Progress

I feel like I'm writing slow, but really I'm going at a pretty steady pace! Maybe it seems like I'm writing slow because I read about other writer's chucking out first drafts within a month, sometimes two weeks, two days, two hours (okay, maybe not).

I believe progress on a draft is more than word count. I'm getting out about 500 new words a day, but I'm also brainstorming, figuring out the structure, moving things around, fleshing out characters, jotting down notes for edits.

This story is following me around more than any other one I've written. It's always in the back of my mind. Cutting words is progress. Dumping a bad scene is progress. Figuring out a new plot point is progress, even if I don't write a word of it yet. Each day, this book is feeling more and more like THE ONE. Have I felt this way before? Sure...but this feels a different. I can't explain it.

I'm not sure where I got all this optimism from. It's annoying, isn't it? Do not worry. Another couple thousand words and I'll hate this book. I'll be sure to grumble here. Happens every time!

How do you measure progress?

National Novel Writing Month

So I don't think I'll be doing National Novel Writing Month this year. I feel kind of sad about it. I've done it for the last few years. I really like the manuscript I wrote last year for it, although it sits untouched right now because it needs a lot of fixing and I don't want to do that right now. Go me. I am now 25,000 words into my new romantical WIP. It's slow-moving, folks. The words drip out like honey, but do not always taste so sweet. I wrote large chunks out of order, and am now in the process of filling in the blanks, threading scenes together. I edit slightly as I go along. I'm enjoying it. I think I finally found a process that works for me. I figure if I didn't have a day job, the process would go faster but alas I have a day job. I do hope to have a solid first draft by December. I figure I'll let it sit over the holidays. Edit in January...Perhaps! Perhaps! I shall query in February. In fact, maybe I shall send out a small batch of queries on Valentine's Day...which would be kind of perfect for the story. Oh, I love that idea!

What's your writing process? Are you writing a novel this November?

Re-Reading

Do you re-read books? It's a rare thing for me. Honestly, most of the books I read are okay, entertaining enough. But I don't love, love, love them enough to read them again. This is sad, I know. I'm a tough audience I guess.

There are those precious few that I will pick up again.

1) The Bell Jar (I read this at least once a year.)
2) The Dogs of Babel
3) Catcher in the Rye
4) This weekend I re-read The Disreputable History of Frankie-Landau Banks. I love this book.

Are you a re-reader?

I'm Sick...But Check This Out...

Well, I'm sick. Which means writing is going to be super hard. Bleh.

Anyway.

PLEASE GO CONGRATULATE SHANNON MESSENGER ON HER AWESOME BOOK DEAL! HOORAY!

Shannon's an inspiration and mega-awesome!!!!!

Young Adult...The Movie

How great does this movie about a slightly (or completely) unstable Young Adult writer sound?



http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount/youngadult/

Synopsis

Academy Award(R) winner Charlize Theron plays Mavis Gary, a writer of teen literature who returns to her small hometown to relive her glory days and attempt to reclaim her happily married high school sweetheart (Patrick Wilson). When returning home proves more difficult than she thought, Mavis forms an unusual bond with a former classmate (Patton Oswalt) who hasn't quite gotten over high school, either.

I can't wait for this one! But I would just like to say that not all Young Adult writers are stuck in the past. Really. Some of us are kind of stable adults. I'm not saying that I'm one of those or anything, but they do exist.

Still. This movie looks funny. I love hot mess characters.

The Writer Life

I took a few days off work. And I pretended that I write for a living. In two days I wrote 1,000 words in a first draft.

Huh.

Maybe it's a good thing I have a day job to force me to use my time more wisely.

I'm feeling like this publishing thing is taking me FOREVER. The people who start writing their first book today will likely be published before me. Ugh. My patience is dwindling. But I must trudge forward. I keep learning. I keep trying. I keep growing. I feel like I can't quit now. I've come a really long way. I've had a ton of set-backs. Each manuscript I write gets better than the last. I just need to have faith that this will happen for me. I have faith that it will happen for all of us dear writers. It's just a matter of when. And what book. The publishing stars must all align.

Onward, writer warriors.