writing challenges

A collection of 55 posts

A Year in the Life

A Year in the Life: Week 3 - Letter to a Columnist

This week, the writing exercise from A Year in the Life was to write a letter to a columnist giving “advice” about something you’ve been through. Since so many people seem preoccupied with finding “the one,” I wrote about how my romantic life blossomed after I’d decided to

blogging

My Last Day of One Job, Embarking on Another

Yesterday was my last official day as Teen Services Librarian for the Marshall-Lyon County Library. My heart is sort of breaking over it–I loved that job so much, but it was a two-hour commute, one way, once a week. I’m still processing all of that, and might blog

NaPoWriMo

NaPoWriMo: The Home Stretch!

If I can write two more poems before midnight tomorrow, I will have completed my first successful NaPoWriMo. In an ideal world where there is always enough time for writing, my fiction would not have had to take such a blow so I could write poetry this month. But the

NaPoWriMo

NaPoWriMo: Ice Storm Poetry

Poem #9: Ice and Thunder It is a time of ice and thunder the dog cowering in the doorway brass tacks on the glass and trees groaning outside. Love is an action, not a feeling this is what Jesus taught us Their power will be out for days and I

editing

It's Official!

editing

NaNoEdMo not quite there ... NaPoWriMo has Arrived!

Last night, I came home from the Easter festivities bearing a headache from too much sugar but still determined to log my last two hours to achieve victory in NaNoEdMo … even though editing was really the last thing in the world I wanted to do. Still, I was mostly dismayed

editing

Week 4: As NaNoEdMo Kicks My Butt

As I feared might happen, NaNoEdMo is kicking my butt. Although I’m only slightly behind schedule, finding a “catch-up” time in the near future seems bleak. I was right when I predicted that the requirement of actually putting in the time would make this harder for me than NaNoWriMo,

editing

NaNoEdMo: A Little Like Being Locked in a Tower

Well, March is just a little over halfway over, and I’m barely a smidgen over the halfway mark for NaNoEdMo, clocking in this morning at 26.88 hours out of 50. Despite putting in an hour and a half per day, the edits sometimes feel as if they are

Catholicism

Tuscany Prize Winner - Free E-book!

Hey, folks! Do you remember many moons ago when I entered the Tuscany Press contest for Catholic fiction? Although my manuscript was retained (and later rejected) for their young adult fiction startup, I did not win any of the prizes. But now you can all check out who did! For

editing

March Madness or ... My First Crack at NaNoEdMo

Doesn’t it seem like only yesterday that we were slagging and bragging our way through NaNoWriMo? At that time, the prospect of March, or National Novel Editing Month (NaNoEdMo) seemed blissfully distant. Surely I’d have my other writing projects wrapped up by then and could delve into some

fairy tales

NaNoWriMo: Week Four

This is it! The final week has arrived, and by Friday, I’ll hopefully have another novel first draft under my belt (my eighth!). I’m close to the end of the story now — the prince has been found out, Rapunzel’s hair is cut, and the witch’s backstory

blogging

NaNoWriMo: Week Three

So, supposedly Week Three is where things are supposed to start coming together. This is where the NaNo journey gets better. Although I’m not quite seeing it yet … I’m still struggling through mid-novel insecurity, and the negligence of many other areas of my life for the sake of

Catholicism

NaNoWriMo: Week One!

In the past week, I’ve received a couple pieces of good news on my writing projects. My middle grade/young adult novel, Ever This Day, is currently under consideration with a new press. And the Conscious Monologues, a play including a piece I wrote about Women’s Ordination, has

Hungering and Thirsting for Justice

Countdown to NaNoWriMo!

By this time next week, I should have written at least 8,000 words on this year’s NaNoWriMo novel. Like every year that I’ve decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month, I find myself savoring these last few days of freedom from word-count tyranny even as I

short stories

It's Story-a-Day May!

Yes, I know that we’re halfway through the month, but better late than never, right? Did you know that May is “Story-a-Day” month? Yup, it’s another one of those writing challenges I love so much. This time, the challenge is to write one story every day. How you

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo: On the Home Stretch

Well, in a few days, it will all be over. I’m down to having to write 1500 words a day to finish on time. I haven’t written my 1500 words for today, but I will. What I won’t do is finish this novel; I think I’ve

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo: One Week Down, Three to Go

Well, the first week of NaNoWriMo is behind me. The first couple days, as I successfully wrote my target word count (about 1700), walked my dog, did some freelance work, made it to work on time, continued to plan my wedding, AND made progress on the anthology I’m editing,

editing

Oh, Internet, How I (Haven't Really) Missed You

In the wee hours of Monday, September 20, my wireless router died quietly in its sleep. Monday morning, I was in denial. It will come back, I told myself. All morning, I did laundry and washed dishes. By noon, my Internet still wasn’t up. I gathered my courage, packed

NaNoWriMo

Poetry, Short Stories, and Realizations

A good friend just reminded me that today marks the beginning of Story-a-Day May–a challenge to write a story every day for a month. This comes on the heels, of course, of Poetry Month and Script Frenzy, a challenge to write 30 poems in a month and to write

poetry

Snow Days and Writing

Snow days are so good for writing. Being snowed in today reminded me of living in Duluth, and the time I was snowed in my apartment for two days in a row. My room-mate was in India, missing the only blizzard we got that year. I was working on the

editing

Up to My Eyeballs

My status over at gmail, which is where I keep my “freelance/writing” account, claims that I’m “up to my eyeballs in writing projects.” And the end of the year certainly is a busy time for writers, but now that we’re on the last day of November, I’

NaNoWriMo

NaNo Congrats, Writing Advice from a 12-year-old, And Poem #3

I’m pleased to announce that all the friends I’m spying — er, cheering — on at NaNoWriMo now have words to their names. Yay!! The public guilting shall abate for a time. This morning I programmed this article to run on the homepage of NewMoon.com. Check it out — this

NaNoWriMo

Day 2, Poem 2

My friends still have 0 words on their NaNoWriMo‘s. Nooooooo!! (You may think I’m being over-dramatic, but I really do stress out about other people’s procrastination). Today I put together a NaNoWriMo display at the library, and when I went to the site to download the graphics,

blogging

NaNo-ers, My Heart is With You!

Well, it’s here! For writers and would-be writers everywhere, this is the day you’ve been waiting for. November 1st, the official start of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Well do I remember the joys, the sorrows, the euphoria, the stress, the comraderie! of this month of exuberant, frantic

NaNoWriMo

I Have a Plan!

So, I’ve made my decision: I’m not going to do NaNoWriMo this year. I don’t want to abandon my revisions of ETD when I have good momentum going, especially since I want to have it ready to submit to Delacorte Press’s Young Adult Novel contest, which