New Year Celebration and Giveaway!

by J. Lea López

Happy New Year! Hard to believe that 2014 is gone and 2015 is here to stay... for 365 days, anyway. With a new year comes many resolutions to do more and do better, so we thought...... no, no, just kidding. I'm pretty sure the last thing you need is another resolutions post. How about a giveaway instead? Keep reading to find out what's new for FTWA this year and how you can win a little something from us.

After taking some time off in November and December, we're back to business here on the blog. How do you like the new look? Many thanks to our own Charlee Vale for the face lift. Make sure to check out our team page to learn about new FTWA bloggers, as well as catch up on what's going on with the rest of us.

In addition to a new look and some new voices, we're changing to a new posting schedule starting right now. You can expect to see new posts from us every Monday and Thursday, excluding major holidays. Feel free to sign up to receive our posts via email or RSS, or connect with us on social media to make sure you never miss a post. One thing that hasn't changed is the fact that we love to hear what you have to say. If you have a writing or publishing question you'd like to see us address in a post, feel free to tweet us or post it to us on Facebook and we'll do our best to give you the answers you need.

We hope 2015 holds wonderful things for all of you on your writing and publishing paths. To say thank you to our long time followers, and to welcome the new ones, we're giving away lots of great prizes! Use the Rafflecopter below to enter for a chance to win these awesome prizes:

R.C. Lewis - Signed STITCHING SNOW
MarcyKate Connolly - Signed MONSTROUS (On release date)
Mindy McGinnis - Signed NOT A DROP TO DRINK & IN A HANDFUL OF DUST
Sophie Perinot - Signed SISTER QUEENS & DAY OF FIRE
S.L. Duncan - Signed THE REVELATION OF GABRIEL ADAM
Cat Woods - Signed TALES FROM THE BULLY BOX and WHISPERING MINDS
Jemi Fraser - Kindle editions of SUBMISSION & SURRENDER by Cali McKay and EGGNOG & CANDY CANES by Jean Oram
Matt Sinclair - WINTER'S REGRET anthology from Elephant's Bookshelf Press
R.S. Mellette - Signed BILLY BOBBLE MAKES A MAGIC WAND
J. Lea Lopez - Signed SORRY'S NOT ENOUGH
Riley Redgate - EXTRACTION by Stephanie Diaz

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Season of Reflection

by J. Lea López

Source

Many of us just finished with the hectic schedule of NaNoWriMo (did you win??) and now December will bring different, but not fewer, obligations. Starting with Thanksgiving at the end of November for our American members and readers, and continuing through the end of December, this is often a season of reflection and reassessment. We spend holidays like Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Years with family and friends. Social calendars fill up. We eat too much. Maybe drink too much. We kiss under mistletoe and exchange gifts with everyone from coworkers to lovers. We reflect back on the year that is drawing to a close and think ahead to the year that will be here before we know it.

For these reasons, we have decided to continue with our blogging break until January. In addition to spending much needed time with our families and friends and individually assessing our own writing goals, we here at From the Write Angle will take the month of December to reflect on how far FTWA has come and where we want to go from here. As always, we invite and appreciate any feedback on what you've liked in the past and what you'd love to see from us in the future. If you'll stick with us, there may be some fun things in it for you when the new year rolls around.

We hope you'll take this time to refresh and rejuvenate yourselves as well. Be charitable. Be kind. Be open to change. Be loving and caring. Be present in life. Be social. Be introspective. Be quiet. Be your own number one fan. Be and do all the things we sometimes forget to do when we let life sweep us up in the current.

But most of all, be here on January 1, 2015, ready to face the new year with a renewed sense of passion, and maybe even a makeover. See you then!

J. Lea López is an author who strives to make you laugh at, fall in love with, cry over, and lust after the characters she writes. She welcomes online stalkers as long as they're witty and/or adulatory. Kidding. Maybe. Check for yourself: Twitter, Facebook, Blog.

Words Versus Resolutions: writing with your character in mind

by Cat Woods

Instead of resolutions to usher in the new year, I learned a neat trick from a fellow writer years ago: a word of the year.

