Blog – Page 14 – Icess Fernandez Rojas

What I’ve learned about writing mysteries so far

I don’t remember the last time I’ve had so much fun and this amount of overwhelming work at the same time.

Making the decision to follow your childhood dream is one thing, actually doing it on the other hand…well…the devil’s the details.

I am writing a mystery series this year. More accurately, I’m self-publishing a mystery series this year. (That sentence hasn’t sunk in yet.)

I’ve written about the character, Jennie Manning, on this blog before. She’s essentially the type of detective I’ve wanted to read since I started reading the genre — she’s smart, strong, a smart-mouth, and lives in my hometown of Houston. She’s also great and her job but lousy at everything else. (Read more about her here.)

So, what’s the first step in following your childhood dream? Well, I had to learn how to write a mystery.

Is that so surprising that I didn’t know what I was doing at first? I didn’t. At least for a very long time. I had to learn by reading. A lot. And reading what I wanted to do. That meant lots of mysteries and noir because, let’s face it, I’m a noir person. Lots of Raymond Chandler. Lots of Walter Mosley. A dash of Hammett.

After that, I read what these writers said about writing detective stories. I’m really lucky that I found a book of letters Chandler wrote to various people, including his agent and other writers, about the art of writing detective fiction. In these letters, he specifically lays out exactly what these stories should be, what they should have, how they should read. This has been my blueprint and Bible all through this process. It was also the bases of my research paper in grad school.

You would think that at this point, I’d be ready but you’d be wrong. From there I kept reading and analyzing Chandler’s rules and theories while watching them in action in his stories and in the stories of others. In a way, I’ll always be doing that task making sure that I don’t miss an opportunity to learn how to be better.

In addition to reading detective fiction, I also read novels — fiction and non-fiction. Why? Because that’s what writers do. They read. They write. They read some more. They write some more. End of story.

But even after all this, after thinking and reading and researching and writing, there was still one more thing I had to do. I had to grow up. All the way up. This is what Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz talked about when he said these words:

“In order to write the book you want to write, in the end you have to become the person you need to become to write that book.”

And that was the hardest part about writing a mystery, at least this mystery. I had to become that person. I had to become the person who could write it and it took a long time to get there. I had the idea for Jennie Manning at 12! I graduated grad school nearly two years ago! I finished two other books and countless short stories before I even thought about attempting to write a mystery series, this mystery series, the one I always wanted and knew I’d write. This lesson, above all the other ones I’ve had to learn in this process, is the one that has been the most valuable. In short, every experience has lead me to this point.

I’ve grown up.

So, here’s where the grown up is at now. I’m currently in the middle of writing the first novel in the Jennie Manning Mystery series. Literally in the middle, I’m in triple digits now in the first draft. Once it comes closer, I’ll let everyone know the release date for the novel.

Meanwhile, want to get to know the story, the characters, the world of Jennie? I’m releasing short stories exclusively to the folks who sign up to get it. The folks on this list will not only get exclusive Jennie Manning short stories that won’t be published anywhere else but they’ll be the first to know when the book comes out and any other Jennie related news.

If I were you, I’d sign up. (The form is below).

Meanwhile, I’m writing like a mad woman and having fun in the process. Who says crime doesn’t pay? <insert grin and cackle here>

The truth according to Zora Neale Hurston

Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.

Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.

–Their Eyes Were Watching God

No post needed. The dream is the truth. Keep writing, folks! Happy birthday, Zora!

Happy New Year! Get rid of your resolutions!

Note: This is my 500th post! Wow!

Happy 2014!

Do me a favor, get rid of your resolutions.

This is the third year of me not promising anything to myself except one thing. I promise myself every year to take the opportunities as they come and learn from them.

Eventually, a theme begins to emerge. Last year, the theme was “revision”. Not only was I revising a novel (which I’m still doing) but also changing as a writer and a person. In 2013, I learned more of who I am and continued to develop the voice I had lost 10 years ago. I also helped a group of writers to find their voice and focus and I’m hoping to help more this year. I got a couple of things published in some national and international publications. As a result, opportunities came that moved me into a different stage.

So far, I’m finding the theme for 2014 is “grown woman” because grown women take care of business, even if it hurts. It sounds kind of ominous I know, but it isn’t. With the projects I’ve put in motion in 2013, 2014 will see them come to light. Here’s what I mean about taking care of business:

1.) My first novel, the first in the Jennie Manning Mysteries series, comes out this year. I’m currently writing a short story introducing her to the world. There’s a Christmas story that mystery fans have already read. Want a copy? Sign up here to get it.

