A Novel Expereince

So if you have been following my blog for a while, or have looked at past posts, you know that I have been working on a novel for about a year now. Well I am happy to say a couple weeks ago I completed the first draft!

How I feel about finishing my novel

Now as other writers know, I am a long way from done. I am currently working through my first rounds of editing, including adding in new characters, expanding some characters' roles, and inserting an entirely new subplot that wasn't even hinted at in the first draft.

Needless to say it's all a lot of work. But if I'm being honest, I would wish for anything else. There is nothing quite like the satisfaction of having completed a novel and I want to feel that satisfaction again and again. I already have plans on bringing out a manuscript I started before and redoing it. In the meantime, other than editing I am working on my first script attempt. I'll probably be on here to babble more about that endeavor later. Until then, write on folks.

NaNoWriMo 2014

I've been avoiding doing a post about NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) out of the fear that this year will end in my shame like every other year. See every year I swear I am going to win, then within the first week I quit. So I thought I would spare myself the shame. But low and behold here I am talking about it.

So what changed?

This year I actually feel genuine confidence in myself and more understand about myself. I'm not the fastest writer, generally I am happy to be able to squeeze a couple hundred words out when I try really hard at writing. This probably wasn't helped by my lack of taking time to write. I would go weeks, if not months, between sitting down and writing. Recently though, I've stumbled across a group of people on Tumblr that gather in a chat and run Word Wars (the practice of writing as much as you can in a set amount of time). Most of the writers in the group are fanfiction writers, and when I started writing with them, that was what I was working on. But now with NaNo in the air, some of us are working on original works.

We all challenge and encourage each other to do better and in the few weeks I've been with them I've increased my writing speed to levels of me being able to handle the 1600 word a day demand NaNo requires. And even better I feel myself typing more and more and getting faster.

I can feel myself becoming a better writer and I feel a real confidence that this year I will make my personal goal (15,000) if not win NaNo.

Fast Draft

So of my many ambitions for the summer (including my extensive reading list found here, my plans to start working on a comic with my friend, and working full time) I want to finally finish a manuscript. I know, I know. You guys have heard it all from me before. But I will make this time better. My goal is by the end of summer I will be either working on the second draft of an ms or starting on a second story. I want my first draft to be finish by the end of June, before I leave for vacation over the Fourth of July. This will give me time to let the novel sit before diving into revisions.

To help me on my way, I am hoping onto a Fast Draft with some buddies from the New Adult Authors United group I am in on Facebook. In the  fast draft group we all have different goals, but we will all be working on a two week deadline. Now this is a lot more challenging than my usual failed attempts at NaNoWriMo, but I think since I won't be doing school work simultaneously, it may work out better.

My goal is to write 20,000 words during these two weeks. That is an average of a little less than 1,500 words a day. Way more than I usually write. But I really want this to be a time I push myself beyond my limits, creating new limits to later push myself beyond. So you guys should all root for me. If I can meet my goal, I will tell you all a little about what this story is about. (Just a hint it is New Adult fantasy with almost no romance!)

I'm starting the Fast Draft on May 10th, so Wish me Luck!!!

2014 New Year New You

Ah another new year is here. As usual people are running around making New Year's Resoutions that most of them will not keep. I can't say I'm too different; just hopefully I will end up keeping mine. I have a mixture of personal and professional goals I am determined to keep this year.

1. Write something, no matter what, everyday
2. Finish writing a manuscript
3. Lower my intake of sugar
4. Get a short story published
5. Be more consistant with my blog
6. Present at the South Atlantic Modern Language conference

I like to think these are all pretty managable goals, the only thing I forsee having trouble with is writing everyday and keeping up with my blog. I depend on you guys to keep me going.

What are some of your resolutions? Share them in the comments.

NaNoWriMo

Today is the first day of NaNoWriMo (for those not in the know, National Novel Writing Month) and I have written a great big whooping 0 words. Yes I am already falling behind. I still have time today to write some, but I'm not happy with my lack of words written.

Hopefully when I get off of work today, I will have time to sit and write. I should be getting off by 5, so if anyone wants to do a word sprint with me, I can probably be found in the #WriteClub hashtag on Twitter. Even if you aren't doing NaNo, that is an amazing tag to follow every Friday for word sprints. I swear they help me get my best writing done.

