5 tips for finishing your writing project

July 26, 2025July 25, 2025 ~ sharon ~ Leave a comment

My local writing group just held its first Writing Day Camp for Big Kids (high school age and older). My contribution was this list of tips to help finish.

1. Pick your project

What sort of project do you want to try? Aiming for a well-written family Christmas card is a much different goal that trying to write a full novel. Knowing what your goal is will help you figure out how much time you’ll need to plan for the project.

If you’re just getting started with writing, it may help to begin with smaller projects so you can learn how nice it feels–and how long it really takes–to finish something.

2. Get started

There is no right way to start your project. We’ve shown you how to start from a prompt today. You can also start from scratch, a process many call pantsing – writing by the seat of your pants. Or you can plot. If you like the idea of plotting, there are all sorts of free resources on the web, including:

https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/narrative-writing/ (This is for teachers to guide students, but it has all the main steps for planning a story.)

https://jerichowriters.com/how-to-plot-a-novel/ (standard plotting)

https://jerichowriters.com/how-to-plot/ (“snowflake” plotting

Sites like these will often ask you to sign up for newsletters or buy classes or services. Feel free to ignore the requests. You can look at these without buying anything.

A book may be bigger than what you want to do, but the steps and advice can be pared down to smaller projects.

3. Schedule time to write

Put writing time in your calendar. One of the biggest problems we Gals have faced is working writing into our lives. And while you often hear the advice that your must write every day, it’s more important to keep to a schedule even if it’s less frequent. I know a couple of novelists who have completed books with the bulk of their writing time coming on weekends.

Seriously, if you keep a calendar, put your writing time on it. In BIG HIGHLIGHTED LETTERS if that helps.

If you miss a writing appointment, don’t quit. Just pick up at your next scheduled date. It’s all about building a habit.

4. Read

Read often and widely. Stephen King says he writes every morning and reads every afternoon. It helps to read the kinds of articles, essays or books you want to write. But it also helps to read well-written books of any type. Fiction or nonfiction, literary or genre. I’ve always believed the rules of writing seeped into my mind as I read books, magazines and newspapers as a child. I was good at writing in school not because I could diagram sentences well – I hated doing that—or because I remember all the rules of grammar. I still think I learn every time I read someone else’s work.

To keep your reading on track, there are books clubs in the area. I belong to a couple online and a couple at the Freeport Public Library. Check your nearest library to see if they have one.

5. Find your writing group

There are any number of regional, national, and international organizations for writers. They revolve around topics, genres and geographic areas. Some meet online, some in person. Membership costs vary. Here are a few to consider:

Chicago Writers Association — https://www.chicagowrites.org/join

Northern Illinois Newspaper Association — https://ninaonlinedotorg.wordpress.com/membership-2/

National Federal of Press Women — https://www.nfpw.org/join-nfpw

Illinois Women’s Press Association — https://www.iwpa.org/membership/join-us/

Wisconsin Writers Association — https://wiwrite.org/about-wwa-2/join

Off Campus Writers’ Workshop — https://ocww.info/join-ocww

Sisters in Crime — https://www.sistersincrime.org/page/join-now (There are Chicagoland and Wisconsin chapters of this group, as well as the totally online Guppy chapter.)

Women Fiction Writers Association — https://wfwa.memberclicks.net/index.php?option=com_mcform&view=ngforms&id=38580#/

Academy of American Poets — https://poets.org/membership

Haiku Society of America — https://www.hsa-haiku.org/join.htm

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators — https://www.scbwi.org/membership

Creative Academy for Writers — https://creativeacademyforwriters.com/join-us/ (This group is headquartered in Vancouver, BC, Canada. You can join and take part in many activities for free.)

Historical Novel Society — https://historicalnovelsociety.org/members/why-join-the-society/ (Founded in the UK, it also has a US headquarters.)

American Christian Fiction Writers — https://acfw.com/acfw-membership/

National Association of Memoir Writers — https://www.namw.org/become-a-member/

Speculative Literature Foundation — https://speculativeliterature.org/membership/ (For information about the Chicago chapter, drop a note to lewella@speculativeliterature.org.)

Happy writing, everyone.

À bientôt!

Short stories are fun

March 31, 2025 ~ sharon ~ Leave a comment

But that doesn’t mean they’re easy.

Some writers I know have said short stories are much harder than novels because you have to make every word count.

I just happen to have a long-standing love of the short story that started when I discovered science fiction magazines when I was in high school. That’s when I wrote my first short stories, all centering around sci-fi topics.

When my kids were little, I read mostly magazine short stories for the same reason I had a subscription to Reader’s Digest. I could devote a few minutes to reading after the kids went to bed or between tasks. I could get a beginning, middle and end in one sitting, something impossible with a novel.

When I discovered audio books that I could listen to on my commute, I did get back into novels and longer non-fiction, which pushed short stories into the background of my reading and writing. But in the past couple of years, I’ve rediscovered the format and jumped back in.

I’ve submitted short stories to a few anthologies, and won a spot in the Guppy anthology, Gone Fishin’: Crime Takes a Holiday. For those, I wrote stories, and sent them into the virtual slush pile for editors to evaluate without knowing who I am. For this story, third time was a charm, and I got to work with editor Jim Jackson of Wolf’s Echo Press, who really helped me improve the final version of “Blood on the White Rose.”