2.) I’m working on a couple of pieces for some blogs and publications. Great stuff.

3.) One thing I love and plan to continue is teaching my creative writing class. The first class finished late last year and is the basis of a community of writers who not only support each other but keep each other accountable on their writing goals. I’ve given them a goal this year. Each of my students will be published. So, we’re continuing to work together on their writing. You need to be part of this class!

4.) I’m on a board! Of an arts group! I was asked late last year if I wanted to be on the board of the Noel Art’s Program here in Shreveport. When I heard about how they try to provide arts experiences to children and adults, I was sold. Super sold. I don’t usually like doing things like this but this was a great program I believed in.

See what I mean about resolutions? With them, I would have limited my year! I’m so excited for 2014 and I couldn’t have come to this point without getting rid of resolutions last year. By taking the opportunities that came to me, other bigger opportunities came along. What started off as a year of novel revision ended with life revision.

So, what will your theme be this year? Let me know in the comments below!

Getting back in the character saddle. A tale of growing up

I guess this excited feeling all started in middle school, truth be told.

For a science fair demonstration, I had to think of a cool non-experiment thing to do. Being artsy even then, I created a character that lived on Mars. I had to talk about how this Martian teenager lived using scientific research. I aced it because it was so darn creative.

But that character continued and I wrote short stories about her life on Mars. Her school, her friends, and her side kick.

As I became an adult, I didn’t think much about that character until more than five years ago. Jennie Manning popped into my head again but this time she wasn’t from Mars and she wasn’t a teenager. She was a detective and was a proper adult with a heartbreaking back story. Her side kick had a comical name but was ruthless when it came to detective work — Sherlock Drew (his parents were huge mystery nuts.)

In addition to no longer being a child, Jennie had a past and a purpose that drove her over the edge and down one side of a deep canyon. If it wasn’t for Sherlock….

But I put that story line and that book (which I began during a NaNoWriMo) aside. I wrote blog posts and articles. I went back to school and wrote other yet-to-be published books. And I read a lot, studying mystery writing from Raymond Chandler and Walter Mosley and Janet Evanovich and Graham Greene.

Now, as I’ve done all my life, I’ve come back to Jennie.

I’m excited that a Jennie Manning mystery will be my contribution to the Holiday Blog Tour this year. (I’m up this Sunday.) It’ll be the first time anyone has read or gotten to know this character I’ve grown up with. It’s her coming out party and like a proud parent I’m a bit nervous.

However, it’s been a blast getting to know Jennie again. After all these years, she’s still in my head and I still know her. It’s like no time has passed and I am picking up with this character exactly were I left off. This typically doesn’t happen when I walk away from a character from some reason and return to it. Heck, this doesn’t happen when I come back to a story the next day.

I’m excited and nervous. I actually smile while I’m writing her so I’m hoping you’ll like reading her.

Meanwhile, don’t expect to just see Jennie and her sidekick Sherlock just at Christmas. She’ll be back with a new adventure soon. There’s also some big plans for her in 2014 (to know more, sign up).

But let’s get back to the story coming out on Sunday. To celebrate her first story, I am giving away a $25 Amazon gift card to the folks who stop by and read the story. I’ll give out the full details then but I wanted to give you a heads up first!

And now back to writing. Back to the dream. If you could see my smile right now.

Writers and social media: A basic how to.

What an interesting turn of events!

Recently, I asked some of my writer friends through social media for some help. I ~~wanted~~ needed to do some vlogging and thought a Q&A would be the best thing. I haven’t done one so I asked my writer friends what questions do you think I should answer in a video. I opened up the topic to anything concerning writing.

I received social media questions, which is pretty cool if you think about it. Writers want to know about platform — growing and keeping it. That’s similar to some questions that I’ve gotten in the past from writers, i.e. how to blog, how to blog often, how to I get people to follow me. In the world of writing, and indie writers, these questions are important.

One of the questions I received from one of my writer friends is close to my heart. He asked:

How do you develop, maintain and satisfy your following? How many different social media platforms do you use? Which ones for what reasons?

