Tag: Writing

End-of-Year Update: 2024 Goals

~ K ~ Leave a comment

2024

I failed at achieving most of these goals. Miserably. I contended with a difficult first half of 2024 with issues with my son and daughter at school, then getting laid off in June, then subsequently being rehired at another place within my company (along with a 30% salary reduction), and now here I am in December, trying to figure out what I did with all that time, what I plan to do in 2025, and paring my goals back significantly from even a Top 10.

2024 Goals

  1. Read 6 full books for the year. Needs improvement.
    a. Theologizin’ Bigger (reread)
    b. So You Want to Talk About Race
    c. Rising Strong
    d. The Councilman
    e. Unclobber
    f. Red, White & Royal Blue
    None of these. The last time I read an entire book was the advance copy of Theologizin’ Bigger at the end of last year. The Councilman has been delayed, which makes me hella sad because I absolutely love the story between Gillian & Gunner. Alas, we shall see what 2025 brings. I should follow up with the author.
  2. Read 2 chapters of the Bible 1 day per week. Accomplished.
    It’s not consistent, but it’s better than any Bible reading I’ve done in a while. I’ll give this one a W for the year.
  3. Pray in the morning for 5-10 minutes 1 day per week. In progress.
    This also has not been consistent. I pray for other people and I praise God a lot, but I need to pray for myself and my needs. It’s not an L but more in progress.
  4. Noom: Update at least 3x per week. Accomplished. Adjusted but accomplished.
    I’ve canceled Noom because it’s much too expensive, and I prefer the use of Cronometer. I’ve lost 50+ this year, thanks to getting COVID-19 in February and not having any sense of smell or taste for the 6 months following, but I’m finally at a manageable weight I’m happy with. I’m down from the “obese” BMI category to the “overweight” category, and honestly, I’m okay with that. 20 lbs away from the minimum ideal BMI, but I’m fine with where I am.
  5. Exercise 1x per week for at least 10 minutes. Needs improvement.
    I did okay for the first 2 months of the year, then I got COVID-19 in February, and it was downhill from there. We’re going to try to pick this back up in 2025 with a modest goal of 1x per week either BODi or walking outside with a 10-minute minimum.
  6. Attend church 2x per month. Needs improvement.
    I started out really well earlier this year, and I’ve just fallen off the wagon. Thankfully, I’ve got Brian to keep me accountable. We’re keeping this goal as-is for 2025.
  7. Visit Mom on Long Island 2x this year. Accomplished.
    I’ve visited my Mom more than twice this year. And she’s finally retired! Free of taking care of everyone but herself! So she’s been down here recently more than we’ve gone up there, but I’d like to keep this goal as-is so I can go back and visit friends and snag some Ciro’s tortellini pizza.
  8. Book a massage once per quarter. Accomplished.
    Success! Managed it all this year. Let’s continue to carry over to prioritize my self-care.
  9. Complete YA steampunk novel by year’s end. Needs improvement.
    I did not get this done. Sad with myself, but I need to refocus on this goal. Completing this by the end of 2025 is extremely doable (Lord willing) but will require some extra dedication and sessions with Ruth.
  10. Meditate 1x per week. Fail.
    I haven’t been interested in meditating. It’s been a goal but an unrealistic one. Prayer is more important to me. This is not getting carried over.
  11. Duolingo: 2x per week for 10-15 minutes. Fail.
    I’m always finding excuses not to do this or not in the mood for it. I’m not going to make it a goal (I’ve got enough already), but I will do it as I can (or feel like).
  12. Hand journal 2x per month. Needs improvement.
    I went several months not hand journaling on and off. I think this is a doable goal, but I’m not carrying it over. I will journal when I damn well please.
  13. Substack post 1x per month. Fail.
    I haven’t written a Substack post since March. I vacillate on whether to keep this or my WordPress blog updated, but either way, I don’t think I’ll carry this over.
  14. Blog on WordPress 1x per month. Fail.
    I haven’t updated this blog since June, which I suppose is better than anticipated. I need to choose between updating this blog or Substack—not both. Whether I’ll make either a goal, I’m not sure. I’d like to keep this on my radar, but along with completing my novel, I’m not sure this will be realistic.
  15. Take 3 LinkedIn Learning Courses by year’s end. Fail.
    I took 1 course and that was on “surviving a layoff.” (facepalm) I may make this a goal for 2025, but either reduce it to 1x per year or 1x per 6 months.
  16. Watch 3 TED/TEDx talks this year. Fail.
    I may have watched 1 TED talk this year? It might have even been at the end of 2023 and I’m imagining it occurred in early 2024. TED Talks are only 10-15 minutes so it’s not an unachievable goal. I may adjust this to 1x per 6 months, and if it gets done more than that, super hooray.

