Zoe Carmina's Blog: Zoe Jane Carmina, page 25

Who’s in Your Mentorship Tool Kit?

We’re talking today about your mentorship toolkit. Every writer should have one, so I want to get you thinking today about who is in yours.

That’s right. I said WHO. We aren’t talking today about skills, products, or services. We are talking about the people in your life and in your career as an author that have made an impact on you in a meaningful way.

Mentors

First on the list for your mentorship toolkit are the people you look to as mentors. You may not know them personally, but they are...

Snowflake Method – Case Study

Hello, lovelies. Today I’m posting something extra special! Last week we talked about the Snowflake Method, what it is, and how to use it. This week, I want to give you an in-depth view of the Snowflake Method in action, and to demonstrate, I am using a book I’m currently in the process of publishing, my very own Urban Fantasy novel, Utopian Melody.

A few notes before we get into this week’s post. This is for an earlier version of this novel, and some of the plots have changed, but the premis...

Snowflake Method – Plot Theory

Welcome back to the blog. This time around I’m talking about plot methods. I’ve talked about plot and wHY you NEEd it before, and my question when I have someone convince me to try something is always, okay, but HOW?

I’m starting a new series on the different types of plot structures that I’ve come across and especially ones that I’ve personally used. Today, we’re diving into the Snowflake Method.

I came across this plotting method about three years ago now, because I was searching for someth...

Progress Report

Well hello, lovelies. Since we are in the new year, I thought I should give you all a progress report for all my current Works in Progress.  This will be an interesting exercise in humility for myself, I am sure, and I think you can benefit from my transparency. I’m going to do this by project, because that seems the simplest to me. So let’s dive in.

First, let me say that I am not working on anything less than a full-length novel. I have loads of ideas that are in exactly no shape towards be...

2019 Focus Word: Hustle

Hi all! For those of you who follow me on social media, you’ll know that I chose my focus word for the year. For 2019, the word I’m using is HUSTLE. 

I learned to do this in 2018 by listening to the That Smart Hustle podcast by Kristen Martin. I THINK it’s Episode #23 if you’re interested. I found it on Google Podcasts, but I know you can also find it on itunes and soundcloud.

Essentially, the idea is that you choose one word, phrase, or song, and use that to focus your intentions throughout...

2019 Q1 Goals

Hello and welcome to the new year, lovelies! I am so excited to start 2019 because I have so many projects going on, and I just can’t wait to start tackling them so I can bring them all out to you.

2019 Q1 Goals

I have a number of goals that I have set for the first quarter of 2019. I like making quarterly goals that basically have no deadlines except to get them done in the next three months. I find that when I make goals without deadlines, I am much more likely to accomplish them, because I...

Three Steps to Complete Unfinished Projects

If you are like me, you probably have way too many partial projects that you have been trying to juggle for the longest time. You have all these great ideas for books you haven’t written. Or maybe you did start them, but they’re only partially complete. You have ideas you probably don’t even remember writing down which are actually pretty good, and hey, you should write them one day. Having a lot of story ideas is great… until it isn’t.

What we are talking about today is combating overwhelm i...

First Draft Deceptions

I get it. Words are deceptively hard. There’s so much that no one tells you about getting that first draft written, and trying to learn the craft while writing a novel is soul-crushing. I’ve been writing for over ten years, and during that time, I’ve come across a lot of different people who are ultimately failing themselves and their stories for different reasons.

I want to address some of the more common writer-types that I’ve come across, because getting the first draft out of you is the h...

Three Tips to Prepare for NaNoWriMo Like a Boss

For those of you just tuning in, November is the National Novel Writing Month, and if you were thinking about participating in NaNoWriMo this year, I have some pretty good tips on how to prepare yourself for success.

I have no small amount of knowledge of NaNoWriMo, because for about three years, I participated in every November NaNoWriMo and every Camp NaNoWriMo available. I even became a Municipal Liason. After 10 sessions, I have won some and I have lost some, so I am very well-rounded in...

How to Estimate How Long a Project Will Take

It’s #Preptober for #NaNoWriMo and I wanted to talk to you a little bit about project management. I think it’s important in light of the National Novel Writing Month that we all know how to objectively plan how to work on our projects every day. Once you figure out a few key things about your writing habits and capabilities, planning out how long it will take you to complete any given project will be only too easy.

= STEP ONE =

Figure out how many words or pages you can write, or pages or cha...