo by Conor Luddy on Unsplash

I haven’t.

At the outset of this year, I set a goal to start querying my Adult Speculative with Romance. The roller coaster that is querying began for me as I was propelled into querying, tricked in truth, into joining the line for a monstrous amusement park ride, the kind of ride that induces nausia, forcing me to lay out on the grass and ponder why on earth I would ever, ever to do that to myself. But somehow we forget and then find ourselves once again entering those line ups, too embarrassed to skip out at the last moment… but maybe we should. Read more

Life Happens, Keep Writing

Diane Ferguson Leave a comment
Eden Mills Writers’ Festival: Pathway to Publication with James Gordon, Barbara Kyle and Jean Mills

Before writing a blog, I review my past blogs to make sure I’m not repeating myself too much, and to assess where I was at and where I thought I was going. My last blog was August 28th and I was all set with my “MFA course”, personalized for a student of one: me. Now it’s a month later and have I made any progress?

Fortunately, I kept my plan flexible, I can adapt what I’m working on as life happens. the truth is, I’ve hardly been home in the past month. Labour Day weekend was spent moving my daughter to Ottawa for school. I was also determined to attend the Eden Mills Writers Festival this year. I hadn’t been in about 20 years! But as an almost empty-nester, and the threat of covid fading (not to mention this is an outdoor festival), and a workshop with Gail Anderson-Dargatz, my former mentor—I wanted to make sure I attended. Read more

Call Me the GRINCH

Donna Judy Curtin Leave a comment

Tis the season of stress. The season of hunting for that perfect precious gift while you get your elbows up to wrestle for that last sale item on your list. Not only do you need to tackle your regular laundry, dusting, vacuuming, dog walking, work and dishes… but now you need to clean your house before you can hang up those pesky decorations and Christmas lights (fit in the marital spat over the lights, apologize and then make up for your poor behaviour), drag out and dust off the ol’ Christmas tree, and then somehow remember to move the freakin’ Christmas Elf every night before bed. Read more

Conquering Your Writing Goals with a Strategic Plan

Lori Twining 4 Comments
Photo by Lori Twining

Let’s face it, 2020 was tough on some of us, if not all of us. 

I know that my writing plan for last year was sailing smoothly from January to February, and then, by mid-March, it skidded into a crazy tailspin, halting at our first lockdown. From March 17th through to the end of December, it felt like running over a bed of sharp nails—known as a contagious pandemic—which flattened all four tires in a matter of seconds. It left me feeling extremely anxious about my family, my friends, my health, my wellness, my job, and my writing career (what there is of it at this point). As of December 26th, we landed back into another 28-day lockdown that may hang-on much longer than we want it to.

So, what do we do? How do we plan for a possible 365-day lockdown in 2021? I know that I don’t want to repeat the mess I waded through in 2020, that’s for sure.

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Winter is Coming – Hurrah!

Seana Moorhead 1 Comment

Don’t get me wrong. I love summer time. Strangely enough, I especially enjoyed it this year. It became a time to reconnect with friends in outside spaces, to play charades on the driveway under the stars, find new kayak paddles in crystal blue-green water and to weed my flourishing Covid-19 garden.  

But I’m kind of exhausted by summer. Like an excellent party – it’s great fun while it lasts but the clean up the next day is daunting. I’m canning my garden bounty (turns out that 40 tomatoes plants are too many), experimenting with a dozen ways to eat zucchini and discovering that not everyone loves cucumbers. Sadly, my writing got shelved during this time of outside merriment.  

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Writing Goals; As Good as Words on Your Page

Donna Judy Curtin Leave a comment

At this summer’s Muskoka Novel Marathon, I placed a bid (all proceeds supporting adult literacy) for a package of support with a professional writing coach. And I won!

I’m a motivated person. I’ve set goals in my life and achieved great things; becoming a veterinarian, surrounding myself with wonderful family and friends and writing a novel… but now the time has come to get published.

So, with this goal in mind, I started the coaching services.

Wow.

I can’t tell you how great it is to have a skilled and supportive person push you to set your goals, to schedule your time and then to cheer you on.

Initially, we started with a conversation, where it was clearly identified how my greatest enemy was time. Specifically, time management. I needed to give myself permission to set aside the time to write and then to follow through.

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Breaking your Writing Resolutions

Diane Ferguson Leave a comment

Writing Resolutions

We just passed Beltane Day, May 1st, the mid-day between spring and summer. Time for some Beltane writing resolutions. They say most New Year’s resolutions are broken by January 12th. I’m happy to say I lasted a lot longer than that with my New Year’s writing resolutions. (We won’t talk about the other non-writing resolutions.) But I still fell short of my goal to have the first draft of my re-written novel done by the end of March. What happened? Read more