Just head over to writingstreak.org and click on the registration tab (or click here) to register your username and e-mail address. You’ll receive a password to access the word count page tonight and you can start logging your word counts at writingstreak.org tomorrow. Don’t forget to join us on Facebook too!

Remember: The focus of a writing streak is not just words. Word counts are nice, but consistency and commitment are just as important. You will accumulate points based on how many days you’ve written, not just how many words. You can also earn bonuses for writing consistently.

(*) It’s not really your last chance. You can sign up any time before May 30th, but you’ll be missing out on some of the fun if you wait too long.

No Room for Writing?

Some days, between family, work, bills, and whatnot life is full of so much busy-ness there’s no more room for writing. But you want to write. You feel the itch to write. You yearn for it. Sound familiar?

At the end of the day, if I’m even awake enough to sit in front of the computer, I often feel like all of the creativity has been squeezed out of me and I’ve got nothing left for my own writing. My Inner Writer begs me to spend some time with her, to put her in front of the computer screen or even a blank piece of paper, but all too often, I turn away, putting her off yet again.

Join us for a #WritingStreak in May!

The idea behind a #WritingStreak is to commit to writing every day, even if it’s only a few notes about an idea, a snippet of dialog you overheard, or a snarky haiku about why you’re not writing more. By making this commitment, you’re telling your Inner Writer: “You’re important to me.” You may be surprised to see that your writerly life begins to flourish once you’ve committed to writing daily.

Join #WritingStreak to have fun with your committment. In addition to sharing your accomplishments with other writers on a #WritingStreak, you will receive awards for the words you log. You will be tallying your word counts on a shared spreadsheet, and earning points toward a variety of awards. A grand prize will be awarded to the writer who earns the most points: one free month of coaching (worth over $200) or comparable service.

Registration is easy, just sign up below with a username and your e-mail address. (Your e-mail address will never be shared with anybody else.) You’ll receive a password to access the page where you’ll tally your daily word counts. Then on May 1, start writing, start talling your words at writingstreak.org, and start earning awards for your progress.

Register below to join us for a #WritingStreak in May:

Start a #WritingStreak at writingstreak.org

A Brief History

My first con ever was Comic-Con in San Diego, CA. O.o Way too much walking. Waay too much noise. Waaay too many people. My feet felt like ground beef at the end of the day, and the crowds were completely overwhelming. But I also discovered the art show where I kept thinking, “I could do this!” Then I discovered panels. That’s when I fell in love. I only sat in on one, but after that one panel, I knew I wanted more.

Second con: World Fantasy in Madison, WI. o.O At Comic-Con, I had my husband with me, so I could loop back around and find him any time I felt overwhelmed or tired. At World Fantasy, I was alone. I actually hid in the bathroom and cried at one point because I was so overwhelmed. Big Crowds + Me Alone = Quivery Jell-O Mess.

Third con: WisCon, also in Madison. I fell back in love with cons, but still struggled with overwhelm, just on a lesser scale. Every year has gotten a little easier as I pick up new tricks for dealing with the crowds and meet new people to add to my list of Friendly Faces.

OddCon 2012

I’ve gone to five WisCons since we moved to Wisconosin, so OddCon isn’t literally my fourth con, but it is the fourth different con I’ve attended. There is a 1000-person cap at WisCon. So there’s a lot of people there (and a LOT of programming), but it’s not as insane as World Fantasy or Comic-Con. I don’t know the exact count, but I heard it estimated that there are about 250 people at OddCon. This seems to be my comfort zone. There were enough people there to make it exciting and fun, but not so many to make it overwhelming for me. Plus, many of the people there were locals, so I got to make some friends who I might actually see more than once a year now.

