Three Reasons Why I Write

Published on by elizapeake15 Category: Daily Motivation, Life. Love. Fun., Mindset, Productivity, Writers Life, Writing Life

I was listening to a podcast recently and the topic they discussed centered around why we as writers, well…write. It seems like such a simple question and yet it can really make one stop and think

But the way the host approached it was this: come up with three reasons that you write. Then whittle it down to the one that you know you can’t do without.

The three reasons I write:

1 – To entertain and offer an escape
2 – To get the stories out of my head
3 – To learn about myself and others and what motivates us

I can’t say money. Not yet anyway since I haven’t made any yet as my book is not yet published. It would be the first to go, even though that is definitely part of why I have a marketing strategy. But as a writer waist deep in edits right now, there are easier ways to make money! Part of my definition of success in writing is to be able to earn enough to “retire” from my first career and start my second. Hopefully finish my life on my terms as far as a career is concerned.

Number 1 & 3 would be the two to go, leaving me with to get the stories out of my head. I’ve made up stories and built worlds my whole life, even though I didn’t realize that’s what I was doing.

When I was 6 years old and had a Barbie dream house, I turned it into an inn in Vermont for my Barbie to run and made up stories about the guests. I wrote fictional stories based on high school friends while I was in school. None of them ever went anywhere and are long gone, but I’ve always had a story in my head. I can hardly listen to a song without creating a scene in my mind’s eye.

Interestingly, I find that number 1 & 3 are tied to # 2 as the effects of writing things out. If I didn’t have the stories to begin with, I wouldn’t be able to analyze motivations or entertain others.

 

So, why do you write? Money and success? To create something? To educate?

 

Write freely, love fearlessly, live intentionally,

 

 

Midweek Mojo: Get Started – March 21, 2018

Published on by elizapeake15 Category: Daily Motivation, Life. Love. Fun., Mindset, Quote of the Week, Writers Life, Writing Life
Mark Twain Mojo Sunrise

Happy Midweek Mojo! 

You see a lot of Motivational Monday posts and that’s great to get you going for a Monday. Unfortunately, I have a “hare” mentality that I’m trying to correct. I’m strong out of the gate, but tend to flail about halfway. It’s a conscious effort on my part to try and change this. The tortoise was right, slow and steady wins the race. 

So in an effort to help those of us that need some additional weekly motivation, I offer a midweek mojo post.

Today’s quote comes from the great Mark Twain:

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

 

The hardest part is starting, am I right? This is where fear sets in and tries to derail us before we even get going. For me, when I start a new writing project, the beginning is always the clunkiest for me. I’m awkward and all over the place until after a while I can rein myself in and find my voice. But unless I start, I’ll never find my voice. 

Some are perfectionists. Circumstances must be perfect in order to get started. They use sentences like:

 

“I’ll wait until the kids leave home.”

“I’ll wait until I have enough money.”

“I’ll wait until I lose weight.”

 

I’ve used these last two quite a bit myself. Life becomes a bunch of I’ll wait’s and before you know it, time passes you by.

Life isn’t perfect and never will be. There will be no perfect circumstance. If there’s something you want to do or dream of doing, get started. Don’t wait. If you’ve only been half committed to something, hold your nose and JUMP! Commit fully if you want it bad enough.

Time is the one commodity we have that we can somewhat control and yet we can never replenish when it’s gone. 

We only get so many trips around the sun. Make sure you make the most of each and every single one.

 

The weekly mojo question:

What are you not starting because of fear or some other deterrent?

 

Write freely, love fearlessly, live intentionally,

 

 

 

 

A New Year is Here! And the Excitement is Trying to Kill Me!

Published on by elizapeake15 Category: Uncategorized

Hello loves! 

In a perfect world, I would have done this post on January 1st instead of January 31st, but 2018 has decided to test me from the get go. It started on January 2nd when a stomach bug made its way into the house. But it gets better! *insert sarcasm here*

Here is how my January went this year:

  • The stomach bug hit 2 out of 3 people in the house (the hubs and the teen).
  • Not to be out done, I decided I would one up them and have an emergency appendectomy. Fun times.
  • The hubs had a fender bender. Nothing like last years total destruction of his Silverado, but his new truck had to be towed nonetheless.
  • So far, the nasty flu has taken down 2 out of 3 (again, the hubs and the teen). We’ll see if I can escape it or if my Lysol rampage and vitamin C bombs have helped me. 

There are various other small, nuisances that plagued me, but minor compared to all the other things. 

I was asked a couple of weeks ago how I keep my positive attitude in the face of all the turmoil that has rained down on me in 2018. I don’t really have an answer other than faith. I have faith that everything will work out okay.

There are some that still have it far worse than me. Everything I’ve gone through this month has been stressful and testing. But right now, I can type this post on a nice computer, I’m warm, I’m fed, and at this very moment, I feel fine (with this flu stuff, each day is a new adventure. I don’t count myself lucky just yet).

So, in spite of everything, I still feel very optimistic about this year. There are all sorts of projects and goals I’m working on in my writing career and my personal life. Here are a few I’m excited to share with you:

 

1 – Short Story Month. Starting in February, I’m going to post one of my short stories for a month. The first one I will be posting is a romantic short story (there are some sexy times, so just a fair warning, there is some heat here) called I Should be Getting Married…In the spirit of the month of love, I figured a romance one would be the most fun. Look for that to post on February 1st on the Short Story of the Month page.

2 – Edits on Shane & Emma’s story, tentatively called Trouble Me, are going well. I have a deadline with an editor and it’s approaching soon! I’ll keep you up on how that goes.

3 – My involvement with my local RWA chapter, Georgia Romance Writers, has stepped up. I’m the Galley Editor, our quarterly newsletter, but I’m also the Maggie Award of Excellence co-chair this year. I’m working with the lovely Diana A. Hicks. By the way, check out her debut novel coming out on February 7, 2018 called Love Over Lattes. It’s sexy and hot and just a fun read. I write the sexy South, she writes the sexy, Southwest, among other awesomeness. 

4 – I have a super secret project that’s in its infant stages that I will call Project 101 mistakes. Stay tuned!

5 – After Shane & Emma, I will introduce you to Noah & Ava. Be on the look out for more updates on both books in my…

6 – Newsletter. I’m working on being better about bringing a newsletter to you guys this year. I’m still working out a schedule for it. But it will filled with all things writing and updates on my stories.

So that’s it for now. Lots of different irons in the fire. Sign up for my newsletter to keep informed of what I’ve got going on, short stories, goings on in the writing world.

This is how I stay positive. I keep moving forward. 

I’ll leave you with a couple of quotes by Walt Disney that I love and keep me motivated:

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.
 
It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.
 
We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.

What dreams are you pursuing, new paths you’re foraging, and having fun doing it? Leave me a note in the comments!  

Write freely, love fearlessly, live intentionally.

 

NaNoWriMo Day 30: Job Well Done

Published on by elizapeake15 Category: Mindset, NaNoWriMo, writing

It’s the final day of our NaNoWriMo 2017 journey. It’s always a bittersweet ending for me. While, I love the competition of being pushed to write every day and getting my story done, I’m also happy to have the breakneck, grueling pace done as well. It’s challenging and takes discipline (especially since we celebrate Thanksgiving here in the States) to complete such an arduous task.

For me though, the reward outweighs the pain I felt over the last 30 days. While everyone’s goal may not be 50,000 words, if you hit the mark you made for yourself, you can take pride in a job well done. Really, Emerson says it best:

No truer words.

I hope these posts have motivated you along the way in this marathon that we ran together side by side. Most of all, I would love to hear from you as to how your NaNo journey went. Was it seamless? Did you struggle? How did your story come together? What did you learn about yourself?

Leave a comment below and let me know. 

Today’s Official Word Count: 50,010

Happy Sleeping, Writing, Editing!

Kim

NaNoWriMo Day 29: Push Yourself

Published on by elizapeake15 Category: Mindset, NaNoWriMo, writing

One. More. Day. That’s right, folks! We are down to the last of NaNoWriMo! The last bit where we need to push ourselves to not only finish, but finish strong.

Grab more coffee, consume more chocolate. You’re on the last lap. Tomorrow at midnight, the final buzzer will sound.

There are mere hours left to go. Pull out some new tricks to get those words in. Check out my post here at the beginning of November to help with tips to get the last of the words in.

Dig deep, find that second wind that will push you into gaining that “Winner” banner from NaNo.

Will you be ready for that buzzer?

Today’s Count: 48,343 words (I can almost taste 50,000!)

