Motivation and Opportunities

I’ve been trying to get a bit more organised over the weekend, sorting out the pieces of writing to finish, checking which short stories can be sent out and which need reworking. Then there are a few novellas I want to tackle. But, inevitably, I get sidetracked almost immediately by new opportunities and competitions. So instead of getting on with the last part of my current novel, I ended up writing a new children’s story! Must say it was fun to write and only needed to be a maximum of 800 words.

So today, I’m again planning to get those last couple of chapters of the WIP finished. Then I’ll be able to go back through it all and read the complete novel to find out where the cracks are. I love the redrafting part, but I don’t know why it’s taking me so long to get to the end of writing this book. Does anyone else have a problem getting finished?

I must recommend the website of someone I recently came across online: Jeff Goins. He is so motivational, and I received his great little free booklet ‘The Writer’s Manifesto’. Simple and effective words - about just writing. You’ll get a free copy if you join his mailing list. He has also recently published an ebook ‘You are a Writer (so start acting like one)’, and I intend getting that very soon from Amazon.

And in case you're in need of some more motivation, Mslexia is currently running two competitions:

Women’s Poetry Competition – any length or style. Closing date is 18th June 2012.

Children’s Novel Competition – for unpublished women novelists. The novel must be at least 30,000 words, aimed at children old enough to read by themselves, or young adults. Closing date is 10th September 2012.

Full details are on the Mslexia website, which is worth a visit for all the other information it contains.

Happy writing!
Rosemary