Writing By Laura

… published author. Hopefully I end 2018 closer to completing that sentence. This blog will hopefully help me to get there.

I know that January starts off for a lot of people with resolutions and the such. But after 38 years of not being successful with resolutions I’m tired of being Charlie Brown kicking the football only to have Lucy (or in this case my lack of self discipline) pull the football away at the last minute. So I’m not really doing a resolution or list of resolutions this year. I came up with a kind of ambitious plan instead so I could still run into the Charlie Brown and Lucy situation, unfortunately. Here’s hoping I don’t and I end 2018 closer to being able to complete the sentence: “I am a published author.”

My plan is to write a short story a month (hence #12monthsofstories.) The reason I think I can do it is because I’ve done and completed #NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is a little motivational thing that fellow amateur writers throughout the country do to try to write a “novel” (or at least the 50,000 word equivalent) in a month. It takes place every November. And there are online groups and local gatherings all with the idea of inspiring you to write. There is no prize for completing other than the prize of self accomplishment.

So with my #12monthsofstories I kind of want to do the same thing for myself. #NaNoWriMo gave me the confidence to write a novel. I’ve completed one novel with NaNoWriMo although I haven’t tried to have it published because it’s still not quite what I want it to be. I started another novel in 2017 for NaNoWriMo but am still working on it. I’m going to finish it, just obviously not in the NaNoWriMo parameters. I discovered that my hang ups as a writer used to be confidence and motivation/self discipline. NaNoWriMo has helped with the confidence and I’m hoping #12monthsofstories will help with the discipline.

I’m not super comfortable with putting the stories I produce on this blog or online (call me old fashioned) but I would like to document my journey writing this year on this blog. I think it will help keep me honest and motivated if I have people following along.

It’s kind of late in the month to start with this but I have a ton of stories started. It’s just picking one and finishing it. I’ll let you know how it goes. #January12monthsofstories #12monthsofstories