Barbara's Road Back To Writing

Barbara got an email from NaNoWriMo about the writing event. Wow, I haven’t written anything in a year. The last time that I wrote something was when I enter a contest to write a short story but I lost. It was a bummer. I put all my time and energy into that writing project. I got so disgusted that I stop writing. That hurt me about the lost and that’s why I stopped writing. I have been doing a lot of reading. My favorite genre to write and read is crime fiction. I am an avid YouTube watcher. I love to watch author and book tube videos. I used to belong to an online writing group as well as a local writing group in my community. My favorite places to hangout are at my Library, Barnes & Noble’s and local bookshop. At one time, I live and breathe writing. How could I let not winning one writing contest stop me from my love of writing. My favorite authors are: James Patterson, J.T. Ellison, John Grisham, and Joanne Fluke. James Patterson is always putting out a new book everyday it seems like. I know that he isn’t but I am saying. I love his writing style with his short chapters. He can have 100 chapters, but when you are reading it, its quick and isn’t long and dragging. I mean that some authors write long chapters. For example, Chapter 1 can have 30 pages that's long. I want to get back into writing. Barbara decided to go on YouTube and watch some writing videos to get her feet wet again into the writing. If you didn’t notice that YouTube has a lot of writing videos. I used to watch Author tube videos for hours because it’s addictive. My favorite author tubers:

Sarra Cannon

Natalia Leigh

Kate Cavanaugh

By the Brooke

I can binge those ladies videos for hours. I set my Goodreads Goal to 50 books. I have read 40 books so far. My favorite way to read books is having the book in my hand. I love to touch and cuddle with my books. But, I have listened to audio books more than I have read a book. You can listen to audio books:

While you cleaning up your place

Washing dishes

Doing laundry

Driving in the car

Walking

I admit that audio books are more accessible. The one format that I am trying to get into to read books is E- books. I have a Kindle and all my writing craft books are on it. But for the life of me, I can’t read for fun on them. The first thing that I need to do is to pull out all of my writing projects to do an inventory of where I am. I have 6 fully fledged novel ideas and countless short story ideas. That’s a lot of ideas that I have been sitting on. What’s wrong with me? I got to take a break. Barbara took a long walk to clear her head. She needed to figure out which writing project that she wants to work on. She ended up at the park down the road from her place. It was a beautiful, sunny day. People are out walking their dogs and having picnics. The pond was so clear that you can see at the bottom of it. It seems so peaceful and calming, standing here looking at the water. Hi, Barbara, a voice that sounded familiar but she couldn’t put her finger on who it was. How are you doing, Barbara? I haven’t seen you in about a year, are you ok? I wanted to contact you but I didn’t have your phone number. Hi! Do you remember me? Yes, but I forgot your name. It’s Cathy from the writing workshop. We used to meet once a month on Thursday evening at the library at 6pm. Oh, I am sorry, Cathy. How you been? Doing ok, I notice that you stop coming to the monthly writing workshop. What happened? I lost a writing contest and decided not to write anything else. I am sorry to hear that, Barbara. You shouldn’t let that stop you. Do you know how many times that I lost at writing contests? Oh my friend, it has been a lot of times. Don’t give up on your passion, Barbara!!!!!!!!!!!! You know something, Cathy, you are right. Well, Barbara, nice seeing you again, remember what I said. I will Cathy. Thanks so much! Cathy sprinted off to leave Barbara with her thoughts. I didn’t want to leave the park yet. I wanted to do some more power walking around the park. It’s a pretty day to be coup up in the house. The park full today for Friday morning but it could be that more than me took Friday off, but who could blame them. It’s gorgeous outside today. Dang, I wasn’t thinking I could have bought my notebook to do some writing. Its ok. I will remember what I saw today. Cathy got me thinking. I finished up my walking and got into my car and went to Walmart. I went crazy in the school/office supplies section:

 Scribble Stuff 24 Count Felt Pens(24 colored pens)

3 Packs of Colored Index Cards

2 Packs of White Index Cards

4 packs of Spiral-bound notebooks

3 packs of Legal pads (White)

Pack of Printer paper

Pack of Colored Highlighters

Pack of Colored Super Sticky Notes

Pack of Sharpie Black Pens

As you can see, I cleaned out the office/school section at Walmart. Got back to my place and tired from all that walking and shopping. Something came to mind. I know what distracted my mind from writing. It was playing video and card games. I love to play:

Rummy 500(favorite)

Gin Rummy

CSI Video Games

James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club

Barbara decided to Watch CSI New York, it is one of her favorite TV Shows. She loved Mac Taylor character. Yes, he was somber and serious but at the same time, he was passionate about the people he cared for.

Barbara pulled out a journal and started to brainstorm what was on her mind. All kinds of ideas start coming to her, some she remember and some that was brand new to her, she didn’t care. That is the best way to brainstorm for a writing session is to pour out your brain what you are thinking about. Barbara opened up her Scrivener File. There she saw all her 6 fully fledged novels setup. All these ideas are waiting on me to bring them to fruition. I am a Well full of ideas. What’s wrong? Barbara pulled out old notebooks with those story ideas that’s about her 6 novels and read over them. She was getting overwhelm. Relax, Barbara uttered to herself. She opened YouTube. She remembered Sarra Cannon having lot of information about writing. It is on her Heart Breathings Channel. I searched and found this video to start off with: How to Get Motivated as a Writer. I found some other videos:

How To Plot a Novel-8 Part Series

Outlining My Novel: Multiple POV Book

How to Overcome Self Doubt

How to Choose Which Story Idea to Write

I am going to watch these videos so that I can get my butt in the chair and write.