A Look Back at 2017

Hello again. Sorry for this going quiet but, in the long run, this is the ball that gets dropped first in my life. It's not out of malice, but something that just is a natural consequence of wanting to get other things in life done. However, I thought that I would take a look back at the good and, while not bad, the things that I wasn't the most proud of. I don't want to use the word bad because... they're not. It's not a bad thing that things didn't get done or goals didn't get accomplished, it just is. It happened, let's get back on track to make 2018 better, and move on. If you keep on beating yourself up over things that have already happened, then you're never going to move forward. So, in the spirit of that, we're going to move forward on what I got done, what didn't get done, and how I feel about it.

What Got Done:

• I won my 10th NaNoWriMo. While the project itself isn't finished, I'm still proud that I started it and that I have an idea of the overall world. It is very much a telling myself the story type draft at the moment and I am more than okay with that.
• I am at the farthest of my editing in Mystery of the Dark than I thought I would be. I'm slowly getting the entire thing edited and sent back and 2018 will be the publishing year. It has to be. I'll talk about this more in the second section.
• The sequel for Mystery of the Dark is slowly being written. The 3rd book is completely done and just needs plot tweaking. I know what I'm doing for the 4th and 5th book, even somewhat the 6th and 7th. The entire series is plotted out with the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th book having titles - Slight of Hand, Flash of Fang, Song of Siren - that correspond to what supernatural being is focused on in each book as well as the overall plot arc too.
• I moved! It's a whole suburb over but I am walking a ton more (ok, not now, it's winter and FREEZING in the Midwest). I call this a what got done because it feels really good.
• I have released over 100 pounds and working on the next 70 more to get to my overall goal.

Okay, next section. Those four are really good and awesome and shouldn't be swept aside. Let's talk about what didn't get done.

What Didn't Get Done:

• Mystery of the Dark to the publishing stage. Yes, this is on me and I completely understand that but, at the same time... I don't think I was ready. Every time I thought of publishing, I got scared shitless and dragged my feet even more with editing. So, yeah, I wasn't ready and it's good to get that off my chest. However, this is going to be a 2018 goal and we'll get more into that with the 2018 goals post that will go up on Monday.
• I haven't lost enough weight. This is more of a funny, because I've released over 100 pounds (not all last year, but you know, total) but I feel like I've been going slower at it. So I'm going to strengthen my Bright Lines (feel free to go Google) and get back to food journaling.
• My areas of the house are unorganized. Sure, the majority of the boxes are gone but not all of them. My drawers are a mess, there are clothes that I should donate, so on and so forth. Also, I might need to go rearrange my bedroom because my head is up by a window (did I mention it's cold here?!) or possibly move all of my things into the basement to have an own apartment type space. We'll see. The basement is huge and my work area is down there.

So, yeah, things didn't get done, but other things did! I think the entire series being completely plotted and four out of six / seven books being titled is awesome. I think losing all the weight I have is awesome. I have been awesome this year and I need to focus on that. I also need to move forward, which might be my 2018 phrase with forward being my word, and that's what I'm going to do. One foot in front of another, picking myself up when I fall, and not beating myself up so much. It'll be a slow journey but I hope you stick with me to see where we go in the crazy year of 2018.

Happy New Year and see you on Monday! Happy writing and/or editing.

Renaming and Reclaiming Goals

First things first, I am renaming this blog as I have been getting away from the books part of what this blog is dedicated to. I am still reading, slowly, but I just haven't been wanting to do reviews. It's selfish, but I want to keep my views to myself or post something small to Goodreads. If you were here for the book reviews, the very few that I did, feel free to find and friend me on Goodreads. Just mention that you found me here first and I will friend you back. I only don't friend back those who seem like spam accounts or accounts that are about hooking up only (I'm looking at you Instagram). So, yes, renaming the blog. It is going to now be Words 'n Geekery. I am naming it that because that's what I do here. I spew words, either through writing a blog post here or writing my books / fanfic, and I geek about things.

