C.S. Russ 🌟

Hitting a rough patch in the middle of my draft has been my favorite thing. Haha.

On a more serious note, it has also given me the opportunity to revisit my outline and recenter my goals to make sure I'm hitting the right beats.

#writing #writers #writingcommunity #writesky #amwriting

Feel free to DM your questions.

I'm writing my first ever book. It's still a first draft, but it's the furthest I've ever gotten with any of my drafts, so I'm super excited.

I still exist, and I'm still writing. On my way to 50k words this week.

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But also, I love this language. I think I have to love it to want to write a book in it. Haha.

English is hard and nonsensical at times, so you should never be surprised when you guess at the existence of a hyper specific word and find that, yes, it actually exists. Today, that word is "trapezoidal" for me.

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A graphic with a logo that says "Women's Fiction Day" and "Women's Fiction Writers Association" sits at the top of the image. Below it, "How to Support Authors - Buy a Book - Read a Book - Leave a Review" is written. At the very bottom, there is a link to www.womensfictionwriters.org.

I'm so incredibly late, but today is a great day to support writers of women's fiction! If you're curious about what exactly women's fiction is (no, it's not just fiction centered around women), the WFWA has a simple, understandable definition.

#writing #booksky #writingcommunity #womensfiction

Many of the best things about my #writing lately have honestly been complete accidents. This doesn't mean I don't outline; it just means that I leave enough wiggle room to flex my creativity and see what happens.

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I'm officially halfway through my first draft! So happy I could dance!

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Just in case you need some motivation right now.

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And daily word goal has been met. A little over 39k words written in total for this first draft so far.

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Manifesting: I'll hit 39k words today.

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Here's a small good thing you can do all month long.

Two, actually.

1. Like, share, and comment on any library post featuring Pride books or messaging that's positive. You can influence the algorithm for good.

2. Write a letter to your library board thanking the library for Pride displays.

Selling a book is hard. I see so many promotional posts with very little engagement. I've even seen influencers with tons of followers struggling to sell books.

If you can't stomach not selling a single book, you've picked a strange hobby.

#writing #writers #writingcommunity #writesky #amwriting

I recently increased my daily goal to 500 words per day. I realized that I had been selling myself short; I regularly exceeded my previous goal.

I can always adjust down if I need to.

I'm not running a race. I'm writing a book.

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Can't believe I'm on my way to 38k words. Consistency has certainly paid off.

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Vacations, even short ones, are a bit disorienting for me. They disrupt my writing schedule and make me somewhat anxious. I enjoyed myself, but I'm glad to be back on schedule. Now on to the next mini milestone: 36k words.

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But also, I'm a writer, so I can be the change I'd like to see.

1. Actual romance rather than a fixation on how tall or muscled up a MMC is.

2. More average-looking characters. And I don't mean characters who think they're ugly but are actually considered quite attractive by our cultural norms.

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Writers of Bluesky, I'm curious after sharing yesterday's hot take:

What are YOUR hot takes about writing and publishing?

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I can't wait to start revising my current WIP. I have so many ideas about how to make things more cohesive!

Happy editing!

This. So many people seem unaware of what the genre expectations are.

You can spend so much time growing a following for a book that you might not even finish or get published. That is not a good use of your time.

Also, I feel inclined to say this today. Might be a hot take:

If you've never published anything, writing needs to be your primary focus - not social media marketing. If you don't have a product, you have nothing to sell your followers.

#writing #writesky #writingcommunity #amwriting

Officially sitting at 34k words on my draft. I think I've earned a reading break.

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Daily word goal met, now off to do some beta reading.

I truly don't watch enough movies to remember my #LastFourWatched, but I'd jump on the #LastFourRead train in a heartbeat. Haha.

To add to this, no need to feel bad about not meeting those reading goals we all like to set at the beginning of the year. If you meet your goal, that's great. If you don't, that's also great.

The important thing here is that we're all #reading.

As a night writer, I feel like I always miss most of the conversation here. By the time I log on, everyone in my timezone has already had all of the fun.

This girl just crossed the 33k word mark in her draft, and it's not a complete mess. Thank the writing gods for outlines.

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