I answered a version of this question before. It all starts, like most things in life, with a question: What is the goal? (I just realized that was very Clarice Lispector of me.)

From there, my fellow writers, your social media plan will take its own shape. Don’t know what I mean? Check out the video and you’ll understand a bit more.

Now it’s your turn. Have a writing question you want answered? I got you. Leave them in the comments below and I will include it in an upcoming Q&A video.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Icess Fernandez Rojas is a writer, blogger, teacher, and journalist. Her commentary has appeared in The Guardian and on Huffington Post Latino Voices. Her fiction has been published in literary journals/anthologies such as Minvera Rising and Soul’s Road. Her first book, the beginning of the Jennie Manning series, will come out next year. In addition to writing, Icess teaches fiction writing classes. Want to join the next group? Sign up or contact her.

The 10 books that changed my life…or something like that.

Let’s all admit it. We all have seen this Facebook status:

In your status list the 10 books that have more influenced you (or something like this).

Yes, I was tagged and yes I responded but not in the way most people did. I instead wanted to write a blog post because, if you’re going to list the 10 books that influenced you, it should take a bit of thought to finish.

And it did take thought. Not lots but some. The list of books surprised me a bit; they reflected exactly who I was and always wanted to be. These books are a chronicle to my path — from the humble beginnings to regaining my voice as a person, a Latina, and a writer.

Okay, I’m getting too deep. It’s only Monday and I still have four other days to think about.

So, because of their importance to my life, I’ve decided to chose 11 books. Yes, I’m some sort of rebel, a book ninja, if you will. There’s a reason for 11 books (please leave Doctor Who references in the comments) and I’ll explain why in a minute.

Here, listed for your reading pleasure, are my top 11 books.

1. The Boxcar Children and 2. Whispers from the Dead
I’ve paired these two ~~children’s~~ books together. I loved mysteries growing up and seeing the Boxcar Children on the shelf of my school library made me some sort of giddy. (Yes, I was the kid who lived in the library.) Of course I read Nancy Drew and Encyclopedia Brown but the Boxcar Children was my favorite series. Maybe because it was a bunch of kids living as hobos solving crimes…

Joan Lowery Nixon’s Whispers from the Dead was the first the time I thought I’d like to be a writer. I thought the story, which was adapted from a true story, was cool and haunting. Add to that that she lived in Houston, the whole experience of reading the book was pretty awesome. It was at that moment that I thought to myself that I’d like to write a book one day, the kind that made people scared to sleep. Hey, I was young. What did I know in middle school?

3. ) The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe

Boy, was I a twisted child.

In East Harris county in the 80s, there were no bookstores. In reality, there isn’t one now that isn’t at least a 30 minute drive. Growing up, the closest we came to books was the book section at Sam’s Club or toy section (!) at the Fiesta Mart, which is a grocery store chain. In Fiesta, classic books like Treasure Island and The Three Musketeers were adapted into these small thick books for children. My favorite was The Cask of Amontillado, you know, the story where someone is killed by being cemented into a wall.

Oh my! I was so twisted.

4. Bloody Waters

This was the first mystery series I read where the detective was Latina. It was the first time I had been to Miami and I had never left Houston. I was amazed and should have known then that mystery writing would be in my future. There was something about this detective, Lupe Solano, that made me happy. Maybe it was the fact that there was someone who was similar to me in the pages of a book. Or maybe it was that her family was so similar to mine so I could identify. Or maybe, the writer was the example I needed so that I could consider this path.

5. Dreaming in Cuban

This book was the first time I compared a book to food. Dreaming in Cuban was chocolate cake, German chocolate to be exact. The writing was so rich that the thin book took me six months to finish. I savored every word and so I was beginning to understand the importance of voice in my writing. That’s when I began my first book (which no one will ever see because it’s awful. Just really bad.)

Years later, when I met Cristina Garcia AND Ana Menendez during grad school. I fan-girled so hard!

6. Woodcuts of Women and 7. The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

These books came at a dark time of my life, the time when I had lost my voice and didn’t know who I was. I was filled with the definitions others had for me. They wanted me to be something they thought I should be. I wasn’t strong enough to say no yet and too scared to acknowledge I was lost.

At the time, these books and writers were my fresh air. They gave me permission to be me and at the time that was what I needed–permission.