I am going to have up a review post about Star Trek: Discovery as I have some strong feelings on it. I am just sort of sitting on my feels at the moment as I want to rewatch the pilot. I also have negative feelings on the fact that CBS is making us pay for the show but that's a tangent best for the post. Also, I plan on having more posts talking about things that I do on a normal basis, like Starbucks stuff and Avengers and everything that I love talking about. I just feel that it should be on a bigger scale. On this note, another reason for renaming the blog is that I am working towards having Words 'n Geekery be a podcast as well. I don't know when this is going to happen. I am slowly working on it now to get it up by the end of the year but it might be early 2018 because NaNoWriMo is coming.

credit memegenerator

I'm just here for the GoT memes, I know nothing about the show or the book outside of the first one. It's just not my thing, which... yeah. That might also be another topic coming up or it might be a podcast episode. We'll see. However, that's not all we're here to talk about today.

The second part of the post title says reclaiming goals. I set goals for myself at the beginning of this year and I'm slipping on them. This is okay because I'm starting to feel they're slipping because I'm not ready for the end result just yet. Like I wanted to get Mystery of the Dark out to publishing houses this year. This might still happen and I'm terrified. It might also be an early 2018 thing and I get less terrified. The being terrified part is not because it's new but because... I'm not a social person. I have issues putting myself out there when I need to be in front of people talking, even on a one on one basis, because my brain works better in writing format. I am better in email where I can go back and re-read what I've written a million times (or not) before sending it off. My brain freezes in front of people sometimes. So, I want to work on that and I think doing the podcast will help with that as well because, even with it not being a live audience, it's still an audience.

The next part is that I want to start having quarter goals as well as big year goals. So, with WriYe, we have the year sectioned into four quarters and they're much like the financial quarters. Quarter 1 is January through March, second one is April through June, third is July through September, and the fourth is October through December. Those are the four quarters of the year. For the last quarter that is coming up, I am going to make myself some quarter goals and do my best to stick with them. One of those quarter goals is going to be the same as the big year one that I have which is to get Mystery of the Dark out of the final editing stage to the push it out to publishers stage. It's just something that needs to get done. Another quarter goal is to read more. While I have been reading and reading slowly, I haven't been finishing books. So I'm going to try and read 1 new book and finish 1 book that I've been in the middle of for forever. Magic's Price, I'm looking at you, as you're the first big one I'm going to try this on.

So, it's stuff like that. I also have a quarter goal of blogging more and figuring out podcasting. We'll see how it goes. What are your quarter goals and what do you think of the rename? Feel free to leave comments down below as well as poking me on Twitter at CrescentLizzy. Until next time, keep on doing you. 

Blogging A to Z: I (aka First Person PoV)

I, or, if you're talking about writing like we should be, the first person point of view. It's not something that I really write in - third person is my default - but I have tried it out. I realized that Sky Pirates, in the version I wrote for NaNo, works better as first instead of third. Not every book needs it - there are some where they would have been better in third - but there are some that are amazing in first person.

The book I'm currently reading - Thirteen Reasons Why - is one of the rare books that can carry first person. It is hair raising on the back of your neck creepy and you wouldn't get the same connection in the third person with the main character. First person makes it so that you are Cory instead of just looking through a glass window at what Cory is doing. Mystery novels are sometimes, but not always, written in first person. Again, it helps to pull you into the mystery and solving the crime. It helps to set tone as well because you're going to spend the entire novel with the main character, either solving the crime or hiding the evidence of the crime, so you want to have a deeper connection than most.

Are there some first person novels that could have done better as third? Yep. The Twilight series comes to mind as one of the best examples that could have done better as third. If you've been here for a while or you've read in the archives, yes, I always bring up Twilight when this comes up. Sorry / not sorry. You can see it when you go to the movie adaptation and what is happening is made better by seeing everyone else clearly. When we just get Bella's perspective, it's too narrow and... well, she comes across as whiny. I didn't start liking her until the movies and, if I had to only have one vs the other for the rest of eternity, I'd go for the movie version. Now, this is not to say that all vampire novels have to be in third or that none can survive as first person. Thanks Anne Rice.

I guess I'd close this out by giving you some questions for you to think on when you're considering first person. Will you be able to pull in the reader closer? Will it be too narrow to draw in the reader? Will you want to go back and forth between the two, either in an interview format / flashbacks / letters? Just a few questions to think about. It is best to have someone you trust to give honest feedback about what you're doing for point of view too as you might think it's awesome but someone else will go "nope, too narrow". Well, until next time, keep on writing and thinking about your point of view.

Blogging A to Z: Home

Guess what! The move is over. I am in my new home, which means I should go update which suburb I live in exactly, but yay. It's done. It took two trips on the original day, them coming back because they forgot stuff (ugh), but it's over. Now we go through the unpacking and putting everything in it's place. At least, that's what we're supposed to do. If that actually happens or not will be a good question (it will) but, eh, this is life. It could be worse so I dunno why I'm complaining.

