Hey everyone! So I got this awesome tag #writerlife and set of questions from my friend Kelsey Macke and her awesome YouTube channel KelsNotChelsNotLive (see here!)
I don’t vlog (at least, not yet) so I thought I could still participate with my answers in a regular blog format. (Hope that’s okay, Kelsey!) Without further ado, here are the questions and my answers. Please feel free to write your own answers and share!
I’m here and ready to Celebrate the Small Things! If you are new to this blog hop, all you have to do is sign up on the linky below if you want to join! If you already have, then go around to each blog that signed up and congratulate or just say YAY to everyone and their accomplishments for this week! (Full instructions at our host Vikki’s post here!)
I’m here and ready to Celebrate the Small Things! If you are new to this blog hop, all you have to do is sign up on the linky below if you want to join! If you already have, then go around to each blog that signed up and congratulate or just say YAY to everyone and their accomplishments for this week! (Full instructions at our host Vikki’s post here!)
I’m here and ready to Celebrate the Small Things! If you are new to this blog hop, all you have to do is sign up on the linky below if you want to join! If you already have, then go around to each blog that signed up and congratulate or just say YAY to everyone and their accomplishments for this week! (Full instructions at our host Vikki’s post here!)
So I’ve kind of been a closeted writer for over a year now and I’m thinking it’s time to come out.
There are a lot of reasons why people don’t shout from the rooftops that they are a writer and I am no exception to that. People have expectations when they hear “writer” …the questions that always come are, “When will your book be published?” or “Will you be going on a book tour?” or “Are you writing the next Fifty Shades of Grey?”
UGH.
Writing is a long and tedious process as is the publishing industry. Nothing moves fast at all. Also, people think once you have this massive first draft in your hands then it should be on it’s way to sitting pretty on the book store shelves in no time. SO WRONG.
And don’t even get me started on when people ask me what my book is about.
Usually I sound something like, “Well there’s this guy and he feels guilty about this accident he was in…but then there’s this girl…and you know, well they don’t really get along at first and…” YEAH, it usually doesn’t end up sounding much like a story you’d want to read. But I swear, it’s way better than my lame explanation 🙂
However, even if I do suck at explaining my own stories and even if I do get bombarded with questions from others about when they can buy my book (at best it will be years from now, people), it’s not really an excuse anymore to hide. I have a finished book. IT IS COMPLETED. Yeah, I’m still editing it here and there based on feedback I get from early readers but it’s a whole story. I’m proud of it. I’m delighted at this accomplishment. And you know what, that’s not something I should take lightly or hide away. It’s something I should share.
Maybe it will be two years until you see my book on a shelf, maybe it will be ten years. Who knows – but I have to believe if I don’t give up, the dream will be accomplished. To start that dream off right, I have to be open and honest with those around me about what I am.
I’m a writer.
I’m here and ready to Celebrate the Small Things! If you are new to this blog hop, all you have to do is sign up on the linky below if you want to join! If you already have, then go around to each blog that signed up and congratulate or just say YAY to everyone and their accomplishments for this week! (Full instructions at our host Vikki’s post here!)
I will have a more serious post about this going up on The Writer Diaries in about a week but right now, I’m too tired for that. All I want to do is post what I said I was going to post when I finished the first draft of my novel. And that includes MERMAIDS and STRIPPERS.
This is how accomplished I feel, like a giant wave could surface behind me and make me look all majestic and hot while wearing a bikini made of sea shells.
And this one is just, well, I’m pretty sure it’s obvious. I think it captures my mood and excitement rather well. HAH!
Ugh, but I am tired after almost 12 hrs of editing and it is currently in my very capable CP hands to give me feedback, so there’s nothing more I can do for it now. Except shout: OMG I FINALLY FINISHED MY FIRST DRAFT OF MY FIRST NOVEL EVER!!! Okay, I’m done now I swear.
WWWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTT!!
I’m here and ready to Celebrate the Small Things! If you are new to this blog hop, all you have to do is sign up on the linky below if you want to join! If you already have, then go around to each blog that signed up and congratulate or just say YAY to everyone and their accomplishments for this week! (Full instructions at our host Vikki’s post here!)
So looking back at my New Year’s Resolution post from a year ago, I want to do things a little differently. Last year, I was really analytical with my resolutions and I don’t think that is the way to go with writing goals. Maybe it works for some people but it didn’t really work at all for me. I accomplished a few of the items but some I didn’t even touch.
This year is going to be different. I’ve already accomplished something that has been one of the biggest achievements for me YET. I completed a first draft of a novel. It is a REAL story. It might suck big time in it’s massive, unmanageable first draft format, but it is a story from start to finish. When I first started writing, I thought that would be easy, finishing a book. I thought what would be hard would be finding time to write the hundreds of ideas I have for books. No, sticking to a story and pouring your heart and soul into it is exhausting and emotionally draining and lots of hard work. LOTS. A TON. Way more than I expected. But guess what?
I love it. Continue reading
This year has been big for me in writing. I think it was the first full year that I really took my writing seriously and worked at it as often as time would allow. I also reached out beyond my own little writing cave to other writing craft opportunities. So for this post, I thought I would recap all the major happenings of my writing life and hope to top that in 2014!
In February of 2013, I was selected as a FREE participant in literary agent Mandy Hubbard’s class on Writing and Selling the Young Adult Novel. Wow, was that class an eye-opener for me. And I met sooo many talented writers there that I’m still in contact with today! It was a great way to kick start my year of writing, even though it led me to morph my WIP idea to something completely different, I think it turned out pretty well!
J.A. Ward Writes 
