Maya nominated me for the Sunshine Blogger Award! 🙂 I love her blog. She’s honest and funny and when I read her Break the Silence… Even if I break People? post… Let’s just say that you shouldn’t drink and read (unless you were needing to clean your monitor off anyway) and leave it at that, shall we?
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Secret of Success.”
In case you guys haven’t been paying attention… I’m writing my first novel! YAY!!!
As I’ve said in previous posts, it’s been a really long time since I wrote fiction. (Or anything just for fun, really.) So, when I started working on my book I quickly realized that I needed some help.
I’ve read a TON of books on writing. If you read my post on sucking then you know how that’s been. Although, I just started Stephen King’s On Writing – LOVE it! Recommend it to both writers and non-writers (but not if curse words offend you – he has a potty mouth!).
I’m also taking a class called 12 Weeks to a First Draft at Writers Digest University. This has been immensely helpful!
The most consistent advice I’ve received is just to write – and not just when working on my novel. And that’s what started the whole idea for this blog. It was supposed to just be a place for me to write. But in these few short weeks since I started blogging, it’s become so much more than just practice for me.
It’s a place that I come when I’m having a bad day. I have discovered that the blogging community is supportive, fun, and laid back (and often sarcastic – which I love!). You get support from all over the globe. And there’s always someone who can relate to what you’re going through. With an internet full of bloggers and blog readers, bad days just aren’t so bad. You guys rock!
It’s also a place to engage my competitive side (which I should have expected, but didn’t). Everyday, I want to exceed the number of visitors and viewers from the previous day. I find myself sometimes checking my stats a little too often…
Do you know how competitive a person has to be to compete against themselves?
Let me just give you an example… I’m a runner, I love to run races. This includes my own personal “race” at the grocery store. After my shopping is done, I figure out the average cost I spent per item – and I “place” myself. The goal is always $2.00/item. So if I come in at $2.00 or below, it’s like coming in first place. $2.00 – $2.10 is 2nd; $2.11 – $2.29 is 3rd and anything above that is dead last. I once saved over $100 in coupons, but my average was $2.34/item. My husband was very happy, but I was secretly crushed. (Yes, I know how sad this is. I have a problem.)
So, how will I know when my blog is successful? The truth is, I don’t know.
Do I hope to have 1,000’s of followers one day? Yes, of course! But, that’s not what I’m basing my success on…
In a way, I already feel like it is a success. My confidence has increased so much from the support I’ve found here. I know that our blogs are supposed to be written for our readers, but the joy I get from writing here is really for me. I don’t have a huge group of followers, but I do have some pretty loyal ones and that’s so much better!
So today was the first day that I had even heard of this award. So I had no idea what it was, until I read the post in which I was nominated! Very shamelessly stolen straight from Mind and Life Matters (for those of you who also do not know): “Premio Dardos means “prize darts” in Spanish and is an award given “in recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing.”
I cannot even begin to tell you all how incredibly honored I feel right now. Thank you so much Mind and Life Matters!!! 🙂 Everyone needs to go check her out… like right now!!! (Seriously, go. Then come back and see who I nominated!)
The Premio Dardos Award Rules:
1) Include the Premio Dardos Award Picture and the name of the person that nominated you (Include a link to their blog)
2) Nominate 15 other blogs and notify them!
3) Thank the blogger, who nominated you in your blog and link back.
Here are my nominees:
Alright guys… I know that I’m supposed to nominate 7 more, but I’ve got to go. I’ll try to get caught back up tomorrow. Thanks for all your support and for reading not just my blog, but for checking out these other great sites too! The blogging community is awesome!!!
Logged in a little later than usual this morning. Was pleasantly surprised to find that one of my favorite bloggers, Olive Ole, had nominated me for the Liebster Award! Feeling so loved and special! YAY!!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Olive. And everyone, go check her out!!! Seriously, she’s awesome!!!
Here’s how it works:
So, here are my five nominations:
I’ve been reading a LOT of books on novel writing lately. Especially if they focus on writing your first novel. Many times, I’ve finished the book and been left with this thought: “Why am I even bothering to write? I suck.”
All of these “helpful” volumes insist that, since I’ve never been published, I will never be published – unless I use self-publishing.
My favorite take away: If I want to improve my writing, that means that I need to improve my writing, and since the craft of writing is not something that can be taught (it is, of course, an innate ability given to a select few at birth), I have zero chance of ever improving my writing.
WHAT??? I don’t think that was what Hemingway meant…
It’s none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way.
I bought these books to learn, not to be told “I’m going to tell you how to write a good book. But since you bought this book, you don’t have what it takes to write one yourself.” Continue reading “"Basically, you suck and have no chance of ever not sucking."”
I’m sure your wondering what you can expect from jesscombs.com. Okay, you’re probably not, but I’m going to tell you anyway. 😛
First, let me tell you a little about me…
My name is Jess Combs. I’m 35 and I have two daughters. My oldest is 15 and my youngest is 10. I love reading, writing, running, knitting, and gaming. I’ve been a stay at home mom since this past May and I’m loving it! In the past, I’ve been a legal secretary, a paralegal, and a phlebotomist. In addition to my current job as a professional mommy, I’m working on finishing my first novel.
So what can you expect posts to be about on jesscombs.com?
You can definitely expect to read on the ups and downs of my writing pursuits. Where am I on the road to being published, what I’m learning along the way, and hopefully some insights from others with much more experience than myself. 🙂
Since I am that rare species known as “gamer-mom.” You can probably expect to read a little about gaming on occasion. (Don’t know what a gamer mom is? Gamer moms not only know what an MMORPG is, but so do our children. We balance guild leader with mother. We plan raids/dungeons for the weekends (and after homework is checked and done). We tuck our kids in and become assassins in Assassin’s Creed. We know when the new game and/or expansion is coming out before our kids do.)
I’ll also occasionally post about my latest adventures in running, my knitting projects (currently a ginormous TARDIS afghan), and reviews on what I’ve been reading.
So that’s a little about me and jesscombs.com (also me). Any questions, feel free to reply to this post or contact me at jessica@jesscombs.com.
Thanks for reading! 🙂