By the way, I really, really, really hate this WordPress block editor, it’s not user friendly or intuitive. I really, really hate it.

End-of-summer update

~ K ~ 4 Comments

It’s nearly the end of summer, and I haven’t blogged at all in the past 3 months.

I suppose the big news is that I am 4 months pregnant with our first child thanks to fertility treatments. (I highly recommend Shady Grove Fertility if you live in the mid-Atlantic states.) The first three months were a bit rough going as I was sick on and off, But I’m feeling much better now that I’m in my second trimester.

I submitted queries to agents for my completed novel, Getting Right with God, and was rejected by all of them. How disappointing. And after sending to an editor and having a few established writers review the opening pages of my work, I realize that I still have more work and more revision to do. I’m afraid that the book itself just isn’t marketable, but I’m not willing to self-publish. What a conundrum.

I am working on a novel idea for NaNoWriMo in which a black teenage girl from New York City relocates to the Philadelphia suburbs and attends a posh, primarily white private school. Conflict ensues!

Other than that, I’ve just been working like crazy at the library as a library assistant. I attended two book club meetings this week, which were actually quite enjoyable. We read Beauty Queens by Libba Bray for one and The Hunger Games trilogy (yes, that’s all three books) for another. On my own, I’m reading several books at once:

Quiet is the most intriguing book of all to me. I’m afraid A History of the World… is going to be rather dry reading.

I wish I had more interesting things to say. There are so many topics going on: President Obama’s second term, Syria, the Affordable Care Act, Egypt, Russia… but alas, I have no brainpower or opinions of my own on any of these things, So enjoy this brief update.

 

Steps Accomplished: Query Letter and Pitch

~ K ~ 1 Comment

If you’ve been following this blog for some time, you might know that I’ve been working on a book that I’m trying to get published. Well, last week I sent out my first query letter to an agent. I probably won’t hear anything back from her considering it was my first query letter, and I have a long way to go toward refining it, but it was a step forward in doing something that I’ve been needing—and afraid to do—for quite some time.

I’ll be going to the Writer’s Digest conference this weekend and live pitching my book to agents. Here’s the pitch that I  plan on giving them (I’m currently working on memorizing it):

Three years after her brother’s tragic death in a car accident, 16-year-old Brooklyn native Marisela feels all alone and wishes she were dead too. She is fresh off her latest suicide attempt when she meets Pastor Edwards, a smooth-talking Baptist preacher, who welcomes the Roman Catholic teen to his church family.

Marisela finally has a renewed purpose for living and begins making friends until the married youth pastor makes a sexual advance on her. When vicious rumors spread around the church about Marisela, she—already prone to low self-esteem—despairs and finds her thoughts slipping back to suicide.

Will Marisela lose the friends, and the life, that she’s worked so hard to gain?

It’s also the pitch that I plan on using in my query letters as I try to obtain an agent.

Basically, the way traditional publishing works is that as an author, I have to obtain an agent before I can try to sell my book to a publisher. (Well, I could try to sell my book to a publisher, but I’d have to get a lawyer well versed in publishing contracts to navigate that murky world for me. Agents do that for a cut of whatever I earn.) The agent then tries to sell the book to a publisher, and once the book is accepted, goes through revisions before getting published. Depending on what a publisher would pay me, agents would get a 15-20 percent cut of whatever I get.

