Writing revelations

So I stalled out a bit on writing again after some big job deadlines pretty much brought the rest of my life to a standstill. The stress from those deadlines sent my creative muse fleeing for the hills. What free time I had was pretty much for eating, sleeping, and vegging out on mindless TV.  Now the deadline madness has passed I’ve started writing again. As a new writer I’ve discovered several new challenges I’m learning to work through:

1. Carving out time in a busy schedule to actually write
2. Not letting stress from my daily job interfere with my creative process
3. My muse evidently has multiple projects it wants to work on. Keeping focused on one is sometimes harder than I expected as my muse often wants to wander off on plotting tangents for other books I’m going to write down the road.

Carving out time is tricky but I’m starting to get more of a routine going on that is working. The stress thing I haven’t found an easy solution to yet. Exercise helps alleviate it but then I’m physically tired and not always ready to then exercise my brain as well. Having ideas for multiple projects is exciting and makes me feel more confident that I could eventually become a full time writer. I have plenty of ideas for projects that excite me; ones I’d want to read if someone else wrote them. Keeping the wayward muse focused on one thing at a time is the harder part. I’m technically writing two different novels right now but more often working on one than the other. It sort of depends on the day and my mood, especially since the two projects are quite different.  One is more lighthearted and comedic, the other more serious. I’ve had to cut myself off at two. If I start any more I won’t be able to finish any of them. Nevertheless, I’m keeping track of ideas in my trusty notebook for when I have time to return to them. But otherwise, I’m trying to rein in my muse so I don’t lose focus entirely.

I’ve also broken down and decided to send the first fifty pages of one book to my friend and volunteer beta-reader. I was originally going to wait until the whole book was done but found myself in need of some outside perspective on what I’ve written. I hope to get some good feedback from her soon.

That’s it for now. Back to fiction writing!

Holiday Writing Progress

Being off of work for the next little while has made me far more productive. I’ve written about 4,000 in the last few days toward my second writing project and expect I’ll continue making solid progress while I’m on break. Tomorrow I’ll be spending most of the day driving to visit family but I’ll be bringing my laptop with me so I can work. It provides a nice excuse to take daily breaks from the family to preserve my sanity!

I’m Back!

I realize it’s been quite some time since I posted on here. My goal going into the new year is that I will be more diligent about this. Mostly at this point, I view this blog as an accountability mechanism where I have to record my writing progress on a regular basis and make sure I’m meeting the goals I set for myself. I probably haven’t posted in a while because I know my writing has been sporadic since the summer. My day job is making it difficult for me to hold to the daily writing goal I set for myself but I’m trying to carve out time each day to get some words down. Since I last posted, I’ve made some new progress on my first project and started a second (which was my first NaNoWriMo effort). I’m really pleased with both of these books in progress and hope to make even more progress over the holidays while I have more free time to write. Based on a tip I received at GRL in October, I downloaded Scrivener, which is AWESOME! It has made the writing process so much easier as it helps me better organize my ideas and information on my characters, setting, etc.  Before I was working with a haphazard system of written notes that I kept losing. Now I can pull up my corkboard on Scrivener and everything is there. I love it so much!

I’ve also been reading a lot of M/M books lately and went on a bit of a crazy holiday themed binge. I needed some warm fuzzy feelings at this time of year and it’s wonderful to know you can count on most M/M authors to deliver! Maybe next year I’ll write my own holiday short story as I have a couple of ideas for one but I need to leave them on the back burner while I finish the two novels I’m writing. 🙂

Writing Update

Well, I’m making slow but steady progress. I had to take a few days off from writing to meet responsibilities of my day job.  Thankfully, my duties have slowed down considerably freeing up more time for me to write. I’ve also been reading and eagerly awaiting some forthcoming publications from a couple of my favorite authors. My writing goal for this week is to make the 30% mark on my manuscript by next Saturday. Let’s see if I can do it. More updates soon!

Writing Progress Update

Today was a very productive writing day! I managed to get nearly 4,000 words on paper. Tomorrow I’ll spend time going back through what I wrote to edit and polish it. So far this has been by general writing strategy. I write several thousand words one day and then go back and edit them the next day before moving on.  This does make my pace a little bit slower but I’m really pleased with what I’ve written so far. Editing along the way is making me more confident in my work.  I’m still hoping even after editing I might get down another thousand words tomorrow. More updates soon!

Welcome!

Hello World,

I am an aspiring m/m romance writer.  I’ve started this blog to hold myself accountable for my writing progress and to connect with other readers and writers of m/m romance. Let the adventure begin!

–Chloe Archer