With five years of WisCon experience under my belt, I decided to go ahead and sign up for panels when I saw an announcement go out looking for panelists. I was assigned to four of them: The Price Is Right: Or Is It?, a panel on e-book pricing; Amazon: Evil Empire or an Author/Reader’s Best Friend; Writing Critique, a panel where writers could bring their unpublished work to be read and critiqued anonymously; and Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy. The first two panels were scheduled for Friday, the last two for Sunday; so I had Saturday pretty much free to do whatever I wanted.

Social Notes

Right away, I met Fred Schepartz who I shared two panels with, along with Lori Devoti who I know from WisCon. Fred was friendly and funny and even when I found out – Surprise! I was the moderator of my first panel! — I felt right at home and comfortable. Later, I also met Jim Leinweber who was moderating one of my Sunday panels, and we had dinner at the Indian restaurant around the corner before Opening Ceremonies. Also ran into Alex Bledsoe, another familiar friendly face from WisCon. But somewhere in all the excitement, something unusual happened.

I turned into Chatty Cathy.

Benjamin Billman, Joe Alfano (who I knew as @Zombie_Joe from Twitter and NaNoWriMo), and Scott Steele cornered me after one of my panels. At first, I was literally cornered, and felt uncomfortable, but then it was like a switch was turned on in my brain. Usually this switch is set to OFF. My mouth is clamped shut, I don’t know what to say, I’m figuratively and sometimes literally wringing my hands with anxiety, I’m afraid that anything I want to say will sound dumb. Someone reached in though, and flipped that switch to ON. I could speak, I didn’t feel like I had to struggle for what to say, whatever anxiety I felt was minimal, I wasn’t afraid of sounding dumb. Oh, I’m sure I said at least one or two things that sounded stupid, but I wasn’t afraid to say them. It was … honestly, kind of amazing.

Next thing I knew, I was talking to everybody. I’d see people passing in the halls and stop them briefly to comment on something I admired about what they were wearing or what they said. I was reaching out to people who looked as uncomfortable as I usually feel, asking them about their experience and getting them to talk about something they enjoyed talking about.

The Panels

For the most part, the panels I attended and the panels I was on were all fun, animated, and informative. I have some notes written down but haven’t typed them up yet. There was only one panel I was on that I felt I didn’t contribute to very well, but that was because I was exhausted and my brain simply wasn’t functioning. After going to sleep late Saturday night, I was woken up multiple times by an insistent and obnoxious cat Sunday morning, and I learned that those Five Hour Energy drinks don’t really help with sleep deprivation.

In addition to my own panels, I also attended Combat in SF&F Literature with Alex Bledsoe moderating; The Art of Collaboration with Jim Frenkel moderating Guests of Honor Steven Barnes and Larry Niven, as well as Tananarive Due and Sarah Monette (who I recognize from WisCon and SFF/OWW); and The Muse Feels No Respect, moderated by F.J. Bergmann. I also met John Wardale, another local who I recognize from WisCon. He did some hair braiding in the ConSuite at OddCon, just like he does at the Gathering, and he taught me a couple new techniques which I promptly tried at home on my youngest daughter’s hair.

Highlight of my Con

For me, the highlight of OddCon came Saturday morning. Guest of Honor Steven Barnes was offering two morning classes on T’ai Chi. I was scheduled in a panel against the Sunday morning class, but I was determined to make sure I was there for the Saturday morning class at 10 am. Afraid that the class would fill up quickly, I decided to get there early and stake out a spot where I could easily see and hear Steven Barnes. I woke up at 5 and finally got tired of waiting around the house around 8. Around 9:30 I helped Paul Wiesner, Scott, and Joe set up the room for the class.

The T’ai Chi class itself was wonderful. I was the only person there actually taking notes, but that’s what I do. I take notes. I even carry two notebooks with me in my purse just for this purpose. I know that my brain can be random about what it chooses to remember, so I make sure that I write down everything I want to remember.

I should back up a bit. I’ve been following Steven Barnes ever since I read an interview with him in Locus in March 2003. Some things he said resonated with me in such a way that although I’ve forgotten the exact words, I’ve never forgotten the impact. Attending his T’ai Chi class reignited that spark within me. I approached him afterwards, and we ended up chatting  for nearly an hour. I missed amost all of the Steampunk panel I very much wanted to attend, because what we were talking about was so much more important to me than the panel.  I’ll write more about that later, but it was worth missing the panel.

Looking Forward

I always love WisCon, even though I still feel a bit overwhelmed at it, but I’m looking forward to it more than usual this year. With more friendly faces I’ll know from OddCon, in addition to the few people I already know from WisCon, I’m hoping that some of that Chatty Cathy energy will carry over to next month so that I’ll be able to say: Social anxiety? Me? No, you must be thinking of somebody else.

In March, I started tracking not  just the words I write, but also the words I work with. Which proved to be enlightening. For a while now, I’ve had a theory about why I don’t write as much as I’d like to. My spreadsheet finally proved it.

Eighty percent of the words I deal with every day are somebody else’s. Only three percent were my own creative writing. Three lousy percent.

Every morning (at least most mornings), the first thing I do after waking is write in my journal. I’ve learned that keeping a journal is vital to my mental and emotional health. It’s where I blow off steam, where I process things, where I gripe and complain, where I indulge my insecurity and my ego, and where I take some time to take care of myself.

After my journal, it’s rush rush rush. Get the kids fed. Get lunches made. Prep dinner. Go to work. Go to meetings. Go to doctor’s appointments. Read other people’s words. By the end of the day, I have nothing left for my own words.

So for April, I’m trying something new. I’m waking up an hour earlier. Writing in my journal still comes first, but immediately after that, it’s now time for my words.

In the two days since I put this into practice, I have already increased my personal word count by 500 words over my personal word count for the entire month of March.

My overall word count is still dominated by other people’s words. That may never change, because that’s what I do for a living. I used to wrangle data from nine to five and work with words in my free time. Now I wrangle words from nine to five and work with data in my free time. But now I’m getting my own words in first.

Have you learned anything from tracking your words? How is your #writingstreak going? If you haven’t already, join us on Facebook or Twitter and share your successes with your own #writingstreak.

Quick and dirty basics: Use i.e. as “that is” and e.g. as “for example.” I learned this when I started working as a legal editor in 1996 and still rely on remembering “that is” and “for example” whenever I need to think about it which one to use.

Style notes:  Bluebook style (which is used in legal writing and editing) dictates italics, although Chicago Manual of Style states it should be set in roman type since they are common Latin abbreviations.

Every now and then, though, I find a great little gem in one of those feeds, newsletters, or other freebies. Recently, I found one in Internet Marketing for Smart People from Copyblogger Media that applies to writing.

The Secret Lies in 30 Minutes

Set [a] timer for 30 minutes and punch the “start” button. DO NOT get up from your desk until 30 minutes passes and the buzzer goes off.  Here’s the trick: don’t try to write. Don’t stress about it. After a few minutes of sitting there, staring at the page, your cat, out the window, whatever, you’ll get so bored that you’ll begin to write. When the 30 minutes is up, go do something else for a while. Then, come back for another 30 minutes of not trying.

You Can Write Anything for 30 Minutes

If you’re a busy mom, you’ve probably heard of FLYlady and her saying, “You can do anything for 15 minutes.” Well, you can WRITE anything for 30 minutes, too. Write anything. Stream of consciousness. Grouse about why you feel stuck. Write about ways you could get un-stuck. Brainstorm. Eavesdrop on conversations going on around you and write them down to get a feel for realistic dialog. Write Dada poetry. Write that scene that keeps bugging you. Experiment with different points of view.  Take the pressure off and don’t stress about it. Just don’t get up from your seat (or fire up your browser) for 30 minutes.