I could self-publish but that’s not the route that I seek as I don’t have a large platform and would have to do the marketing all on my own. Traditional publishers like authors to already have their own platform, but publishers help with the marketing aspect if the author is not already established. It’s a long slog, and a tough one too, but I suppose I’m tougher than I consider myself to be. I can handle this.

If I could have my choice, I’d rather have acceptance rather than rejection from the first agent I’ve queried. But I’d rather get a rejection response than nothing at all.

Blathering Blatherskite (That’s Me)

~ K ~ 1 Comment

I have nothing to write about really. I’m reading a book, Writing Down Your Soul, and it’s fascinating to me so far. I’m not very far in the book, but the author talks about listening to the Voice from within (yourself) and from without (God). It’s a very spiritual book so atheists wouldn’t like it, but it’s not directly Christian so fundamentalists wouldn’t like it. But I am neither. I am a middle-of-the-road Christian who accepts that the universe does stuff with a lowercase u, and recognizes that God is behind everything with a capital G. I don’t ever plan on being a pastor so I’m okay with my slightly unscriptural stance.

I am at my proofreading job right now. There’s a lot of talk and speculation that I’ll be brought on as a permanent part-time employee, but as of right now, I haven’t gotten complete confirmation. I have a cube, a computer, and my own extension, things which are nice. The office manager has been a real sweetheart and she really likes me so she’s helped me to get set up very well. I appreciate her going out of her way to make me feel like I’m part of the team, something that I’ve felt on the outs for quite a while now.

I’m always afraid that I am doing a poor proofreading job. It’s a constant fear I have because I struggle with perfectionism. I know no one can be perfect and I also know that I should take the fact that the company keeps bringing me in as a sign that I’m doing a good job, but my job centers around the fact that I’m meant to primarily minimize mistakes and I fear that I’m not minimizing them to the extent that other people would like. (I just heard my name from someone so I popped my head up, doing the “gopher” thing that people in cubicles do.) I later learned that indeed it was a mistake that I made, and I am better off never ASSuming but always querying something I’m not sure of.

Writing Conference

~ K ~ 1 Comment

So I’m attending the Writer’s Digest Conference in New York City in 2013. I will be there pitch slamming my little heart out. I’m not sure what to expect out of the conference. I’m excited to hear James Scott Bell, who’s a fantastic speaker and writing coach. And I’d like to read an Adriana Trigiani book beforehand since she’s the keynote speaker, but I have a dilemma…

I’ve determined that I will write a book during the month of April. So I lose 3 valuable days to conferencing. I hope I learn something worthwhile. I’m so afraid that what I hear will be a rehash of what I learned in 2011. (On the other hand, I suppose a rehash could be a good thing.) But another part of me is excited because my novel is in much better shape for sending to agents than it was in 2011. I feel more confident about hocking my book now. It’s just a matter of nailing down that “hook” so I can properly pitch to agents and get them interested in what I think is a compelling story. (Of course I think it’s compelling—it’s my book!)

Every Good Book Needs a Hook

~ K ~ Leave a comment

I’m trying to decide whether I should attend the Writer’s Digest Conference or not. I attended 2 years ago and found the information to be helpful, but I’m afraid that it will be a rehash of what I learned 2 years ago. James Scott Bell is to be the opening keynote speaker, which has me somewhat excited because I attended one of his breakout sessions, and he was a fantastic speaker, full of vivid illustrations and examples. The early bird price (before February 16) is $449 and the regular price is $499. I don’t know if I want to do the pitch slam. I can’t decide whether it’s fear or laziness holding me back. I can’t quite figure out the “hook” of my novel. Every good song needs a hook and so does every good book. I need a hook that will sell an agent on my novel. Two years ago, I tried doing my pitch and I didn’t really get any bites. There wasn’t an agent that was really excited to see a query letter or synopsis of my novel. And I want an agent that thinks, “Yeah, what a neat concept. This could work.” I just need to work on revising my query letter and synopsis. It’s also a matter of finding the time to plop my butt down in a chair and revise.