If you want to add me as a buddy on NaNo, you can find me here under the name T.M. Canada.

Writing Exercises

This summer, one of the classes I took was Intro to Creative Writing. Now, I've been writing for years, but my school is one of the traditional schools who's writing program focuses on literary fiction and my interest is mainly in genre, so this is a fun challenge for me and I think I learned some new things (including an appreciation of writing literary short stories). One my first days of class we talked about Faulkner and his writing style, then my professor gave us an assignment. He wanted us to describe where we (or a completely fictional character) were from in a grammatically correct, 150 word sentence. If that sounds challenging, then let me tell you, it is. But it forces your mind to think in a different way and you to write in an out-of-the-box style. Here is the one I did. Try it yourself and see where your mind takes you.

I was born in a small town in south Georgia- no place you would have ever heard of- where the cows out numbered the people three to one, everybody knew everyone else's business, and it was a big deal when a Dairy Queen was built in the center of the downtown square (where old man Richardson's feed store was before he followed his wife, dead these past fifteen years, to the great pasture in the sky); we were never a town for fast food chains or none of those corporate stores- I never heard of Wal-Mart until I moved up here to Atlanta and the closest mall and movie theater was twenty miles away (every fourth Saturday Mama would take me and lil Jo Ann to see a movie and buy a dress)- the tallest building in town was four story city hall, so you can imagine my amazement seeing all these skyscrappers here...maybe that's why I decided to get my education here,you know, experience something new, expand my horizons.

Hypocrisy in My Writings

Now if you read my blog, you know I love romance. I read it, I write it. It is hard for me to write anything without inserting some romance in there. Even if the romance is minor I love having it in my writing.

Yet I am frequently outspoken on the need for NA novels to be less romance driven. I love romance, but I am afraid of the stigma that is attaching itself to the NA category. Many people are starting to see NA as just contemporary romance, so I just want to see other genres being portrayed more.

I do want to challenge myself by writing something that has no romance in it. One of the things I am working on (a mystery) was romance free at conception, but now it has a small romance subplot. I am still trying to decide if I should drop the romance totally from it. I am currently writing a short story with no romance in it, so that makes me feel a little better.

I'm not saying that everyone should stop writing romance, it is a wonderful genre and you should write what you want to write. I just worry for the future of a category I have come to love. I understand that every category goes through phases where one genre dominates it, and romance is currently the "in" genre for NA. I look forward to the day I can more easily find more genres in NA.

A to Z April Challenge and Camp NaNo

Hey everybody. April is going to be such a crazy month for me. A lot of writing going on. I will be participating in not one but TWO big events that take place all month: A to Z Challenge and Camp NaNoWriMo.

I hope you guys really like my posts because the A to Z April Challenge will have me posting Monday through Saturday with a different letter of the alphabet for each day in alphabetical order. There are a few Sundays where I will be posting some author interviews, so you will need to love me to deal with me posting almost every day for a solid month. The theme I am using for the challenge is Publishing/Writing. This is more or less keeping with the theme of my entire blog. Can I admit that some of the letters were really hard to think of things for, so don't laugh at some of the stretches I make.

Camp NaNo, on the other hand, you won't really see the results any time soon. I am signed up to write 15,000 words by the end of the month. This is on top of the writing for the blog. I know for many writers, 15,000 words may not seem like a lot, but I am a notoriously slow writer.

I am excited to challenge myself with these too. This will definitely be hard and I am looking forward to it. It will be especially challenging when this will probably be the most writing I have ever done in one set of time. Wish me luck!

Will you be doing Camp NaNo or A to Z April Challenge?

A Series of Series

I mentioned a week or so ago that people in my writing group have convinced me it is okay to work on my fantasy series, because series are in and publishers are more willing to accept them from new author now. It is funny that after that conversation I have seen tons of new articles and blog posts about series. And yes it definitely seems true that series are the new it trend. I had to sit and think about how did I miss this. True I am a broke student and haven't been able to afford to buy non-school related books in a while, but have I been this oblivious?

Now that my blinders are off I can see the trend clearly, The Divergent series, Heist Society, The Hunger Games, Graceling, the list goes on and on. I really had to stop and think where the craze came from.

