Whew! I know I’ve
been a bit MIA lately, I’ve had a little bit of life get in the way. Fortunately, it wasn’t anything bad, just a
lot of celebrations.
So today, I thought I’d just let you all know what I’ve been
up to.
Yesterday, I finally finished the draft of my Yellow WIP,
which right now I’m calling The Stone Mason.
I’m going to be doing a final read-through for typos, then hopefully I
can find some betas willing to do a structural read for me. I’m really excited about this one. I love getting into that kid’s head, and the
chance to ‘think’ like a teenage boy.
I’ve also had some wonderful people going through The King’s
Councilor, and I think that they’ve really rooted out some of the plot flaws,
especially in the middle. I’m hoping to
jump in and start with revisions in the next few days. I just need to buy a new blue binder. Though, I don’t always need an excuse like
that to buy office supplies. Those just
make me happy.
This month (at least, if I understand correctly) I’m going
to be published! It’s an article in Home
Health Aide Digest on maintaining wellness in the mental health hospice
population. It was an amazing experience
working with my editor, and I’m excited to see it come out. I’ll admit that I check my mailbox
frequently as I wait for my copy.
And for those of you wondering about The Orphans of Jadox, I
was very blessed to be one of the ones picked by Brenda Drake to participate in
the July query workshop. I can’t wait to
get some feedback, and the chance to make it shine even more. Not that the rejections aren’t fun. I do keep them all in a file to remind myself
that even though they say no, they’re also proof that I’m actually trying. I don’t think that would have even been a
possibility a year or so ago.
Last but not least, I’ve been working on the prewriting for
my next NaNoWriMo story! It’s going to
be set in Milwaukee, so hopefully at some point, I’ll learn how to spell that
without using spellcheck. I'm going to also have to assign it a color at some point. I’ve applied
to be a joint ML in my region, and I’m eagerly waiting for their response.
Wow. When I look over
everything, it feels like a lot. I
guess I’ve been so busy I haven’t really paid attention to what’s going on.
So what about the rest of you? Any news you want to share – writing or
otherwise?
I'm so impressed every time I stop by your blog how many WIP's you have going. How many hours a day do you work on writing on an average? I have two first drafts going right now (it's my first time ever doing two at once) and then one WIP that's in and out of the editors that I work on here and there.
ReplyDeleteAlso, what do you do for pre-writing? I did NaNo last year and doubt I'll do it this year as I shoot for about 3-5k wpd on my own (well, when I'm writing first drafts) but I am curious about how you pre write to prepare for it.
Thanks! On average, I would say I use 2-3 hours a day working on writing. Though that doesn't spend all the time thinking about it, especially when I'm trying to figure out a plot hole or something. (One of the reasons I don't mind commuting 30 minutes to work a day). Awesome on the tow WIPs! Are they continuations of Miss Mabel?
DeleteI think last November, I had an entire series on how I prewrite. I like to have an idea of main characters and their backgrounds and settings. Plus, I need a detailed outline. I've found through experience that if I don't know where I'm going, I never get there. I have multiple unfinished novels because of that.
For this year's NaNo, it's going to be completely different because the book is going to be character driven rather than plot driven. It's also set in the real world, so the research is less 'creative' and more 'factual.' It'll be interesting to see how it turns out.