Cate Baylor's Blog, page 3

Participating in the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood Winter Writing Festival

Today commences the Third Annual Ruby Slippered Sisterhood Winter Writing Festival, a 50-day write-a-thon where each writer sets their own goals. That’s right. You’ve got 50 days to accomplish whatever writing goals you set for yourself. An added benefit is that you get all of the other Writing Festival participants as your cheerleaders.

The Festival element I’m really looking forward to is the Sprint. At the top and bottom of the hour, participants launch 20 minutes of all-out writing. Then we gather in the chat room for a 10 minute breather.

In 2012 I managed to complete NaNoWriMo (50,000 words in one month), but just by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin. By far, by leaps and bounds, my most enjoyable and productive NaNoWriMo time was when I sat with a buddy and we wrote together. That write-in wasn’t just about consuming absurd amounts of peppermint tea and carrot cake. Just being together for the same purpose gave me energy, focus, and accountability that I didn’t experience writing by myself.

Each participant defines the goals and activities that will earn daily points. The Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog has a wonderful post on getting your goals ready. My challenge right now is devoting appreciable chunks of time during the day. I’ve managed to squeeze snippets in here and there, but my primary goal for this will be sitting down for at least an hour at a time to do only writing. Not surfing. Not reading. Not forum posting. Not researching.

So, here are my point-earning goals:

Writing 500 words OR
Freewriting/brainstorming/editing for 1 hour OR
Doing 2 20-minute writing sprints

 

What is romance with gumption?

I strive for my characters to embody gumption, mainly because I also aspire to gumption.

noun, Informal.

initiative; aggressiveness; resourcefulness: With his gumption he’ll make a success of himself.
courage; spunk; guts: It takes gumption to quit a high-paying job.
common sense; shrewdness.

Courage. Spunk. Guts.

Yep, that’s my 2013 resolution!

 

 

Hello world!

Howdy! Welcome to my blog and web site. I’m thrilled to finally be here—it’s been in the works a long time. A lifetime, in fact. Why am I here? Because I am a writer.  Until now, I’ve kept that writing to myself. No more! I’ve finished my first novel and have more on the way. This site will be a chronicle of my writing life, and likely some of my personal life, too, since they often intertwine.

Thanks for stopping by!