Michele Venne's Blog, page 3

A Changing Perspective

I mentioned before that it took over two years for me to change my mind set about my author career going forward. I don’t regret the time and introspection it took to arrive where I am now. I feel a freedom I didn’t have the first 15 years of my writing career. And with that freedom, I see opportunities. Because of that freedom, I can choose which opportunities I want. This different mind set has…

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On to the Next

In this month’s newsletter to my subscribers, I wrote about May being a time of transition. As the days march to the end of this particular month, other little transitions are happening. The big one I mentioned in my newsletter was the shift from a lot of clients to a few clients. This leaves me more time for writing. The transition back to more clients and less time for writing happens in August.

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Editing

This is the stage I’m on with The Lost Gift. Editing, rewriting, tweaking all point to adjusting my words on the page to make the story better. I’ve read recently that the first draft is for the writer. All the editing makes the manuscript ready for the reader. One advantage to hand writing my first drafts is that it keeps me from editing on the screen. This lets the story flow… as long as I keep…

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The Why of Creative Acts

It’s important for artists have a why. Why do they create? This answer—it can more than one and it often changes over time—acts as a compass to guide the creator. My own why has changed. And for a time when I was floundering with my writing, it circled around to, at least partly, that I’d lost my why. Creativity, like everything in life, ebbs and flows. It’s tough to ride the ebbs.

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The Next Step

I finished The Lost Gift! As the story wound down on Wednesday, I kept writing. The main characters, after surviving a plane crash and a kidnapping, needed to be at their family’s home for Christmas. I kept writing. The hero needed to propose to the heroine, even though they’d been engaged five years before. I finally put the pen down. Like other bits of the story, I’ll need to edit and tweak the…

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Changes

Last week, I stretched my 3-day writing streak to 5 days. Same with this week. What is a 2-week streak called? Since my words with this holiday novella flowed, if in a meandering way, I just kept writing. Two days ago, I decided that if I didn’t get to the climax, whatever that was, this novella would become a novel, and not an exciting one. I had a chat with the muse and jotted down 4 details to…

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Habits

Counting today, I finally have a writing streak longer than 3 days! Yay! Because I hand write my first drafts, I’m unsure of my word count. I already know I’ll need to do some rewriting during the editing phase. Focusing on the relationship between the main characters and the reason for the plane crash had me forgetting the “holiday” part of this novella. It’s set in winter, there’s a snow storm…

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Grateful for the Easy

We’ve all had times where one or more parts of life aren’t going how we hoped or planned. If we pay attention, it makes the days when things turn out positively a time to be grateful. A yoga teacher told me, “Nothing is revealed, except in contrast.” We only know what light is because we’ve seen the dark. We know heat because we’ve felt the cold. We appreciate honesty because we’ve heard lies.

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Part of the Process

I’ve been thinking about my writing process this week. After working on my mind set the last couple of years, I’ve come to a place where I enjoy my creative process again. I intend to write each day. When I do, whether it’s a page or several, I feel good about getting some words down. I’m not pressured to meet a deadline. I find writing entertaining, and it boosts my mood to know I’ve made…

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Consistency

If we want to create a habit or make an improvement, consistency is important. This isn’t a groundbreaking idea. It is something that is subject to interference, such as distraction and procrastination. What makes something consistent? How many days or hours or weeks in a row do we do or say something for it to be considered consistent? I’ve written pages in The Lost Gift, the holiday novella I…

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