Personal Challenges – Ruth Livingstone

In search of an Agent

5 Year Writing Goal: March update

I’m taking part in Misha and Beth’s Five Year Project and my five-year goal is to write a novel and get it published.

This is my update on progress this month with my historical novel, The Reluctant Scribe.

After the last piece of very helpful advice from an experienced reviewer, I have completed the following changes:

Inserted some introspective reflection to clearly explain my main protagonist’s final actions.
Rewritten the ending to include a very satisfactory revenge scene, where the main villain gets his just reward.
Inserted a prologue in order to set the context of the story for my reader.

Continue reading “In search of an Agent”

Five Year Writing Goal: May update

Thanks to a kind offer by a literary agent, I was forced to write a synopsis and finish the third draft of my novel.

Five Year Writing Goal

I’m taking part in Misha and Beth’s Five Year Project and my five-year goal is to write a novel and get it published.

It is two months since I last posted an update. Many distractions have interfered with my path to publication, but I have made some significant progress.
Continue reading “Five Year Writing Goal: May update”

A Five Year Writing Project

Being a writer without goals is a bit like setting off on a car journey without a clear destination in mind. You might have an interesting journey, but when you get to your final destination, was this really where you wanted to be?

Should you have long-term writing goal?

Yes. Of course. When writing, as in any other task, it seems blindingly obvious that a long-term goal is a jolly good idea. One reason to have a goal is this: if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re unlikely to ever get there.

It’s a bit like setting off on a car journey without a clear destination in mind. Which way would you turn at the crossroads? Which lane would you move into? You might have an interesting journey, but when you get to your final destination, was this really where you wanted to be?

So, the assumption is that if you have a clear goal – with a clear end in sight – you will know how to find the right path. And, once on the right path, Continue reading “A Five Year Writing Project”

Need a kick in the butt to write?

So many of us writers seem to find it hard to get down to the nitty-gritty business of writing. Myself included. We know we want to write. What stops us?

As writers we want to write. We know what we want to write and we know how to write it.
So, we simply sit down and write. Don’t we?

Finding it hard to write?

Well, actually, maybe it’s not quite as easy as that. So many of us writers seem to find it hard to get down to the nitty-gritty business of actually writing. Myself included. So I’m interested to know Continue reading “Need a kick in the butt to write?”

A Writer’s New Year Resolutions – review of the year.

Yes, it’s time to think of some New Year writing resolutions. I am very good at making ambitious plans but I wonder if I have managed to keep any of the resolutions that I made with such confidence at the beginning of 2012.

Now that Christmas is over, it’s time to finish off the chocolates and tidy up the Christmas wrapping paper. It is also time to get out my notebook and consider what I need to do next year with my writing.

Yes, it’s time to think of some New Year writing resolutions.

Before I begin thinking of the year ahead, it might be a good idea to reflect on what became of last year’s resolutions. I am very good at making ambitious plans but I wonder if I’ve managed to keep Continue reading “A Writer’s New Year Resolutions – review of the year.”