Top 5 Writer's Resources!

Hey everyone, and happy Friday! Ever needed some good writer's advice? Ever needed something to finally get you into the groove of writing? Well, I'm your gal tonight then, because guess what post I just wrote! That's right, here I have my top 5 writer's resources. Let's get right into it:

1. National Novel Writing Month

National Novel Writing Month (Or, more popularly, and briefly, NaNoWriMo) is an online program by which you can challenge yourself to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. You can post a synopsis of your novel, update your word count on the site, and talk to fellow writers! This is an incredibly fun endeavor, and how I completed my first full-length novel (rather than the novellas of my youth). Even if you're a more seasoned writer with a writing routine already, it's exciting to participate--there's a sort of motivation that comes with knowing you're working with others towards a common goal.

2. She's Novel

I stumbled upon She's Novel a couple weeks ago, and have been addicted to it ever since! Aesthetically pleasing and infinitely encouraging, I find Kristen Kieffer to be funny and inspirational. This came along at the perfect time for me, as I just started working very hard on creating a writing routine (I'm writing a post involving that very soon), and I needed a little jump start for my motivation. She also has guest writers from time to time. I especially love her articles How I Learned to Write Every Day and My Two Step Method for Finishing Your Novel.

3. Writer's Digest

A writer's advice classic, I often spend time trolling through the Writer's Digest archives, looking for any articles that may appeal to me--I often get the magazine for Christmas. Insightful and interesting, Writer's Digest has a lot of different content, so if you need advice on a particular writing issue, you're sure to find the help you need here.

4. 750words

I used to use 750words a lot when I was younger, and this is another great site for young writers or people just starting out with a writing routine. 750words is where you can write 750 words a day--it tracks your progress and productivity, and saves your work.

5. Written? Kitten + Write or Die!

So, do you work better with a carrot or a stick? Either way, I've got you covered! Written? Kitten! is a site where you are rewarded with a picture of a kitten per number of words that you write, which you can adjust at your leisure. Meanwhile, Write or Die threatens you--if you don't keep writing continuously until you reach your goal, the site gets consistently more irritating until you continue to write. Write or Die is great because it really forces you to focus, or else. Written? Kitten! is great because, I mean, cats.

I hope you like this list! Please let me know if you check out any of these, I'd love to hear what you think of them.

Enjoy,
Kekai

How to Keep Motivated and Inspired

Hi everyone! Sorry for the lack of blog posts as of late, totally my fault, but the first month of school has been super hectic. It's not like a ton of people are reading this, but I feel bad anyway. :P I'll try my best to update once a week; I have a long list of posts that I can make now, too!

Nonetheless, I thought that today I might talk about something that I know is difficult for all of us: keeping motivated and inspired. I think one of the hardest things while writing is coming up with ideas, sticking to an idea, and actually putting your idea into action. So, what do? I've separated my list into those three sections.

Coming Up with Ideas

1. Dedicate a Pinterest board or a Tumblr tag to writing inspiration, and post anything that could possibly inspire you there. When you're hankering to write something but don't know what to write, check there.

2. Listen to a song you enjoy, or a song you've never heard before, and try to come up with a story related to it.

3. Create an "inspirational" playlist, and listen to it while you brainstorm ideas.

4. Just START WRITING, sometimes the best way to get ideas is just to begin the process--then at least you KNOW your brain is in a writing mood.

Sticking to an Idea

1. Dedicate a Pinterest board or a Tumblr tag TO ONLY YOUR NOVEL. Continually update this page with things that remind you of your story, characters, or your story's setting. I find that doing something like this keeps me super inspired about my story all the time, because I'm always seeing things that show me a new facet of my story.

2. Set a time that you're going to write. Stick to it.

Putting Your Ideas into Action

1. If this helps, outline your story or create a character sheet or character map. Use a bubble map to brainstorm your idea in more detail.

2. Start writing! Write every day. Write as much as you can, but if you really can only get a sentence or two on the page, that's better than nothing.

3. Don't give up! You came up with this idea, you've worked so hard to get it going, and it's going to be worth it when your novel is complete!

I hope that these tips helped at least a little bit. I find things like pictures, quotes, and music very inspiring and motivating to me, so I thought I'd share those ideas and a few more with you. Feel free to comment telling me what you do to stay inspired, or if any of these ideas help. I'll write you all next week! Thanks for reading!

Happy writing,
Kekai

Sorcera Word Count: 13,860

My Writing Goals

I've been a writer for a long time. A loooooong time. As soon as I could hold a pencil and read a book, I realized that I wanted to pen the stories I so avidly enjoyed. My goals as a writer have fluctuated and changed over time, though the main, overarching plan as remained the same: make a living writing what I love. Nonetheless, here is a list of my goals, curated here for your (hopefully!) enjoyment.

Short Term:
Since I was rejected from Iowa Young Writer's Studio last year, I've been filled with a burning fire that's causing me to work harder on completing goals and improving my skills now so that I can get to where I want to go later. Here are my short term goals, in no particular order:

• Submit more work (be it excerpts, short fiction, essays, poetry, whatever) to magazines for young writers and all writers...maybe get accepted once or twice!
• Participate in National Novel Writing Month, either to complete Sorcera or get started on my new project (working title Girls and Galaxies); this year's NaNo will probably be more lowkey than previous years thanks to hardcore schoolwork
• Complete my second rewrite of Sorcera, and let it sit for a month or so before rereading again (hoping to be finished by/in December)
• Apply not only to Iowa, but also to other workshops, like Interlochen's Novel Writing Institute, Alpha, and Kenyon Writer's Workshop
• Begin work on a rewrite of Rita and the Afterlife, the novel I wrote the first time I won NaNo!

These goals all range in scope from now to about mid-spring, but the schedule will definitely fluctuate as things go. I hope to come up with a "submissions" schedule that I use to accumulate all my various deadlines!

Long Term: 
I will admit that my long term goals are quite a bit more vague than my short term ones--though I'm sure they'll get a lot more clear as I get closer to where I'm holding this long view!

• Complete Sorcera to a professional level and begin sending query letters to agents
• Continue to revise Rita and the Afterlife to a publishable level
• Do freelance work with magazines of various types
• Get one of your novels published, hopefully sooner rather than later!
• Pay the bills...maybe

Well, there they are? Do you think they're achievable? Or are they crazy? 

Good luck all,

Kekai