Goals for 2016

Well hello there! And welcome to the great blog adventure 2016!

I just finished going through my blog history to see if I've done this before, and as it turns out, I haven't. So I'm changing that now. I don't usually come up with New Years Resolutions-especially the get fit/eat better one since it kinda bugs me-but I believe last year or the year before (probably the latter), I made just one: to write more. And I can't quite remember how that one turned out. But I think at least for a few weeks, I did write more.

For a while now, I've wanted to get to where I can write something every day. It's a hard one to start and keep up. I try to remind myself that it only takes 21 days to start a new habit. So that's what I'm shooting for first: 21 days, then the year. Although, I may actually need to take it a tad bit slower than that, I'm not really sure. Oh well, it'll be an adventure at least. In fact, I think this will be quite an interesting year...I've managed to think up quite a few more resolutions than I thought I would...

• I will write something every day. Even if it's just a sentence. Baby steps here...there will be difficult days.
• I will get back to and keep up Blogging Fridays. More to the point, I'll make it more of a priority.

• I will read more in the genres that I write in.

• I will make time to read period. The time will not present itself.
• I will finish what I didn't read in 2015, and complete the 2016 Goodreads Reading Challenge (already updated over there➡).

Well...so much for that...

• The same goes for writing. This is my career, my work, and my business. It's high time I treated it as such. I will make time to write and figure out how to write even when I may not feel like it. I will use that as a tool for something creative.

So there you have it, my goals for 2016! Yes, mostly writing and reading related. I have quite a bit of work to do there. And I have my planner all ready to be filled up to help reign in the madness. Now to figure out how to use it as a blogging planner...

I may add some things to my list as the years goes on and I settle in. I will definitely be printing out this list and putting it up on my wall where I will see it. At any rate, I look forward to seeing what this year will bring and I'm excited to be back to blogging (oh, how I've missed this)!

     Let's make 2016 spectacular...
          Liz

We've got to stop meeting like this...

The last time I blogged was about mid-April, during Camp NaNoWriMo. I wish I could say that I finished out strong and completed my project. Unfortunately, I managed about 2k before I burned out. I plan on completing it some day though. It's a story that interests me as a writer and I can see things playing out very interestingly. It will probably be just a Wattpad novel, but still, it would be nice to have at least one (if not two or three) novels just for Wattpad.
And it's a bit of old-ish news now, but several months ago, I was super excited to finally get my own domain set up with this blog. I had a draft saved and then distractions left and right delayed my posting it:
Squeeeeaaaal!!!! I am so excited to finally be able to see my website address redirect to lizanneglasgow.com! There are a lot more changes coming, so please bear with me on that. :) I'm hoping that very soon there will be some updates coming to the whole layout here.
I'm in the process of checking to see what sort of themes I can find so I can have a more website looking...website. That is to say, I wish to have a more professional looking author website in preparation for when I do get that novel finished and published.
Another thing that I failed to mention as part of the MIA-ness in February was my mom having an emergency appendectomy. Once the craziness of dinner theater was over, things seemed to settle down briefly. I was still staying at home during the day to help take care of my mom since she was sick. Then out of the blue we found out she had early stages of appendicitis. And after an emergency appendectomy, thankfully, she was ok. She bounced back surprisingly fast too; in the next two or three days she was walking around pretty well again. I still stayed with her for most of the next few weeks to make for certain that she was ok. Now she's doing very well and is back to her old self again, with the addition of a small garden just big enough for a few things she's been wanting to grow. I've even picked out some watermelon seeds in hopes of growing some...we'll see how well that goes, lol
Since it's a couple of weeks away, I'm also planning on doing the next Camp NaNoWriMo. Maybe I can finally finish my novel. In fact, I check Twitter nearly every day. So if you're reading this, and you're on there, please...bug me a little lot. Seriously, check in with me, ask how I'm doing. In the past when someone asks how my writing is going during a NaNoWriMo month, it seems to help give me that push to keep going and remind me of why I'm doing this in the first place. I have stories that need to be told, otherwise they wouldn't be pestering me to be finished. Even simply going shopping, it seems like more and more I'll see something that reminds me or somehow inspires with one project or another that I have going.
I think I've decided that this time, along with #CampNaNoWriMo, my personal hashtag for the month will be #FinishThatNovel because I've been working on it for long enough, and it's high time it gets done. It deserves to be done and to be told.
So that's what been going on in my life...here's hoping I can keep up with Blogging Fridays now. I've missed blogging, and I have a lot of ideas for posts saved that I can work off of. And hopefully I can share a surprise soon. It's something I've been working on for a while, trying to get everything just so before I share it. :)

