CALL FOR NUMBERS!

I'm expecting big numbers today since many of you were at the retreat!  Don't let this happen to you...

And since last week we hung out in the romance genre for our giveaway, this week we're wandering over to the children's section.   So post your numbers by Tuesday at midnight and be automatically entered into a giveaway for TWO fantabulous books.

Newbery Honor Book  The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper

And, Chase McKay Didn't Get Up Today by Cindy Williams 

(if you think you've seen this book before you have- Cindy was super generous in helping me out with this giveaway and has donated multiple books- thanks Cindy!)

THE WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED THURSDAY!

And the winner is...

Congrats Sarah M. Eden for winning this week's drawing! 

Message me at anwaevents at gmail dot com with your address and I'll get Donna's book sent out to you.

If you're feeling sad about not winning Donna's book, have no fear-- here is a message of inspiration from the author herself!

Chasing the Muse by Donna Hatch

 Sometimes the muse pours rich blessings down on the heads of us poor mortal writers, and sometimes they remain elusive and silent. Trying to write when your muse is silent can be a frustrating and seemingly futile endeavor. However, even the most uncooperative muses can be coaxed out of hiding by using a few simple steps.

First, go into a state of calm through prayer, meditation, or simply taking a few cleansing breaths. This helps clear away the noise in your head so you can write with clarity and purpose.  It also helps tap into your creative side and acts as gentle beckoning to the muse.

Then, whether or not your muse speaks, give yourself permission to write complete and total useless dribble that you will delete later. It's okay if you end up deleting everything you wrote when you edit your manuscript, it really is. The very act of writing or typing can jump start your creativity which will eventually lead to good writing later in the day or week. Also, the knowledge that there's no pressure to write something brilliant can turn off that often crippling self editor, thus allowing true expression to materialize.

 Finally, put your fingers on the keyboard, or around a pen if that’s your method, and start writing. Don't go back and proof, and don't correct anything you write. Let go of your concerns about whether there is enough or too much description or if what you just said is cliché. That can all be fixed later. Just write. Some of it will need correcting and editing--or even deleting--and that's okay. But some of it will be brilliant, and writing in that true creative zone can often reveal unknown and surprising details about your characters and even your plot.

So breathe, give yourself permission to make mistakes, and write!

Donna Hatch is the author of the award-winning Rogue Hearts Regency historical series. You can find her at www.donnahatch.com

CALL FOR NUMBERS!

I don't know about you guys, but this week has been TOUGH!  But we've got to push through it with a little (in honor of a tiny competition going on right now)

in the 

And what says "kick in the pants" better than a CALL FOR NUMBERS and a GIVEAWAY!

So post your numbers before midnight tomorrow night and get automatically entered into a giveaway for a SIGNED copy of Donna Hatch's The Stranger She Married

AND THE WINNER IS...

CONGRATULATIONS TO AZ SMITHS FOR WINNING OUR BOOK(S) GIVEAWAY THIS WEEK!

Message me here with your address and I'll get those books sent out to you.

For the rest of you, here is an encouraging message from our President-Elect, Cindy Williams: 

Writers Challenges! I love them! They are great! You accomplish tons!

Excessive use of exclamation marks! You have to know the rules to break the rules.

Writing is a lonely world. Sure there may be family running all around us. There may be patrons at the library shuffling quietly by or ruffling pages in books. The phone may be ringing, the washer and drying beeping, but it all boils down to diving into our computer all alone.

As a writer, we no longer have teachers calling for writing assignments. We don't have parents giving us chores to complete. We don't have a boss telling us to get this thing done. We have only ourselves and sitting our bottoms down and making magic flow from our fingertips. As writers, we are sometimes tough task masters, and at other times we are too soft on ourselves and give in to our own flimsy excuses.

A Writers Challenge meets these built in difficulties of being a writers.

If we jump in with both feet and report each day, we have a place of accountability. We support each other. We are in this together. We are no longer alone. Melinda Carroll, our ANWA Event Chair, set this up and not only cheers us on, but offers incentives to keep us excited, involved and motivated. Thank you Melinda for taking your time to run this.