Once I gave this series of series a thought the reason seemed clear on where the excitement came from. Harry Potter is over Twilight is over, even Hunger Games is over, so it makes sense that authors and publishers are duking it out to see what series will next reign supreme.

This is great to me on twofold. One, I love series, and two I get an excuse to work more heavily on the series that has a grip on my heart.

What are your favorite book series? Mine are a tie between Harry Potter, The Lioness Quartet, and The Jessica Darling series.

Tackle It Tuesday: Spring Break Edition!

I am officially on the last spring break of my college career. This means I have only two plans for the next week: seeing how many books I can read between now and next Sunday and writing. So far I have finished two books, maybe 50 pages before finishing a third, and have added scenes to and edited a short story.

As I write this post, I am fighting my nerves about posting it to my writing group. I hate when people see my work, but I know the group helps make my work better. They are the best writing group a girl could ever ask for. But that isn't my only writing plan. I hope to be finished through chapter four on my romance and get back fully into the swing of things with my fantasy.

Hopefully this week will be the break I need to take a deep breath before plunging back into the hectic scheduling I so fondly call my life. Short post today, but there isn't much to report, so I will leave you with the recommendation to watch The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. An amazing modernization of Pride and Prejudice set up as a vlog. Whether you love or hate Jane Austen, you will love this series.

Link for entire series

Big Decisions

This has been such a hectic week for me, as you may have seen in my last posting. Through all of that I have been in deep discussion with my parents and sister (all of their opinions I trust implicitly) about my future. I came to the conclusion that while getting a Master's degree would be personally satisfying, it is not something I need right now and not something worth putting myself further in debt for. This means I now have the seemingly insurmountable task of finding a job. I would prefer getting a job in the specific area of publishing I am interested in (acquisitions editor) but right now any way to get my foot in the door would be amazing. Honestly this decision lifts a huge weight off of my shoulders and I feel happier than I have in a while.

It is still kind of scaryamazing that I am already 23, about to graduate, and searching for a job in my career field. I still feel too young to be doing all of this. I know no matter what age you consider "adulthood" I have probably been there for a few years but it is hard to consider yourself as an adult when youare still in school and living in your parent's house. The world out there is plenty scary, but I am doing my best to prepare myself for it. It helps that I have an amazing support system.

Another decision I have recently made, though not as big, is to go back to working on my YA fantasy book. I originally put it to the side because one of the first things I was told about publishing is most debut authors do not get picked up with a series. My YA is most definitely a series, but with each book having a smaller arc and the series having an over all arc. I was speaking to a few people in my writer's group on Wednesday about that and they convinced me so many debut authors are debuting with series. This gives me confidence enough to go back to working on Searching For Destiny, which is my favorite of all of my WIPs. Since Song in my Heart is my second favorite, you can rest assured that I will still be devoting time to that one. It will actually probably sill be my main project. I will tell you more about Searching For Destiny and the entire Sunburst series another time.


What do you think about debut authors and series versus standalone novels? Do you remember when you were first thrust into the "adult" world?

Stephen Fry on Language

Stephen Fry on Language (see below) is one of my favorite videos. It was first introduced to me in a literature class a few years ago. Now the editor part of me wants to disagree about the lack of need for a strict use of language, but the lover of words side of me delights in the world's ability to adapt and change language to fit into our new landscape. I love language's ability to evolve but don't try to make it evolve in anything I have to edit.

My Top Five Procrastination Destinations

In my first post I talked about how I get easily distracted from writing. These are the top five places I go for easy distractions.

1. Absolute Write

Those forums are addictive. Talking to people with different experiences is a great way for me to learn more about writing and publishing. I keep my eye on a few of these forums, but generally just cruise through and reading through whatever catches my eye. It is a great place for anyone in the writing industry to get information, whether you are a writer, editor, publisher, or something else.


2. Facebook

The publishing house I intern at has a private board for authors and staff. There are always great posts linking to different blogs and articles that can keep my attention for a while. This is where I find a lot of interesting articles that I eventually tweet.


3. Twitter

I love this form of connecting with people. I see and send out different articles, videos, and blog posts about writing and publishing. Because I read through every article I post, this is a great time waster. I love doing it and learn so much.


4. Blogger

If you guys could see the amount of posts I have drafted on here you would understand why I call this a procrastination destination. I love that I have this forum to express my thoughts and ideas and can't wait to share everything I have planned for you.


