by Mlissa | Jan 5, 2023 | 10k Weekends, writing
I have some big writing goals to accomplish this year and I think it’s time to revive my 10K Weekends writing challenges.
Starting on Thursday at 7am and ending on Sunday at 7pm. Times are Eastern time.
10,000 words.
If you break it down and want/need a word count goal each of the 4 days, it’s 2500 words a day.
Of course, you don’t have to do it like that. Do it anyway you want to do it so long as you reach 10,000 words by Sunday at 7pm. For me, I’ll be doing sprints to help me get there. I won’t achieve it every weekend, but if I can do it most of the time I offer up this challenge, I’ll make significant progress toward finishing new books on my never-ending list of ideas.
If anyone reads this and wants to join in, just reply to this post and keep me (us) posted on your progress. One day I’ll post about it on social media again, but not yet. I’m still struggling with sm at the moment. I’m not ready to go down that addiction/comparison/spiral-out-of-control rabbit hole again. If you want to post about it, great. If not, that’s cool, too.
At this time, there are no prizes other than a sense of accomplishment. Maybe if there’s any interest in it, prizes of some sort can be discussed.
For now, it’s time to get writing. Are you up to the challenge?
Lissa
by Mlissa | Aug 2, 2022 | writing
The image isn’t very good, but really, it’s only posted as verification.
And I did win on Saturday afternoon. (Cue the balloons and cake and cheers!)
My writing goal wasn’t very high, but I made some progress on some stories that I wanted to make some progress on. I wanted to get an handle on how a few of my ideas would work, what I would want to do with them, etc… I am pleased with what I learned about these projects.
Writing daily is a hard thing for me. I don’t do well with it. Mainly because it begins to feel like a chore and I hate when writing feels like a chore. Doesn’t mean that there aren’t times when writing daily isn’t a good thing. When there’s a deadline and I’m trying to get to the end… That’s a daily writing time. I get so deep into the story, into finishing, into getting it all done that my brain and my fingers and my whole self gets immersed in the process of writing. It’s late nights and blurry vision and coffee and junk food and it’s bliss. I love those times, those moments, those days.
It’s the daily writing to get there that is a bit of a slog sometimes. Not always, but I find that I burnout on a book quickly when I write daily. I burnout on writing when I write daily. That’s just me, though. Not everyone is like that. I’ve always been an odd one and I’m learning to be okay with that.
Anyway, I won and I’m looking forward to where these current projects and plans take me. I’ll keep you posted.
Oh, and don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter (lissamatthews.com/newsletter) to get all the info first!
Lissa
by Mlissa | Mar 29, 2022 | Writing Life
I miss writing partners, write-a-thons, all night writing sessions with other writers, someone to go to bookstores with to write, local writing friends, online writing sprint parters, etc…
Now, A LOT of that is my fault and I accept that. Not being on social media anymore takes me out of visibility in every way. I didn’t have a strong social network for a number of years as it was, so to drop away entirely just weakened it to the point of I’m pretty sure anyone that ever knew I existed…forgot me.
That was a trade off I was willing to make to get my creative brain and mental health back.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t miss those things I mentioned above. And that’s okay. Would I like those things again? Sure. Without a doubt.
I do still have a couple of writers I am in contact with from time to time. We check in and check up on each other and I am so grateful for them.
Anyway…
Camp NaNoWriMo starts on Thursday.
My self-inflicted writing challenge for March ends at midnight tomorrow night
And I’ll clue y’all in on what I’m doing and what I’ve done with regards to both later this week.
by Mlissa | Mar 25, 2022 | Writing Life
I’ve been writing this whole month of March.
The. Whole. Month.
It’s a challenge. No, really. It’s a writing challenge I set for myself and I’ll tell you about it when the month is over, which…it’s not.
*glares at the calendar and how many words are left to write*
As you know, I work on several projects at once. I’ve never been a monogamous writer. I cheat on WIPs ALL THE TIME. There are good and bad things about this way of writing and I’ll go into that another time. However, for the purpose of this blog, one of the ways this is not so good is that multiple WIPs reach the middle at the same time. UGH.