However, it does feel like home, even with all the boxes around. It feels right, like everything is in place even with chaos, and a peace comes with it. A peace that says "yes, you did the right thing" and waking up feeling completely rested. Maybe there was a ghost at my old house, in the form of a lot of memories, that weighed the place down. Maybe just a change of scenery is all that anybody needs in the end. I think, when it's all done, I'm going to love working down in my very cold basement (I need a space heater, damnit) writing, editing, and everything in between like blog posts.

So, yeah, it might be messy and it might not be at it's best right now. But it's home, in that way home should be, and I'm good with that.

P.S. - Yes, I'm behind on the blogging challenge. Y'all are shocked, I can tell. Anywho, I'm picking up from H and will go on until I get to Z. I just didn't prepare well enough with the entire moving thing but oh well. You will get all posts, just not all in April. Until then, keep on writing!

Blogging A to Z: Grammar and I Suck At It

Yes, I am a writer and I suck at proper grammar. If you look at this blog, along with my twitter feed (@CrescentLizzy), then you'd understand this. Probably a lot better than I do but I break a lot of rules. Hell, I think I probably break all of the rules without even knowing what they are. I dunno why I'm proud of this fact, as I am taking steps to be better at grammar (oh stop laughing), but I am. I think it comes from the fact that my feedback comes through like this: 

"I love the characters and the plot but your sentence structure is atrocious." - a true friend.

I'm not going to say which friend said that, but it has been said. I'm okay with that. You can fix your grammar and relearn the rules to polish your novel. It's a lot harder to learn how to make characters likable (I got that lesson a while ago) and make sure that you describe what the hell is going on (still learning this one). Sentence structure and word choice, while something that you should focus on, is kind of low on my priority list when I'm writing. When I'm editing? It's high up on the list of making sure that it's all nicely polished. When I need to get words on the page? Someone call the grammar police and give me a ticket like you would for speeding.

I feel like this is where I'm supposed to give you some pearls of wisdom about how to edit your grammar but I don't have them. I'm learning as I go and cursing myself when I find things while editing that make no sense as a sentence. One of these days, I'll be a perfect writer who can be a grammar wiz. Until then, I'm going to keep on bumping like a ball in a pinball machine while getting the story down. I recommend you do the same - get the story on the page - and go from there.

Blogging A to Z: Fears (also Friday Five!)

I have some fears. Okay, a lot of them, but I feel they're rational. We're going to list them and then you can feel free to do so as well. You can either put it in the comments or hit me up on twitter at CrescentLizzy. So, here we go.

1. Falling. This used to be because I didn't want to hurt myself when I was heavier than I am now. I fall over the stupidest things too. The highest on the stupid things I've tripped and fallen over is a crack in the sidewalk. Me vs the sidewalk resulted in a hairline fracture in my nose (second broken bone ever!) and my hand feeling like it was broken. This was... a month, maybe less? before NaNoWriMo so, yeah, there was minor freak out about not being able to write because I'm a drama queen. First broken bone? Also a fall, at the Borders I worked at, and it was... two weeks / 10 days before Christmas? Big ass line too. That was lovely. The least stupid / most out of my control fall was when the stairs to the basement gave way and I fell with them to the basement. I got out of that with just a tweaked shoulder. However, now I hate falling / almost falling because people feel like they have to reach out and stop me from falling. It's sometimes worse than letting me fall because people have hurt me more than the fall would! I swear it's because of the cane, so, honestly people, let the blind person fall. It's going to be okay, you won't go to hell, but keep your hands to yourself. Thank you.

2. Death. I feel like I shouldn't have to explain this. But, yeah, it's second on my list because, honestly, there are sometimes when I've fallen and I should have died. See the stairs to the basement and the time at Beloit where I fell down the spiral stone staircase. I swear I was a stunt double in my former life.

3. Bees / Wasps. Now, this is irrational. I hate the sound they make and how they look. I know they're helpful and all but just... no. Nope. No. Double fingers waving in the air no. It's one of the reasons I dislike summer too.

4. Bugs in general - however, I'm getting better at this one. I've been able to kill a couple of them without screaming too. I'm getting better on this one.

