Tag: new projects

Needless to say…

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…I’m a terrible blogger. Maybe 2017 will be a new year for my blogging. It already feels like the start of a new year with my writing.

It all started with the NaNoWriMo challenge back in November. I shocked myself by completing the draft of a literary novel (I hit the 50,000 word target and had a mostly complete 1st draft at that point). I’m really proud of the draft and think it’s a decent story. My writing process has changed from where I was when I wrote the first draft of KILLING MEMORIES back in 2006. I feel like it’s more purposeful and direct. The story is more complete by the time I’m done with the first draft, and the editing overall is lighter than it usually is. I like to think that’s a result of so many years writing (and my degree). It’s been a decade since I wrote that first novel, so I guess it’s probably about right that novel #8 would feel the strongest.

Gosh, it feels good to be writing again.

I’m going to try to pursue the “traditional” publishing route with this new one. I often think that I dove into self-publishing because I can be incredibly lazy when it comes to big, overwhelming projects. Again.. maybe 2017 will be the year of putting in actual work to take my writing somewhere.

So, some preliminary writing resolutions:

  1. Write one page a day
  2. Submit “Girl X” (my NaNo novel) to agents for consideration; give this process an ENTIRE year (or more) before stopping
  3. Finish KM3 and KM4 paperback edits
  4. Finish a draft of Book I and II of the YA series I began this year
  5. Blog once a week (on Fridays)! <–needed to make this one specific ;c)

Let’s see what 2017 brings.

Image result for happy new year

The Difficulty of Writing

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It’s been a few months since I posted anything on this blog. It’s also been a few months since I’ve written anything. I think it’s a mix of stress and general unhappiness with my 9-to-5 that keeps me from really wanting to do much writing, as well as a potentially unhealthy obsession with TV (especially Korean dramas). The last time I found writing to be this challenging was 2008 when I started my first year of the MFA program. It felt forced then–like I was trying to be something I wasn’t. It feels forced now too, but for different reasons.

I am working on a new project. Something in the YA-fantasy field. I’m trying to go with my normal “write with your heart” for the first draft, and I do think I’m accomplishing that. I’ve had a few good writing days the last few weekends. Who knows if this will go anywhere or if I’ll complete the draft and end up doing anything with it. I wish I was excited about writing. I wish it wasn’t so difficult.

Starting New Projects

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After finiswriters_block_boxer_shortshing a novel and publishing it, I always fall into a strange creative space where I feel a little lost and helpless. It’s an “I know I should start the next project, but what is that next project” hole. It’s definitely writer’s block and I feel like I’m not going to break through it! I thought I finally found a new project to work on, but I’m not really sure. I wrote 40 pages a few weeks ago and scrapped them to start over. Now I’m 17 pages in and I just don’t know. I miss the times when the stories just flew out of me (like with the KM series). I’m no where close to writing a new KM book (sorry to disappoint!); I’m not even excited about editing the current series to prepare the rest of the books for print on demand (not that there’s much of a demand presently). Ugh! I’m just not excited right now… I may need a “writer” vacation and go away somewhere for the weekend all by myself.

I may actually need to do that period. There are a lot of areas of my life that I need to regroup on–maybe if I get those other areas right the words will come.

Revising, Revising, Revising

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I am amazed at the amount of errors I’m still finding in this “final” draft of AROUND THE WORLD TONIGHT. This just goes to show that nothing will probably ever be 100% perfect in my eyes. Most of what I’m finding aren’t the typos and odd formatting issues I was expecting, but little tweaks to words and removal of whole sentences. I find myself to be a stickler for deleting any duplicate word that appears in two back-to-back sentences. I still love editing though. It’s probably one of my favorite parts of the process. But there comes a point when I have to stop editing and start writing something new. I think I’ve decided to pick up THE JADE BRACELET, an unfinished project from several years ago as my next novel. I have about 100 pages written and will need to be rewritten before I can finish. However, my mind has been going in an entirely new direction lately. Something more along the lines of YA supernatural/fantasy. Then I also had the idea of a romantic suspense…. my mind is all over the place creatively. I suppose I just need to get writing, period.

Updated AROUND THE WORLD TONIGHT cover now on the books page! See… editing never ends!