Word of the Year

Lots of writers are posting their words for the year.  Looking at my January Action Plan, it's pretty clear what my word of the year is.

REVISE!

Confession to my critique groups: I still haven't done the revisions on the last, oh, 12 stories you've critiqued.  Yep, my bad.  This fall I have been struggling just to get manuscripts ready for critique each month. This makes me feel very guilty. If I were a dog, I'd have my tail between my legs.  The Emotion Thesaurus tells me people show guilt by blushing, sweating and staring down at my feet. (Handy book, that is!)

And I value the critique so much, that it's like I was given a bag of gold, but haven't molded into rings yet. Just a big bag of shiny metal sitting in my closet patiently waiting to be honed into beauty. And that's the kind of thing that attracts pirates, and I'm so not in the mood for a pirate attack. 
Ah yes, a good pair of old scissors.
Just perfect to cut all those adjectives.
(image by asifthebest via sxc.hu)

So I needed to get my butt in my writing chair, but how? Well, I had to trick myself, which isn't that hard since I'm quite gullible.

First I signed up for Shannon Abercrombie's Start the Year Off Write.  Sunday Julie Hedlund kicked it off by informing us we needed to write a first paragraph to one of our PB ideas.  

How dare she? I thought. How dare she wake me out of my holiday coma to actually write?

So, I plopped in my chair like a snotty sophomore whose Mom said she couldn't watch Teen Wolf until her homework was done.  I may have even been loudly popping Hubba Bubba bubbles. It took, like, forever to pick out an idea and to coax my fingers to move. But then 250 words later, I had to apologize under my breath to Julie for being such a brat. J Just. Writing. Anything. Feels. Awesome!


January 12th starts Meg Miller's ReViMo which features 7 days of picture book revision. It's just what I need to really make some head way through my critique pile. 

Do you have any writing resolutions this year?

Comments

  1. Revise. That's been my word of the day for a very long time. I haven't started a brand new project since 2012. Ack. I'm beginning to wonder if I even remember how! Btw, I love the Emotion Thesaurus--and my copy of The Positive Trait Thesaurus just arrived in the mail today. Yay. :) Happy writing, Lauri.

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    1. Adding Positive Trait Thesaurus to my goodreads now. You need to reward yourself with a free write session for every few hours or pages of revisions. Just think how much better your revisions will be if you give your brain a little break!

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  2. I recommend the Artist Dates method!
    Reward yourself for revising by getting B.O.O.C. (butt out of chair) and go someplace inspiring
    Or
    Move your writing out of the kitchen /office /hideyhole and take up your red pen in an artistically stimulating setting

    I'll see you around Shannon's challenge and ReViMo too!

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    1. Wait you mean like actually go somewhere nice by myself just for me? CRAZY!
      I need to schedule that in. Actually I just need to schedule. I am very good about having an action plan and to do list, but I think to be productive in 2014, I need a hard core schedule. Every 5 hours of butt in chair earns one hour of butt out of chair perhaps.

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  3. I have the Emotion Thesaurus. The thesaurus is awesome (try saying "The thesaurus" 5 times fast!)!!! Great word! :D

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    1. My thistle is sore as thistlesaurus from trying that!

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  4. My only resolution is get a damn agent. So far, so meh!

    Good luck with your edits, my friend.

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  5. I'm in on both challenges, too! Hope we both get a lot of writing done, Lauri!

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    Replies
    1. I"m already having a hard time keeping up with both. But at least I'm staying busy :)

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