     Gearing up for another crazy month of writing...
          Liz

The Blog Life

So I recently went back to look over my blog history for how often I've blogged since I first started a few years ago. I know it's been extremely sporadic the past year or so, to say the least. And I want to do better about that. But life's been crazy with everything going on in the family, so it's hard to balance everything and keep writing, let alone blogging. Of course, I will be trying to focus on writing a lot more for NaNoWriMo. I mean, in my mind, that's my writing month. It might as well be called Writember instead of November, lol.
But anyway, I realized that the first couple of weeks of this blog was pretty much just non-stop blogging. I would blog once, even twice a day for a week straight. That's definitely a lot more than I've been doing since. So I've been thinking it over, and I think I'm going to try to designate a blogging day. One day a week, I will set aside some time to update a new blog post. Hopefully over some time, this will become a habit I don't even need to think about. I would like to have maybe two a week eventually, but we'll see how this goes. I have to get one habit started first. While I'm at it, I'll probably just have a day set aside for writing as well, that way I'm more guaranteed to have at least one day out of the week to write. Right now, with things as they are, I'm getting less than that done. Maybe it's just NaNo Prep, but I've had that writing stirring inside me and on the brain a lot more than it has been. I still don't know exactly what I'll be working on come NaNoWriMo, I may very well end up trying to multi-task as I tried doing in July Camp NaNo. There's so many ideas stirring around, and I've discovered in the past year or two that if I let that energy build up, then I'll have more excitement and drive when I actually get to writing. If I jump on whatever pops in my head, then my energy and ideas run out fast. Perk of waiting: most of the ideas I have are one little piece and tend to be a bit on the obscure side, so in waiting for my idea tank to fill up, the words generally pour out more at a time. And it's better that way. I can flesh it out a little better having thought it out a little more.
Chances are, once I decide on a writing day, you'll probably see posts about no interruption days or #WritingWednesday...something like that. I rather like Writing Wednesday, now that I think about it. Anyway, whenever I decide on a set day, there will more than likely be posts popping up here and there about it. Heck, I may even have a daily total at the end of Writing Wednesday (or whatever day I pick). That is...if my total word count isn't embarrassingly low, lol. Then again, anything is a step in the right direction. And it would be more than I'd have gotten done the day before. I think while I'm at it, I'll go on ahead and say I'll start today with Blogging Fridays. I'll start trying to get a new blog post out each Friday. The November posts will be the same as usual-stats at the end of each week, then it'll go back to normal posts. I rather like this designating a day thing. I'm thinking maybe I should've started that from the beginning, but back then I was blogging all the time. It'll be nice to get back to blogging more often again. Who knows? Maybe I'll even break my previous record for posts in a year (grand total of 20).
So here we go, first Blogging Friday in what will hopefully be a long line of Blogging Fridays. I'll say it now, if I don't make it one week, I probably have a very good reason. And I'll announce when I finally settle on a writing day as well.
One last thing...I just want to take a minute to thank anyone who's read anything of mine-whether you're a first time, or returning reader of this blog. Or maybe you're a reader on Wattpad/Booksie. Or a follower on Facebook/Twitter. Whatever it may be, I thank you, and I am flattered that anyone would take time out to read whatever it is. Lately there's been a peak in Twitter followers, and I just want to say thank you everyone! I've watched that number slowly climb since I started on Twitter, and seeing it climb higher since this summer just reminds me that my dream of writing is happening. Slowly, but surely, one day I will hold in my hands the proof copy of my debut novel. And a lot of the reason why will be because of you, dear readers. Because your support and encouragement-whether voiced or not-will be a big thing that pushes me to really go after writing. I'm getting there more each day. So thank you, everyone, anyone who has been there through all of this so far, and whatever may come. You mean more than you could know. :)