5. Last but not least - failure. Yep. I am so human in this and I know it. I have a big ass fear of failure, of not being able to get anyone to buy or be interested in my book (which is BS - I've got friends and family who love me enough to humor me to a point), so, yeah, I've got that going for me. I also know that it's coming because my series isn't all that original and it's drawing on vampires (I feel like they're cycling out?), so I will probably be rejected a lot of times. Yet I don't see that as failure (see the reject letters of a ton of famous authors) but as a badge of honor. Maybe failure in that would be no rejection letters but... yeah, I don't know guys. Just that, like falling, I really don't want to go through failure but it's going to happen. It just won't kill me.

Blogging A to Z: Elizabeth (An Acrostic Poem)

Emotions flow through me
Like the wind blowing through trees
Is that metaphor too stupid?
Zigzagging through
A minefield of thoughts
Because I thought a poem would be fun
Eliminating a day of this challenge because
Thoughts of words that being with E for a post were emotions and elements
However, at least this post was short.

And that, my friends, is an acrostic poem. I really couldn't think of anything else to do and my name begins with the letter E. Also, we needed a bit of lightness after D.

Blogging A to Z Post Four: Depression

If you or someone you know is suffering from depression, know that you are not alone. The number for suicide prevention hotline is 1-800-273-8255 and you can also chat live with them. You can also text the Crisis Text Line by texting START to 741-741. You are not alone.

My story of depression started when I was a junior in high school in the late 90s. I was fresh off of being diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa and having to adjust that the life I was going for was no longer going to happen. I was never going to drive a car or enlist in the Navy or a lot of other things I wanted to do. There were some kids at school, the ones who stand out in my memory and not my good friends, that thought I was faking it and said so to my face. A lot of what kept me going was that, in two years, I'd have a fresh start. I wasn't staying in state for college - I felt that as soon as junior year started, even before the bullying - and I put every fiber of my being into grades. I did have a lot of suicidal thoughts, but couldn't bring myself to do anything. Most of it comes from the fact that I was brought up with the idea that suicide is a cardinal sin and the other part was I didn't want to disappoint my family. I shudder to think about how my life would be as a high school in society today and I am so happy I made it out before the internet took over the world.

Back then, from what I remember, depression wasn't talked about like it is now. I didn't really know where to go or what to do, only that I was having these thoughts, and I am forever grateful that I had my mom to turn to. I got into really good counseling through the Salvation Army that was close to my home at the time and I made it past that point in my life. I did take some medication, that I was weaned off of / made a decision that I didn't like it, and I just went for talk therapy. It helped a lot to have someone to talk to that wasn't related to me, didn't take my side, and made me take a step back to think about what was happening around me. 

I don't look back at it as surviving depression, because it's still here. It sneaks up on me from time to time, usually in the dead of night when I don't have anything on, but the time usually seems to be around 2 or 3 in the morning. The good news is that I've gone nearly two years without that sort of thought in my head. Sure, I'll still cry for no good reason sometimes and I have thoughts where I beat myself up for saying or doing the wrong thing, but it's so much better than it was. It's getting better everyday, considering those times are coming more when my time of the month is around more than anything else. Even that's happening less and less, mostly because of how I changed how I eat (Google Happy Thin and Free - Susan Peirce Thompson is who you're looking for) but I know my signs. I know my triggers. I'm not above getting help if it gets back to where I was in high school.

The "It Gets Better" project has it right, not just for LGBT kids, but for everyone. It does get better. I'm doing what I love, even though I'm still editing the damned book while writing the second and third ones, but I'm happy. I do wish I could reach back and give the young me a hug. To tell her that you do eventually accept who you are because you find some kick ass friends when you go to college. That it's coming up on seventeen years of knowing them in August and you still talk to the core group of them. I'm not sure where I would be if I hadn't been diagnosed but I am happy for the journey that I've been blessed with.

Until next time, keep on writing. 

Blogging A to Z Post Three: Curious

Have you ever tried to describe curious off the top of your head? What does it look like? To me, it looks like someone turning over a puzzle a few times to get the solution or reading the back of a book to see if they might like it. However, when it comes to trying to describe it in my writing, I trip over myself. I'm probably not the only person who does it but it also feels stupid when I do. I mean, seriously, I'm a writer. I know what curiosity looks like from my own actions and others, so why is it so hard?

