New Name, Slight Change

As some may have noticed, the title of this blog has changed along with the link. This used to be It's In The Book, located at itsinthbookde.blogspot.com. However, the time came for a change. I'm still writing and hope to be ready to submit in search of an agent this year. I still will blog about my writing here, and general writing topics over at dawnembers.blogspot.com and am trying to get to a regular blogging schedule. This change is for the good, to give me a good place to focus my energy and stay motivated in my goals for the year, along with life.


Some might think it's a strange or bad move to put two different focuses on the same blog, since they say a blog should focus on one topic only. I disagree because the two topics have a connection and in a way this is the closest thing to a diary I will ever have since I don't like writing about myself most of the time. I have to break that here, but it's a challenge, and I'm going to accept that fact. Now instead of rambling, I should actually get to the explanation.

Image links:

fiction image

ampersand image

fitness image

The blog is now: Fiction & Fitness

There are a few reasons behind this change that require me to give some personal information about myself. As I discussed on an April post for the A to Z challenge once, I am short. I don't know the conversion to my height, but for where I live, I'm 4 feet, 11.5 inches. So, almost 5 feet tall but never quite made it. I am female, if my pen name doesn't give that away and like many people I am overweight. (Now it sounds like one of those anonymous support groups...) While writing is great, it's not the most active venture. I can spend hours just sitting on the computer writing or pretending I'm writing. I'm not the most active and certainly not in shape, and despite the years of sports as a kid/pre-teen/teen, have never been in shape or fit. So, I decided time for a change.

I struggled to come up with a title for this blog because I wanted to combine my focus on writing and my focus on getting healthier into the same place. I could have started a blog for just health but I have too many blogs already and think this combination will work out in its own way. When it comes down to it, the real issue is what I am going to make priorities in my life and I want both. I want to both write novels and have a healthy life.

The name came after quite a struggle. I considered things like writing to a healthy life and what not but each one I thought of made it sound like I was writing books about health. To clarify, no I'm not writing a health book. A search through the dictionary showed "fitness" as a synonym to the word "health". I thought about it and liked the idea of Fiction and Fitness. I hope that this doesn't confuse anyone and it showcases that this blog is about my writing fiction and my journey to a fit life. That is my intentions in the end.

That is why this blog has the new name and focus. Next I will post about my goals in a couple of days, some things I want to accomplish, how to accomplish them, and I might even consider posting pictures. Have to wait to find out.

February Insecure Writering Post

Hello there. For anyone that does find this post, you might come upon a slight surprise if you have visited my blog before. Yes, my blog is in the middle of a revamp and I have done something big. I have changed the name and the link for the blog. It's In The Book DE blog is no longer.

Welcome to Fiction & Fitness

I will do a more official post explaining the change, but today is the day for Insecure Writer's Support Group and that is what my post is about. I have all kinds of insecurities when it comes to writing and health, so time to put one up for the month.

Normally I do link the whole set of people taking part in the post but that takes up a lot of space. So, instead here is the link to the page that has the listing of blogs taking part in this. Go check them out too.
 Link: Insecure Writer's Support Group

Now to my actual topic. Last month I was insecure about not finishing anything. My progress editing is still slow but I am making progress. So, now for something else. I'm going to revisit a topic I have blogged about before but not sure if it was with IWSG.

SNI Syndrome - aka Shiny New Idea Syndrome

Now this doesn't sound like an issue for insecurity minus the adding of the word syndrome to the cute title, but for me, it's a big issue that I struggle to overcome all the time. I have way too many ideas and they all sound so nice and great. (Okay this is similar to the I can't finish anything post after all.) And even now, I have a new novella that I'm attempting to slowly write even though I have 4 finished first drafts, 2 novels I'm editing and like 5 novels I need to finish first drafts on. Why is the shy new idea so hard to pass by without writing a little bit of it?

I am easily distracted, if you didn't notice already, and so it's a struggle to focus on anything for a long period of time, or to focus on just one story in general. I can barely focus on one novel during November and manage more because I'm doing intense word counts (last year being the craziest so far). But most of the year I hop for novel to novel and work on them in spurts while adding mini scenes and stories written on the sidelines.

What makes me put this with the insecure post is the connection in part to the struggle to finish but it's really a question of whether it's just my method or if it's a hindering factor in my journey. Does getting distracted often hurt my goal? Or am I just a distracted writer who will work on 20 projects and take longer to finish them? I'm not sure yet.


Do you get easily distracted?
SNI or just a great way to get several things done at a slower pace?

Revamping Blog

I am making some changes to this blog. It is going to focus on my personal writing still, but I'm also going to add a health side to the blog. I'm going to track my progress on changing over to a healthy lifestyle while trying to get my novels finished and published.

I am going to even change the title and url for the blog. I am thinking of something along the lines of Writing to a Healthy Lifestyle, but we will wait and see what is available.

Don't worry. I plan to blog more often with this new change and hope people still enjoy the posts. And if anyone knows of any blogfests, I would love to know about them. I fell out of touch with all the blogfests and want to get back into the blogging world.

That is all for now, I have blog backgrounds to search through.

IWSG Finish Worry

It's a new year and while there are many going with resolutions and goals (I did my goal post this morning) it's also a good time for an Insecure Writers Support Group post.

Right now in my writing I'm at the editing phase, or at least the trying to edit around work and slacking off phase. And I'm back to a familiar insecurity: can I ever finish?

This is an insecurity that was first faced with just finishing a novel first draft. 2 years of attempts at NaNoWriMo and only getting up to 14,000 words on a single story certainly made me wonder/doubt back then if I could actually finish a single novel. Never imagined I could write a whole novel, let alone doing it in a month. But oh have I changed on that front. Now I just wrote 165k in November and have 4 finished first drafts with 5+ in the middle of with promise of finish. But a finished first draft isn't the end of the process.

Will I ever finish editing? Will I ever get something ready to submit?

I don't know yet because I haven't done it before but like NaNo, I'm going to keep trying until it happens.


Do you worry about this?

2013 Goals

Goal time once again. Here are some of the things I plan to work on in 2013 and maybe this time I won't get distracted and forget about them during the year.


Writing (novels)
Edit TT and SG, send to test readers, prepare for submission
Finish first draft of AF, OiEM, LtW and/or AD, TK, GaD
Try not to start new novel at least until November if at all.
Be closer to submitting by my birthday (end of August)

Reading
read 50 books/manga/etc

Life
Eat healthier
Make progress in life plans


What are your goals for 2013?

2012 in Review

Time to look at 2012 and how it went.

It has been an interesting year full of good and bad for the world and everyone in it. I had quite a few changes go on during the year but luckily not too many very bad things.

Timeline of 2012 in blog posts reflection
January - New Year and Goals
4 blog posts during the month: progress report, goals, pick what I read, worldbuilding magic

February - Writing or Editing
1 post: novel writing month or editing writing month

March - Worldbuilding
1 post: gender roles in worldbuilding

April - A to Z blog Challenge
27 posts: won't name them all, went through alphabet for blogfest

May - Prep for June
1 post: camp nano

June - Moved
1 post: goals

July - Settling In
2 posts: July goals, progress

August - Still Settling
1 post: August goals

September - NaNo Thoughts
3 posts: the one, nanowrimo ideas, novels chosen to prep

October - NaNo Prep
1 post: nanowrimo

November - NaNoWriMo and New Job
3 posts: why nano, crazy word counts, December

December - End of Year Goals
1 post - December goals



Past Goals Revisited

I had many goal posts and progress reports as some months that's about all I posted. But now it's time to look at the whole year and the goals I made back at the beginning of January.

2012 goals


- Finish at least two first drafts of started novels: Angel/Demon, Thomas/Kyle, OttoHahn in E Minor or Lighting the Wall.
- Edit two novels.
- Be ready to submit to an agent by the end of the year.
- Reading 50 books
- Keep track of all fiction written, word count wise

How did I do?
- forgot to keep track of word count as of February
- read 47 books thanks to online manga
- editing turned out more a challenge and took longer to do the notes and get started on changes so both the edit goal and submit goal didn't work out
- didn't finish any novels but came close with a brand new one I started in nanowrimo
- wrote many flash fiction scenes, couple chapters in novels listed above but also in 2010 nano novel, wrote 165k in new novel (which will be 2 novels in rewrite) for nanowrimo this year and made some progress in non-writing goals that include moving out on my own and finding a new job.

2013 goals and January goals will be next.

http://www.wallpaperzhd.com/happy-new-year-2013.html#

December Goals 2012

Wow. It's December already. The year 2012 is almost over and done with, hard to believe such but the year did go by very fast. 2012 has brought many changes and some stagnation (sorry blog, I didn't mean to ignore you). But I'm ready to finish the year with a flurry of activity as I prepare for 2013!


November went well for me. I wrote 165,000 words in a novel, that in rewrites will become 2 novels. I also started a new job. Working 30-40 hours a week now, which is a relief because I was stressed financially for all of summer. Things are getting better and I will still have some time to dedicate to writing, editing, blogging and reading. I have some goals that I will post for 2013 towards the end of the month as I'm getting together timelines for the next steps in my life because OMG, 2013 is almost here. I have a class reunion I have to decide about going to or not, both my parents are turning 50 so need to plan events for that, and yeah, other survival stuff along with how to get a novel ready to submit to agents.

But that can wait. For now, it's still 2012.



December Goals


Edit TT and SG (mutant novels, one YA and other is adult)
Read 2 books
Post 1-2 times on each blog
Finish AF (NaNo novel)
Review and other WDC stuff



What are your goals for December?
Are you ready for 2012 to end?