Push Yourself

NaNoWriMo Day 28: Keep Reaching

Published on by elizapeake15 Category: Mindset, NaNoWriMo, writing, Writing Craft

We are down to the last 72 hours (give or take) of NaNoWriMo 2017. The finish line is in sight! With every word I type, I’m reaching towards my end goal: 50,000 words.

Actually, my end goal is more in the neighborhood of 65,000-70,000 words for my book. So while I will finish NaNo (fingers crossed!) at 50,000, my book won’t be complete. However, I’ve already put in place a new deadline to actually finish the book. The wonderful thing about NaNo is that it gives you that push to keep reaching for the end so that you can complete that manuscript. It creates the writing habit.

Because as we all know, that book isn’t going to write itself!

How about you? Any new deadlines set for the novel you finished as a result of Nano pushing you to write and/or finish it? I’d love to hear your experiences with Nano this year.

Today’s Count: 46,676 words

Happy Writing!

Kim

Men climbing mountain, reaching for the top

NaNoWriMo Day 27: Commitment

Published on by elizapeake15 Category: Mindset, NaNoWriMo

Commitment. That’s one of the keys to the Nano experience. Consistency and commitment. You have to be willing not to just talk the talk, but walk the walk. It’s easy to talk, to say that you will be a winner and slay 50,000 words in 30 days. Broken down, it’s only 1,667 words a day. How hard can it be?

Well, if you are like me or any other human walking the planet, you are part of this thing called life (insert Prince music here). And life doesn’t really care what we committed to or deadlines. It will interrupt and throw you a curve ball when you weren’t looking. Then 1,667 becomes 3,334 and instantly daunting.

As a result of that, we must take control of life ourselves and make it work. Take action. Show that being consistent and committed to your writing keeps you on the path of reaching your goals. Even if life has a different idea.

Today’s count: 45,009 words (holy moly!)

Happy Writing!

Kim

Blue abstract commitment

NaNoWriMo – Day 26: Take Pride

Published on by elizapeake15 Category: Mindset, NaNoWriMo, writing

We are in the final stretch of NaNoWriMo 2017. If you’re anything like me, you may feel like your story is all over the place. But don’t worry. You should take pride in the fact that you are still writing this far into the game.

Nano is a marathon for sure. And while your finishing energy may be waning (seriously, someone send more chocolate!), but you can do this. You’ve come this far. Don’t back down now!

Today’s Count: 43,342 words

Happy Writing!

Kim

NaNoWriMo – Day 25: Extraordinary in the Ordinary

Published on by elizapeake15 Category: Mindset, NaNoWriMo, Writers Life, Writing Craft

Sunsets happen every day. But no matter where in the world you see one, none of them are ordinary. Much like your daily writing during Nano, your words may feel ordinary, but they are anything but. Even if you toss them later, you wrote them. They have meaning, maybe just not what you need at the time.

Extraordinary Sunset: Ordinary

So keep writing those extraordinary words, every day. We’re almost there.

Today’s Count: 41,675 words

Happy Writing!

Kim

NaNoWriMo Day 24: Uncomfortable Zone

Published on by elizapeake15 Category: Mindset, NaNoWriMo, Writers Life, writing, Writing Craft

What’s keeping you in your comfort zone? When it comes to writing, editing is what makes me uncomfortable. Unfortunately, I end up sabotaging myself in drafting because of this as well.

This little tidbit of knowledge is something I just figured out about myself. So, now what?

Uncomfortable zone

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER…AND CAN BE UNCOMFORTABLE

I have to admit that figuring out what my brain block seems to be is both relieving and frustrating at the same time. It is an uncomfortable feeling, the kind that makes me squirm in my chair a bit.

Just bumping along nicely in drafting is my comfort zone. It’s why I have multiple manuscripts sitting in my virtual drawer waiting to be edited. I write and then put it away. To let it stew, so to speak. Unfortunately, they are still stewing.

Except for the one that Nano is helping me with. I’ve pulled it out, looked at the hot pile of mess it is, and decided to rewrite a good portion of it. It’s painful, but using the competitive spirit of Nano, I’m getting the words in (a little behind but I’m still writing!). And as a result, when I finish this novel and it goes to the editor, I believe my writing career can begin.

It’s my first step into the writer’s life and into my dream reality.

Today’s Count: 40,008 words

Happy Writing!

Kim