Juliana Haygert

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Categories: Challenges, Me, My Books

YA Buccaneers Spring Bootcamp

 

Hi friends,

I kinda love challenges. Last month, I won CampNaNo, and when Ghenet, a good friend of mine, mentioned she and other writers are hosting a bootcamp from May 1st to June 30th, I was very interested.

spring-writing-bootcamp-ya-buccaneers

So, I joined the YA Buccaneers Spring Bootcamp exciting challenge and here are my goals:

  • finish line-edits on The Everlasting Circle (The Everlast Trilogy, book 3) and send them back to my editor by the end of the week.
  • finish revising Breaking Through (The Breaking Series, book 3) by the deadline (May 23rd) and send it to my editor for content editing.
  • finish writing the first draft of my NA fantasy tentatively titled The Energy Within – I already have 32k word written so it shouldn’t take too long now.

 

I know it seems a lot, but I know it’s doable.

We have private groups on Facebook for support and also on twitter. And we’re using the hashtag #YABspring2016 on twitter and instagram – check us out!

So, why don’t you join us?

 

Cheers,

 

Categories: Challenges, Me, My writing

My 2013 Plan

Last year, I had a post called My 2012 Plan, inspired by my friend, Jani Grey (here’s her 2012 post, and her 2013 post). It involved mostly writerly things, but also a few personal WANTS.

Why wants, not resolutions? Because I can’t resolve to have an agent this year, can I? Unfortunately, that’s involve more than just old plain me. So, stating what I want, means that I’ll work toward it, but it isn’t certain I’ll obtain it.

Since my WANTS worked quite well in 2012, I decided to write down My 2013 Plan:

1. Read at least 60 books. Last year I read 77 books, but I had more *free* time. Now I’m under contract and getting two books ready for querying or self-pubbing, so I’m kinda busy and might not be able to read as much as I would like. (I kinda envy those people who read 200+ books per year. But I can only think that’s all they do …)

2. Go to at least one conference. I signed up for the Boston Author Event (March 16th), and I’m thinking about attending BEA since it’s right in my corner (I do live 1.5 hours from NYC), and I’m also considering RWA. Let’s see …

3. Write more. And by that I mean: finishing what I start more than last year. I started tons of projects last year, wrote them to 5k, 10k, 15k, sometimes even to 20k, then gave up, either because I lost interest or because I new shiny idea popped up and became more interesting. My total 2012 word count is probably pretty high, but if I look at how many projects hit the end, then it seems ridiculous.

4. Find at least one more reliable CP. And maybe a beta-reader or two. Preferably someone who enjoys the same genres I do.

5. Write reviews on Goodreads, Amazon and Barnes and Nobles for the books I read and enjoy. Now that I have a book out, I see how important reviews are.

6. Spend less time on Social Media. So I can write more. That is crucial if I want to accomplish the next goal.

7. Publish at least 2 books, besides the novella that comes out in Feb. I have one novel which is with 2 publishers at the moment. If they reject it, I’ll self-pub it (which was the original plan, anyway). Then I’m working on another one. Still not sure if I’ll query or self-pub that one.

8. Continue researching about what is best for me and my writing: to self-pub, to continue with a small press, or to query agents. Or maybe the three of them?

9. Participate on all rounds of ROW80.

10. Keep going to the gym, lose  5 or 6 pounds and keep them off! (This one didn’t quite work last year. Yes, I became addicted to the gym, but I didn’t lose anything yet).

11. Eat healthier. Well, I don’t eat much fruits and vegetables, so I’m trying to add them to my diet. And more fiber and vitamins … Now, don’t think I’ll completely change my diet. I won’t. I don’t want to. I just want to make it a little better, otherwise all those hours at the gym won’t count for much.

12. Be more present. Accordingly to my hubby and daughter, I’m a super mom and wife, but, if you’re a writer like me, you know we space out sometimes (aka=all the time) and, when on the heat of the story, we kinda ignore them to write down all the words. I want to be able to separate my writing time and my family time. I’ll try to leave all the words and everything related to this business for when they are not at home (work and school), and give them my full attention when they are home. Again, if you’re a writer, you know how hard this is. But I truly love them with all my heart and soul, and for that they deserve better from me.

Doable, uh? I hope so.

