Celebrate Those Milestones and Win Free Books!

Yesterday I read an article about “20 Blogging Milestones” designed to help bloggers “figure out if you’re on the right path.” What I found inspiring about the list was all the small successes all of us, but writers in particular, might miss celebrating along the way or later forget altogether as we keep trying to climb up one ladder or another. Here are some examples from the article:

  • Your first comment
  • Your first retweet
  • Getting a link from another site

Those are all for new bloggers (like me). Later on, the milestones become bigger:

  • 100 subscribers
  • Being asked to do an interview
  • 10,000 subscribers (!)

This morning I experienced a milestone of my own as I woke up to find that one of my recent books, A Parent’s Guide to Gifted Teens, has its first Amazon review!

A creative calling is something that may strike as a teenager. Living with Intense and Creative Adolescents: A Parent’s Guide to Gifted Teens is a guide to the driven teenager, who parents who can commonly be overwhelmed in trying to understand and how to work with them to give them the creative freedom they need while still pushing them to become respectable adults. Living with Intense and Creative Adolescents is an invaluable resource for the parent who wants to help their child in their creative endeavors. ~ Midwest Book Review

Never mind that the subtitle and title are reversed 😉 . I am going to allow myself to celebrate, and I invite you to celebrate with me by sharing your writing milestones, either big or small, ones that are current or past or anticipated, such as…

  • Your first day of writing 1000 words
  • Your first revision
  • Your first completed short story
  • Your first completed novel
  • Your first blog post
  • Your first paid writing assignment
  • Your first contract
  • Your first agent

If you aren’t a writer, share any other personal  or professional milestone in your life. Let’s see how many we can think of, and I will collect the milestones (names removed) for a future post. And here’s an incentive:

Anyone who both comments on this thread and who subscribes (or is subscribed) to this blog by email (see the upper right of the screen) before July 18, 2010 will be entered in a drawing to get a free, signed copy each of A Parent’s Guide to Gifted Teens and The Smart Teens’ Guide to Living with Intensity. (If you subscribe through an RSS service instead of email, just indicate that with your comment).

Ah, another one I can add:

  • My first blog giveaway 🙂

15 thoughts on “Celebrate Those Milestones and Win Free Books!”

  2. Great contest!

    Your first day of writing 1000 words and Your first revision – I’m not really sure, but within the past seven years.

    Your first completed short story – first grade

    Your first completed novel – July 2009

    Your first blog post – hotmail March 29, 2010, wordpress May 30, 2010

    Your first contract – Agent contract, June 2010

    Your first agent – Bree Ogden, June 2010.

    My first writing challenge: ‘Create a Scene’ Tuesdays – Today! (check out my blog when you can)

    • Hey Kristi – are you appart of QueryTracker.net. It’s a great online tool for querying. They even have group discussions if you have any questions about the querying process,

    • Yahoo! Congrats on the interview (it’s fantastic) and the success of your blog. You do great work.

      Best of luck with agent querying. I found mine by going to a writer’s conference and signing up for a pitch session. Another idea to keep in mind…

  6. Great reminder to smell the roses. Write of their beauty…their aroma. The thorns and bees are easy to remember…the shades of the petals and the scent of the garden fade quickly.

    So I’m still waiting on reviewers for the first story. Can’t decide which direction to send it: online publish, submission for movie (which is what I want–but can’t make the contact easily), submit to agent for print. I really think business takes the fun out of creativity for me.

    OK…biggest milestone for today…the woman who historically declares she hates mornings was up at 6am…had to write. Working on the sequel to the first story. It’s been keeping me awake at night, begging to be put on a page.

    Smile on my face these days. Why didn’t I do this decades ago, I wonder…

    • DiDi, getting up early to write is a wonderful milestone. 🙂

      I know what you mean about slogging through the business end of writing, but I’m glad to hear about your smile these days. Best of luck with your story and deciding where to send it first.

  7. Congratulations on your Amazon Review, Lisa! Very Exciting!

    And, this is a great post. You’re right, we need to celebrate those small successes (much more often than we – ahem, I – obsess about stats).

    First blog post: Jul 25, 2009 — I’m coming up on a one year anniversary pretty quick!
    First completed short story: I’ll say April 2010, since it’s the story that earned me an Honorable Mention with Glimmer Train.
    First completed novel: TBA 🙂

    • Christi, thank you! Glimmer Train is such a terrific publication. Congratulations!

      I’m eager to see how you’ll celebrate your first year blogging milestone. 🙂

  8. Congratulations on your review!!!

    I recently started to blog about my writing life, that is a milestone in itself, in my life.
    I recently completed creating my 10th novel. Now I have to get one of them out the door!!!

    Wishing you more celebrations Lisa 🙂
    Maryellen

  9. Maryellen, you blog is fantastic! Ten novels is amazing. I can tell from how you write about your writing that your creativity is flowing and open. It’s wonderful.

    Thank you for the wishes, and I send them right back to you as well.
    😀 Lisa

  10. Thank you (((all))) so much for your comments! I drew the winner of the books this morning, and it is … drum roll… Kristi Helvig! Kristi, I’ll send you an email asking for your snail mail info. ~ Lisa

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