Well, for one, I'm probably overthinking it. For two, what is curious for me is not for you. Maybe reading the back of the book isn't curious but questioning. Aren't those the same things though? By the definition of the word, yes, but from person to person? Probably not. This is another problem, at least for me, when I'm trying to write. I overthink and then I have a ton of things to edit because I went with the short version. The short version doesn't help anybody but my editor and she's probably annoyed with me not describing things. Or telling instead of showing.

Anyways, what are the ways that you are showing off curiosity in your characters? Feel free to leave a comment below or hit me up on twitter at CrescentLizzy. Until next time, keep on writing!

Blogging A to Z Post Two: Bored

I keep on going back and forth if I want this to be bored or boredom. Bored is where you don't have anything to focus your mind on and boredom is the state of being bored. You can't have one without the other and, yet, I find myself being bored more times than I find myself boredom. It doesn't last long because I can find something that needs or wants to be done, but it does happen.

Speaking of boredom, you should, as always, show it instead of telling it. If a character is bored, then I recommend doing what you would do when bored. When I used to get bored in class or in a meeting, I'd doodle in my notes. It might seem like something really silly and unprofessional, but it helped me pay attention. I could do better on a test or focus on a meeting point better if I kept my hands busy to relieve the boredom of the meeting. You could do the same or, sometimes when I'm out with people and bored, I'll play with the sleeve of my Starbucks cup, tearing it apart to make up little things of art. Yes, I'm strange, but I'm able to focus better if my hands are busy.

Just some things to think about in life and in writing. What about you and your ways to relieve yourself of boredom? Feel free to comment below or feel free to hop over to twitter to reply to me at CrescentLizzy. Until next time, keep on writing.

Blogging A to Z Post One: Anxiety

Welcome to day 1 of the A to Z blogging challenge. I was going to start off with the idea of alliteration but... I dunno. I feel like it's already done, by better people than me, and the idea about anxiety came to me in the shower. Yes, like a great deal of other people, writers and non-writers alike, I get a lot of my ideas in the shower. Second best place is doing dishes and third is while cleaning / running the vacuum.

Anxiety, to me, comes in many different forms and strikes without warning. I could be puttering around the house and suddenly I'll get hit with worry about something that has or hasn't been done. Sometimes it'll be late at night and I'll worry about the fact that I'll never get anything published and so on. It's not great or fun or glamorous. I wish I could get rid of it. I know there are a ton of ways to do so but it also feels like that's for other people. I know that's bullshit and all but it is what it is. It's where I am with my anxiety and how it effects my life. It's not like I'm getting panic attacks or anything that stops me from living my life, so I feel like I should just get on with life.

I really wish that it was that easy. There are days where it's that easy and there are days where I just curl up into a ball. I'm getting better, where I have easier days than most, and those come with writing or feeling like I'm doing something. Moving forward helps with my anxiety, even if it's just a few words or a page edited, it's still something. It's something that I can see or hold in my hand, depending on what I'm doing, and that is the true helping hand in the end.

What's your ways to combat your anxiety? Do you have coping methods / foods / drinks on the days where it's really bad (mine's coffee). Feel free to comment below or wave hello on twitter at CrescentLizzy. Until next time, keep on writing.

A week from Saturday! And other things

One week from Saturday starts the A to Z blogging challenge. Yes, I'm going to do it. No, I don't know what I'm going to be blogging about. No, I don't know if I'm going to be able to get things up on time which I'll explain more about below. And so on. However, ever since I heard about this, I've wanted to do it. I keep on forgetting about it, because I hear about it in January, but we're going to do it. Well, I'm going to do it. You can with me but I'm 99% certain that I'm going to be kvetching about moving. Well, I probably will be until the 13th or 16th, as I move on the 10th.

Yes, I'm moving. One suburb over but it's like the Biggest Move Ever (tm). My writing and editing has slowed to a crawl / stop at times but I'm getting to it. Somewhat. Kind of. Let's not kid ourselves here, but I am trying my best. I'm also failing but eh, that's life, and I'll take what I can get. All of my free time is spent towards getting the house ready and dragging my feet about it. Y'all know that I am one of the Queens of Procrastination and I'm trying to work on it. Trying being the key word there, but eh, that's life.

So, yeah, moving. Plus a blogging challenge. What could possibly go wrong? Keep it tuned here to figure that out and see me crash and burn. Or be amazing and get it all done. I feel there's no in between but we'll see!

Follow me on Twitter at @CrescentLizzy or on Facebook by my name and, until next time, keep on writing or editing even if I'm not!