Two of my roughly five active projects have reached the middle. Double UGH.
There’s always a book with a muddling middle being written. That’s the way this game of writing works. There’s always a moment in the middle when a writer questions why she began writing in the first place, why she thought she could write a fucking book, why she didn’t just stab the characters at the first sign of trouble and what would happen if she did that now… Writing life choices, y’all. Writing life choices.
And while I can and do work on others when I’m stumped with the need to mull things over, at some point I have to get back to the muddling middle of these two WIPs so that I can get through it and over to the other side, sliding toward the finish line.
When these two are finished, another couple will have reached that same middle ground and I’ll have the same questions pop into my head and I’ll feel extra stabby for a bit.
For now, though, the knives are still tucked away.
Are you curious about them? The books, I mean… Cool. Me, too.
What I can tell you is that one is the 3rd book in a series that has taken me millennia to finally write, and the other book is the 1st in a new series no one asked for, but I hope people will like it just the same.
Hope y’all are well, safe, healthy, and finding something to smile about.
by Mlissa | Oct 31, 2021 | Life, Writing Life
Since October 12th, I’ve been down in Florida and during this time, I’ve managed to scratch out a couple thousand words. That’s much less than a week’s worth when I’m at home, but for these 3 weeks, I’ve been helping out family and having the mental energy necessary to write has been a challenge.
I’m mentally, physically, even emotionally exhausted. Being a caregiver, short-term or long-term is not for the faint of heart. It’s definitely not for the selfish or the ‘me’ mentality. It requires patience, kindness, and the ability to scream internally when you can’t scream externally.
Normally, I would have said, ‘I just can’t. I’ll just wait until I get back home and get my head back on straight, catch up on sleep, on de-stressing, on XYZ… And then, I’ll start writing again.’ I haven’t done that. I’ve eked out words here and there, most of which don’t make much sense and most of which will be edited out. I also not upset about it, about the lack of progress on a novella I’d hoped to have finished long before November. I’m barely halfway.
I’ve texted with a couple of friends since I’ve been here. I’ve mostly taken my mom or grandma to the Dr, the store, to run whatever errands need to be taken care of, etc… while my mom is recovering from a fall that left her with multiple fractures in one arm along with a plate and nine screws in her wrist. Her sleep schedule is way off which means that mine is, too. By the time I fall asleep around 2-3am… my brain and body have had enough.
Writing is often an escape, sometimes a joy, a lot of times very hard work. Right now it’s not an escape. I can’t think straight enough for it to be an escape and I don’t have the time to sit and immerse myself in a story. I cobble together a few words, try to figure out a storyline in the moments I may have a second to think. I crave and cherish time to myself, something I haven’t had any of for three weeks. I don’t think I’ll be taking that for granted when I return home.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I am grateful I can be here and I can help out when needed because no one else in the family can come. I have the freedom and flexibility in my life and schedule that my sister and cousins don’t. I am grateful for the time I get to spend with my grandma who is 95. I am grateful for the time I get to spend with my mom. I am close with both of these women, but we’re all also cut from the same stubborn piece of cloth and it does pull on the nerves from time to time.
All this, though, is to say… Whatever the circumstance, writing can happen. Even if it’s ten words a day. Five words a day. It’s like the jigsaw puzzles my grandma and I do when I’m here and there’s some down time. It’s one piece at a time. It may be a total of one thousand pieces, but one piece at a time gets you one step closer. It’s the same with writing. One word, five words, ten words in a novella or novel doesn’t seem like much, maybe a drop in a bucket, but it’s one, five, or ten words that weren’t written before and it’s one, five, or ten words closer to the goal.
So, if you find yourself in need of writing but you don’t have much time, you’re exhausted and don’t know which way is up or down and everything seems to be going sideways… Just add one word, five words, ten words… They don’t have to make sense. They just have to be there.
I love y’all… And I’ll be in touch again soon.
Page 1 of 1612345...10...»Last »
