#WritersLife: Finishing the first draft of NaNoWriMo 2015 novel

 

#WritersLife, where I talk writing in real life.

I am so excited to announce I finished the (complete) first draft of my NaNoWriMo 2015 novel!

#WritersLife: YA Sci-Fi and un-education

It's #WritersLife, where I talk writing in real life.

NaNoWriMo 2015 ended, and I made it in on Nov. 30th. I don't think I've ever cut it that close. I closed the contest at 50,132 words, but I'm still finishing. It's currently at 55,800 words and I expect to finish in the next 10,000. 

But I've said that before.

NaNoWriMo 2015: Day 2

 

Happy NaNoWriMo 2015!

It is Day 2 of NaNoWriMo 2015, and things are looking better after a very slow start yesterday. It took me five hours of work (and some procrastinating on Facebook and Twitter) to get 2,313 words on the page. All last week I would write about 800-1,000 words in a thirty minute session. Beginnings either take me an hour to sprint through, or weeks to trudge through.

#WritersLife: Book Marketing and NaNo 2015 Prep

#WritersLife, where I talk writing in real life. 

I have some awesome news to discuss and also some terror as we approach the dreaded First of November!

NaNoWriMo 2015 Countdown!

 

It's hard to believe that in 26 days, I will be sitting down to eagerly write the beginning of an extraordinary and exhilarating story.

And in about 28 days, I'll probably be freaking out about my word count. It happens.

NaNoWriMo has been crucial for my writing because I am forced to start and end something. Most of us would be confident in starting a story because we get this gorgeous image or understandable character or hilarious dialogue and we just need to write it down right this second! And then we realize one conversation can't hold a novel and we abandon it.

I completed the 50K words in 2012 and 2014, and I reached 17K in 2013 (let's just not talk about that year, shall we?). This year, I'm doing something I've never done: I'm outlining and planning.

#WritersLife: Ways to Improve Creative Writing Programs

#WritersLife, where I talk writing in real life.

After much scheming with some of my dear writer friends this past week (Eric the Great and Donna the Magnificent), I realized that there is so much I still don't know about the publishing world. Not just the marketing and agent aspects, but also the author's life. I want to know more about revision, beta readers, critique partners, querying, and the writing community, and I wish all this information had been available during my college years.

It wouldn't take any of you long to stalk this website to see where I studied, but I'll save you the trouble and tell you. I attended UT El Paso, and below are the lists of things I wish I could have learned and would change today about its Undergraduate Creative Writing Program.

Piloting Conversations That Concern Mindless Deaths (A Story)

Approaching a large city, a pilot and co-pilot struggle to keep control of their plane. A wing is rendered unresponsive after a massive collection of geese intercept the flight path and are sucked into the fans. The pilot radios for help, but communication is down.

“We’re dropping too fast for the brakes to stop us, and the wheels will crack under the impact,” the pilot said. “There’s over a thousand people in that stadium. Most of them aren’t going to survive this blast if we don’t get control back.”

“There’s more than a thousand people,” the co-pilot said.