NaNoWriMo- On Success and Failure

So its the final day of National Novel Writing Month. At this point I'm sure many of you, like me, are scrambling to reach their 50,000 word count. But I'm taking a break in this moment to talk not only about succeeding at the NaNoWriMo challenge but failing it as well.

Today, some of you will hit your 50,000 words. Some of you already have and are going for an even larger word goal. And that's AMAZING. Maybe 80% of the words are crap. Maybe you don't even know if it works as a story. But you wrote a novel in a month. That's an astonishing feat of dedication. You worked hard and even if you don't come back to this novel in the near future, you earned some valuable writing experience.

For some of you, maybe this is the first novel you've ever finished. That's even more amazing, because now you know you can do it. With enough hard work and dedication, you can type 'the end' on a book. I hope you write many, many more.

For others this is their tenth novel. Which is also SO cool. You've put out so many books and even if they haven't all been winners, some of them are. Some of them have or will taken you all the way to down the publishing road.

If you won this year's NaNoWriMo, pat yourself on the back. Take a breath. Then put away your draft and take a well deserved break. You can edit out all the terrible parts later.

But some of you may have "lost" NaNoWriMo this year. But honestly, why think about it as a loss? Whatever you managed to write--10,000 words, 20,000 words, 30,000 etc--that's still a good chunk of a novel. You're still one step closer to a completed draft. Maybe you're close to 50,000 but you won't be able to hit it today. That's fine. Take your time. What does it matter if you finish a draft in a month and a day, a month and a week or even two months? That's still a tremendous accomplishment.

The bottom line is, NaNoWriMo isn't for everyone. Sometimes people draft slowly. That's a valid way to write a novel. As long as it gets done and you're proud of it, who cares that it wasn't written in a month? You're still a writer who wrote a whole book. Celebrate that.

I've won NaNoWriMo and I've lost NaNoWriMo. Sometimes, I burnt myself out writing in October before I hit November. Last year, my life was too emotionally tumultuous and I didn't write a dang thing in the Fall. I felt terrible about it because fast drafting is my skill. I felt so unproductive and like I lost my creative spark. But then I hit spring of 2016 and I fast drafted two novels. Those novels weren't better or worse because I didn't write them in November. They were still drafts. Messy drafts, but drafts none the less.

So if you tried NaNoWriMo at all this year, whether you won or "lost", pat yourself on the back and celebrate. Not many people would even attempt what you guys did and you deserve all the credit in the world for it. Tomorrrow's a new day of writing and who knows what it will bring!

New Years Resolutions

Its the second day of the new year, and I'd say its about time to promise to accomplish something! For writers especially, I think New Years Resolutions are important. Writing is a task that takes a lot of perseverance, dedication and will power. Sometimes its only our promises to ourselves that keep us going. Or other people who know about our resolutions and push us to succeed.

So today I'm mostly going to talk about my writing resolutions rather than any of my personal resolutions. Because this is, after all, a blog about writing and that's what most of you are interested in anyway.

1. Write 3 rough drafts 

As I've discussed before, its become tradition every fall for me to write two rough drafts. Its happened for the past three years and its probably going to happen again this time around. But my Summers are vastly unproductive. So I figure I'll make myself write at least one rough draft in the Summer. I have tons of time, so there's no excuse.

2. Read fifty books.

Part of me wanted to say 100 books, but I know that's a resolution I probably won't keep. So I'll shoot a little lower and if I read more, awesome. I neglected reading as much as I'd like to during the year and ended up reading about twenty books just this fall. If I can achieve that same rate, this shouldn't be a problem. Reading is important for writing after all.

3. Edit all eligible manuscripts

There are lots of finished manuscripts I have sitting around that I never got around to editing. In addition to editing the first draft of the sequel to HOUR OF MISCHIEF, I want to edit those as well. Maybe they'll get published and maybe not, but its still good to get them in their best shape.

4. Start a video series

To build a youtube presence I want to start a video series called Writer's Thoughts. I already have audio for a few episodes recorded and need to film. I know that youtube is a valuable tool for reaching audiences and its fun, so I'll be looking forward to that.

