Monday Motivation ~ Finish This Book

Trying to increase my daily word count and not hate my summertime writing

I'm struggling with my writing right now and I'm going to blame it on the summer. I love having my kids home! I love our backyard sleepovers and movie marathons and barbecues. It's just hard to find motivation when other things are going on. or MAYBE I hate the ending of the book and need to rewrite it but I'm not sure how so that probably means I need to go back and see where the story took a wrong turn and then I need to revise it or take out the offending chapters. pantpantpant. UGH.


I just read a book about increasing word count that I really enjoyed. I mostly read the first part and skimmed the second (it dealt with plotting a novel but I'm not ready to write a new story yet).

2K to 10K: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love by Rachel Aaron

These are the three ideas I took away from the book:

1. Everyday before you open the word doc of your story, take 5 minutes to write out what you're going to write for the day.

*This is actually what I decided to start doing before I read this book.

2. After writing your 5 minutes, see how you feel. If you're excited about the scene, write it! If you're not, rework it until you are excited. No more boring scenes in your story.

*I can get behind this idea, obviously! Here's to trying something new.

3. Everyday keep a record of your writing. Make a note of the time you start, time you stop, how many words and where you wrote. The author keeps these stats in excel and tracks when her most productive times and places for word count is.

*I love this idea. I also found an app that helps a little bit with that too. It's called writeometer.

I'm hoping these ideas help me get some words written this summer. I get hangry (what would a cross between not writing and frustrated be??) when I haven't written for a few days. I need to write something everyday, even a blog post helps.


What do you do to get excited about writing? Or finding the time? Is your writing schedule different in the summer vs. during school?

Stuck on the ending... roundup of helpful posts

I'm finishing my WWI historical romance EMMA (still waiting for a title to hit me). I've been working on this story for a looooong time, too long for me. I'm the kind of person who can see the end very clearly and I just want to hop, skip and high jump over everything in the middle. I can't really do that when writing, now can I?
But lately, I've come to realize a harsh and ugly fact about the writer in me: I can't finish this story. Don't misunderstand, I have at least five other finished stories. It's the ending I have a problem with. Or maybe I'm scared. What if my story sucks? What if I got the history part of it wrong?

I made a goal this summer: write fast AND clean so my edits are easier. How will I do this?? First, I've committed to writing a loose outline before I start to write. Characters, setting, and a few scenes and dialogue that have popped into my crazy head. Then I'll write really fast because it's what I love to do. And lastly, edits/revision.
Maybe with this new goal I can get to the ending faster? IDK.
What do you think?

In response to my failings,  I read several articles on finishing a book. Here are a few I learned from:


How to structure a killer novel ending

Snowflake method 

9 Rules for Writing Dialogue

9 Steps to writing dialogue with rich subtext

How to turn your setting into an obstacle course

How to finish your book




Have a happy weekend! Get your writing done!