Zoe Carmina's Blog: Zoe Jane Carmina, page 26

#EditingConfessions

I’ve been editing and rewriting my novel lately, and it has been really painful for me. I am a native speaker of American English, and yet, I still struggle mightily when I write and finish an entire book and someone else comes along and tells me my writing needs so much work. I am an underwriter, so most of my struggle comes in the form of telling things that should be shown, and in not describing characters and the setting enough.

In this post, I just wanted to go over some of the things th...

How to Find Time to Write When You Still Have a Day Job

If you’ve been along to the blog by now, you’ll probably know that I have a full-time day job that I do in addition to my writing, because I simply can’t afford to stay at home all day. I wish. 

When I was first starting out, I would read all these respected authors and their blogs would all say, “Write Every Day.” This has been a mantra that has been repeated so many times that it’s almost a cliche’ by now. I would look at how many pages these authors said they would turn out, how many words...

My Own Pomodoro Technique that Works [Pomodoro Series: Part Two]

Last time I talked about the Pomodoro technique and why it utterly failed for me.

If you missed the post, go check it out. No seriously. Go.

In the briefest recap ever, I loved the idea of Pomodoro and kept attempting it over and over without success, then I assessed why I kept failing so hard at this and a new idea was born.

Here is what I now do on the weekdays when I work at my full-time job.

When I get to work, I open up shop, because customers come first. There are a number of small item...

Why the Pomodoro Technique Didn’t Work for Me [Pomodoro Series: Part One]

Everyone’s heard of the Pomodoro Technique by now, right? RIGHT?

I wanted to continue our discussion on using our time wisely, and I wanted to talk a little bit about the Pomodoro Technique because it is an important tool for task management big and small.

I have to tell you that the moment I heard of this, I immediately loved the idea and could see the many applications of it. For some reason, I kept coming back to it over and over again but could never make it work.

What is the Pomodoro Tec...

Prioritize Your To-Do List

Get It Done

Rocks-Pebbles-Sand Approach

The more internet searches I do, the more I realize that there are a whole lot of ways that people work out their task lists. One of the most simple and most effective is the to-do list. Making a to-do list works for a lot of people, because not only can you see everything that needs to get done, but you can also add in extra tasks easily, and you feel super accomplished to mark a bunch of things off your list.

Sometimes, a to-do list can feel totally o...

The Formula for Writing a Best-Selling Novel

There is a formula for writing novels. Many of them, in fact. You can look up tons of them on the internet. One that particularly comes to mind is the “Hero’s Journey.” In 12 easy steps, we see the normal person gets thrown into an alternate reality, struggles and must cope with this new state of reality, and then after many ups and downs, finally overcomes the problems with the new reality and triumphs to become a hero.

Academia especially enjoys this idea of writing using a formula. We writ...

How to Build a Realistic Daily Writing Goal

Let’s talk about making daily writing goals. I think that everyone tries to make daily writing goals of some sort, but it’s not often that I find somebody who actually keeps them. Starting a new habit is extremely difficult, and keeping that habit is even harder. So today I want to talk about making a realistic daily writing goal that you are able to keep.

First let me explain that most writing goals start off either way too optimistic, or way too pessimistic. Everyone wants to write every da...

Five Word Count Killers (and How to Avoid Them)

Whenever you go to author blogs or hear interviews from your favorite author, the number one piece of advice is always to write every day. While it is good in theory, for an Indie Author, it doesn’t always work that way. Starting a writing habit is extremely difficult. Life so easily gets in the way. So here are the 5 worst word count killers, and how to avoid them.

The Problem: Writer’s Block

To tell you the honest truth, I’m not convinced that Writer’s Block is actually a real thing. It...

One Solid Method I Use to Overcome Writer’s Block

I find I deal with writer’s block in the same way I deal with a tough boss in a video game. Sometimes, when the same guy has been kicking my butt over and over again, no matter what I do, or how many level grinding sessions I’ve done, I have to just save my game and walk away.

In the same way, I find that I can be writing a passage smoothly, words flowing effortlessly from my hands when all of a sudden, something shifts. Someone might ask me a question, breaking my train of thought, or I migh...

2017 Q4 Goals Recap and 2018 Q1 New Goals

I started making quarterly writing goals in 2017. When I first began this adventure, I most certainly did not think that it was going to be much of an improvement over whatever yearly goals I was making before. It couldn’t be any worse though, so I gave it a try and it has made a huge impact on my writing career.
I started a quarterly goal planning schedule as opposed to a daily/weekly/monthly goal schedule for quite a few reasons. I am a list maker, and I like to have lists and cross things...