8. Pedro Paramo

When I read this book, it blew me away! The language, the story, the crazy magical realism before it was magical realism. Amazing. I was fascinated by the language and the world books in general could build. This was when I fell back in love with writing in a way that I hadn’t before. This was my first semester in grad school. That love hasn’t ended.

9. The Power and the Glory

As a Catholic, this one shook me to the core. How Greene questions and yet absolves Christianity was remarkable. This book taught me that it was okay to question what you’ve been told and to seek the answers through the written word. The language was strong and gritty, unapologetic.

This was the point of my life that I was reclaiming my voice. The lesson from this book: if you want your voice back you need to have big brass ones to get it and to keep it. Don’t apologize. Ever.

10. The Hour of the Star

Clarice Lispector. That’s all I have to say. She is amazing. This book is art. I still think about the main character. This book and author was such an influence that I quoted it in my graduation speech.

It’s always the season for strawberries.

And that all leads to number 11: Chronicle of a Death Foretold

This book is the culmination of everything I learned and experienced as a writer and reader. It has bits of every book that influenced me throughout my life. It has the mystery, the magical elements, a bit of journalism (like Nixon), the questioning of societal norms, amazing writing. This book also taught me what I needed to know to be a writer and brought me closer to Gabriel Garcia Marquez in a weird way.

This is why I need 11, not 10 books. I can’t leave out this one. Ever.
So, there you have it. The books that made me and that have become part of my DNA. See why I needed the blog post? Why 11?

Now it’s your turn. What are your 10 (or 11) books?
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Youree Dr,Shreveport,United States

Be Neil Gaiman and make good art…maybe

Make good art.

I’m repeating this mantra to myself often. That’s all I have to, right? Make good art? That’s what Neil Gaiman says to do. It works for him so why not me?

Yeah, right.

That’s easier said than done. I have to do more than make good art, I have to make art and sometimes that’s the hardest part.

I have learned that I am a writer who gets testy when two things don’t happen.

1.) Writing

2.) Publication

Lately, neither has happened and it’s just getting on my nerves.

It’s the end of the semester, it’s the holiday season, it’s the time of the year where I get pulled into different directions except for the direction I’d like to go in. That’s the direction toward my writing desk where my computer’s abandonment issues grow worse by the minute.

I know what you’re thinking. I’m the queen of time management, finding time to writing even while washing dishes. If you put it that way, I guess I am. Through the years I’ve gotten quite good at writing in the in-between times of life — waiting in lines, in traffic, in meetings (shh!), while washing clothes, etc.

But these gray days have me with a writing itch that I can’t scratch until papers are graded, work is completed, errands are done.

I don’t know about you but sometimes I wonder, quite dramatically I may add, if I’ll ever write again. It’s during this time the gremlins begin to fill me with doubt and fear. I feel less writerly and more like a hack. Am I hack? I’ve written things people like to read right? Right. I can write pretty words. Just not today, at this moment. Right now, I can just do enough to pretend I’m a writer, to sit here and stare at the screen with stories needing attention and me just blah….

Will all due respect Mr. Gaiman, it’s gray, cold, ugly and it’s been awhile since the sparkly, happy feeling of publication and creation has visited. So, I’ll just settle for art. Anything. Just anything, even if it’s a finger painting.

Or a blog post with the most angsty stream of conscious on WordPress…at least for today.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:I-45 N,Shenandoah,United States

When it comes to social media, is it all about the numbers?

A recent Facebook conversation had me thinking about a burning social media question. Is having a lot of followers a good thing?

This is both an easy and hard question to answer.

It’s a hard question because some brands and companies will always think more is best and will go for the gusto, even paying for followers. They believe that this is the best strategy for their business and by just the sheer large numbers, the company’s engagement with its customers and its ability to sell to them will work. And maybe it works well for them, and their marketing strategy. It’s not my favorite strategy, though.

Thankfully, I advise writers on this. I also watch how other writers use social media to market themselves, so this is the part where it gets easy to answer the question. Specifically, I work with writers who don’t have much of a budget and therefore can’t really invest the money for the follows. So for them, I always start with this question:

What is the goal?

Different writers have different goals. I know that most would suspect that the goal is to sell books and, yes, that is part of the goal. Some want to sell enough to traditionally publish, some are independent authors and want to grow a fan base, and others want to grow a career. This last one, the goal of growing their career, is what social media is about. It’s called engagement.