Why I'll Never Cheer for the Patriots and How It Relates to Writing

On Sunday, we learned that the two teams that are heading to the Superbowl are the Atlanta Falcons (woo!) and the Patriots (boo). I should apologize to the people who read this who like the Patriots, Tom Brady, or both, so I do. However, I hate both because it's just getting to be too much. When they got to their first Superbowl, back in 2001, they were the underdogs then. They were going there for the first time since 1996, without winning, and Tom Brady was a sixth round pick out of Michigan. He was only there because they literally forced the old quarterback - a guy named Drew Bledsoe to the sidelines - and Brady was good. That Superbowl in 2001 was also a very close game with the Patriots only winning by a field goal (3 points) so it was a perfect storm of wanting to cheer for them. Then the scandals started and they got so good they weren't the underdogs and I couldn't cheer for them anymore. Props to those who can, but I can't. Tom Brady became the unrelatable and unlikable character in the drama llamas that is professional football, along with the rest of his team. Do you know when they become relatable? When they lose. That's kind of sad, but there it is.

In how this relates to writing, you want to make sure that your characters remain likable unless you're writing villains. To go back to Harry Potter, like I do a lot, Severus Snape is the perfect villain that you root for. With Star Wars, as you learn more about Vader, you want to root for him to come back to good. For your hero, you want the same thing. Harry Potter, for being the chosen one against the evil of Voldemort, was still relatable because his creator wanted him to be human. She wanted to make sure that it was a normal kid underneath all the layers of chosen one. When you're creating your characters, make sure there's something that attaches them to the rest of society. If they're too perfect, then people are going to want to root against them. Your readers might stop reading and that's never good.

Now, if you want someone to hate a character? You've got a perfect template for them. Same goes for if you want someone to hate a villain, but make sure they're doing their evilness for a reason. World Domination is a reason, but why? Because the original rulers are incompetent is a very good reason or because you can do it better is a good reason. Having a shitty childhood is a good reason and you get the added bonus of people wanting to relate to them (see Kingpin in Daredevil). If you need to look up why a character has a motive for doing something evil, look to normal life. Sometime's it's as simple as wanting to keep with the Jones-es situation.

So yeah, that's why I won't be rooting for the Patriots or Tom Brady anytime soon. He had a great origin story, but honestly, someone needs to smack him to make him relatable again. Same goes for the Patriots. Hopefully the Falcons, with their underdog relatable story line, can get the job done.

Until next time, keep on writing.

Word for 2017: Human

I know that I'm late to the party to announcing it to the world - I'm part of a secret group on Facebook who already knows my word for the year - but I decided to get it off my chest. I say that because, even if I don't seem it, I am a private person at heart. I'm an introvert who masquerades as an extrovert because I have good phone skills and I don't shut down after being too long at a party. I just say that I'm good at adapting - it's a bit how nobody knew I was legally blind until a physical for a bowling team - but that's getting off track. Nobody should be surprised that I got off track that easily.

My word for 2017 is Human. It's inspired by the song from Christina Perri, as it's one of my comfort songs that I listen to when I'm having a really bad day, and it fit so perfectly into what I'm trying to do with 2017. I want progress, I don't want perfection, and if that isn't a bit human, I'm not sure what is. We fall down a lot, as a society or even as an individual, but we get up and move forward. We make progress and then smooth out the rough edges when we get there. However, it's in perfection that we lose sight of the journey, and I don't want to. I just want to keep moving forward, even if it's only writing 100 words a day or writing this blog post, or getting through a really rough page of editing.

Now, will I get frustrated with myself? Yep. However, I know what my frustration looks like so I can step back and figure out what's wrong. Maybe it'll take writing down what's going wrong in the story and figuring out that I need to set the novel back a bit. It doesn't mean that I'm going to stop writing the version I'm working on in the moment because I have things that can be used in it. Is it what other writers do or is it recommended for everyone? No, but it's what I need to do for myself.

So, for you, dear reader, what's your word of 2017? What is the one word that seems to sum up how you want to see yourself at the end of the year or even the end of the month? Feel free to leave it below in the comments and, until next time, keep on writing.