     Love always,
          Liz

I'm baaaack (again)

Wow, so it's been a long time since I last blogged. I've missed this, but quite honestly, I've had an extremely rough year as far as my writing goes. No matter how badly I wanted to write something, it seemed that every time I sat down at my laptop, I would end up just staring at the blank screen. And that annoying blinking cursor. I'd be lucky if I got a paragraph down. But it happens. I find it hard to believe that there is a writer out there who doesn't struggle with the occasional dry spell. Or as one of my best friends calls it, writer's frustration.
The years since I've started writing and working toward that lovely goal of being a published author have been very up and down as far as total word count. Sadly, with most of the years being a very low word count. But I was-and still am-always, always writing a story in my head. I'm always brainstorming on an element I'm trying to expand, whether it be a character's back story, or trying to figure out how they would respond to any given situation. Or even trying to plan out how my fantasy world looks for my future dragon books. That one will take several more years, probably.
Anyway, my point is, even though I've had even lower world count than my usual low word count, I've been brainstorming a lot on my different projects. And I actually have several newer projects I'm working on now.
Which brings me to this month: the July session of Camp NaNoWriMo. I'm using this month to try to give myself that kick in the pants I need to get a few projects done. Several short stories, and a couple of novels I'm trying to get started. You can find them on Wattpad once they're done. And yes, I will be posting on here to give a heads up that they're there.
I'm going to try to do a weekly update as the month goes by (edit: whoops...ok, maybe an end of the month update on how the Camp session went), and I have a few other blog posts in the works too. Here's a preview of what's to come (in no particular order):

• How seven words can make a difference
• A few book reviews (I haven't forgotten about those....I just need to finish the books first...)
• A little more detail on a few of my current projects
• A different kind of blog hop
• A letter from me to you

So I'm just easing myself back into the writing world. I always forget how much I love to write. But when I do begin writing again, it's like a familiar feeling very much like seeing an old friend you've known your whole life, but don't get to see very often. It's that thrill and excitement of getting to see them again, and you're just giddy for a while. It sinks in, and you begin to realize just how much you've missed them.

I'm not making any plans for sitting down and finishing a novel. If it comes, it comes. I'm just playing everything out by ear right now. I'm trying to finish a few short stories and getting a good start on a couple of side project novels. I'm not making any plans on if I'll try NaNoWriMo in November yet. I'll make my mind up once the month gets closer. Although, I will say that this month has really gone very differently-in a positive way-than I would have thought. It's really given me quite the boost in my will and enjoyment to write than I've felt in a long time. And truth be told, it feels really good. I'm feeling more of a sense of accomplishment than I have since I don't know when. I don't know when that first great (I hope) novel will be finished and out there. For now, I'm just enjoying working on the things I am at my own pace, steadily getting them closer to being finished. Once I get these projects done, there will be a bit of a blow up on my Wattpad page, lol.
Oh yeah, and since the post previous to this one was about my dragon short...I am still working on that one. I know what I want to do with it, but my mind's been everywhere and back again for a while. Rest assured, soon enough, it will be up on my Wattpad page, and possibly on here. For now, I'm focusing on a few of my other projects and I'm making some nice progress so far. Here's hoping it continues to go that way. :)

     Always writing (even if in my head)...
          -Liz