Article blog series and new blog title

Hello all,
I've been thinking about the direction of my blog for a while now and what value I want to give to those who read it. First of all it is of course a blog following my experiences as a new writer and in time hopefully as a professional writer but I have been thinking how best can I get that across without coming across as an egomaniac, or boring, self absorbed and so on. I had a few ideas and decided my favourite is to write my blog as a series of articles each coming back to a certain point. Which hopefully can show my own personal journey but also help other along theirs. I'm also changing the title of my blog Life Writing was only really temporary because I couldn't think of a better title but I am now changing to Resilient Writer, as that is what I am aiming for.

Any way with out further ado, I plan to write about my journey through writing via a series of articles, each article will belong to a category which I will outline below so you can find everything easily. The articles will be both personal and advice articles from my own tips and others I find from other wonderful people throughout the community.

Series include:
Back to Basics...
Just starting out in writing, not been writing very long or you just want to get back to the reasons you started in the first place, then you want back to basics. This section is all about the things you need to think about and do before anything else.

Levelling up...
Got the basics down, then its time to step it up a gear. Maybe you have sold your first article/ short story or eBook and want to progress into the big leagues, then this is the section for you. Featuring better equipment, tips, how to look through the eyes of a publisher plus much more.

Resilience/ Rejection...
It's going to come, you know it is. But how are you going to deal with it (bar screaming and shouting and sending an angry email to the publisher.) (Hint: this is a joke don't ever do this!) Tips on how to deal with the dreaded rejection letter from your very first one, to the day when you receive 15 of them.

10,000 hours...
They say it takes 10,000 hours to develop talent and this still doesn't guarantee success or a nice big fat pay check at the end... yet you are still writing. This section is dedicated to you, how to push on as well as challenges we can do together to reach the target.

Purpose and productivity...
What's your purpose/dream: to get published in your favourite magazine, to win a local competition, to win the Bridport prize for flash fiction, to sell 1 million copies of your book? Figure out your biggest dreams here and then how to find the time to pursue them.

Passion...
This section is all about drive and how other people keep it, this includes kick up the backside articles and answering some serious questions about your writing passion.

101...
This is writing 101, these are some pretty long articles featuring 101 things like inspiration, challenges, quotes and so on.

Competitions...
 This section will feature competitions up and coming, free competitions and the big competitions you can enter as well.

Down to business...
These articles will be for the business side of writing, how to deal with the finances, the day to day number counts, how to think like a professional, spreadsheets and the like. 

Personal...
There will still be personal articles on the blog, these will mostly report on my progress and goals once a month on the 1st.

Arriving late to the 2014 goal party

There’s always one! In my defence my internet connection has been all over the place for the last few months and I’ve been working on an unrelated project (Doesn’t life always get in the way) However I am back with a-vengeance posting my goals for the year today and then I have a post coming up on Wednesday and Thursday, Blogger may explode with confusion.

First off a review of my 2013 writing:

Could have been a lot better, I have had a big project going through 2013 which severely hampered my writing time as well as being in my accident at the end of 2012. However there are some positives:

1. I have my first finished poem, I have always started poems and have a stack of unfinished ones but I have got a finished poem this year (after 30 re-writes) small proof that I can finish what I start.

2. I have had 131 ideas for short stories, poems, articles, letters and books. Yes I am sad and keep a count of this each year, my mum has scheduled tests. I think it’s good though, I haven’t got up the confidence to send anything off yet so I need to find my goals and sense of achievements elsewhere.

3. Of those ideas I have had 3 fiction book ideas, one which I have made a start on and I am hoping to finish in 2014. I have also had 4 non-fiction book ideas which I am hoping to find the time to look at, at some point in my life.

4. I have wrote double what I wrote in 2012, even with the big project and accident and illness so at least my output is going up not down.

Disappointments of 2013:

1. I failed miserably at NaNoWriMo in November only getting just over 10,000 words; I’m going to give that another go this year.

2. I really wanted to get the courage up last year to send off my work for others to see, but the best I did was an extra family member and uni tutors.

Onwards to 2014:

Main, big goals:

1. My main big goal for 2014 is to finish the first draft my first novel, I made a start last year and have the general ideas laid out, I would like the novel to reach 100,000 words but I don't know if it will go over this. I have a good plan in place and I have high hopes for this goal this year.

2. My over-reaching main goal this year is to get up my output, both word count and submissions. So my second main goal for this year is to write 52 short stories, that is one short story a week. I don't suspect I will complete this goal but wanted to aim high and try and get as close as possible. Goal 1 will come first which will but this goal on the back burner some months. If that happens I will be happy as long as I tried my best.

3. Continue working hard with all my studies, I had to put off level 2 creative writing last year but hopefully I can finish it this year and I will be starting Level 3 Advanced creative writing in September/October. I will also be continuing on with my Writer’s Bureau comprehensive writing course, Poetry course and writing for competitions course. I am hoping to finish both poetry and writing for competitions courses this year. 

4. Complete National Novel Writing Month in November, I failed miserably last year but really would like to complete this just once to say I can do it, I have a lot going on at that time this year but I am going to give it my best go.

5. Publish non-fiction; Making a more concentrated effort on the non-fiction side this year, I’m hoping to start with trying to publish a reader’s letter which is the first goal and if I am able to do that I will move on to goal two; a filler.

Smaller goals, with just as much importance:

1. Go to my first writing retreat, I have never been to one but read many times from other writers about the many benefits. I am going to the winters fish guard at the end of this month and hopefully I can also get a place booked on the week long swan wick writers retreat as well.

2. Go to my first literacy festival, this year I want as many new writing experiences as i can and I have again read about the many writer benefits of these. I haven’t made an solid plans here yet but watch this space.

3. Visit the British library in London, I have been meaning to do this for a few years now and I have named a date after my University courses for this year finish so I can use this as a reward as well.

4. Join a writing group; I’m quite upset I was not able to get up the courage to do this last year. I am a very shy person and I haven’t had the chance to meet another writer in the flesh yet. I have found a writing group nearby that looks promising. I just need to get up the gumption to call and enquire.

5. Write more poetry; poetry is my first love, but I really want to make a living with my writing one day, which means very often it is on the back burner or the last thing I find time for. It will most likely be the same this year but I would like to put some time aside to write more this year. Last year I was able to finish my first poem and I would really love if I could add another say 5-10 completed poems to this total.

6. Read as much as possible; you cannot be a writer if you are not a reader, and due to time constraints I didn’t really read very much last year. I would like to read at least 5 writing books and 20 new fiction books.

Optional extra goal:

Start work on a cookbook – One of my main life goals is to publish cookbooks, I was a chef for a while and I adore everything about food, to trying new ingredients, trying new restaurants and recipes and of course eating. So this year in any spare time I am able to find I would really like to work towards this goal. I’m thinking of doing a sort of free “sample” cookbook first with a limited number of recipes just to gage reaction and iron out any wrinkles as well as seeing if I want to go down the e-publishing route instead of traditional. As this is just when I have a spare minute and due to the fact I have some big goals going on before it I expect progress here to be slow but I really would like to make a start on this goal this year.

That sounds like more than enough to be going on with for one year, I will post once a month as close to the 1^st of the month as possible, I’m away on the writer’s retreat in March so I won’t be posting until about the 4^th. 

I hope you all have a productive writing year.