Random Writing News

Thought I'd post some updates on my writing life, since it's been very busy lately:

• My motivation meter has gone up a great deal these last few weeks. I’ve created five new picture book manuscripts, four more poems, and an essay to submit to a magazine all in the last month or so. It’s been so fun to create completed projects! I’ve also been reading a lot of great writing websites and have been picking up so many good tidbits. (Let me know if you want to know which sites have been particularly helpful). 

•  A few of the said “learned tips”: if your goal is to publish a book, it’s good to have some credentials under your belt for when you start querying. Try getting published in any way that you can - by a magazine, as a part of an anthology, or by a smaller publishing house. Try entering your works in a local or national writing contest. Take some writing classes, attend online webinars and go to writing conferences. All these little awards, classes, and publications show agents that you are a serious writer and they will look good on your query letters.   

• So, here’s me following my own advice: I’m going to start submitting more of my works to children’s magazines. I’ve submitted a couple already, but hope to make this a new trend! I have found a couple smaller publishing houses that look like a good fit for a couple of my manuscripts, so I plan to submit soon! I’ve been entering several different writing contests lately and am always on the lookout for more ways of getting my work out there (a great way to hear about contests is joining an online writing group for your area – they usually list legit contests on their website). I’ve been watching webinars and listening to podcasts at writersdigest.com and SCBWI, and am really excited to participate in a local writing conference hosted by my state-wide writing group this summer.

• One of my new year’s resolutions is to stay off the computer while my kids are awake. So far, it’s been a great change and I feel like it’s helping me to be a better mom and writer by focusing on one thing at a time. (You'd be surprised how much you can do in just a couple hours of no distractions). Hope I can keep it up all year long!

Here’s to an exciting new year of creating lots and reaching goals!