Still Thanksgiving

So, I went back a few blog posts (which was about how long it took me to get to the beginning of this blog...this year anyway) and I sort of regret not keeping up with you. I am currently at 64% with my book (Holy S****, right? compared to the last time I updated you) and on Chapter Twenty Two (is there supposed to be a hyphen between Twenty and Two? Shouldn't I know this?!).

My story is moving along pretty much exactly how I want it to. Somedays I feel awesome about it, and others I'm overwhelmed with fear that it'll be a flop when I'm all done and finally doing my first read-through.

I listened to that whole Audible book about the 'Successful Novelist' and loved it. I might re-listen to it soon. I then listened to Stephen King's 'On Writing', which was also a great motivator. Now I'm on to 'Stein's On Writing', which is so far my least favorite of the three, but I can't tell if it's because of the narrator or the book itself. Either way, the fact that I'm listening to audiobooks about writing, reading a book in my genre ('Matched' by Ally Condie, totally addictive and I'm loving it), still unemployed (not proud, just finding it helpful for the book), and able to drive 10 minutes to the nearest Barnes N Noble.. have all been adding to the recipe that is me finishing my first ever book.

It's not like I got to this point without a lot of dedication and struggling. Like I said a few months ago, I was a damn busy woman when I started writing this book. For example, the first two weeks of writing this involved a full-time job, a ridiculously busy two weeks of two summer courses in grad school (basically a full semester crammed into 4 weeks), Jane, selling a house, and I think there was a bout of strep throat in there too. Then, when school was done, I still had the job, the house selling, Jane having strep and me getting it AGAIN, and then actually moving to the other side of the country.

Right now, I'm getting about 750 (average) words written a day but I'm still in school and my jewelry shop had a crazy busy spurt. Plus, no more daycare (we miss them soo much! Hardest part about leaving dubois...saying goodbye to Jane's first friends :( ) ...so yea, lots more time now, but still really busy. I think all of that helps in getting me to write when I do finally have time. Then again, on some days it's definitely placed on the back burner in order to really shut off for a bit.

I guess right now I'm sort of giving myself a shout out for how far I've gotten. 64%. Damn. Obviously if I don't reach the story's end by 70,000 I'll keep going. But for all intents and purposes (I suck at common phrases..is that even right?), I'm gonna finish it if I get that far, you know? And if I go past 70,000 words, I'll be at 105%, 110%, etc. :)

64%!!!!!!!!


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Location:Litchfield Park, AZ

Happy Thanksgiving

I don't know if I'll get any novel writing in today but I can't stop thinking about how close I am to finishing my first real full-length novel. I'm 45,000 words into it, which is almost twice as far as I've ever gotten in a project before.

I'm really planning on going through with my original idea of getting a MacBook Air as long as I kept it up this long. Just so you know, getting a new computer wasn't the reason I got this far...but now I really feel like it'll be a lot of help. I started using Scrivener this past week instead of the Simplenote app (though I don't have anything against the Simplenote app...I really like it in fact, but I have gotten too deep into the story and need the assistance of the organization that comes with Scrivener).

Anyways, I have this awful feeling that there might be a book or series of books out there already with the same story I'm writing. I haven't ever come across any, but I'm writing a genre I don't read too often (except for the really mainstream versions, like Hunger Games and the Divergent series, which is more the route I'm trying to go with my book). I'm taking my chances anyway, obviously, considering I've already gone this far with my idea (and I've had it since I was a kid). Even if it gets rejected left and right when I actually start sending it out, I'll survive and try again (holy moly, I am going to send a real book that I really wrote to agents in order to try to really get published...this is seriously a dream come true, and I don't mean that to sound cliche or sarcastic in any way....because even if it does get rejected, just this step of finishing it and sending it out is something I always felt was unreachable for me).

So...it's Thanksgiving! My toddler (2 year old now...growing like a weed) is pressing every last button I have, but she still makes me laugh 3 <--that was a gift from her...she's past her nap time but she didn't even take a nap yesterday, so I'm not getting my hopes up for today. We are having a small thanksgiving this year.., since we just moved across the country a couple of months ago..but also because we accidentally left the turkey out over night and it went bad...so we're eating a tiny 'turkey breast' ...the only already thawed out version of turkey we could find at our local grocery store. Big bummer!

I hope all of you out there are also having a great Thanksgiving!!! Jane wants me to read to her, so I'll have to end here. :)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad