When I attempted NaNoWriMo back in November 2017 I blogged 5 tips to help you achieve. The only thing I’m doing different this time is my goal is 25k words and I’m going to use Google Docs so I can write anywhere! If you’d like to read my tips, please click here.
What I learnt from failing
Well November 2017 was a very challenging month for me and I didn’t achieve NaNoWriMo despite my top tips. November is always busy month for me but last year’s November was awful!
I don’t think you should see failure as a reason to give up. It’s a chance to learn and grow and become even better. If you’d like to learn from my mistakes, please click here.
To start the year, I set myself some goals for the year ahead. I plan to check periodically during the year on how well I am keeping on track. If you set yourself goals it is important to check on yourself to make sure you are on target and to re-focus yourself.
If you want to view my last check in on myself, click here.
Achievements
This is a new section in my personal reflection. I am often so hard on myself and critical that I forget to celebrate my wins. Today, I am acknowledging what I achieved and giving myself a pat on the back:
Completed NaPoWriMo’s 30 day challenge
Achieved over 100 followers
I wrote a guest article for Carol J Forrester’s blog, Writing and Works (click here)
My poem on mental health was featured on Stoner On A Rollercoaster’s blog (click here)
On Reflection
Here a the highlights from this quatre:
Summary: Putting my goals into a table has made it much clearer as to what my targets are. I am really pleased with some of my achievements this quarter.
Blogging: I am so pleased with how I have not only managed to post weekly but most weeks I’ve posted three or more articles. It has really helped to have a schedule with topic ideas.
Writing: In April I attempted NaPoWriMo. The support of the poet community was amazing and really boosted my confidence. Posting daily was a challenge in itself, let alone trying to meet the daily prompt.
Blogging Goals Review
ACHIEVED: I exceeded my weekly post target every week. On average I’ve been posting three to four articles and in April I posted daily, sometimes more than once!
ALMOST ACHIEVED: The draw back of so many articles is time to schedule the tweets on LoCal. I think I need to rethink my Twitter schedule to make this more manageable.
ACHIEVED: I have really enjoyed sharing more personal articles about my family life and plan to include more personal content in future.
ACHIEVED: I have started including some personal posts on my blog such as my son’s World Book Day and What I’ve Been Watching.
NOT ACHIEVED: I tried vlogging and created two videos but I wasn’t confident enough to share them. Maybe with more practice I’ll get better and he more confident in my video content.
ACHIEVED: The monthly schedule has been awesome. It really helps to see what I plan to post and when. I keep ideas for posts and can switch items in my plan as needed.
Writing Goals Review
ACHIEVED: I have finished querying Drift. I’m now handling the “we thought it was good but not for us right now” gentle stream of rejections. If I don’t hear good news, I still have three other options I am considering.
ACHIEVED: Yes, I got my tickets and I’m looking forward to the events at Felixstowe Book Festival. There will be an article on how it went.
ACHIEVED: I have now finished The Gender Game and two other books. I’m roughly getting through a novel every two months, so next quarter that will be my goal. I’m currently deciding what to read next.
ALMOST ACHIEVED: I have been reading about Pitch Wars. I am still not sure what to do but I think as a writer I don’t get involved until August… we’ll see. It would be awesome to have a mentor.
New goals
For the months ahead,. I have updated the table:
As I wasn’t successful at keeping my Twitter schedule up-to-date, I am going to try and improve that in the next quatre. I’m still keen to try vlogging but it is not as high in my importance as it was earlier this year.
In the next quatre, I expect I will reduce my blogging frequency in favour of getting back into novel writing and to allow me to take it more easy with a newborn.
My wild imagination cannot let go of the dream of being published and I am holding out hope that perhaps an agent I have queries will want to take my novel on. If that was to happen, working with them would be my number one priority.
These images are snippets from the 30 days of poems:
The challenge is over and I did it. It’s time to reflect on how it went.
Three things I learnt:
Reading the blog posts on NaPoWriMo.nethas enabled me to learn so much and the prompts have challenged me to try things I wouldn’t have thought to do myself.
I found posting every day a real challenge with my schedule, however, I was late only twice. I’m really proud of what I achieved and can see the possibilities if I make time for my writing.
Posting daily has increased my followers and engagement. I hadn’t expected so much support – in fact, I feared I’d scare people off. In addition, I have discovered new bloggers to follow.
It was so unexpected and I wish I’d paid attention to how many followers I had before I started. Each day, I have gained a few new followers. Now, I have 100 plus!
I have been adding the poems to a book on Wattpad to create a collection. If you’d like to read them all in one place in full, please click here.
Would I do the challenge again?
I think I will give it another go in future but don’t think I will do it every year. Poetry isn’t really my forte although I think it is a useful learning tool for any writer as it encourages you to think about your use of words and the English language.
I am relieved the challenge is over and the pressure of a daily post is off. However, I am delighted at how much I produced and proved to myself that if I make time each day I can make progress on a project. I want to apply that logic to complete another novel. Novel writing has taken a back seat since starting my CIPD course at work so once that is finished in June, I am going to get back into novel writing.
I was pleasantly surprised by all the support from other poets and NaPoWriMo participants. I didn’t feel like I was doing the challenge alone. The increase of followers and engagement was unexpected but I am so happy to have connected with you all. Thank you – it helped keep me going.
To start the year, I set myself some goals for the year ahead. I plan to check how I’m getting on with that periodically during the year to check I’m on track. If you set yourself goals it is important to check on yourself to make sure you are on target and to re-focus yourself.
On Reflection
Summary: Considering these were annual targets I think I’ve kicked off the year with a really good start at achieving them. I’m not sure listing my goals as bullet points was the best idea, so to re-focus I shall put my goals into a table.
Blogging Goals Review
ACHIEVED: I migrated both my blogs into one blog and I am using categories to split the content up from ‘writing’ topics and ‘beauty topics.
ACHIEVED: I planned to post at least once a week and I have been exceeding this – posting two to three times a week. Sometimes as often as four times. Taking the pressure off has increased my productivity.
ACHIEVED: I’ve reduced my scheduled posts on LoCal so that they only run for two weeks so if I run out of time to change them, I am not Constantly spamming people with the same things for weeks with no end.
ACHIEVED: I have started including some personal posts on my blog such as my son’s World Book Day and What I’ve Been Watching.
ALMOST ACHIEVED: I wanted to start vlogging. This has involved researching how to do it and plucking up the courage. In addition, I need the house to be quiet for recording which doesn’t happen often. However, I have posted a video on YouTube reviewing Agent Hunter (see below) and I have a scheduled blog post about this coming soon.Wri
NOT ACHIEVED: I haven’t approached any brands to see if they’d like me to represent them. However, my Instagram pics of my The Pip Box won and I got my March box free (review of the free box coming April).
Writing Goals Review
ACHIEVED: I have stopped editing Drift and started querying.
NOT ACHIEVED: I have not started work on finishing Glide. I have been really busy with my course at college and work. However, I have three weeks off for Easter break and hope to re-visit this project over the coming weeks.
NOT ACHIEVED: I have not started a new story idea – not that I’m not full of ideas.
NOT ACHIEVED: I’ve not had time to read the programme for Felixstowe Book Festival but intend to buy tickets and go. I have decided to miss YALC this year (will explain more soon).
NOT ACHIEVED: Completing a writing course is on hold until I finish my current course at college.
ALMOST ACHIEVED: I have been reading more since getting my Kindle. I have almost finished The Gender Game and will review the title and my Kindle once I have. I am a slow reader with only a few chances to read.
NOT ACHIEVED: I have not found out more about how Twitter queries work. However, I have been networking more on Instagram and meeting lots of writers online this way.
Earlier this year, I wrote a blog post listing literary festivals taking place in the UK throughout the UK that have caught my eye. To read the full list, please click here.
This post is to remind you of those taking place this Spring.
This festival is made up of events and you buy tickets to participate in events. Events vary between workshops, speakers and screenings.
If you miss the event, this seaside town is still worth a visit. They have one of the most beautiful traditional bookshops, a lovely beach and chip shops.
This event promises to deliver a platform for underrepresented women writers such a lesbians. This is sure to be a positive event that is making a difference to supporting diversity and inclusion. Supported by DIVA magazine and The Guardian.
If Erotica is your thing, then there is a convention just for you. This event is in its 7th year and often sells out. It has schedule of speakers and events and is a structured event.
This year has a talk on how to blog about sex for the shy writer – aghhh the world of an erotic writer. One day I may be brave enough to write and share erotic fiction but for now the thought still makes my cheeks turn read (no, not like that!). I would probably benefit from the ‘confidence’ talk.
You buy tickets for the events you want to attend. There are a lot of authors attending and giving talks and there are events for children too. The event is not at one location but across the city so make sure you are able to get from one location to another if you booking multiple events. Filter the events by the category you are interested in, i.e. Workshops, etc.
This event is geared towards those involved in publishing but and has various talks on keeping those in the industry up-to-date with financial, legal and trending themes in the publishing world. There are plenty of exhibits covering pretty much every type of genre you can think of.
It is their 70th year running! This 17 day event will bring the streets of Bath alive with music and literature. Check the ‘What’s On’ page on the website to find events that take your interest. Each event requires a ticket and the price differs.
Everyone I know who has been to Bath has always returned gushing about how amazing it is. They are also home to one of the most well known and prestigious writing competitions (Bath Novel Award).
Last year, on Wattpad I set myself a challenge. For the first 14 days in February, I posted one ‘romantic’ themed poem everyday.
I already had a number of draft poems on Opuss but that didn’t make the challenge any easier. First, I had to identify which poem to post. Next, I had to edit them (they weren’t great). Then, I had to remember to post one every day.
Poetry is not one of my strong points. It’s always hard putting my writing out there for others to read and judge but with poetry it’s harder. It’s raw, personal and makes me feel vulnerable.
Somehow we are already into the second week of February without me noticing, so, I won’t be doing my challenge this year. I’m a bit disappointed as I find it healthy to challenge myself and go outside my comfort zone. It helps me develop as a writer to do something new, something difficult.
I will still add one more to the collection for Valentines day 2018. Now I’ve promised, I’ll have to do it! Please click here to view the collection from last year (and check up on me and see if I kept my word).
I wanted to do this post at the start of the year but January flew by. So here is a list of the the literary (and book) festivals that have caught my eye and are coming up this year:
If you are a fan of Romance fiction this could be the event for you. You can check the hundreds of authors attending to see if one of your favourites are going. Then you can meet them and take your books with you for them to sign. There will be book sellers to.
They have events all over the world so if you miss this one, check out some of the other dates/locations.
Run with the Time Literary supplement, this event has a number of activities such as talks, discussions, workshops for writers through to activities for kids.
If you miss the event or can’t attend, they also offer free videos and podcasts from the event.
This festival is made up of events and you buy tickets to participate in events. Events vary between workshops, speakers and screenings.
If you miss the event, this seaside town is still worth a visit. They have one of the most beautiful traditional bookshops, a lovely beach and chip shops.
This event promises to deliver a platform for underrepresented women writers such a lesbians. This is sure to be a positive event that is making a difference to supporting diversity and inclusion. Supported by DIVA magazine and The Guardian.
If Erotica is your thing, then there is a convention just for you. This event is in its 7th year and often sells out. It has schedule of speakers and events and is a structured event.
This year has a talk on how to blog about sex for the shy writer – aghhh the world of an erotic writer. One day I may be brave enough to write and share erotic fiction but for now the thought still makes my cheeks turn read (no, not like that!). I would probably benefit from the ‘confidence’ talk.
You buy tickets for the events you want to attend. There are a lot of authors attending and giving talks and there are events for children too. The event is not at one location but across the city so make sure you are able to get from one location to another if you booking multiple events. Filter the events by the category you are interested in, i.e. Workshops, etc.
This event is geared towards those involved in publishing but and has various talks on keeping those in the industry up-to-date with financial, legal and trending themes in the publishing world. There are plenty of exhibits covering pretty much every type of genre you can think of.
It is their 70th year running! This 17 day event will bring the streets of Bath alive with music and literature. Check the ‘What’s On’ page on the website to find events that take your interest. Each event requires a ticket and the price differs.
Everyone I know who has been to Bath has always returned gushing about how amazing it is. They are also home to one of the most well known and prestigious writing competitions (Bath Novel Award).
At the time of writing, the tickets are not yet online. But, from previous years there have been free events as well as events you can pay for a ticket. The paid for events have not been expensive (under £10). Events range from exhibitions, speakers, workshops and children’s activities. Events are split between the library and the Orwell Hotel.
I’ve been a few times to this festival. There have been some amazing speakers and engaging workshops.
This is event is for young people only (18 and under – hence the student price). I had to include it because if I was young, I would go. This event has a number of speakers, workshops and activities and as you would expect a focus on YA and children’s fiction.
My dream is to one day be invited to be a speaker but if I ever want that to happen I need to stop dreaming and get writing.
This event is in addition to the London Film and Comic Convention. The YALC have exhibit stands where you can speak to authors, agents and publisher and buy books. They have agent one-to-ones, workshops and speakers at the convention and lots of space to sit down and read. The focus her is on YA Literature.
The tickets include access downstairs to the London Film and Comic Convention. If you are a fan of Marvel, DC, Anime or anything like that you can pop downstairs to see their exhibits and stalls too.
Date: TBC:5 August 2018 to 14 August 2018 (Last year was 6 October 2017 to 15 October 2017)
Location: Cheltenham
Tickets: TBC (Advanced booking for members)
The information for the site is currently about last years event which was aimed at families and young adult. I recognised a lot of the names and books in attendance and the event is supported by The Times and The Sunday Times. I expect it will be very promising again this year.
At the time of writing, ticket prices weren’t available. This is a really big event with a lot of things going on simultaneously and something for every taste. I have never been but would love to go one day.
At the time of writing this years date and prices were yet to be confirmed. I included it because last years line up was full of house hold names (like Julia Donaldson, Jacqueline Wilson, Miranda Hart, etc). I’m sure this year will be just as promising – this is one to watch!
Many more
There are loads more great festivals around the country and I have only highlighted a small sample.
Please let me know if you are or have been to any of these or have any to recommend.
Ally Aldridge – blogging on writing and literary conventions, etc
Alison Aldridge – re-blogging the above so all my content was in one place.
Plus, I was still posting to Blogger as a back up plan… just in case I didn’t take to Word Press.
I now can see what a mistake that was. It was a lot of work to keep all of them running and current. This year, I am planning to just post straight to ‘Alison Aldridge’.
2. Be personal
I was trying to keep my blog professional and leave my personal life out of it. I didn’t think people would be interested in hearing about me.
But, when my life is busy, it’s hard to write about the other stuff and it would be easier just to share with my readers what I’m up to. I can already see I’ve got an eventful year ahead so moving forward, you can expect to see a few more personal posts.
3. Be brave
I’ve found that if I want to review something I should contact the company because sometimes they will support you with it. Saal Digital posted on Instagram asking for bloggers and I applied. I thought I had no chance but was happily mistaken and now I am the proud owner of a beautiful photo book of my son.
Bouncing of my previous success, I’ve bravely approached a company whose service I’d like to use and asked if I could review them on my blog. They kindly awarded me ‘Gold Membership’. Stay tuned to see my review of this – I will reveal soon… (this is one for the writers).
The future
There is loads more I’ve learnt but the above are the three lessons that stand out the most. I’ve also still a lot more to learn too.
I’d really like to get into vlogging too – I just cringe at the sound of my voice (and sight of my face – lol). Plus, I’ve no clue about editing a video. Please comment with links if you can help me or to your vlog so I can see what you do and learn.
If you read my earlier post from today, you’ll know that I’ve reflected on how 2017 went. This inspired me to set my goals for the year ahead.
Blogging
I now absolutely love blogging. I’m addicted. It is has raised in my ranks of importance. Here are my goals for 2018:
Categories: Currently, I am running three blogs. One for beauty review, one for anything related to writing and books and another that shares the posts by both. It is very time consuming and exhausting! I shall now be migrating them all to this blog and using categories to present content relevant to the readers interests.
Schedule:
I was trying to post two articles a week and did pretty well but sometimes it was hard. I need post regularly but once a week is sufficient and I can schedule posts.
I’ve been using loCal (free online calendar) to schedule my tweets. I was unwell in December and never updated my tweets! Aghh! My poor followers had the same tweets for another month *cringe*. Setting an end date is important.
Personal: Keeping to my categories has meant that when life is busy I haven’t anything relevant to post whereas if I start sharing more about me (like being a mum or working in education), I could have more content and make my life easier.