Opportunity Knocks

~ K ~ 1 Comment

Changes are afoot. I may have the opportunity to work an editing job regularly. This is something I’m somewhat excited about because I enjoy editing and I’ve been told I’m good and reliable. But there’s a part of me that is afraid. Afraid that I’ll be found out to be a fraud in the line of work that I want to do.

A few years ago, my now retired boss called me up and asked me what I wanted to do with my life. The question caught me off guard so I babbled on about having a family, having children, being a mom. Not that I don’t still want those things, but at 30, I now have a clearer picture of what I want to do with my life apart from mothering. I want to be an editor and a writer. I want to write another novel and I want to edit other pieces. Whether I’ll eventually have to choose between editing and my library job, I know not. Frankly, I don’t want to choose. I enjoy them both on different levels.

I may get a regular schedule for a month or two depending on the workload. We’ll see how it works out. It would be nice to have another source of steady income even if it is only for 1 to 2 months.

But I do have an editing business and I would like for it to “take off.” What that looks like, I’m not sure to be quite honest (because, really, I would lie to you). So far, my editing business consists of two advertising agencies, one occasional client, and a past client. I guess two ad agencies is a full load especially with a part-time library job, but I like having things to do during my off hours at night and on the weekends. I like being so busy, I don’t know what to do next. Although it does provide a source of stress.

So if I could go back in time and answer my former boss’s question today, I’d say, “I’d like to write and edit. I’d like to build up a clientele of people I edit for and I’d like to be able to write on the side.” Whether that would have been enough of a satisfactory answer to score the editing job that I got passed over for, I don’t know but it’s the answer that I’d give and the answer that I think I’d stand by 10 years from now. Things change but my basic skills, gifts, and talents haven’t changed; they’ve only evolved over time. Hopefully for the better.

Reading 8 Books at One Time

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For someone who reads as much as I do, I have a blank brain for writing my own story. I am reading 8 books at one time:

  1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
  2. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew
  3. Wicked Girls
  4. Princess Elizabeth’s Spy
  5. I’d Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had
  6. The Art of War for Writers
  7. The Essential Rumi
  8. Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith

Continue reading “Reading 8 Books at One Time” →

Afraid to Write

~ K ~ 1 Comment

I’m working on a story about parapsychology. Parapsychology includes paranormal phenomena such as telekinesis, telepathy, and clairvoyance. This is a huge stretch for me because I’ve never written anything remotely sci-fi or fantasy before. I’m scared.

Yes, I’m afraid to write.

I’m afraid that the story will tumble out horribly. That it won’t be realistic (ah duh, sci-fi is not), that it won’t be entertaining… that it simply won’t be good. I’ve got a ticker on the sidebar to keep track of my progress. Instead of writing this post, I should be writing in my novel.

But I think I’ll read instead.

Stealing from Other Writers

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It’s okay to steal from other writers as long as you do not lift their words exactly as they’ve been written.

What do I mean?

I mean that I intend to look at other blogs and lift my writing topics from them. I also intend to incorporate Anne Lamott’s writing style into my own. Although I don’t know if that’s possible because she’s got a way with words and descriptions that I can only hope to remotely broach. Anne Lamott says in Bird by Bird:

Try looking at your mind as a wayward puppy that you are trying to paper train. You don’t drop-kick a puppy into the neighbor’s yard every time it piddles on the floor. You just keep bringing it back to the newspaper. So I keep trying gently to bring my mind back to what is really there to be seen, maybe to be seen and noted with a kind of reverence. Because if I don’t learn to do this, I think I’ll keep getting things wrong.

I love that imagery of drop-kicking a puppy. (I like the imagery, not the actual idea of doing it.) That is Anne Lamott style.

I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep coming up with different writing topics. There are an infinite number of topics in the world, and the brain is exhaustive. I can only reiterate and spew the same things over and over before even I get sick of my own words.

