Guest post: Acknowledge Your Achievements by Louisa Clarkson

Today’s guest blog post is brought to you by fantasy author Louisa Clarkson.

Acknowledge Your Achievements

Confession time: I’m one of those people who believes in tarot readings and asking the cards for guidance. Go ahead, eye roll all you want. Hear me out and I’ll tell you what it has to do with writing, publishing or marketing a book.

Let’s take a look at the problem, according to the cards. Lately there’s been many frustrating blocks. True. I’ve sapped me of the motivation to write. I’m unsure what to do next when it comes to marketing my book and website Indicated. Tasks have been taking ten times longer to complete.

Why? According to the cards, I have this filthy, nasty, stinking hobitses (er, I mean habit) of focusing on what I haven’t achieved rather than what I have. Totally guilty! I beat myself up all the time with thoughts like, “I haven’t reached my five-page writing goal today, tomorrow I’ll have to write double to catch up.” Not only did I feel guilty for not achieving enough, I run myself in circles with frustration, attracted more of these situations, compounding the problem.

So what did the cards say to do to stop this? Simple: acknowledge and celebrate my achievements. Okay. Let’s look at what I have done in 2013:

1. I have published and marketed my first children’s fantasy novel, The Silver Strand.
2. I decided to change career direction, write part-time, become a student of creative writing, and created a support and promotional site to help my fellow authors.
3. I spent four months researching the library on how to promote books and resources to help do so.
4. I wrote 25,000 words (approximately half) of my new children’s book Heaven and Hound.
5. I critiqued three novellas, and countless new chapters for my writing buddy, Gobbles.

Wow. That’s quite an achievement now that I look at it.

Writing and publishing shouldn’t just be about celebrating the successes. We need to acknowledge the small things. That includes the terrible, stinky paragraph you just wrote (we can always change it later or our critique partners can help make it shine). Or if it means finishing the story, which will never see the light of day. They’re all accomplishment. So let’s pat ourselves on the back and reward ourselves with a treat. Hopefully giving ourselves credit will help us move forward toward a brighter and more successful 2014.

I’d love to know what you’ve achieved this year, and how you will celebrate? Maybe we can share some cyber chocolate. 🙂

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I’m not a huge chocolate fan (I used to work for a chocolate company and was one of the slimmest) but anything that’s zero calories, I’m there. Thank you, Louisa and welcome to my blog. I look forward to hosting you again.

Louisa Clarkson is the author of The Silver Strand, the first in the Mastermind Academy children’s fantasy series for 9-12 year olds. Creative endeavors called, and she gave up her Environmental Engineering career to study a Masters in Creative Writing and pursue her writing dreams.

In the months, she spent researching how to promote her novel, she found bits of information here and there, but no complete author resource. As such Indicated was born. Indicated features guides and an extensive database of book promotional resources and opportunities, and a review and support system. Here Louisa aims to retrain author’s thoughts and misconceptions about writing and publishing, and help them achieve success.

• Website: www.indicated.com.au
• Author website: www.mastermindacademy.net

Purchase links:

• http://www.bookdepository.com/Silver-Strand-Louisa-Clarkson/9780992301705?selectCurrency=GBP
• http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silver-Strand-Louisa-Clarkson/dp/099230170X
• http://www.amazon.com/Silver-Strand-Louisa-Clarkson/dp/099230170X

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Related articles:

• http://www.copyblogger.com/successful-guest-blogging
• http://thewritelife.com/7-blogs-guest-posts
• http://goinswriter.com/guest-posting
• http://www.chrisjonesblog.com/2013/07/how-to-write-a-guest-blog-post-top-19-tips-to-getting-your-message-out.html
• http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31833/17-Foolish-Mistakes-to-Avoid-as-a-Guest-Blogger.aspx
• http://www.fastblogfinder.com/how-to-write-a-guest-post
• https://www.distilled.net/blog/seo/link-building-seo/the-anatomy-of-a-great-guest-post
• and from this blog, my guests who have written on this topic are… Danika Dunsmore, Marlene Carolselli, Nicky Wells, Smoky Ziedel, Tracey Alley.

If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. Guidelines on guest-blogs. There are other options listed on opportunities-on-this-blog.

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I welcome items for critique directly (see Editing & Critique) or for posting on the online writing groups listed below:

Morgen’s Online Non-Fiction Writing Group

• nonfictionwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• facebook.com/groups/335526669896374

Morgen’s Online Novel Writing Group

• novelwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• facebook.com/groups/508696639153189

Morgen’s Online Poetry Writing Group

• poetrywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• facebook.com/groups/388850977875934

Morgen’s Online Script Writing Group

• scriptwritinggroup.wordpress.com
• facebook.com/groups/319941328108017

Morgen’s Online Short Story Writing Group

• shortstorywritinggroup.wordpress.com
• facebook.com/groups/544072635605445

We look forward to reading your comments.