Vlogging: I did my first video blog this year and I was really impressed at how easy it was. I know I have more to learn to make my videos better but you’ve got to start somewhere. I’ve also done some ‘unboxing’ videos on my instagram.
Product reviews: I need to not be shy to contact brands that I love to see if they’ll support me reviewing their product. I hope that in 2018 I will get the chance to review more products as I really enjoyed my experience of reviewing Saal Digital’s photo book.
Writing
My dream is still to be published and I still would love to go down the traditional route but not found an agent (or publisher) but some of that is my fault as I don’t query enough.
Drift/Jewel of the sea: Stop editing and start querying!
Glide: I know how this story ends and I need to finish it. Readers who loved Drift (on Wattpad) want to read the next book in the series. I have had so much support and encouragement and one user even sent me pictures of Scotland to help me.
Start a fresh new story: I don’t want this to distract from the above goals but I’ve got lots of new story ideas and I really need to start something fresh. I hope to make a start on this later in 2018.
Conventions: I love attending YALC and Felixstowe Book Festival last year and I would love to be able to go again.
Writer courses: I’m very busy at the moment with a course for work but once that is out of the way I’d like to continue my studies with Write Story Books for Children and Write Romance fiction. I’m enrolled on both these courses ready to complete when I have time. I also would happily do another Curtis Brown Creative course online.
Reading: I got a Kindle at last! I plan to start reading more in 2018 and hope to discover some amazing reads to review on my blog (and Good Reads).
Twitter queries: I need to learn when these are running so ~I
The year began by creating my first Word Press blog. At the time, I had no idea what I was getting myself into but I’ve really enjoyed my crash course in learning to use the site.
Here is what I learnt:
Blogging
Schedule posts/tweets: You can schedule posts so can write ahead of time and space posts out. Use LoCalendar to schedule tweets (but make sure you set an end date so you don’t spam people).
Make it visual:
Canva is a great site to create images for blog titles and other social media sites.
Google Drive Photos is an app you can download onto you phone and it backs up images you have taken. You can then access these online from wherever you are working to use them.
Instagram links can be added into articles and enables you to share pics from your own account and other users images. I’ve used this to share professional brand images when I forgot to take a pic of the product I’m reviewing before it got all grubby.
Support others:
You can share other people’s blogs on Word Press via the reader. This helps support them and improves your content. Follow people who write on similar subjects. Can help when you are busy and hit a dry spell to keep your blog current.
As mentioned before, you can share pics by others posted to Instagram. The image will have a link to their account so if a reader likes their pic they can choose to follow them.
Categorise posts: It puts posts into collection of subjects and helps readers navigate your site or enables you to create pages. I still have more to learn on this but I think I will be utilizing this in the new year.
Brands:
Review brands you love to demonstrate the market you are interested in and to gain support. Follow their social media accounts to be aware of blogger offers.
Offer to review brands you are interested in and you may strike lucky. This year I got a free photobook from Saal Digital in return for my honest review. I love the product and will cherish it forever – so happy!
Do courses: If you can find time to do a writing course they are really good. I did the Curtis Brown – Starting to Write your novel course. This covered a lot of stuff I already knew but made me think about it again. I really improved the start of two of my novels using what I learnt. See my review from earlier in the year here.
Enter competitions and query: Take time to put your stories, poems or manuscripts out there. Even if it is just a friendly competition – I won a few awards on Wattpad and it got me more readers and valuable feedback. I managed to enter one national competition but I am annoyed I missed the deadline for the one I really wanted to enter because I was taking too long editing – I edit too much!
Don’t over edit: Guilty! I am so guilty of this. I am my worst critique. Every time, I think I am done editing… I start again. I don’t even enjoy editing. I must stop myself. I wish I could afford an editor to do it for me.
Make time to be creative: living a busy life can make it hard to find time to write but if you make time and do a little a day (even if it’s just plotting or researching), then you will keep making progress towards your goals. I try to make sure I sit down at my PC/Laptop at least once a week to actually write.
Don’t force it: If you force yourself to write you can cause yourself to burn out. I think this was a side effect from NaNoWriMo. I feel the writing bug coming back – phew!
ad a number of draft poems on Opuss but that didn’t make the challenge any easier. First, I had to identify which poem to post. Next, I had to edit them (they weren’t great). Then, I had to remember to post one every day.