Here’s what engagement doesn’t mean, numbers of followers/friends/pins/ etc. I know that this is shocking but having 1,000 people on one of your social media channels who don’t really engage with you isn’t as great as having 100 people who actively have conversations with you and around the topic you are writing about. Why? Because, like with everything else, people, more specifically the customer, feels more at ease buying what you have to sell when they are engaging with you.

Think of the general store. Yes, the customer will buy what they need but what they want (and what you want) is to feel good about their purchase and because if they do, they come back and buy more stuff. Sometimes, they even buy things you recommend to them because of your customer service (and of course your expertise. That’s another post for another day.) This is the ideal situation because now you are building a customer base, an engaged and returning customer base.

In short, engagement is really customer service.

Now, back to the question: what is the goal? If it’s to grow a fan base so that your writing career will grow, then you think customer service and engagement. They are one in the same in the digital world.

Then, dear writer, the next question is obviously this: who is your ideal customer? When you figure that out, you go where they are and engage. Go for the quality and keep engaging them, “them” become your future customer/ readers.

Some of the writers I love to watch and learn from (and I think do this really well) are Joann Penn and Alexis Grant. They always have such great information just like in this recent video they did together. They also watch how other writers and brands use social media to market their books/products, which is always neat to see.

So, is having a lot of followers a good thing? It depends on what the goal is and how you earned them.

Writers, how have you approached your social media marketing?

Get ready for the Holiday Blog Tour 2013

Photo used through Creative Commons and taken by Flickr user Cliff.

Can you believe it’s December 1? I can’t. My mind still thinks its October and I’m surprise that I can’t find candy corn in the stories.

But the calendar, the weather, and the radio are all tell me the same thing, that it’s nearly Christmas time and it’s time to plan the big blog event.

The Holiday Blog Tour 2014 is upon us. This is the third year for the blog tour but the first time for this blog has participated. This tour began on my old blog, Writing To Insanity. Now that I’ve moved over to WordPress, I’ve brought the tour with me.

What exactly is a blog tour? Happy you asked.

It’s exactly what it sounds. It’s a series of blog linked together. Each day, one blog in the group will offer a holiday story. It could be fiction, non-fiction, or memoir. After you read the story, the blog will point you to the next stop on the tour for the next day. Then the same thing happens.

For this particular tour we have eight stops, eight bloggers/writers. Most of the writers here are returning favorites. We have a new writer, Anabel Lucio Morales, who will be joining us for the first time this year.

The entire tour kicks off December 16 and ends December 23.

So who are the writers and their blogs? Without further ado, here are the participants in the third annual Holiday Blog Tour.

Dec. 16, Teresa Carbajal Ravet, SententiaVera.com

Dec. 17 Nathasha Alvarez, Audaciouslady.com

Dec. 18, Natasha Oliver, Peace and Center

Dec. 19, Nikki Kallio, More Purple Houses

Dec. 20, Lupe Mendez, The Poet Mendez

Dec. 21, Anabel Lucio Morales, My Meandering Thoughts

Dec. 22, Icess Fernandez Rojas, IcessFernandez.com

Dec. 23, Regina Tingle, ReginaTingle.com

Click on these bloggers’ blog and get to know them. Also, stay tuned to this one to learn more about these bloggers!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Icess Fernandez Rojas is a writer, blogger, teacher, and journalist. Her commentary has appeared in The Guardian and on Huffington Post Latino Voices. Her fiction has been published in literary journals/anthologies such as Minvera Rising and Soul’s Road. She’s working on her first book and teaches fiction writing classes. Contact her or sign up to know more.

How to finish your writing project like a BOSS

I received the best writing question today from one of my Twitter followers. @ShortT318 wrote:

Ms. @Icess How do you slay dragons with your pen? How do I keep myself from stopping on writing a story or article?

I get this question often and I’m a bit of an expert in it. See, I also run into this problem—so many ideas and so little time. I start and then I move on to the next idea even though I hadn’t finished the first one. It’s a thing I think most writers do. It comes from having so much love for what you do and/or you are scared that you won’t get around to writing all the ideas that come to your head.

During my reporting days, that was always something I was never a fan of – the story ideas that never got done. I had lists upon lists and file folders sitting on my desk with ideas that were so good that it made me daydream of the movie that would be made of me writing it. Ok, that’s an exaggeration but you know what I mean. Good ideas. You want to work on them all the time.

