Today’s a good day to think about what you’d like to achieve as a writer over the next few months.  Perhaps you’d like to complete a short story byt Christmas, or finish a first draft of your novel for the New Year.  List your goals.  Try to keep them achievable, focused, clear – so write : Get a story ready for the Malahat Contest by Sept 30th rather than Work on that story. 

Here are a couple of suggestions for goals if you need a little inspiration:

Write for ten minutes every morning.

Write two poems on the theme of loss.

Get a draft of your novel completed and ready to be edited by January 1st.

Pin up your list somewhere you can see it regularly.    

Goals will keep you motivated – disciplining yourself is a big part of being a writer.  Time for me to get to work!

Where do you do your writing?  It’s a question I get asked often.  I have a small office at my house that overlooks a deck and some leafy summertime trees.  When it’s winter, the window becomes glazed with frost in spectacular patterns.  I sit with my back to the view and with a bookshelf to the right of me.  It’s filled with books I mean to read and photographs of my family.  Opposite I have a painting that is dear to me; the desk if filled with CDs, pens and notes.  I think anyone wandering in (not that anyone’s allowed to wander in!) would find it a cosy place to write.  But I’m lucky to be able to write off a home office as a business expense.  Before I could do that, I always tried to make a little spot that was purely for writing – a small desk in the corner of my bedroom when I was a student or a comfy chair in the living room where I could cuddle up with a laptop (not such a good idea if you value your back.)  It’s worth a little thinking time.  A place that is dedicated to your writing is essential.  It shows you (and those around you) that writing is important.

The rather marvellous Laurie Halse Anderson has a terrific blog post up today.  Here’s a peek at her writing prompt – go to her blog to read the rest of her wise words:

Today’s prompt: Create the flap copy for your book. Doesn’t matter if you are writing fiction, non-fiction, or memoir. Write the two or three sentences that convey the essence of your story in a way that will convince someone to read the entire book.

This can be incredibly hard. In fact, I can’t do it in the earliest draft of my book. This is usually because I haven’t yet fully figured the internal journey of my main character. Take a half dozen of your favorite books off the shelf and read the flap copy to learn how the book was distilled into a few lines. Does that flap copy do a good job of it? Would you have written it differently?

(If you are totally stuck and can’t figure out how to write the flap copy for your story, rewrite the copy for a book that you love.)