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• Recent Comments

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    Brenna on #WriteMotivation Continues!

    Hey you! I haven't heard from you in a while, and this is old, so I was wondering how you...
    Posted Feb 06, 2012
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    Jenn on #WriteMotivation Continues!

    haha thanks!
    Posted Jan 17, 2012
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    K.T. Hanna on #WriteMotivation Continues!

    Oh I definitely agree. I think something writing related is still writing. Outlinging, Writing, Revising, Editing, Drafting out ways to improve...
    Posted Jan 17, 2012
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    Jenn on #WriteMotivation Continues!

    Thanks, you too! Oh...realized maybe I should have used my recommendation link for How To Revise...
    Posted Jan 16, 2012
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    Ceridwen on #WriteMotivation Continues!

    Good luck with your revision! And thanks for sharing the link. The site seems really interesting! :)
    Posted Jan 16, 2012

• Random Posts

  • Writer's Workshop: How to Make Fanfics Original
  • ROW80 - Check In #1
  • 10 Ways to Start a Novel
  • When Characters Make Poor Protagonists
  • Apologies
• Search for:

I clearly must love to be able to tell people “no, I can’t, I’m busy,” because I keep signing up for various writer things!

First, of course, is the Platform-Building Campaign. I love all the writers I’m meeting but good lord, there are so many of you! I read your posts, but I have to get better at commenting on them. Comments are near and dear to my heart, so I bet they are to yours too.

Earlier this week, I signed up for A Round of Words in 80 Days (or ROW80 for short). It’s like NaNoWriMo, but for more days and you get to set your own goals. I like how NaNo holds you accountable and provides you with a huge support group, but 50,000 words in November? I have only won that once, and it was because I didn’t have school or a job at the time. And this year I have both! So I’m going to set more manageable goals, like 750 words a day, which I chose because…

I joined 750 Words! It’s all about the rewards program. For writing 750 words a day for a certain number of days, you get a new badge. The penguin, for example, is what you get for 5 consecutive days, and I’ll have that Sunday if I keep it up! I am very reward motivated, but it doesn’t work when I give myself the reward. So I’m letting 750 Words do it for me!

Have you signed up for either of these? How do you keep yourself accountable to your writing?

Wow guys, feeling the love here. The One Lovely Blog Award comes from Brenna, who I’m so glad I’ve met. If I could return this award to you, I would!

Instead, I must pass it on to 15 more people. My goodness, another 15 people! Okay, here goes:

1. A Quid for the Quill
2. Bethany Lopez
3. Imagination to Publication
4. Ink & Prose
5. Jocelyn Rish
6. Rebekah Loper
7. Laura Ann Swanson
8. Life Debatable
9. Trisha Leaver
10. Write. Skate. Dream.
11. The Scribble Muse
12. F.E. Sewell
13. Callie Leuck Writing
14. Lauren Orsini
15. Kailer

Thank you, Rebekah, for the Versatile Blogger Award!

The rules for accepting the award are as follows:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them in your post.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass this Award along to 15 recently discovered blogs and let them know about it.

Now, since I’ve already given 10 things about myself here, I’m going to do 7 things about my lesser-known WIPs.

1. SER: I got the idea during my last morning in Sydney when I tried to look out the window at the darkness and saw part of my face reflected instead. Maybe because I was in Australia, but I instantly connected it with the Aboriginal belief that your soul can be stolen with a photo.
2. Fragment: Evolved from an Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfiction, set fifteen years in the future and followed Toph and her new deaf sandbender student as they try to stop assassinations of the new Earth King. I decided the story was too good to confine to a fanfic.
3. Sight: working title for an idea I got in Holly Lisle’s How to Think Sideways course (she made us think of ideas, no matter how many we already had – I was miffed at first, but now I’m glad she did!). I intend to write this story – about a serial killer in an alternate-Victorian Era London – for NaNoWriMo.
4. Gatekeepers: in order to learn more about my Zodiac members, I started a “fanfic.” I developed five or six new characters this way, as my MCs moved around the room. It’s an interesting technique, I may try it again next time I have a large ensemble cast.
5. Fairy Tales: The idea is to put the “fairy” back in “fairy tales.” I was never that into fairies, but after reading Jim C. Hines’ Stepsister Scheme and Kiersten White’s Paranormalcy (both of which you should read!), I fell in love with these tricky, ambiguous characters. I’ve started compiling ideas for tales that don’t traditionally have fairies, like Beauty and the Beast, Red Riding Hood, and Cinderella.
6. Jane Austen knock-offs: These ideas are on the far backburner. I’ve got a retelling of Emma where she wreaks havoc with love spells, and a part-experiment part-reality-show that tries to see if Austen fans can fall in love in the middle of a Regency fantasy. I love Austen and would love to write books based on her world – but as far as a driving need? Not there yet.
7. Fanfiction: In my second year of college, I wrote my first fanfic – Harry Potter and the Lost Island. Since then I’ve written a lot of Harry Potter and Avatar fiction, plus a few oddballs like Meet the Robinsons (my last and personal favorite for its uncharacteristic silliness). If you want to check out my stories, including the beginning of the Toph fic that has now become Fragment, you can find them under my alias polarbearmagus.

