New Year New Groove Series: New View

New View
New Year New Groove Series
Net's Notations Tuesdays

Last week I’d had it. Time to clean up the office. Do you ever get in the zone of cleaning/straightening? Wow, it was great to see the top of my desk again. For a few days anyway. (*wink*)

A clean desk helps me work. I can focus better. I don’t feel so scatterbrained. I’m still in the same home office (which I love) but I have a new view.

Sometimes I work at the library. Oh, I love being surrounded by all those books. Inspires me. This kind of new view makes for some productive hours.

My grandmother used to rearrange her living room (alone!) just for a new view. Great idea. (Though my dad would have liked her to wait until she had help. *smile*)

What kind of view do you see when you sit down to write? Is it time for a change? Maybe go to the local Starbucks (if you don't mind the smell—sorry coffee lovers ;) and write there. Or find a warm beach to visit. (tee hee) One of my writing buddies went to Cancun in 2010. Uh, where do I sign up? I would love to write there!

Another (free) way to enliven your view, especially considering the inclement weather most of us have this time of year, is to put up different wall art. Rearrange the usual stuff on your desk. I have inspirational pieces and pencil holders. I can move those around.

What speaks to you today? Put it in front of you. Seek inspiration and be inspired. You know how you work best, surround yourself with those things.

A new year is a great time for a new view. What will you do to change up your view this week? this year?

New Year New Groove Series: New Outlook

Hey everyone, Annette here. Let's dig into another Net's Notations Tuesday with a focus on what we're focusing on.

Don’tcha love how a new year brings with it a built-in hope? At the beginning of the year, we set new goals and even have some success sticking with our resolutions. Right? (Just a little accountability there. *grin*)

All these changes for the better make for a new outlook. From this new vantage point, you could dare to dream that this is your year! That the things you’ve been waiting to see happen will begin to happen. It’s a faith boost, isn’t it?

I’ve got some projects simmering, and I’m trying to apply this new outlook philosophy to them. Great atmosphere for hope and expectation. Of course, that doesn’t take me off the hook from learning all I can. Taking advantage of the resources I already have.

Are you focusing on the tough stuff of last year? Well, with the rollover of calendar comes built-in permission to focus on the blessings ahead. God rewards us as we serve Him.

Are you focused on the latest bad news? That doesn't motivate me, how about you? *wink*

So, what are you focused on? Clear the path, blow the clouds of doubt and rejection away, and see what God wants you to see this year.

Here's a little advice this year as we dive in together:

Dream big!

Pray often!

Learn always!

Trust God!

Let’s let our new outlook influence our energy levels and our tenacity this new year. Ready. Set. Write!

New Year New Groove Series: New Projects

Hey, readers, it's Net's Notations Tuesdays here on Seriously Write. Annette here. I have a question for you: How long have you been working on your current project?

I saw a note from a writer today expressing what so many have expressed before—sometimes you just have to start a new project. Leave the one you’ve been working on for years, which has been a great tool for learning and growing as a writer, and put all the things you know into practice on a whole new manuscript. Has that ever happened to you?

I tend to write before it’s time. Over the last several years (decade?), I’ve heard, there isn’t a market for this right now. Thing is, there hasn’t been market before now, so the market (if it swings around) is in the future… Now what? I have to keep writing what’s in my heart and keep growing as a writer. And oftentimes that’s meant launching into a new project.

New projects are fun! New story world, new characters, new plots and twists.

If you’re not contracted for your current project, and you’re wondering if you should move on, ask yourself these questions:

1) Is this project marketable?
2) Are there editors/agents interested in this project?
3) What are my crit partners saying (am I growing as a writer)? What are contest judges saying? Am I close? Or are there a million things wrong?
4) Am I still interested in this project?
5) Have I learned enough as a writer that if I began a new manuscript today I’d be in a much better place to write from scratch?

Remember this, we grow through any writing we do! So, no manuscript is ever a waste of time or energy. Even if you have to set your “baby” aside, you’ve still benefited from nurturing it.

Maybe it’s time to work on a new project with this new year, giving yourself permission to move on. Who knows? You may come back to that earlier manuscript and with fresh sight and more training be able to whip that WIP into shape. *grin* Or, maybe it’ll sit in the file cabinet.

New projects bring fresh vigor to your writing. If it’s time to move on, move on and enjoy the adventure of a new story or non-fiction project.

This new year, is it time for you to being a new project?

New Year New Groove Series: New Goals

Hey everyone, Annette here. Happy New Year! Welcome to the New Year New Groove series.

Have you set your 2011 goals yet?

Each New Year offers us a mental restart, doesn’t it? We give ourselves permission to make changes, to start fresh. We get motivated to make lists, set goals, commit to resolutions. But none of that will help us if we don’t follow through.

What helps you follow through? I get a charge out of crossing things off my list. How about you?

We writers have to be (or become) self-starters. Set goals and strive to meet them. Then set new ones. ACFW’s Novel Track: Writing is great for this. (A new writing challenge began this month. Learn more at ACFW.com)

A new year is a great time to change things up. Maybe rework your schedule, try something new. If you used to write only after work when you’re tired and brain fried, perhaps try writing first thing in the morning before work.

If you’re used to not finding any time to write, try giving yourself fifteen minutes here and there. You’ll be amazed at how much you can do when you give yourself permission to do it.

There’s a great reward in setting new goals and meeting them. A delicious and satisfying sense of accomplishment!

So, find what works for you in productivity and do it. No excuses. It’s a New Year, a new beginning. Roll up your sleeves and get to it.

Happy writing in the New Year!