March Writing Challenge

I swear I'm experiencing dejavu! Seems like I just had one these writing challenges of mine. But I'm going to keep on keeping on until I GET IT DONE!

If I keep up with the determination and discipline of the past couple of days, I will! Practice makes perfect and education is power!

I learned a few things since the last challenge. First, it's not enough to write everday. You have to write everyday with PURPOSE! While blogging is fun and fantastic--at least I think so--if that's not the purposed project then that writing doesn't count--unless, of course, your goal is blogging.

Because I'm writing a novel and I blog regularly, I need to develop a schedule AND actually adhere to it. With the way that blog ideas appear so randomly in my head, therein lies the challenge!

Anyway, in the spirit of National Book Reading Month, I'm doing a couple of key things:

1. Increasing my daily word count goal from 250 to 1000!
2. Finish first draft of novel by 3/31!

If I meet the 1000 word challenge, I'll be done with the draft! Wish me luck!

Follow on twitter #lawritingchallenge

Don't Beat Yourself up for Missing Deadlines

Here we go again. Another self-imposed deadline quickly approaching and I'm nowhere close to meeting it. Now, it's one of two ways that I can look at this. "LOSER!" I could yell at the reflection in the mirror. But is that really necessary? Am I really a literary loser? Surely, I'm not the only writer/author to miss a deadline, let alone a deadline she set for herself? Heck, I didn't even used to set deadlines! So I've come a mighty long way on this literary journey.

The other way is to simply enjoy the rest of the journey. I still have a whopping 18 days to get even closer to the goal of completing my draft of my latest writing project. And the best part is that I'm not giving up. It's kind of like NaNoWri month. As far as I'm concerned, I have until 11:59 P.M. December 31, 2011 to make this thing happen! Everyday that God blesses me with breath in my body, I'm going to pound some words out of my head onto the work in progress and pray it comes to completion soon.

Point is, don't beat yourself up if you miss your deadline. Embrace the journey. Celebrate what you do accomplishment. And keep going!

Happy Halloween

Can you believe it's Halloween already? The last day of October! It's already my least favorite holiday--a fake holiday at that--but today it's a wake up call! On this last day of the month, I now have sixty one days to complete my upcoming novel. Did you hear me? Sixty-one days! That's not a whole lot of time BUT I'm up for the challenge! So while my coworkers are walking around reliving their childhoods, trick or treating around the office and oohhing and ahhing at each other's costumes, I'll be pounding on the keys of my computer bringing my novel thousands of words closer to completion.

Click here for an excerpt of what's next for L.A.

No More Excuses, Only Results

This past Saturday, October 8, I attended the monthly meeting of my beloved writers group, Motown Writers Network. I was so proud of my determination in attending the meeting--on time, at that! Go L.A.! Go L.A.! If my memory is correct, I haven't made it to one of our meetings since the early part of the year. Anyway, on to the point of this post. As is our custom at the beginning of the meetings, all in attendance introduce themselves and share their challenges & successes. For me, as I'm in the process of writing
my second novel, I found myself expressing the same challenge that I had when I was writing my first book, Unfinished Business , over 10yrs ago--writing the book!

Now that just shouldn't be the case! I know my writing mentor and Motown Writers Network founder, Sylvia Hubbard, gets tired of hearing me say the same thing. Heck! I'm getting tired of hearing me say the same thing. It's funny, though. I hear myself saying, "I've got to do so and so with the kids." "I find myself staring at the screen and not typing enough words." "Ive got a lot of outside activities that take up my free time." Blah, blah, blah. I know full well that every other writer in my circle and beyond have the same life obligations. If they can complete their manuscripts in reasonable timeframes, so should I, right? Not to compare myself to others, but I know that I can do better.

Actually, that's the whole point of attending the meetings. You can't attend and NOT be encouraged & inspired to DO better, regardless of your personal challenge. That's why my new motto for my writing life and beyond is, "No More Excuses, Only Results!

What about you? What challenges do you need to overcome?

LaCharmine Jefferson,
Author of Unfinished Business, the story of one woman's addiction to the wrong man for the wrong reason & what she risks to get him out of her system for good.

Paperback at http://lajefferson.blogspot.com/

Ebook at http://smashwords.com/books/views/40425
Website: http://www.lajefferson.com/

My Blogs:

A Day in the Life of L.A. Jefferson @ http://lajefferson.blogspot.com/
All Things Love @ http://all-things-love.blogspot.com/
Twitter @lajefferson
Facebook @lajefferson

Ready...Get Set...WRITE

Calling ALL budding authors. It's November 1st and the challenge has begun! What's the challenge, you want to know??? The challenge to write your novel in 30 days! Can it be done? Absolutely! Ask any of the thousands of participants each year. Have I done it? Absolutely NOT! LOL! But I am giving it my best shot this year since I finally remembered the annual challenge before Thanksgiving Day rolled around. LOL! I figure I don't have anything to lose by challenging myself to begin and complete my novel by midnight on November 30th. What's the worse that can happen? Get half way through. Get a fourth of the way through. Heaven forbid I actually finish it!!!  Sounds like a win/win to me for anyone struggling with getting those words on the page.

So I invite everyone to either join me at (http://www.nanowrimo.org/) OR follow my progress. I'll be updating my blogs, website, twitter, Facebook...all that! Wish me luck!