Letting Go of a Good Thing

Recently, I’ve been thinking about the #JustWrite challenge. Particularly, I’ve been thinking about discontinuing it. I’ve flip-flopped on this a lot in my mind. I have stubbornly refused to give up on the #JustWrite challenge for months. (If you look up stubborn in the dictionary, you’ll find a picture of me.) I’ve refined the challenges. I’ve told myself I just need to be patient. Then it hit me.

While all of these things are true and good—determination is integral to success,  I think the most recent changes I made are good ones, patience pays off, yadda yadda—I realized that for me, the payoff is not worth the amount of effort I’ve been putting into it anymore.

It’s time for me to let go of a good thing. The amount of time and effort I need to put into promoting the #JustWrite challenge simply isn’t worth it to me anymore. After this month’s challenge ends, the #JustWrite challenge will end. For good? Well, that depends on your definition of good. It’s good for me because then I can focus my time and attention on other things. But if you think “forever” when you hear “for good,” then I don’t know. I won’t close that door forever. But for now, yes.

Sometimes we need to let go of a good thing in order to make room in our lives for better things.

Other Changes

There are some other changes coming to my blog soon, most of which are behind-the-scenes sort of stuff that you probably don’t care about. But one of them is something I would like your opinion on.

I have never had a title for my blog. I’ve been calling it kimberlycreates by default for a while. Even that name came around by a sort of accident—Twitter’s character restrictions would  not let me use kimberlycreative for my Twitter username, so I took kimberlycreates instead.

Recently, one of my writer friends (and past winner of the #JustWrite challenge), Caine mistakenly called my blog Fostering Creativity. I didn’t correct him because I could see how easy it was to make that mistake. But I also didn’t correct him because I kind of liked the idea of calling it that. I’ve been turning the idea over and over in my head ever since.

What Do You Think?

Let me know what you think of using Fostering Creativity as my blog’s title. Love it? Hate it? Meh? Got a better idea? Drop me a note in the comments below. If you don’t have a strong opinion one way or the other, let me know that too.  Just by leaving a comment, you’ll be entered to win a free in-depth critique (up to 5,000 words), so let me know!

What an eye-opening experience! This is my first novel (and my first synopsis) and it’s still very much a work in progress, but writing my synopsis helped me immensely.

How Writing my Synopsis Strengthened my Novel

Content. Writing my synopsis helped me realize I was trying to cram too much into one book—and what parts of the story most needed to be told. There are some scenes I’ve written which will likely be cut from the book now because I’ve realized that they don’t advance the plot or add enough to the story to make them viable scenes. Writing them was an important part of my process, but they aren’t an important part of the book.

Structure. I’m a pantser—I do use some pre-writing in my process, but I don’t focus much on structure. Instead, I focus on relationships and key scenes that I think need to be in the story. When Alice gave us our assignment, she reminded us that we need to make sure our synopsis shows our novel’s turning points, so I decided to focus my synopsis on those turning points. Identifying those turning points made me more aware of the novel’s structure.

Weaknesses.  Your protagonist should always have something big at stake; if she doesn’t, your reader won’t care. Pinpointing the turning points in my novel  made me more aware of the weak spots in my plot, where my protagonist needs to have more at stake.

Timeline. My novel follows the stories of a mother and her two daughters. Although the three of them have their own story arcs, they all feed into the overall storyline of the book. In the writing process, I have been focusing on each individual story though. Writing my synopsis made me more aware of how each character’s story fits together in the timeline.

How to Write Your Synopsis

If you’re feeling stuck—particularly if you’re a pantser, like me—you might find writing a synopsis of your story to be helpful. Just like your book, your synopsis might take more than one draft to complete. Don’t be discouraged!

Theme. I started my synopsis with a brief blurb describing the overall story and theme of my book.  Think of the brief paragraph or two you read on a book’s back cover. I used it in my synopsis as an introduction, but you could opt instead to put this in your cover letter when you send your synopsis. This will also be useful for your query letters.

Get pumped. Marg Gilks wrote an excellent article on writing your synopsis at Writing-World.com, where she devotes an entire section to writing with enthusiasm.  She suggests imagining that you’re writing jacket copy for your novel, or describing a terrific movie you’ve just seen to a friend. You want your prospective agent or publisher to get excited about your book, and to want to read it, so show some enthusiasm of your own. Be your own book’s cheerleader.

Outline. Start writing your synopsis first with a chapter-by-chapter outline. Write a very brief summary of each chapter (or, for a short story, each scene). This may be just right for you, but chances are you’re going to need to boil it down even further. Even if you don’t use the chapter outline in whole for your synopsis, this will be another useful too to have as an author.

Turning points. Once you have your outline, pick out the turning points in your story. These are the places where your protagonist must make a decision, and that decision changes the course of the story. At this point, you might realized that there are some weaknesses in your novel,  like I did. Don’t stop, and don’t give up. Keep working on your synopsis. Once you have the whole picture and see how everything fits together, then you can start to fine tune the weaker spots. Writing your synopsis will help you get to that Big Picture view.

Length. Marg Gilks suggests two to ten pages for your synopsis, but Nathan Bransford suggests a two or three page synopsis. For our homework assignment, we were told no more than three pages. When you’re sending out a synopsis, find out what your prospective agent or publisher wants to see. Don’t send a ten-page outline if they ask for no more than two pages. This is where your chapter outline comes in handy—if your prospective agent or publisher wants to see a longer synopsis, you can use your chapter outline as a jumping off point to tailor your synopsis for the person you’re sending it to. For your own purposes though, I suggest keeping it to no more than three pages. This will force you to distill your story down to its most vital pieces.

Spoilers. Don’t hold back in your synopsis. Tell the whole story, even the spoilers. Your prospective readers don’t want to know what the twists are, but your prospective agent or publisher will. Tell them everything in your synopsis.

Present. Write your entire synopsis in the present tense, even if your book is written in another tense.

Characters. When you first introduce a character, write his or her name in ALL CAPS.

Using Your Synopsis

I recommend writing your synopsis well before you’re ready to send your novel out to prospective agents or publishers. You might even want to write it in early stages of your writing your novel, or when you feel stuck.

You might find, like I did, that writing your synopsis is hard at first. Don’t be discouraged, because it’s also a great way to perfect your skills as a writer. You might also find, like I did, that writing your synopsis sheds too much light on your novel’s weak points. Once again, don’t be discouraged. Use it as a tool.

If you’ve identified your novel’s weak points, then you can fix them. Don’t give up at the first sign of difficulty. Use your synopsis as a tool to strengthen your novel instead.

Image via Wikipedia

I didn’t get as obsessive about my numbers this month as I did last month. Part of that is just because I simply don’t have the time. I did manage to write something almost every day though.  Even if it was “just” a journal entry.  The only day I didn’t write was February 12, which I kicked myself for the next day — but really, 28 out of 29 days? Not so bad. According to 750words.com, I wrote 26,210 words in the month of February. That doesn’t even include other word counts I post via Twitter and the Facebook page.

Permission to Count

Giving myself permission to see all of my writing as writing that counts has been helpful. Instead of looking at every day I don’t write fiction as a failure, I’ve been able to acknowledge that I accomplished something that is part of the creative process.

For me, journalling is integral to the creative process, so I’ve given myself permission to count my journal words (via 750words.com).  Pre-writing, or outlining, even though those words will likely never make it to print, is a major part of the writing process as well, so those count too. Just as stretching and strengthening my upper bodyhelps me as a runner, journalling and pre-writing helps me as a writer.

Focus on Success

What would happen if you expanded your idea of what creativity and the writing process includes? How would that change the way you feel about your progress? If you outline, do you count that as part of your process? If you spend time hashing an idea out in your head, does that count? What would happen if you focused on your successes, no matter how small, rather than your failures? How would that change the way you see yourself as a writer?