5. Write some short stories

Short stories are not my strength. They usually end up blowing up into novels. My mind expands the plots too far. But I need to improve on my short story writing ability, so I'm going to try to write more of them.

6. Find every Opportunity to Reach Out to New Writers

This year I've had the opportunity to work with a lot of budding writers, whether it be through judging online contests, working at Shared Worlds creative writing camp or just giving advice to those who ask. I think its the job of agented and published writers to help those who aren't there yet. We all remember when we were starting out and needed a helping hand or a kind word. It took us awhile to get here but we had people helping us along.

In addition I'm going to make an effort to read books by new authors. Since I'm going to be new myself soon, I think its only fair.

Those are my new years writing resolutions for the year. Share some of yours in the comments and happy 2015!

From First Draft to Book Deal

Two days ago, I was allowed to officially break my silence on the most amazing news ever. I've signed a book deal with Curiosity Quills Press for my YA Steampunk Fantasy novel, HOUR OF MISCHIEF. It is slated to be released in Fall of 2015 and I couldn't be happier. But the road to publishing is a long journey. And the only way to properly illustrate that journey is with Disney gifs. And as an extra challenge I only used one from each movie. So with that, I present to you, my journey from first draft to book deal.

When I began writing HOUR OF MISCHIEF I was in the trenches with my first ever novel. But that book wasn't getting any requests so, at the time, I was feeling something like this:

I'm seventeen and I haven't been published. Its all over for me! *dramatic sob*

To distract myself from the black pits of despair, I decided I had to start working on something entirely new. So I pulled out a short story from the previous summer that I had been wanting to turn into a novel.

And when I started writing, I was surprised how easily the words came.

Feeling the words

Of course there were also days like this...

Kill me

But by the end of the month I had completed a first draft that made me proud.

So of course I locked it away in a folder for two months and din't allow myself to read it. Until, on that fateful day in December...

Funny how two months can change your perspective on your writing. I looked at most of my words like...

And the world building was especially hard. It took me ages to figure out how to make it work.

But finally I had edited it to the best of my ability. So off it went into the querying trenches again. Unsurprisingly I was feeling a bit like...

I also submitted to a bunch of contests to get my stuff out there. I didn't expect anything, especially after what happened with my first book. But then, a surprise! Partial requests started rolling in.

Partial requests are kind of like fairy dust

And then, partial requests actually turned into full requests!

It was one amazing thing after another. And then one day, against all odds, I woke up to an email from one of the agents who had my query. She wanted to schedule a call. THE call. Unsurprisingly I was like

SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!

And I danced around the room with my friends.

Just not this gracefully

I finally accepted representation from that first agent who scheduled a call, Laura Zats. And we set to work immediately on preparing my book for submission. She was very good about pointing out other plot holes in my work that I needed to paste together.

And she was usually right.

But finally, when the manuscript was in top form, we started sending it out on submission. To publishers. Oh god, oh god, oh god.

Another waiting game began, this one even more tense than the last.

Keep cool, keep cool, keep cool

There is so much waiting in the publishing industry. So of course I distracted myself with other things. And then one day my agent called me again. She said we had an offer.

Uhhhh... what?

She had to say it about three times before I finally got it. But once I did I was like

Of course it was still super secret until it was official, so I couldn't say anything to anyone.

Which was terrible because I was bursting with the news.

So much waiting in the publishing world

When I finally got the okay, I broke my silence two days ago with a cry of pure happiness. 

There's the obligatory Frozen clip. You thought I'd skip it, didn't you :P

Everyone was super supportive and congratulatory. And even now, I still feel like I'm flying.

This has been quite the journey. I've imagined getting to this point for so long and I met my fair share of rejection and disappointment along the way. The journey still isn't over, but I am officially going to see my books in print some day. And that is a victory that will stick with me for a long time.

Thank you so much for everyone's well wishes and congratulations. And if you're still in the trenches, keep working at it! Your own Disney gif success story could be just around the corner.