Author - Dana Lockhart

I'm going to go ahead and call it because there's no way I'm hitting 50k by Saturday.  I'm currently sitting on 17,500.  I gave up on November 12th. And I'll tell you why. -I'm Not a Word Vomiter- Never have been, never will. I hate vomiting out words without going through and editing as I go along.  It slows things down by the time you start reaching 10k words. But I did manage to push through that because I was excited to write.  I wanted to just crank out the story and go back and edit later.  I wanted to.  But when I tripped and failed to make the daily word count my dislike for word vomiting returned.  I realized I was about 5k words away from reaching the end of what I had planned for my novel and suddenly wouldn't know where to go from there. -I Didn't Quit, I Just Shifted My Focus- At that point, I decided to change my goals for NaNoWriMo.  What I had wanted from NaNo all along was just to finish book one of my novel, Blood Knights .  S

I’m writing now about trying to get through writer’s block because I’m currently in a writer’s block, but I don’t even really have any business writing about getting over writer’s block because I’m not very good at it myself. So let’s dive right in! -Write Something Else- First off, even when I’m in a writer’s block, I still try and exercise my ability to write – like doing this blog!   I journal daily and can easily punch out 3-5k words per day just talking about what I did the day before.   It’s probably needlessly detailed so that if I ever re-read my journal when I’m 60 I’m going to wonder why I thought it was important to mention how I bought this brand of milk at this specific store after work that one day 40 years ago to make this certain kind of dessert.   So if something can be learned from that – even if you have no creative spark to write a story, try and write something that you can word vomit.   If not journaling your own life, write about what you thou

It's Day 6 and the drive to complete that novel is dissipating.  You're looking for distractions to keep yourself from writing.  Here is a list of 5 distractions so that you can just do them and get them out of the way so you can get back to writing.  I'm trying to focus on productive distractions so that you're still keeping those creative juices flowing, even if it's not towards your novel. -Write a Blog Post- Got a website?  Write a blog post.  I'm totally not distracting myself from my own novel right now.  Nope.  Totally not.  Try and focus your blog post in the NaNoWriMo direction:  talk about the novel you're writing, the progress you've made, how many activities (writing sprints/dares) you've participated in, or tips you think would help someone complete their goal.  Try and be that inspiration for someone else to get back at it, as well as yourself. -Peruse the NaNoWriMo Website- There's a lot of little creative things to do

Allow me to show you around!  I’m Dana Lockhart, an aspiring author entering the publishing world.  I typically write urban fantasy novels with a little coming-of-age realism.  My first novel The Un-Life of William Moore has had over 300 hours hot and trending during its Kindle Scout campaign and is on its way to publication. My website is primarily set up as a blog where I talk about writing and anything else that comes to mind.  I blog approximately once or twice a week.  Only about 10 blog posts show on the main page.  You can view older posts to the left under “archive.”  Also to the left you will find all sorts of information from how to buy one of my books to a little bit about me.  “Home” will take you back to the main page. If you can't wait for more blog updates, you can check out my gaming articles on DVS Gaming , in which I post at least 4 a week ranging from new game press releases to editorials and reviews.  You might have noticed a pop-up in the lower right

NaNoWriMo is upon us, and I've elected to use my 50,000 words to make a dent in, and hopefully finish, my novel-in-progress called "Blood Knights." I've made a new NaNo account for my pen name projects and added information about the novel to my account, including the synopsis and an excerpt.  The excerpt takes place several chapters into the novel, but it's a relatively neutral piece that doesn't spoil anything and doesn't need much explaining if you read the synopsis, so it seemed like a good fit. To save you a click, here is the synopsis if you think it's something you'd like to read: The city of Danube is home to three separate vampire covens: the Tepes in the north, the Bathory in the west, and the de Rais in the south. These three clans have been at relatively peaceful odds for centuries, with themselves and the vampire hunters that also call Danube home. However, now tensions are beginning to escalate for control over the lawless e