We are ANWA! See us write!

Cindy R. Williams
ANWA President-Elect
(which just means Ghost of Christmas Future)

IT'S TIME FOR OUR OFFICIAL CALL FOR NUMBERS!

Summer is now in full swing. I always think it should be like this:

But instead it always seems to look more like this:

Or this:

Or this:

 So you deserve a big 

for reaching the goal so far!

***TO CELEBRATE OUR SECOND CALL FOR NUMBERS, EVERYONE WHO LEAVES THEIR WORD TOTALS (ESTIMATES OKAY) IN THE COMMENTS WILL BE ENTERED INTO A DRAWING FOR TWO BOOKS!

             

You have until 11:59 pm Pacific Daylight Time on Tuesday to post your numbers.  Winner will be announced on this blog on Thursday along with our weekly post on writing.  This week's post will be written by our President Elect (and author of Chase McKay Didn't Get Up Today), Cindy Williams.

HAPPY WRITING.  KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

CONGRATS TO THE WINNER

Be sure to check FB for the winner of CJ Hill's book, SLAYERS.  I will mail you the book at the first part of next week.  CONGRATULATIONS.

And to give you all a little inspiration to keep going on the challenge, here's a few tips on writing from Janette Rallison (AKA CJ Hill).  Be sure to check out her website here.

Ten Reasons You Should Be Writing

1)      You could be cleaning your fridge, and who wants to do that?
2)      Writing can be done in your pajamas.
3)      Writing doesn’t require you to drive anywhere, which means you’re saving the environment.

4)      Your computer will never gossip about you to other coworkers. (Although the computer and printer do snicker about you behind your back.)
5)      If you’re writing, both hands are on the keyboard and therefore not grabbing junkfood, which means writing is healthy.
6)      You can put the guys who dumped you in high school into your story—and kill them.
7)      Ditto for your bad bosses.
8)      Words last forever. Kapow—you’re immortal!
9)      Artists are expected to be eccentric. You can wear those fuzzy bunny slippers and people will
just shrug and say, “Well, you know, she is an arteest.”
10)   Writing is fun!

CALL FOR NUMBERS

Hey fabulous Summer Challenge ladies. Did you reach your goal for the week?  Judging from the FB posts, many of you overshot the goal in one day! You all deserve a giant round of applause.

IT'S TIME FOR ANOTHER GIVEAWAY!

Today is the official call for numbers.  Although normally the totals for the week would only be 700 words, since it's been a little over a week we're now at 900 words.  

***EVERYONE WHO LEAVES THEIR WORD TOTALS (ESTIMATES OKAY) IN THE COMMENTS WILL BE ENTERED INTO A DRAWING FOR A SIGNED COPY OF CJ HILL'S (AKA JANETTE RALLISON) SLAYERS***

You have until 11:59 pm Pacific Daylight Time on Tuesday to post your numbers.  Winner will be announced on FB on Thursday (this week only-- I'll be temporarily without a computer) but be sure to check back here too for inspiration in our weekly post on writing.  This week's post will be written by the wonderful author herself, Janette Rallison.

HAPPY WRITING.  KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

AND THE WINNER IS...

DENA HAYNES! 

 Congratulations, you've just won a $15 amazon gift card.  Email me and I'll email you the code!  

Thanks to all of you who are participating in our ANWA Summer Writing Challenge!  So far it's been super fun to see you post all your numbers.

Make sure to check back on Monday and officially post your numbers to be entered into next week's drawing.

Here's a little inspiration to help you keep going, from the website writetodone.com:

31 WAYS TO FIND INSPIRATION FOR YOUR WRITING:

1. Blogs. This is one of my favorites, of course. Aside from this blog, there are dozens of great blogs on writing and every topic under the sun. I like to read about what works for others — it inspires me to action!

