LAST DAY!

You have just one day–just these last few hours–to complete your writing goal of One Hour a Day.

When will that be for you?

Will you join me for one hour right after I post this blog?

 

I’ll post one more time tomorrow.

But may I just say, even if you write five times with us this last month, good for you. What we do? It’s hard. And you’ve been doing hard things.

Enjoy your last hour on this challenge.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE

Eight Writing Days Left

How will you spend your last week + one?

Will you write every day?

Have you done well so far?

What is the biggest thing you have learned about yourself during this past writing experience?

My advice today is you can do this. Even if you haven’t written a word this whole time, you can start today and write for one hour. Each morning or each afternoon each evening. Or you can do as a dear friend of mine did and write 15 minutes at time until you have logged your one hour.

Big breath.

We’re  counting down! Eight Writing Days Left!

Can’t wait to hear what you have done!

15 Minute Monday

Writing in little bits and pieces. Can you do it? Have you done it successfully, ever?

My dear friend, Laura Torres, wrote several VERY successful How-to books for Klutz Press. Her titles sold more than 6,000,000 copies. She is an amazing woman and an amazing writer, one of the most creative people I’ve ever met.

When Laura had two young children at home, she wrote a great deal of nonfiction. Her family ALWAYS came first. She wasn’t the kind of mom who locked herself away from her crying children. She was there every moment. And that meant she had to teach herself to write in the time given her.

I remember Laura telling me she wrote when she had the moments.

“I’ve taught myself to write in 15 minutes or less.” She told me this years ago and I still remember her words. And being in awe.

She wrote clean.

She wrote well.

She wrote quickly.

The results were amazing. She’s written A LOT of books.

(You may remember her work. Go here to see it. https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/27327.Laura_Torres)

Laura has since gotten another higher degree, is a grandmother (and expecting another grandbaby), and has made a name for herself in the world of writing for teachers.

She is, I think, the mother of making time, and making time work for her. Or she works with time.

So.

Do you sit around waiting for lots of FREE time?

Or do you write in the moments at the doctor, at stoplights, while dinner simmers?

What can you do in 15 minutes a day?

I’d like to set up a challenge for us (those who want to play), for these last days of May. 15 minutes each day. That’s all we ask.

What can you do with that?

What does it grow into?

Does the 15 minutes become 30? The 30 minutes become an hour?

Are there hard scenes you work to, work through?

Can you tackle the scary stuff easier when it’s in chunks?

I’ll try to remember to chime in at the end of each day, ask a question or two (except on Sunday. I won’t check in then. That’s my day off from writing. Don’t tell Stephen King.).

There are nine days left.

405 minutes.

What will you accomplish?

 

Freaky Friday

An Assortment of Topics

 

A writing challenge– There’s a Nudist Camp in CA that’s been accused of stealing water.

I don’t know about you, but I can see (no pun intended), all kinds of ways one could write a story with this idea in mind.

So why not?

Write a 500 word opening of a mid grade or YA novel. We’d love to see what you come up with.

 

Just finished Fiona Wood‘s YA called Six Impossible Things. LOVED it. I actually laughed out loud several times. That’s hard to do with me. What’s the best YA or MG you’ve read this summer–not including the one you’re working on? And that should becoming the best. FYI–I participated with Fiona and Marie Marquardt (Dream Things True–haven’t read it yet. Hope to soon.) yesterday on a panel for SLJ. We spoke about romance in YA. Those women are smart.

 

Ooops, be careful PW Daily. Can’t be good to spell Newbery wrong!
“Newberry Medalist Katherine Applegate’s new novel ‘Crenshaw’ features a fifth grader whose  . . . .”

 

School starts soon. I’ve got till the 31 to do whatever I want (as long as I do it here at home). I’m going to organize and write and clean and hang out with my girls. What would you do? Really. I want some ideas.