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While I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo NINE times, over the past couple years I’ve decided it’s no longer useful for me. Well. Once again, my publishing schedule has led me to start writing a new book in November, so it seems silly to not at least attempt the international month-long challenge of writing a book in thirty days.
The past few years have felt like a roller coaster that keeps going faster and faster until there’s no way to climb off, I just have to hold on tight and hope I’m not flung into the ether, never to be seen again. (Although some days, that seemed like a nice alternative.) Some things were within my control, others were not, but all of them culminated this summer and I’m really really glad to have it all behind me. I’ve alternated between feeling like I’m failing at everything, to not caring that I’m failing at everything, to wishing I could just press pause on life and catch my breath.
Tracy Lawson’s passion for storytelling led her first into the world of dance and educational theater. In a career that has spanned nearly three decades, she has been a dance teacher, a studio owner, and to date has choreographed thirty-two musicals for middle- and high school students. When faced with a mid-life career change spurred by a cross-country move for her husband’s job, Tracy adopted the motto, ‘have laptop, will travel.’ Within a few years, she had achieved a lifelong goal and published her first book, based on the 1838 travel journal of her great-great-great grandfather.
A series of post-apocalyptic novels aimed at young adults and a companion volume to her first nonfiction book followed. Currently Tracy has tapped into another family story for her debut historical fiction. While her body of work may seem varied, the common thread that connects all her books is her characters’ pursuit of individual liberty.
Over the weekend, I sold books at my first in-person event in almost two years. (#ThanksCovid) I’ve been fully vaccinated for almost two months, so I loaded my car with plenty of books and hand sanitizer, snacks for the long day, and the blurb for my newest book tripping through my head. Despite being out of practice telling people about my book, I was excited. Never mind the torrential rain forecasted for the weekend — I was going to SELL BOOKS!
Welcome to the Book Owl Word Search (BOWS)! To play, write down my secret word, then go to the next blog at the bottom of this post. Follow the chain through all the blog posts, collect the other authors’ secret words, then enter your answers on the official form to be entered to win all the books shown! There are two other colored word searches, so you can enter up to three contests!
Judy Corry is the USA Today Bestselling Author of YA and Contemporary Romance. She writes romance because she can’t get enough of the feeling of falling in love. She’s known for writing heart-pounding kisses, endearing characters, and hard-won happily ever afters. She lives in Southern Utah with the boy who took her to Prom, their four rambunctious children and a dog. She’s addicted to love stories, dark chocolate and notebooks.
One thing writers love more than actually writing is giving advice about writing (and then not following that advice) and the MOST IMPORTANT THING I’ve always heard is that after you finish a first draft, you must put it away.
The first step in setting goals is to figure out what you want to accomplish. You probably already have ideas knocking around in your head, so WRITE THEM DOWN. It doesn’t matter if these goals feel too lofty or aspirational or impossible. If it’s what you want, make it a goal. Want to learn to knit? Get it on paper. Got hankering to play the guitar? You know what to do. Need to lose the quaran-fifteen? Set down the Cheezits and add it to the list.
I’ve heard it said that people with high-functioning anxiety—like myself—did really well the first few months of the pandemic and shelter-at-home orders, but by the end of the summer, it all caught up to me (which I discussed a bit in my last post.) While a lot of it can be blamed on the constant, low-level stress that’s been a part of all of our lives, quite a bit of it is because of bad habits I’ve allowed myself to fall into. I know we’re supposed to be cutting ourselves some slack during all this, but we don’t know how much longer our lives will be in this altered state and I feel like my options are to either keep floundering or adjust to this new normal.
Writers’ block is as much a part of writing as actually writing, and the reasons for getting stuck could fill an entire book (eh, see what I did there?). For centuries writers have commiserated over the shared misery of being stuck, or not knowing what comes next and having no idea how to work themselves out of a proverbial corner.