But I’ll try.

I’m not a how-to person. I’m not one who is a natural instructor. But I’ll see if I can’t come up with at least three lessons learned out of life. I’ll also be borrowing heavily from Michael Hyatt’s website, a prolific blogger whom I admire. While I don’t have any lessons to offer on leadership, I’m sure there’s something I can offer lessons on. Perhaps I need to continue blogging to discover what that is.

One-Novel Wonder

~ K ~ 7 Comments

I feel all washed up as a writer. (I’m trying to stick to my 300 words a day minimum imposed by Anne Lamott from Bird by Bird, so I may ramble a bit.)

Why do I think I’m all washed up? Because I wrote one novel, and I can’t seem to write any others except for this effed-up teen series I’ve been working on for the past couple of years. Sure, I can almost always pump out 50,000 words every November, but that’s only when the story has to do with my teen novels or characters in some way. And trust me, they are poop in the same way that Fifty Shades of Grey is.

Hmm… maybe that means it’ll sell at least.

I’d like to write something original like my first finished novel (revised and edited). My finished novel has been in the works for the past five years. And if that won’t sell, but an agent likes my writing style, I have nothing of serious consequence to offer other than total garbage.

I have ideas—tons of them—that I just can’t seem to capitalize upon. A drama about budget cuts in the library (boring), four wealthy women whose lives radically change (book club material), an interracial couple that falls in love during the 1960s (historical romance). I read a ton of books so I should be pregnant with ideas, right? But somehow, I am barren in the brain and the womb.

I don’t mean to sound defeatist… well, in fact, I do. I feel defeated. I feel about as hopeless about giving birth to a new novel as I do about giving birth to a child. I am currently infertile in more ways than one.

Francine Pascal is my inspiration for writing, if that tells you anything. Perhaps it would do me some good to reread some Sweet Valley and remind myself why I liked the series so much. (Or why I find it to be a poor excuse for literature in retrospect.)

 

Overcoming Writer’s Block: 300 Words a Day

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Reading Anne Lamott makes me want to write. Is that the mark of a good writer? One who encourages other writers to write?

I am reading Bird by Bird, her book on writing and life. To overcome writer’s block, she encourages her readers (who are writers) to write 300 words a day.

Three hundred words a day. I can do that. Right?

—

I have a memory book that I’m writing. In it all are the memories that I can possibly remember. Believe it or not, I don’t remember much. Only about 20 pages’ worth of memories in a small journal out of who knows how many pages possible. 200? Although I have 20 years of journals to sort through and read to remind myself of all the horrible things that have happened to me. Because, of course, I am notorious for recording the negative events in my life rather than the positive ones.

—

Perhaps the following really belongs on my depression introspection blog, but I’ve had a really great year. Since my father died 11 years ago, 2012 has been the best year I’ve had mentally. Physically, I’m still dealing with chronic mono, but I hope that 2013 will bring a year of renewed mindfulness and energy. Normally, the fall and winter months (especially the Christmas season) bring with it sadness and depression, but thank the LORD, it’s been at bay this year. I’m finally accepting my father’s death and doing my best to move forward. I’ve accepted the fact that another year has gone by that I’m not a mother, and that’s okay. Forward. It was President Obama’s slogan during his re-election campaign, but it holds so much meaning for me. I will not let a political campaign co-opt a word that describes how I need to look toward the future.

—

I am trying to read a Bible chapter daily and pray daily. I am using Health Month to do this. I still have not succeeded in exercising. I do not know that I will ever succeed in exercising. I start then stop, in fits, like traffic on the congested Belt Parkway. I do not know that I have grown closer to God. But I am walking by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). I am reading about the Old Testament God—the Heavenly Father who was all wrath and anger and appeasement by animal sacrifice. I like the New Testament God—Jesus, the Incarnation, who is all love and human and emotional. Reading about God through Genesis makes me so glad for Jesus in the four Gospels.

