Tip #3

Join Groups and Social Network your Goals!

Join writing groups...whether it be a group where you can take samples of work to be critiqued by other novices or a social group to catch up over a wine or six (a must being a writer!) as I take another sip to write this blog...

Joining groups will make you feel a part of something rather than just a lonely soloist.

Groups can also be a great source of inspiration and can help keep you on track.  

Being able to set goals to a real group of people, like, "by the time we meet next week I will have written 10,000 more words"..if you don't then you have to face the shame and come up with excuses why you didn't achieve your goal..

I usually also Tweet my goals and once I have committed that Tweet, because I follow and am followed by so many other authors, I feel I have to achieve my goals and I do...And isn't it so nice to receive that praise from fellow writers at how well you are doing and keep up the good work, makes it all worthwhile to know you have friends in the same boat who care about your word count. 

Speaking of Twitter, following fellow authors, publishers, booksellers etc can bring about great contacts and ideas, you never know, that publisher you constantly tweet may end up loving your novel and you've already got some semblance of a relationship with them.  So on that note, always be mindful of what you Tweet also ;-)

Writing groups can be found through www.meetup.com or even through Twitter and Facebook.

Happy Tweeting!