 

I saw on a few friends’ blogs (Alex, Katy, Elodie and Ghenet) about The Word of the Year. I like this idea. One word to summarize the coming year. My Word of the Year is: LOVE. Yes, just that. Love my family, love my friends, love my life, love my work, love all the words, write for love, love the writing community, love reading, love exercising, love feeling good, love living. Just … LOVE!

 

How about you? What are your WANTS for 2013? And what’s your Word of the Year?

Cheers,

JH signature_small

Categories: Challenges, JuNoWriMo

Did you hear about JuNoWriMo?

I saw a retweet yesterday about something called #JuNoWriMo … that caught my attention instantly. After finding the JuNoWriMo twitter profile, I went to the website to learn more about it.

Here is what says on the About Us page of the website: “Becca Campbell got the crazy idea of starting up her own version of a novel in a month adventure and started tweeting the idea around. Anna Howard tweeted back and Becca asked her to help, and the two of them spent some time conspiring behind locked doors to bring you what is the fresh, summery and citrus-smelling event called JuNoWriMo.”

What is JuNoWriMo exactly, you may be asking yourself … Becca has a blog post explaining all about it,  but in short, it’s just like NaNoWriMo, the only difference is that it’s in June instead ;)

That’s right, JuNoWriMo … isn’t it cool? I so wanted another of those, and here it is!

I already set up my profile on the website and signed up for it. I even put the Participant Button on my sidebar already ——>

What are you waiting for?

Cheers,

Categories: Blogging, Challenges, Me, My writing

My 2012 plan

I thought a lot about writing a 2012 resolutions post, and ended up deciding against it.

What was I going to say? That I wish to get an agent and be published? I’m a writer. That’s a given. Besides, it doesn’t depend only of me. Unfortunately, I can try my best, but if luck isn’t by my side, I won’t go nowhere.

Then I saw a post from my friend Jani at Life Debatable that inspired to write about what I WANT for 2012.

 

Like Jani, I’ll focus on the word WANT. Also, I’ll cite personal goals along with writing goals.

I want to:

  • Read as many books as last year (60). I wish I could read 60 books per month since there are so many amazing books out there, but that’s impossible. Browsing the web, I saw a challenge to read 100 books in 2012. I wish I could participate on that, but, if I try, I’ll be using my writing time and writing time is precious to me.
  • Be more active on my critique circle. I love my girls and want them to know I’m here for them no matter what ;)
  • Be more active on my blog. You know, I struggle with what to post. I could write about writing, but I don’t feel confident enough to give advice to others about writing. So, what to blog about? Good question. I’ll have to think about that.
  • Be more active on friends’ blog. Read, comment and support more.
  • Write more. Last year, I wrote 2 novels and 2 novellas. I started a bunch (some had up to 40k words before I gave up). Total, I wrote roughly 300k words during 2011. But you see, I write full time (or almost full time since my daughter spends the mornings with me), so I could write more novels. I should write more novels.
  • Organize my thoughts and create a plan of action with my writing. I mean, I have too many ideas and, until I start something, I keep changing my mind on what to work on. So I need to lay out what to write, when and in which order. And stick to it!
  • Learn to love revising and editing. I do revise and edit. A lot. I also have CPs and I’m not ashamed to confess I hired a freelancer editor once to help me figure out how my writing was (btw, I loved working with an editor! I plan to it again). But I don’t like editing. I get frustrated and tend to almost throw my manuscript away lol So I need to be more calm and patient about revising and editing, and just do it!
  • Get at least 2 novels completely ready for submission by July. And submit them.
  • Be less active on twitter. LOL. No, seriously. I love twitter and it’s a problem. I guess many writers went through this. I have to shut it down and just write ;)
  • Exercise more. In 2010, I ruptured two ligaments on my foot, and last year I had another foot/knee problem. So I just started exercising again and I hope I can keep it up this year. Right now, I have pilates classes twice a week. But I plan to go for three classes each week around March.
  • Lose 5 pounds and keep them away! (Hey, I said the list would be personal too.)
  • Go back to US. Yeah, I said it. Actually, my family and I should have gone back to US last year. As we were told, my husband’s transfer should happen before May (I doubt it, but hey, we have to keep hope!).

 

For now, that’s what I came up with.

I’ll do my best to accomplish all my WANTS ;)

 

And you? Any resolutions, goals or wishes for 2012?

Cheers,