“Whose god then is God? They all want jurisdiction. In the Book of Earth, whose god spread fear? Spread love?” —Tori Amos

—

I fear that my Mac is not long for this world. It is one of the discontinued 13″ white Macbooks (I almost wrote Powerbook—whew!). I don’t use it for anything anymore except to play music and to sync my iPhone to.  It was playing music when the song came upon a discordant note and the note kept playing over and over and over and… well, you get the point. It was like a CD permanently skipping. I had to force restart my Mac by holding down the Power button. But unlike the devotees of Mac, I simply cannot afford to buy a new Mac laptop of any sort. It is much too much expensive. But then again, I haven’t been sucked into the cult of Mac when it comes to computers. If I really loved Macs, I’d spend the money. But I don’t. I’d rather plunk down the cash and get a touchscreen Windows laptop for maybe as much money (or a fraction of the cost—I’m not sure how much touchscreen laptops run these days).

I am definitely an “i” girl. I use iTunes, love my iPhone, own an iPod Shuffle and and iPod Touch, and would like an iPad. Apple has won me over in the mobile department. But I figure I can make things work on Windows if need be. I would plunk down the money for an iPad. I just haven’t yet.

—

Look at that. More than 700 words. And the goal was simply to write 300. Can I keep this up? I need to whether it’s through blogging, article writing, or fiction creation. I won’t get better as a writer otherwise.

The Absorber

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I’d like to think that I’m especially good at something, but really, I’m especially good at not much.

I’m very much a retainer rather than a giver. A sponge rather than Santa Claus. I absorb information rather than disseminate it. I’d like for this to change. I’d love one day to teach a class on writing. But I don’t even know how I do it myself. Then I wonder if I should teach a class on editing. But I decide that it’s one of those things that I’m better at doing rather than telling people how to do. I don’t even know where to begin.

The Writer’s Voice

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What is a writer’s voice? Each writer has a distinct voice, one that immediately envelops you like a soft blanket, that is, if you like it.

One of the definitions Merriam-Webster provides is “the faculty of utterance.” In other words, the ability to say something. Ernest Hemingway had a voice, James Patterson has a voice, and Anne Lamott has her own voice. I don’t know what my voice is. I wouldn’t know if it were good, bad, interesting, or unusual. Perhaps that’s why I need to continue writing and keep practicing. Keep writing ’til I find my voice.

And oh! The things I can utter!

Memoirs, Anne Lamott, and Querying an Article about Infertility

~ K ~ 2 Comments

I’d like to write a memoir. But as with many things, it may never get done because I fear that I am not funny or interesting enough. Regardless, I have a memory book and I’m trying to record all of my memories. Especially those of my father, which are fading. I am bummed that many of my happy memories are gone replaced with such stupidness as the Korean lyrics to “Gangnam Style.”

I have many—and I’m talking 10 or more—journals or diaries, whatever you want to call them, that have recorded memories over the course of my lifetime since I was 10. Of course, I didn’t record all the major events. (I don’t know that I recorded when I found out my dad died or when I got married.) I just recorded all the mundane things about life.

—

I’m reading books by Anne Lamott who is obviously a progressive, liberal Democrat. (She is a native Californian after all.) What that has to do with anything, I’m not sure but it comes through in her writing in Grace (Eventually). And I only wish that I had half the wit and talent in my whole body that Ms. Lamott has in her pinkie finger. I know she’ll tell me it’s work. I am reading her work on writing called Bird by Bird. Ms. Lamott has quite the way with words and metaphors that I can sit here forever and hope to come up with. But no, I’m more like James Patterson in my writing: just the bare bones “facts, ma’am.” I have a “voice”; I just don’t know what it is.

—

I’ve been thinking a lot about writing an article on infertility from a Christian perspective for various websites. I’m three years into this infertility journey, certainly not as long as many people that I’ve encountered, but it’s long enough to understand the ins and outs of the process. I can talk about my experience, my husband’s experience, and our unique journey together. At this point, it’s a matter of getting myself together and overcoming that initial rejection that comes with the query process.