Word-Whores: 3 Changes

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE!

If you're reading this, thank you,

and pat yourself on the back

for having the time to read a little right now.

Three things that have changed in my writing in 2014:

1.) Scrivener.

This purchase, turns out, has been awesome. Not only has learning a new program confirmed that I'm not an old dog (I CAN learn new tricks, see?), but the process of learning it and considering the purpose behind some of the programs options and aspects has made me think about my process and writing in general new ways. I've adopted some new habits which seem utterly are beneficial.

2.) Anti-Comfort Zone.

Discussing an upcoming project, my agent told me, not as one friend giving another some advice, but as a knowledgeable industry professional who has looked at my work and found it lacking something, a certain something which he in his well-steeped experience could identify...and knowingly spoke to me not of the flaw, but of the solution. He told me to get out of my comfort zone and write there.

Suddenly, writing is exciting again. It has a luster. It has slipped its hand into mine and led me down a path I've never trod before, and like new love, there re stars in my eyes and I don't sleep for thinking of the new work, and I can't wait to get through these holidays to revisit it because damn...it's fun.

3.) Shorts.

Short stories have always been difficult for me. When I sit down to write one, I always get a novel. I plot bigger and bigger and bigger. But this year I have written a handful some for seasonal blogs, some to submit to anthologies...some are on submission waiting to hear back but one, the one I wanted to be in sooo much...

I learned on Sunday that I was accepted! Best present I could've gotten right now. Just delighted, ecstatic, overjoyed, and elated to be a part of the project I muppet-flailed and happy-danced all over the house.

I hope that this holiday season brings you

some of what you long for, and all of what you need.