2. Books. Maybe my favorite overall. I read writers I love (read about my current loves) and then I steal from them, analyze their writing, get inspired by their greatness. Fiction is my favorite, but I’ll devour anything. If you normally read just a couple of your favorite authors, try branching out into something different. You just might find new inspiration.

3. Overheard dialog. If I’m anywhere public, whether it be at a park or a mall or my workplace, sometimes I’ll eavesdrop on people. Not in a gross way or anything, but I’ll just keep quiet, and listen. I love hearing other people have conversations. Sometimes it doesn’t happen on purpose — you can’t help but overhear people sometimes. If you happen to overhear a snippet of interesting dialog, jot it down in your writing journal as soon as possible. It can serve as a model or inspiration for later writing.

4. Magazines. Good magazines aren’t always filled with great writing, but you can usually find one good piece of either fiction or non-fiction. Good for its writing style, its voice, its rhythm and ability to pull you along to the end. These pieces inspire me. And bad magazines, while perhaps not the best models for writing, can still be inspirations for ideas for good blog posts. These magazines, as they don’t draw readers with great writing, find interesting story angles to attract an audience.

5. Movies. Sometimes, while watching a movie, a character will say something so interesting that I’ll say, “That would make a great blog post!” or “I have to write that in my writing journal!” Sometimes screenwriters can write beautiful dialog. Other times I get inspired by the incredible camera work, the way that a face is framed by the camera, the beauty of the landscape captured on film.

WANT TO KNOW THE OTHER 26 WAYS?  CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE WEBSITE POST FOR YOURSELF.

KEEP UP THE AWESOME WORK LADIES!

Welcome to ANWA's Summer Writing Challenge!

Oh, what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is...

Do you...

Or...

And watch as...

Is that what you do?

NOPE!

***WE WRITE ***

ANWA's Summer Writing Challenge: 100 Words For 100 Days starts today! 

It's hard to find time to write when the world is green and we want to fish in a stream, or lazily dream, and watch as the clouds go by.  

Sometimes we just need a little extra encouragement.  So starting today and ending September 8th, ANWA is challenging YOU to write 100 WORDS FOR 100 DAYS.  

And what better way to kick off this challenge than 

A  GIVEAWAY!

Join the summer challenge and be automatically entered into a drawing for a $15 Amazon gift card.

There's 3 simple steps:

1. Join the ANWA Summer Writing Challenge FB event. Go to the ANWA FB page, click on the events button at the top, click on the ANWA Summer Writing Challenge, and join the event (all ANWA members have been previously invited to this-- so if these instructions don't work then check your email for the invite). You'll get notices when we do giveaways, occasional tips on writing, and be able to share your experiences with your fellow ANWA summer writers. 

2. Leave a comment here telling us what you plan to write this summer-- a book (genre is always fun too), a journal, a blog-- and you'll be automatically entered into our drawing.  Make sure to include a way to contact you if you win in your comment.

3. Be awesome.

(The drawing will end Tuesday, June 3rd at 11:59 pm.  Must be able to receive an amazon gift code by email. Winners will be announced and notified next week.)

Remember, the ultimate goal is to have 10,000 words written by the end of the summer- so if you miss a day or choose to skip Sundays don't worry. The beauty of only writing 100 words each day is that it's easy to catch up if you miss some time.

REPORTING YOUR NUMBERS:
Every MONDAY we will publish a blog post requesting your WEEKLY totals.  We're operating on the honor system here ladies.  Leave a comment on the post HERE ON THE BLOG (not on FB) by Tuesday 11:59 pm.

If you don't know your exact totals, but you know you've reached your goal for the week, then just post the estimate.  For example, this next Monday (June 9th) will be day #9 and you should be at 900 words by the end of the day, so post 900+ if you've written at least that amount.  

Everyone who posts their totals will be entered into a WEELY drawing for signed books, swag, etc!  The winner will be announced on the blog on Thursday of that week, along with some helpful writing tips from the ANWA Board of Directors.

GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY WRITING!!!