Welcome to 2010!

As we enter the new year, I wanted to take a moment to discuss how WritAnon did in 2009, and list some new goals for next year.

Since WritAnon was launched in June, we were visited by people from all 6 inhabited continents, 73 countries, and 49 states within the US.

The missing state?  Wyoming.

That leads to Goal #1: get someone from Wyoming to visit WritAnon!

Since that seems like perhaps a bit of a low hurdle, here are a few more goals for the site, followed by a couple of personal goals.

Goal #2:  The forum will have 300 members by January 1st, 2011.

We had over 80 writers join the community since WritAnon was launched in June.  I was certainly pleased to see so many talented folks join me on the path to writing more and writing more often.

Over the next year, we’ll continue to grow and develop, both as writers and as a community.  I’ll be stepping up my efforts to recruit new members, and appreciate any help that others can give.  Please keep Referring A Friend!

Goal #3:  Continue to update the blog at least weekly.

Since WritAnon was launched, the blog has been updated at least once (and often two or three times) each week.  I want to continue this each week.

I have a few planned features I’d like to attempt throughout the year, so I will be testing some of these to check on responses from readers.  The most successful features will become regular additions to the blog.

Goal #4:  Continue to expand WritAnon’s editing service

I’ve read a lot of good stories through the editing service, and hope to continue to assist people on their journey to getting published.  Expanding the editing service will allow us to continue providing the forums for free, and potentially expand into other areas throughout the year.

We’re currently exploring options for partnering with other businesses to provide editing services for both aspiring and established authors.  We’ll continue to give updates on this as time goes on.

My personal writing goals:

The first half of this year will be taken up by completing a Master’s degree, but I plan to take the second half of the year to finish a novel (almost a decade in the making).  I’m pretty excited about this, so I hope to send it off to publishers by the end of the year.

I also want to do a better job of responding to the weekly writing prompts.  I responded to 75% of the writing prompts myself this year, and want to improve this to 80% for 2010.

I’m looking forward to an exciting year.  Let’s make 2010 a year to remember!

What are your writing goals this year?  Post your response, then check back next year to tell us how you did!

What is it about a blank page that sends most aspiring writers screaming into the night, or at least off to go check their email (again), or anything else but actually putting pen to paper?

One of the most intimidating challenges a writer faces is a blank page.  Here are three things you can do to get past this maddening problem.

1.  Brainstorm

To get past the initial fear, just start writing down random words related to your topic.  The goal isn’t to have a fully formed draft at first, just to get some words down to eliminate the intimidation of a blank page.

When writing this blog entry, for example, I thought of the three methods I wanted to cover first, and got them down as quickly as possible.  Instead of worrying about “what I wanted to write”, I focused my efforts on “what do I do when I have a blank page?”
2.  Copy and paste old work onto the new page

If you’ve written before about your chosen topic, sometimes copying and pasting some of your old material into the new document can give you something to focus on.  Once you have a general format and some relevant information, you quickly start to make progress because you have somewhere to start.

Occasionally, I’ve used material from answers that I’ve written to help other writers.  This serves two purposes:  it gives me a place to start, and uses information someone else has already found useful.  This helps me to improve even farther, giving relevant information to my readers.

3.  Close your eyes and stop procrastinating

Sometimes, the easiest way to forget about a blank page is to close your eyes.  Once they’re closed, start typing or writing whatever comes to mind.  By the time you open them again, there are words on the page, ready for you to edit, throw away, or build on.

More often than not, you find something useful in whatever you write.  The trick is often just getting something onto the page.  I usually find that I’ve completed my work faster than I would have thought possible.  My only problem has been getting started.

What are you waiting for?  Go write!