The last day of September has graced us with abundant sunshine, glorious warmth, and above all, it's Friday. Today I decided to assess my web presence, and by simply googling myself I see that my work is beginning to pay off. I can be found in a multitude of places, and I've begun creating great brand recognition by using the same terms and words in my posts and social media. Styles Writing Services is born, and she is flourishing...
So this week finds me revising and rather excited - a flurry of mad little butterflies floats through my gut - when I look over the story grid that I created for my novel. I have been reading "The Novel Writer's Tool Kit" by Bob Mayer, and in it he recommends creating a spread sheet with columns for page #, time, date, action, and who's in the scene. By doing this, I can see the novel spread out before me, and I can see that some chapters are absolutely choking my timing and pace. So off I go to rework, retool, and tidy up the prose, bringing live action--showing not telling--and the excitement that flows through me at the progress is electrifying.

"Butt in seat, fingers on keyboard." This is the advice to aspiring writers. I have a gazillion ideas streaming through my head, all articles and books and characters and scenes, and I cannot wrangle ONE MINUTE out of the clock to wrestle them to the page. At 8:30, after showers and stories and dinner and cleaning up after my child care, I fall to the couch and usually am fast asleep on Josh's lap within an hour. So how do I make this happen? By minimizing my goals. I have made a vow to myself that each day I will write one page or edit one page. And while it may be a few hundred words in a book that currently is 457 pages long, I know that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. But it sure would be nice if the literary fairies would call up and say "We have a 20 hour per week job for you that pays $50k a year." Anyone know a good fairy