But here’s the thing, @GoodKidRachetCity and other writers, you will always have the ideas, you will drown in them, but know that the best ones will always find a way to the light.

Ah, but I haven’t answer the question yet—how to finish your writing project? Here’s what I do and I hope it helps all my writers out there.

What is it that you are actually writing?

There are different strategies for different types of writing. For articles/some blogposts, I use the “hard write” technique if I’m finding myself sluggish and deadline is looming. For articles, after I’ve already reported, I start with the quotes. I chose the ones I really want or know need to be in my article, then I write the transitions, then the nut graph(s), and then the lede. After all that, I read it to make sure it makes sense. This is the revision part, the part when I make sure sentences are complete and make sense, words are spelled correctly, and that the article is structurally sound and is the appropriate word/length count. It’s called a hard write because that’s what it is, the down and dirty part of writing this thing, the hard part. After you do the hard write a couple of times, you’ll have a tool in your tool belt and a technique to get things done.

Time, time, time

Here’s something that works well for blog posts and some short stories (like super short) and maybe a chapter or two. I set the egg timer for a certain amount of time and just race against the clock to get the post done. This was lovely when I did my own NaNoBloMo last year, writing a new post every day for two weeks (which turned into a month quickly). In the morning, I’d set my eggtimer for 30 minutes and write the post. However, I wouldn’t revise it until my lunch hour. By then my revision for the post would go quickly because the heavy lifting was already done. Then I would post and add the needed items – photo, links, etc – when I came home at night if I didn’t already post it at lunch time.

This is a technique I’ve talked about before being helpful for National Novel Writing Month. It’s the same basic concept except with blog posts and that pesky chapter you need to gain traction on.

Collecting string

This is a phrase that is used by some of the old school newspaper writers (of which I kinda consider myself to be one, if you can imagine that). Essentially, it’s a way to write lots of projects at the same time while still turning in something for the daily paper.

This is how it works. You collect the information you need for a story and set it aside in a file folder, or file on your computer, etc. During this time you’re still writing other things but for the bigger project or the project you can’t get to yet, you are saving the information that you need as you come across it. In fact you can start writing or interviewing, meantime you’re still writing other things. All the while you are saving these bits, i.e. collecting string. Once you have enough string, you can dedicate some time to finally putting it together. (It’s usually during this time that reporters go to their editors with an amazing budget line to sell it to them and therefore getting that precious day to one week to finish it. )

Writers who aren’t daily newspaper writers can do the same. In fact, I’m doing it now. While I’m finishing the first part of my short story, I’m researching the second part and beginning the novel that will be published next year, which I’ve been collecting string on. So how does that break down? The short will be completed and in revision in the next week. A file in my Scrivener program and a Pinterest board is helping me keep part two organized as I do online research and did a quick trip to Saint Louis. Meanwhile my novel, which I had been collecting string on since before this short story and is half way done, is ready for some dedicated time and will get it in about a week. Yup, that’s a lot of balls in the air.

Just sit down and finish

Above all else, the best technique is to just sit down and finish the thing. Find pockets of time. For example, I’m writing this post while at the beauty salon, under the drier. My laptop is on my lap, iTunes are playing in my ear, and my fingers are flying away at the keyboard. I knew I was going to be under this thing for at least an hour (ugh!) so I made sure I had something to fill my time and help me achieve my writing goals.

At this point you may be saying you don’t have time to get this done. Here’s some suggestions – get up an hour early, stay up an hour later, use your lunch time/break time, turn off the TV, don’t accept every invitation to go out, schedule dedicated writing time, plan a trip away to get some writing done.

There you have it, @@ShortT318 and all who aspire to write. There are your tips to “slay dragons with your pen daily”. Hope this helps!

Other writers, what tips do you have to manage your writing projects?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Icess Fernandez Rojas is a writer, blogger, teacher, and journalist. Her commentary has appeared in The Guardian and on Huffington Post Latino Voices. Her fiction has been published in literary journals/anthologies such as Minvera Rising and Soul’s Road. She’s working on her first book and teaches fiction writing classes. Contact her or sign up to know more.

Sharing is caring:

Sharing is caring:

Sharing is caring:

Sharing is caring:

Sharing is caring:

Sharing is caring:

Sharing is caring:

Sharing is caring:

Sharing is caring:

Sharing is caring: