It's all about Love, Love, Love, Love LOVE!

We all come into the New Year, usually, with something stirring in our brain.


Maybe it is a few resolutions (that statistics show we will renege on fairly quickly) or one word or just some goals you'd like to achieve this year. Maybe it's a special trip you'll go on this year for the first time (last year, we were looking forward to our FIRST trip to Disney!) or a milestone you'll look forward to.

Last year, I decided on the word HOPE. My book, A Side of Hope, was releasing that spring, and I just had a LOT to look forward too. New releases, ALLEYCAT new releases, trip to Disney, trip to SEE my alleycats, and my youngest who had been on a feeding tube since birth was---hopefully--- going to get her feeding tube taken out.

All of that happened, too!!!

But this year, I was contemplating the year and just really had no clue. I had no big plans (aside from book releases) and have a few really big writing decisions to make that I was (read: am) stressing over a little.

"Indecision" seemed to be the right word, but BOOOOOOOO on making THAT the word of the year.

Then it hit me.

Last year, A Side of Hope was releasing, and HOPE was my word. And while the correlation hadn't hit me until after the word felt spoken to my heart, it was like confirmation that it was supposed to be my word.

So this year, my next book to release will be A Side of Love, planned for February.

So could Love be my word?

The more I thought about it, the more right it felt.

It encompasses everything I really want to strive for this year.

I want to WRITE about the Love of God and the beautiful dance that is romantic love.
I want to LOVE OTHERS more, getting outside of my own comfort zone and desires.
I want to LOVE GOD more, maybe not MORE, but better, but putting him in priority over my life, instead of letting things of the world crowd in.
I want to LOVE MYSELF more, by taking care of my body, not eating so much junk.
I want to LOVE MY FAMILY more, be on my phone less and present more, to help make our home a cheerful place more where they feel loved and cherished (while still having important rules and boundaries.)

Maybe this doesn't seem super writing related. I'm sorry if not. But love is wrapped up SO much in my writing, and the theme is going to be a HUGE part of my books releasing this year.

So what about you? Do you have any themes of your year God is impressing on you for your writing this year?

Don’t Forget the Old Goals in the New 2015

Happy New Year!

It’s filling all the corners of the internet. Greetings from friends and people you bump into at the grocery store. It’s clogging our social media and reminding us that this is truly a new year.

I can’t believe how fast 2014 has gone. Those who said that the older you get the faster time flies, weren’t lying as I always thought they might have been. But 2015 is here. This much has proven true. Have you entered the Carol or Genesis awards yet? If you haven’t, you really should. Let this year be the year you don’t procrastinate on your entry submission and keep the coordinators (aka: myself and Pam) from hyperventilating over the details. 

Have you laid out your goals? Picked your One Word? Set the New Year’s resolution?

Can I encourage you to do one thing with your new year?

Pursue your dreams.

Finish your goals.

Complete what you started.

We think: New Year, how awesome! Let’s start something new.

But what if instead of starting something new that—let’s be honest here—we most likely won’t finish in 2015 before May rolls around, we finished what we have already started.

Are you putting off the edits? What is holding you back? Insecurity? Fear?

Are you waiting to finish that book until the “right time”? I’ll be brutally honest: that time is never going to show up unless you carve it from the granite that is your schedule.

Are you holding off entering the contest because you’re afraid that your book isn’t good enough to make it to the finals? I’ll ask you this: what if it is? You don’t learn unless you put your best foot forward. And sometimes that best yes is simply hitting “enter”.

New Years aren’t just an opportunity for the freshness of new projects; it’s also the perfect opportunity to take a fresh start on something you’ve been dragging your feet about.

Never has motivation run so clear and straight as it does in the New Year.

What about motivation for this thing you’ve come to dread you say? Thirty minutes a day on a project you loathe or simply tolerate will get you far if you concentrate only on that project for the sole thirty minutes. And you’re done. Move on to something you love or want to work with.

Provide yourself with rewards. A cookie, a chapter of the book you are dying to finish, an extra five minutes in a warm, soothing bath, an escape to your favorite coffee shop to people watch.

None of these things require money, but are things we often deprive ourselves of enjoying. Use this as fuel.

Old projects don’t have to take a back seat in priority to the projects you really want to work on, or vice versa. All you need is the determination to make this project happen.

See, New Years are fresh, beautiful opportunities. Yes, dream of the new idea, the next project, but don’t let the joy of starting something new, let you forget the thing you loved and couldn’t wait to start last year.

This could be the year that dream comes closer to coming true.

***This beautiful post brought to you by Casey Herringshaw saving Amy Leigh Simpson's hyde!

The Organized Writer: Why you need to use a day planner

It's the first day of a sparkling new year - so what better time to talk about the nuts and bolts of getting and staying organized?

Your first step to organizing your entire life this year is to invest in a good quality day planner. 

A day planner is different from a diary, a calendar, or a notebook.

The trouble for most writers is that they have multiple organizational systems in place. If you're using a calendar in conjunction with a desk diary, notebooks, sticky notes, notes on your phone, and more... then guess what? You're using too many systems, and likely creating overlap. This means wasted time, and the chance for information to get lost.

It's essential to have some sort of centralized system for your planning. For my writing, I use Scrivener. This is a great way to organise your plot outline, chapter notes, research, character profiles and more, in the same place as your actual manuscript. We've discussed the benefits of Scrivener here, so I won't repeat that information. Suffice it to say that if you don't yet have it - make it your New Year's duty to get your hot little writer's hands on this software, stat.

But the organized writer should also have a centralized system to track their daily life - their goals, to-do lists, daily schedule, appointments, word counts, writing (and other) expenses, and notes. Most standard desk diaries can't deal with all these things simultaneously without ending up in a confusing, inefficient, scrawled mess.

I may be speaking from experience.

I recently discovered the FranklinCovey day planner and believe it has all the elements necessary to help the most chaotic writer streamline and organize their time. I'm no sales rep for this company - I just like the product and believe it's worth recommending.

Here's an image of what you'll find inside. Each calendar day has an appointment schedule, a separate Prioritized Daily Task List, a Daily Tracker (where you can track things like word count, exercise, calories... whatever is pertinent and helpful to your daily goals) and a large page for daily notes.

The system includes monthly and weekly overviews, so you can set goals for the month and then break them down into weekly and daily actions.

You can also personalize your planner with a variety of additional forms and inserts.

There's a dedicated goal planning form:

A monthly expenses envelope to store receipts and record expenses:

... And many more additional forms, including vehicle logs, dedicated exercise trackers, meeting notes templates, and so on.

I'm excited about the potential to have everything in one place. As a busy mum of three small kids, I need to be able to plan several things simultaneously - writing and blogging schedules, activities I've planned for my kids, and daily appointments. Last year I used two different diary systems to try to co-ordinate the different aspects of my life, and needless to say, this approach was not a rousing success.

Here's to consolidating, streamlining and organizing ourselves for a fresh New Year.

If you're interested, you can find the FranklinCovey day planner system here (US site) or here (Australian site.)

Do you use a day planner? What other tried-and-true organization methods do you swear by? What steps would you like to take to organize yourself for this new year?

TWEETABLES

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Karen Schravemade lives in Australia. When she's not chasing after three small children, she spends her spare minutes daydreaming about the intricate lives of characters who don't actually exist. Find her on her website and Twitter.