5. Email

I get a bunch of emails from my internship, Twitter, schools, and other places. Going through it all can be tedious, but I tend to gain access to even more interesting articles and information on publishing and editing.


Now I know procrastination can have a bad connotation but, if you don't take time from writing, ideas can dry up and you can become stressed. I often need something to do to get my mind off things and relax before I jump back into writing. These places are the perfect way for me to unwind. I suggest for everyone to find there own top Procrastination Destinations you can retreat to when writing gets to be to much. Don't procrastinate so much where you get nothing done, though, just step away from the writing long enough to let your brain take a break.

Liebster Award

So for the second week in a row, I was tagged in something that pushes my planned post back. I will probably end up posting that one tomorrow, so it's really no big deal. The amazing Paige Lollie nominated me for the Liebster Award. She, like me is a young writer and wants to get into publishing. If you find any of that interesting, follow her. I know I do.

The Rules of the Liebster Award:

1) Thank the blogger who presented this award and link back to that person's blog.
2) Ask eleven questions posted by the presenter, ask your nominees eleven questions, and list eleven random facts about yourself.
3) Nominate eleven bloggers who you feel deserve this award and have less than 200 followers.
4) Post this award on your blog

Since I don't know eleven blogs that have less than 200 followers, if you read this then you can consider yourself nominated. Comment and I will link to your blog in this post.

Ok so my eleven random facts:

1. I write across genres. In the back wings I currently have an NA mystery, NA clockworkpunk, and YA fantasy. There are others, but those are the one most on my mind.
2. I am a total chocoholic. If you love me send me chocolate.
3. I read almost anything except horror.
4. Sherlock, Supernatural, and Doctor Who are my favorite shows
5. Audrey Hepburn and Jackie O are my role models
6.  I love to knit
7. I have arthritis
8. My dream is to become a popular enough writer where people will write fanfiction based on my work
9. I speak a little French and am trying to become fluent
10. I can't swim
11. I listen to almost any kind of music

Paige asked:

1) What was the first job you've had? What job do you have now?
My first job was working at a college bookstore and a math tutor (they were at the same time). Currently I am an intern at a small publishing house.

2) What is your biggest weakness?
My biggest weakness is over editing. It makes it difficult for me to write because my mind wants to revise.

3) What are your top three favorite foods?
Pasta, escargot, and goat cheese

4) Who or what is your biggest inspiration with writing?
Many of my plots and characters come to me as I am falling asleep. S I guess sleep inspires me. With other authors, Tamora Pierce. I love her books.
5) In a story, would you be the main protagonist, the damsel, the villain, the side-kick, or the background character? Why?
I would rather be the background character. I am not one to want to be in the forefront. Just let me do the background work.
6) Where do you hope to be in five years?
Five years from now I want to have my Masters in Publishing and working as an Editorial Assistant at a publishing house.
7) Who is your dream girl/boy?
I don't really have a dream person. As long as they are intelligent, funny, and enjoy some of the same things as me, then we would be okay.
8) Confidence booster time! What are five good/positive/amazing things about yourself?
Hmmm I think I am creative, intelligent, a good baker, good knitter, and I can remember almost every movie I've ever seen and book I've read.

9) What is your favorite holiday and why?
My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. I love spending all day cooking with my family and even better eating it all!
10) When and what made you realize you wanted to write?
I;ve always known I wanted to write. I figured I would have other jobs and never expected to make a living off of it, but as long as I got to share my work I would be happy.

11) Quick! The world is under attack! What is the weapon you go for, real or fictional?
Can I have the invisibility cloak from Harry Potter or the Ring of Invisibility from Lord of the Rings? Really I just want to hide until it's over.

My Questions for you dear readers:
1. What skill do you wish you had?
2. What is the first thing you remember writing?
3. What fictional character do you identify with the most?
4. Who is your favorite author?
5. What is your dream job (other than being a writer)?
6. If you could only write one genre forever, what would it be?
7. Outline or fly by your pants?
8. If you could have dinner with one person, living or dead, who would it be?
9. Where is your favorite place to write?
10. What kind of movie is your life (romance, comedy, tragedy, etc.)?
11. What would you name your memoirs?