Now that I’ve sufficiently wow-ed you, here are the 15 people I’ve tagged!

Blissfully Brenna
Where I Get Wordy
Ninja Owl
It’s the world, dear
Juliana Haygert
Scarlets Sanctum
diannaswritingden
Chasing the Dream
Emy Shin
I’d Rather be Writing
the writer in me
Writing Soup
Silver Lining [having some site issues right now]
Something to Write About
Once Upon a Time…

Tracy gave me this award yesterday, so I’m passing it on!

“The basic idea of the Liebster Blog Award is to showcase bloggers with less than 200 followers. When you get the award, you keep the love going and give it to 5 other bloggers who have less than 200 followers.”

Here are some lovely ladies I follow, either from Ladies Who Critique or the Campaign – be sure to check them out!

Rebekah Loper

Laura Ann Swanson

Fairview

Ladonna Watkins

Nicole Settle

As promised, I have created a survey for you lovely readers. I want your opinions, especially your constructive criticism, and if I have to buy your love, so be it.

If you answer the survey, you qualify to win this book:

Incarceron, the dystopian story of a 17-year-old prisoner in a world frightened by change of any kind. Win it now!

Okay, not “now” now. Here are the directions:

1. Take the survey.
2. Post in the comments that you have taken the survey.
3. Nervously tap your fingers for one week until the morning of June 15th, when I announce the randomly drawn winner of Incarceron! If my readership is as low as I think it is, you have a very good shot! If it’s not, well, go me!

So you got all that? Survey, post, June 15th. Go!

Sorry for not posting after I got back from vacation. I’ve been running around trying to catch up on everything. But now I’m close enough I can return to the blog.

Here’s a small update / things you can look forward to:

• My first giveaway! I want to do a survey to figure out how best to improve my blog and its content. If you answer some silly questions, you’ll be entered to win a free book!
• A Hawaii-inspired post. A new writing method I’m trying that’s actually working. And…My Little Pony?
• My word count for Narrator and Fragment of the Moon is slowly leaping forward. I haven’t updated my progress bars because the former is counting by chapters and the latter is hand-written. But take my word for it: I’m on fire! (slow burn, anyway)

See you on Wednesday!

If you choose to scour the web, you’ll see hundreds of abandoned blogs. Either their authors forgot about them, or real life pulled them away, or they just plain ran out of things to say.

Blogging is not easy. You could throw up random posts about what you ate for breakfast or how much you hate football, but that’s not going to hold your readers’ attention or your own.

To write a blog that you’ll love to come back to, follow these simple steps:

1. Develop a niche. It’s easier to write about – and consequently find things to write about – something you love. Whether it’s books or movies or sports or Harry Potter, pick something you can talk about for hours and develop your blog around that theme. You’re not restricted to it – you can talk about whatever you want, really – but it provides a steady baseline and rich fodder.
2. Make a schedule and stick to it. It doesn’t matter how often you update (every day, week, month, whatever), as long as you are consistent. This helps you keep readers – and readers, in turn, help you keep going. And this actually helps you come up with ideas! Instead of putting off updating your blog for when you come up with something to write about, you’re forced to come up with something to write about anyway. Sometimes I don’t know what to do, but other times I’m completely swamped with ideas! Don’t skip a post unless absolutely necessary (I’m talking national emergency here).
3. Make some blogging friends. That’s right. The dreaded “n” word: Network. But if you look at it as making friends instead of “contacts,” it can be a lot of fun. I like reading what my online friends have to say, and I like talking to them about their posts in the comments. True friends will actually come back and comment on your posts.
4. Have fun with it. Don’t stress out about your blog. It’s meant to be fun, and entertaining. Don’t be afraid to mix it up a little either. Throw a contest. Start a blogging war. In short, do whatever you want! It’s your blog, which makes it as unique as you are.

Did you like my little inspirational language at the end? I thought you might. So be inspired and get writing!

• Welcome

  

  Hi, I'm Jenn, new grad student and old YA fantasy writer. I've long dreamed of being a novelist, and I bet you have too. I hope you find my blog helpful, inspiring, and maybe just a little bit fun. (But not too much fun. Writing is serious business, you know.)

  You can follow me on Twitter or Facebook, or email me at:
  jennifer.a.johnson7 at gmail dot com

• Official Progress

  
  

  4/21 segments

  
  A narrator hijacks a cliche fantasy story, much to the chagrin of its characters.

  Status: Second revision

  
  
  

  1,639/70,000 words

  A young noblewoman with strange powers must choose: her king or her soul.

  Status: First draft

  
  
  

  1,087/70,000 words

  When a girl's heart is stolen, she's plunged into a world of magic and shadows - but can she get her heart back before she loses it completely?

  Status: First draft

  
  
  
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  All writing, unless otherwise specified, is the property of
  Jennifer Johnson © 2010
  
  
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