Slug Writing or When You've Reached the Dreaded Middle

Hey everyone. Today we're talking about where I am in the middle of writing and editing the projects I'm working on. I call it the dread middle because it seems, whenever I get there, that I'm not sure of the project anymore. I keep on writing, because I'm close to the end, but it's where doubt starts to creep in. Doubt that I'm writing the correct story or that I'm in the right part of the novel or that I'm even supposed to be a writer at all. The last part we'll touch on in a moment, but let's stick with the writing parts for the moment.

I know that I'm not alone in the fact that the middle is where writers get nervous about what they're doing. It happens to a lot of writers and authors - even Neil Gaiman touched upon it in a NaNoWriMo pep letter - so it's not unique to one person. If you're able to get through the middle without dread, I'd love to hear how you do it. So, please, leave comments below or hit me up on Facebook or Twitter about it. But, for the rest of us / me, I can never get through it without some sort of worry. Some sort of wondering if I'm doing the right thing. That's where slug writing comes in. I slow down to the point where I'm moving as fast as a slug, getting in a few words there and a few words here, so it takes me a few days to write a chapter instead of hours.

I wish I had more tips for this other than you just have to get through it. The few words here and there, the few days to write a chapter, is so much better than not doing it at all. It is so much better to get as much as you can on the page until you feel like you can't anymore. We're human - it's my word for 2017 - and we need to realize our limits in order to not stress out more when things are not going our way. So it took me a few days to get through a chapter but the chapter is now done. It's a lot better than where I was before the chapter was done, which was staring at a blank page wondering what the hell I was doing. It is a lot better than having nothing down at all. Even if I have to go back and edit - I do, it's over 4,000 words - but it's done. I'm getting ever so closer to the end and I can write the fun chapter next of being at a gala and surprise.

So, like I always say, it's best to keep on writing. When you are able to do that, then you can come to the next part of the problem, where you wonder if you really can call yourself a writer or an author. Thanks to Elon James White of This Week in Blackness podcast, I've come to know about this as imposter syndrome. It's where you're highly motivated to achieve or have achieved great accomplishments but you're afraid that you're going to be exposed as a fraud and you haven't done all these great things. I am the highly motivated part, as I want to move onto the achieved great things, but I also fear that none of it's going to happen. That everyone is humoring me when they read and say that my plot and characters are great but my grammar sucks.

Yes, that's actually a compliment. Grammar's fixable, plot and characters are a bigger problem. I am worried that when I start to pitch my novels that I'm just going to get laughed at. That it's all been done before and that I will never be published or taken seriously as a writer. That's what comes to me when I reach the middle of my novels and I know it's stupid. I know it's wrong. If I cannot get published through traditional means, there's self publishing. Sure, it's not as grand, but I'll still be an author. I'll still be awesome and I'll be doing what I love to do. It's just the hard part of getting through it and realizing that it'll pass. It passes every time I get out of the middle and goes away until I reach the middle part of my editing. But it'll pass. It always does.

So, that's it for today. Keep on writing. Sometimes it's the only thing that will make everything okay in the end.

This Year's Goal: Progress, Not Perfection

Gather 'round everyone and come to see the WriYe Blogging Circle post for January. It also explains the title of this blog post and what I'm going to try to make my mantra for 2017. We're going for progress, not absolute perfection. To be published, not fully polished but polished enough that they'll take the book seriously. In other words, get things done and not worry if they're going to be perfect. Get the words on the page and make sure that you're moving forward instead of staying in one place.

What is your WriYe goal for the year and why did you choose it?
It's 200,000 words, with at least 50,000 of those words to be written in November for NaNoWriMo. This is based off of a challenge idea from Keri of WriYe to finish off some trilogies or series this year. You have to write and edit at least three of a series or a trilogy. I'm going to start with Mystery of the Dark - there's one in editing mode, one in writing mode, and one in plot mode - and then go from there. Watchers will be next, followed by Power (oh everything help me), and then others.

What are you going to be focusing on this year? 
I'm focusing on getting published with Mystery of the Dark while continuing to write with different projects. We'll see how it goes but that's the plan for the moment. After that, I'm going to focus on new and old projects so I have something else to put out there as well.

What are you doing differently this year compared to last year?
I'm focusing on the way forward rather than deciding to be perfect with everything. If words on the page, then it's a win for the day because that's more words than I had before. If I don't do anything for the day, then I'm not going to blame myself. I have to learn to love a bit of myself as well during the process and not worry about what else could be done. I need to focus on what I do get done and celebrate that.

So, what are you focusing on in 2017? What projects are you starting? Feel free to comment below and, until next time, keep on writing.