2018 was the Year of the New

Hello my Supes!

2018 was the year of a lot of new things. Mostly stressful. We got up early, we wrote out goals, we made lists, we watched new stuff to feed our muse. Some worked. Some didn't. Some messed me up for an entire month! (looking at you August).

Last month I missed my post because every word I wrote, I wanted to count towards my NaNoWriMo goals. I didn't make 50K, but I did something else that I haven't done in a while- WRITE.

See all of these new things, new practises, new philosophies finally kicked me into gear to write a NEW BOOK! After a year of editing and batting around a manuscript like a cat with a ball of yarn, I have finally cleared off my desk and de-cluttered my brain enough to start on another book.

From scratch.

Blank pages.

Beginning again.




And I'm not panicking because this 2018 Year of the New actually taught me a lot about my process, what I can keep and what I can't. What I can really do with out and what REALLY distracts me from writing.

One of the things I learned this year is that I still love learning and I have lots of things to learn about my craft and my process and the world. I'll be taking more classes to hone in on what I need to work on or just to stir the cobwebs off. I know I don't know it all, but I do know enough to be dangerous.

One of the other things I learned was that I am a hybrid author- both a plotter and a panster. I need to know where I'm going, but I don't want to know how to get there before I sit down to write. I still need the journeying. AND THE POST-ITS!!!

One of the things that I didn't love was getting up early. Yeah. Not happening. I am a devoted night owl so lets make #10pmwriteclub a thing.

I didn't get a chance to dress my muse or do some of the other stuff that Elizabeth Gilbert said to do in Big Magic, but I'm still writing, so I've got some time to keep exploring

And I hope you will keep exploring the paranormal writing life with me.

Carry Onward, dear readers,

Amanda Arista
Author and Night Owl
www.amandaarista.com

Wait...What...I missed an entire month?

2018 Year of the New: Get it together, Arista!

So apparently after my experiment with waking up early to find time to write (which did NOT work for me), it messed up my schedule so much that I missed an entire month. Like, where did September go?

Did I do stuff? I don't know.

Did I forget stuff? I don't know.

So obviously I need to get it together. I've got a few friends who keep it together with bullet journals
or gratitude books or fancy ways of keeping to-do lists and coloring and writing out what happened that week. They write down their shopping lists, schedules, and keep track of goals in it. And they are all colorful and on pretty pages in fancy journals with fancy tape.

I've never been a journal person. Even when I was little and everyone would get me journals, I would just use those to write stories in. I've never really chronicled my life in any way. Perhaps it is because I know that my external life is really boring, while my internal one is cray-cray.

But I've been reading a few articles in conjunction with the Year of the New and several mentioned writing out small goals. I wrote out my goals in May and that seemed to work. I hit every one of those, so perhaps, a mixture of smaller goals with some sort of journal to help chronicle exactly what I am doing with my time. I know that it won't slow down time, but it will at least help me see what I've been doing (if not writing). Small goals most often take the form of pages editing or words written toward a set number.

So as you can see to the left, I've gotten myself a SIMPLE calendar to put my stuff on and have marked out my need for this month: A final polish on a manuscript before it goes on submission. So a 300 page novel, with a need for about 20 pages a day to make sure that I can have it in my the middle of the month.

And I swear I am not hyperventilating at the sheer number of things on my calendar on the third day of the month (breathes into bag).

The other part of this goal-tracking thing seems to be rewarding yourself for a job well done. I wrote in August about feeding your muse, so it makes sense that once my monthly goals have been written down and achieved that I should get some sort of carrot at the end of the rope, right? I mean, no one edits because they like it, right?

And Netflix, as always has delivered, in the handsome and English embodiment of
Charlie Cox. Daredevil Season 3 comes out on October 19th. I have a huge spot in my heart for this city-driven and super violent show and this adorable actor, so it seems like it is the PERFECT reward for completing my editing goals for the month.

So lets get this month done people!!


Carry Onward, dear readers.

Amanda Arista
Author, Diaries of an Urban Panther series
www.amandaarista.com

Early to bed, early to rise

2018 Year of the New: 5am writers club.

I know. Just typing that makes me nervous. Especially because last month I was watching a bunch of stuff late into the night checking off my "To Watch" list. Now I'm getting up early?

Am I insane?

Yes, dear readers, but only for your amusement. 

So July, I did in fact watch a lot of muse-feeding Netflix. Learned about nuns and coffee and rewatched The Paradise (so many delectable longing glances across the room, swoon). It was a good, relaxing month. A much-needed muse break.

But the relaxing is over. I need to finish a manuscript and I've given myself to the end of September to complete it. Two months. So we are not playing around with this one.

Several of the writers I know with full-time jobs and kiddos participate in #5amwritersclub. They get up before dawn to make use of the wee hours of the morning when the house is quiet and their mind is fresh.

I scoffed at this the first time I heard it. I'm not a morning person. Not an early bird. I am a night owl. I have always been a night owl. I have always written after everyone has gone to bed. My brain gets going and I write until I drop. There was no way I was waking up that early!

However, I did want to test the notion that your mind is fresh when you wake up. You haven't gotten frustrated with your boss, you haven't made a heap of dishes after cooking dinner, you haven't given anyone any of your energy. Your book, your work, gets it all in the peaceful hours of the morning before the Chaos man arrives and hands you your daily package.

Now that was something I wanted to test.

I'm going to ease into it. Maybe just get up at 6am and start my day for a week. When the Bean starts school again, then I could maybe try for 5am. Most importantly, I am making time for myself. And Myself wants to get this book into a pretty draft form.

I've got my desk all ready. I've got my notebooks stacked. My coffee prepped. So you'll see me, dear readers, checking into the #5amwritersclub and I'll let you know how it goes.

Until then, carry on.

Amanda Arista
Author and Morning person?