I’d already run several iterations of the story through my critique partners. Four in particular kept telling me the story on the page wasn’t the story I kept saying it was. Finally, days before the submission deadline, they got through to me. At least they spurred me on to rewrite the entire story, bringing forth a more fleshed out main character, and cutting the duration of the events. In its first version, the story took place over a period of weeks. In the end, it lasted something under 24 hours.

What really intrigues me about the OCWW process, though, is the attention to the story before it ever sees an editor. I was assigned to a critique group, given a deadline of March 20 to submit a draft, and received copies of my critique partners’ stories to review before our first critique meeting on April 1.

Of course, I had more than one short story I thought might fit the anthology theme: I didn’t see that coming. I sent two and asked the group to help me select one for my final focus. We’ll see what they say, because I will need to make a first round of revisions before our next meeting, April 17.

But we have until late June to work with each other before our next submission deadline. At that point, we’ll go into a developmental editing process. I have never done anything explicitly called developmental editing, although I may find that’s exactly what I went through with Jim.

I have always imagined developmental editing is something that takes place while the story or novel is in the draft stages with the author. I’m looking forward to being more enlightened as we head toward a 2026 publication of the OCWW anthology. I’ll keep you posted.

À bientôt!

Join my launch party

February 12, 2025 ~ sharon ~ Leave a comment

Have you heard of a book launch party? They are a way of celebrating new publications with friends and families.

My short story, “Blood on the White Rose,” appears in Gone Fishin’: Crime Takes a Holiday, the eighth Sisters in Crime Guppy chapter anthology.

Not only is the story my first fiction publication, it’s also my first foray into book promotion. At least I’ll be part of a group, which makes me feel more comfortable about the process.

But I’d love you to join me when we debut our book in an online “gala” on Feb. 17 at 6 p.m. CT. Well, I think there will be something of the “gala” about it. I guess we’ll find out about that together.

You will need to register in advance at https://sistersincrime-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_J2jaejhdRCCrcAtSJrO-DA. Please join us for our debut.

Winter market

January 31, 2025February 2, 2025 ~ sharon ~ 4 Comments

Farmers’ markets in my area are suimmer affairs that I rarely attend. I live on a country road and there are sale signs for eggs and honey and corn and more about a mile in any direction. But when the “season” is over, some of those signs come down.

I ventured south this month to drive a friend home to Houston and stayed for a short visit. On one of our outings, we went to a farmers’ market on a warm (only needed a sweater) winter day. I bought a few things, but I suspect my favorite will be my poem.

With her portable typewriter and tip jar, a young woman studying to be a midwife and doula was raising money to open a business to help women during pregnancy and birth. Her sign, painted on the typewriter case, drew me in immediately.

I’d heard of people who sell poems by request. I’ve even toyed with the idea of offering that kind of servicde at charity events, but never followed through.

Ziara Kýre York, however, has taken the plunge. Sitting at her small table between market stalls, she waited with a smile for someone to check out her wares. I asked for a short poem about vacation, dropped a bill into her jar, and waited a few minutes as she wound a pre-cut, thick sheet of creamy paper under the platten, thought for a few minues, and began to type.

I bought cookies and a mug warmer, all-natural snacks and a pottery pencil holder. I talked to farmers, crafters and a painter, listened to music from a lone guitarist in the midst of the fair. But at home, I’ll be buying a frame for my original poem about “vacation” to hang it on the wall near my computer. It’s nice to honor a crafter who works in the same medium that I do … words.

A bientôt!

In the waning of the year

December 20, 2024January 1, 2025 ~ sharon ~ Leave a comment

(I wrote this for my turn on my Lake Summerset Writing Gals blog, but it’s doing double duty this month.)

Cold weather tends to put me in mind of warm fires, hot mulled wine and poetry. Sadly, I have no fireplace. (But I can always put that Netflix fireplace video on my TV.) I can manage the wine, or maybe hot chocolate, and I always have poetry.

I still remember the day I discovered Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses in the kids’ section of my hometown library. One of my favorites was “My Shadow.”

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.
– Robert Louis Stevenson

At one point in my life, I memorized “My Shadow” and a few other verses in the book.

When I was in high school, John Lennon’s poem, “The Toy Boy” appeared in McCall’s Magazine. I cut out the page, memorized the poem, and took it on the road as my entry for our forensics club in the poetry category. (Back then forensics meant speech team, not CSI.) I think it’s still in my filing cabinet, but I haven’t looked for it in years. I did manage to find a post of the original image on Pinterest. I printed a copy and it’s hanging on the wall near my computer.

I just discovered “December” by Joseph D. Herron. I don’t know much about the author, but it felt right for the snowless chills we’ve had lately. The poem is included at one of my favorite websites — DiscoverPoetry.com. Another site I like is PoetryFoundation.org, which publishes Poetry Magazine. Both sites feature a poem each day; you can subscribe for free to have them emailed to you.

A third favorite poetry site is the Haiku Society of America. I love haiku, a traditional Japanese form of poetry. Like English sonnets, haiku has a specific format: seventeen syllables in three lines of five, seven and five. I was taught that the original haikus, before they even had that name, were supposed to be about nature. Today, at least in English, that rule has been abandoned. I’ve also seen variations on the seventeen-syllable format.

My first writing successes came in the newspaper business. But my first printed work that wasn’t nonfiction was poetry. I submitted several to my college literary magazine. A long-ish free verse took first place one year. A few of my haikus were also selected for publication there and in other small-circulation volumes.

I’ve never entirely abandoned my interest. I think my “old-year’s resolution” will be to read at least one poem a day before I start my own writing. I think it inspires me to write with all my senses. Maybe it will inspire others, too.