NoNaNo this year

I didn't complete NaNoWriMo again this year. Honestly, I'm okay with it. It motivated me to get writing again, which I'd been putting off. So I'm at 37,588 on this novel which was way further than I was anyway. Life is just busy right now. I've been out of town twice, it's the holiday season, and other life things are happening.

Another thing. I have SUCH a hard time writing without researching. I'm not sure I can do it. People have told me the tricks, leave a marker to search for later or make a note and such, but it just seems like more work later. But really, if I'd done it, I may have been able to finish NaNoWriMo. Maybe.

Of course when you're researching along the way there are all the shiny distraction on the internet like Twitter and Facebook and memes and funny cat videos...

I WILL finish this book though. It's taken a long time. I actually tried writing it during NaNo last year, but realized it was too hard to write in one piece. I had to write it in two separate sections from the two differing points of view, one at a time because they were from two different time periods and those time periods were different lengths. One stretches through an entire school year, one just a few weeks. I'm having a much easier time now.

I'll probably keep trying at NaNoWriMo. I'm a two time winner, and one of those books went on to be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Never Eighteen). Even if I don't win, I usually am able to get out a few thousand words (or tens of thousands).

F³A: Frustration

I kind of ranted  yesterday to my supports at the Class of 2k12. I'm frustrated with this business. I'm burnt out. I'm tired of promoting the same book. I want a new book out there to promote. But these things take time and time is something I have very little of. I already have three books done. But I need time to revise, to query, and to get a new one written and go through the same process.

While I'm doing that I have to work a day job, attend kids soccer games and music performances and spend time with them. Spend time with my boyfriend. Shop for groceries, clean, do laundry, exercise, eat, sleep.

Promote that damn book.  I think I'm going to hang it up with the book though. I'm tired of it. It's going to have to sell itself from now on. I mean, I have a couple visits already scheduled, one each month until February, but then I'm done. Until the next book.

And the next book...I think I'm only going to agent shop until the end of the year, then I'm seriously going to look into self publishing. I don't know 6% of sales as opposed to most of the % of sales. Yeah, I'll need to hire an editor, maybe a cover designer, or at least someone to consult because I can pretty much design my own. I can make my own trailer, design my own swag.

I have friends that have done this. They like it.

I have a fan base. Many of them are just waiting for my next book to come out. If I wait to be traditionally published, if that even happens again, I'm looking at 2-3 years from now. Are those fans even going to care by then? Probably not.

I do feel good about one thing. I'm writing a new book during NaNo. I still like writing.

What would you do?

Friday Scribbles:

Next Pandora Song: Icky Thump by White Stripes (Beck Radio)

Book of the Week: Um, book: I've not had a damn moment to read, so...we'll go with my Rainmaker Retreat manual from my legal marketing conference.

Redbox of the Week: The Avengers "Puny God" favorite line.

Quote of the Week: "Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward."
Kurt Vonnegut

Happy Friday 

Monkey Madness Monday: NaNoWriMo

Yeah, so, um, I didn't blog at all last week. It was a busy week. I was coming off of a marketing conference, then there was Halloween, and then, yes, NaNoWriMo started.

For those of you unfamiliar with that term, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. It is a personal challenge for writers to write a 50k novel in 30 days.

Crazy, I know.

The point is not to produce a quality novel, it is simply to produce. To write. And this is something I so desperately needed right now. It forced me to finish revisions I'd been dragging my feet on so I could start something new. Something I'd been excited about for a long time but not started because of aforementioned unfinished project.

You must be asking yourself, what's the point of writing trash? Like I said, the point is simply to write, but also, with revision, your work can go from trash to treasure. I wrote Never Eighteen during the 2008 NaNoWriMo and look where it is now. In fact they have a whole section on published NaNo works (disclaimer: I have no idea if these are self or traditionally published novel and therefore cannot speak for the quality of said novels).

Are you NaNoing this year? If so, how many words in are you? What are you writing about? What's your NaNo handle?

I'm just over 10k (this is sure to slow down now), I'm writing YA fantasy, Here's my profile if you want to buddy up.