The appeal of this word is that it has the power to change behaviors. Instead of "Lose Ten Pounds" which can be fraught with frustration and failure, the word "health" invokes positive connotations that impact more than the scale. I will eat better, work out more regularly, get more sleep and pay attention to my mental well-being. After a year of practicing health, I will have acquired the behavior patterns I want for a life time goal. After losing ten pounds, I might eat an entire bag of Doritos while mindlessly watching Sponge Bob reruns and crying into my diet soda. After all, I did lose ten pounds. I did accomplish my resolution.

When we write, it might behoove us to give words to our characters rather than just resolutions. While the immediacy of the resolutions and the very definitive outcome of them is what inherently drives the story and offers up our novel's conclusion, I like to think beyond the last page and into a possibility of life where my characters have changed, yet remain the same. I like to think of them as someone with integrity--in the sense that they are consistent in their behaviors and beliefs and actions. They are true to their core--whatever that core may be.

And so, I offer up the word.

• Harry Potter is tenacious. He refuses to back down until he has solved the riddle of his life. Sometimes this is a detriment. Other times it is admirable and courageous. Yet he never loses this core trait.
• Katniss Everdeen is virtuous. Her strong moral compass about the way humans should be treated drives every action she takes. Weary and terrified though she is, she holds onto her ideals to the point of stubbornness. Good, bad or indifferent, this trait is what makes Katniss one of the strongest female protagonists of this generation.
• Verity is ingenious, while her best friend is loyal in Code Name Verity.
• Curious George is...well, curious.
• And our own Mindy McGinnis's Lynn is independent.

Readers look to our characters for guidance. They want something deeper than a resolution. They want virtue and tenacity. They want independence, love, hope, faith and curiosity. They want to see themselves in the pages of our books so they can believe that they, too, can overcome the obstacles in their lives and survive beyond the moment.

And so I ask, give your readers a word...and maybe nab one for yourself.

Which character traits do you admire and why? How have you infused these traits into your writing? If you could only use one word to describe yourself at this moment in time, what would it be?

Curious minds want to know.

Cat Woods writes from home, often in her jammies with a mug of chai tea--not potato chips--and surely without the help of Sponge Bob. She wants you to know that no scales were harmed in the writing of this blog post--only egos--and that her word of the year is organization. As in plan and proceed, not declutter closets and junk drawers. Currently, she's the acquisitions editor for a middle grade anthology on bullying. You can find more of her whimsy (and guidelines for submitting) at Words from the Woods.

5 Reasons Why We Fail at Our Writing Goals

by Jean Oram

Blah, blah, blah New year's Resolutions, blah, blah, blah. You've already broken some, haven't you? A study out of University of Scranton (I know! Scranton really actually exists beyond The Office!) says that by this time in January approximately a THIRD of us have FAILED at our resolutions. One third. That's within the 2-4 week period after New Year's. And only 8% of resolution makers are successful in achieving their resolution.

Okay, before you go shove your mouth full of cake and give up on your publishing quest and writing resolutions… listen to this:

People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions. Source

In other words, keep making resolutions and keep making GOALS as you are more likely to succeed.

But why do we fail and what can we do about it?

I'm so glad you asked.

5 Reasons We Need to Set Goals in Order to Succeed as Writers

1. We can be likely to take the path of least resistance (i.e. a tad lazy).

People who make goals (not talking resolutions now, just goals because goals are a PLAN, not a HOPE or a WISH) are 80% more likely to succeed. Goals are plans with timelines, and a specific end goal. When you make a goal you tell yourself some interesting things--and one of them is to get up and get moving. (A powerful way to achieve your goal is to remind yourself of that goal as soon as you get up in the morning--even before a cup of joe.)

How to succeed: Make a goal. Don't talk yourself out of it. Find a way to make it happen.

2. We get vague.

Written goals lead to conscious and an intentional working towards them. Why? Because we've had to write them down and in doing so we can see exactly what we need to get to and then automatically begin breaking down what we need in order to get there. It engages a part of our brain that says, "How do I…?" and "Why do I…?" and "What do I…". We get specific.

How to succeed: Write down your goals and be specific about what you want to accomplish at what level and by what date.

3. We get distracted.

Goals are plans. They are a way to stay on track by giving us something specific to work towards--especially if we check in on them regularly. Writing down our goals helps us focus on the steps to get to our goal.

How to succeed: check in with your goals on a regular basis to see how you are doing.

4. We shrug off our ideas and 'stuff.'

Goals can help us stay personally accountable as well as stay motivated in reaching our 'plan.' But it is easy to shrug it off when faced with diversions, failures, and roadblocks unless we make ourselves accountable on a larger (ego-smashing) level. In other words, find a goal buddy. Find someone to check in with--ideally someone who can be both encouraging as well as willing to give you a swift kick in the denim.

How to succeed: Social pressure. Make yourself socially accountable.

5. We fail to see how far we've come.

One of the coolest things about setting goals is watching your own progress. I used to write down HUGE goals and then only check in once a year. Oh, wow. Look all that failure in a three-ring binder. Ouch. Now, I have a notebook where I write down what I want to accomplish that week or day and I check off all the things I've done as well as keep stats on my platform growth. Looking in that book is the proof that I am actually getting somewhere. I can also feel the success (daily if I want). And that, in turn, spurs me towards more achievements. You could even say it is empowering and provides resilience.

How to succeed: Be kind, rewind. I mean, be kind to yourself if you fall down. Enjoy your successes.

Now that you've looked at goal setting from the write angle, what are your goals for 2013? What stands in your way? How do you plan to leap that hurdle? Share in the comment section.

(And by the way, how are those resolutions going?)

Jean Oram has set more goals than she has time to accomplish, but she is still happily blogging away about writing at Jeanoram.com as well as tweeting as @jeanoram. She has a post-apocalyptic chick lit short story, Crumbs, in The Fall: Tales From the Apocalypse.

Resolved

by Sophie Perinot

Writers, like non-writers, often mark the New Year by committing themselves to a collection of resolutions, usually in the form of an earnestly drawn-up laundry list of thing we want to accomplish to forward our work in progress and our careers.  For example, “write 2,000 words a day” is, I would posit, the writer’s equivalent of the average person’s “lose ten pounds.”

I am skeptical of the power New Year’s resolutions.  I think they have, for the most part, forgotten where they came from, and so have we.  They have become nothing more than vague promises we make ourselves at a particularly optimistic moment (when the world is new again and everything seems possible).  And if we don’t keep them later. . . well. . .

Yep.  Pretty darn useless.

This year I suggest that we—wordsmiths by trade—cast our minds back to the root of the term resolution—the word “resolve.”  Resolve is powerful indeed.  True resolve impresses and gets things done.  Take a look at this definition (from Merriam-Webster):

Resolve (noun): 1) fixity of purpose: resoluteness.

Pow! That’s an old-fashioned, commanding concept.  I sit up straighter just reading the definition, don’t you?

So, instead of picking half-dozen specific writing resolutions in these first days of 2013, jotting them down and promptly forgetting where I’ve stuck them, I am going to rediscover my fixity of purpose (I know I set it down somewhere—maybe behind the pile of research books).  When I locate it, I am going to wield it like a sword and treat my work with the urgency and determination that true resoluteness demands.  If (or rather when because set backs are inevitable) I fail to meet the weekly goals for my latest manuscript I am going to recognize my justifications of this failure for what they are—excuses.  Pitiful excuses.  I am going to remind myself that this is a job.  A real work ethic and not just good intentions are needed to get it done.

That’s how I am starting 2013—as a taskmaster who knows true resolve generally involves perseverance, suffering and even self-castigation, NOT as a starry-eyed, optimist who believes that wishing something done will make it so.  How about you?

Sophie Perinot's debut novel, THE SISTER QUEENS (which tells the story of two 13th century sisters who became the queens of England and France) released in 2013.  She is currently working on her Sophomore novel, a task that requires considerable resolve. You can find Sophie at home here, or on Facebook at her author page or the page for her novel.  She is also active on twitter.