4 years

Last night I came to a realization. I was looking through this blog of mine, for what I don't remember, but I was scanning through posts past. I came across one about the tornado book. I noted the date. It was 4 years ago!

I can't believe I started writing that back in 2011. That means I've not touched any other manuscript since then.

I'm absolutely melancholy over this. I mean, granted, I've been busy. Never Eighteen came out, then I released Dissected, but that was a year and a half ago!!!

So now I'm determined. I NEED to finish revisions on the football book and decide whether I'm going to query it out or self pub. I'd sure like to get another book  traditionally published, but my GOD, the process takes so long. I mean, either way takes a long time, but we're talking 2 years for traditional, whereas I could probably get it out by the end of the year *fingers crossed.*

Ugh. Where does the time go.?

Changed My Mind

I'm gung ho. I've decided not to send Dissected to the agent again. (notice how I changed the name again?) I'm just going to throw my hat into the self publishing ring.

And I'm excited...really excited.

I'm doing a lot of research. I've had many friends who've gone before me who are willing to help out. I'm designing the cover. If this one goes well, I may just do them all this way and forgo traditional publishing all together. Who knows?

Any of you out there self pubbed? If so, how's it going?

On the Writing Front

You have five more days to get your entry in to ABNA (Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest). They haven't announced any of the categories closed yet, so if you have a finished novel and want to try to win a publishing contract and a $50k advance, you better get a move on.

On the writing front, I'm torn. I have two fantasy MSs started, both of which are going to be series I'm hoping. One, a fairy tale retelling, the other dystopian. But there are so many more stories in me to write, most of them contemporary realistic, which I know will probably keep me a mid-lister for the rest of my writing days.

I shouldn't have started a project when I already had one going. sigh. I also have two adult books started, and one chick lit I've been wanting to write forever.  And then of course there is always something that needs editing. I wrote a book about a school shooting a couple years ago I'd like to polish up and send out.

Do you ever have more than one project going at a time? How do you balance the two?

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.

The Sell

Getting a late start today. I debated hijacking my own blog after some debate on Facebook, but decided to stick with the subject of the week. At the end maybe I'll touch on the Facebook debate.

So, you have an agent, and OH MY GOD, they've found a house that wants your book!! You have an editorial meeting with the publisher and guess what? They love your book, but want to see some changes done.

You make the changes, then comes line edits.

You edit, then comes more changes.

Then more, and more and more.

And they've given you a release date two years from now. Two years that will seem a lifetime.

It's all worth it though, from conception to publication, the hours, the frustration, the tedium, just to see your book in print. I can't wait for that day.

But you know what? That's when the hard work starts. Publicizing, market, making sure your book sells so you can sell another...your job as a writer is never done.

Good luck to ya.

Kisses,

:*

Megan

non sequitur: It's hard enough making it as a first time writer, especially for writer's of YA, give me your thoughts on competing with the celebrity writers out there, Madonna, Brittany Spears, Jamie Lee Curtis, and now Hilary Duff, etc etc. Let me hear your thoughts on this. This was the subject of debate on Facebook yesterday and today.

The Recreation

Yesterday I talked about the Creation of a story, today I will talk about the Recreation of a story.

When you've gone from start to finish, it's time to start over again...and again...and again...and again. And when you think it's perfect, go through it again. And then you let others read it, and you go through their comments, and change what you think needs changing.

and then, guess what? You do it again.

The book I've worked the most on to perfect, Mending Fences, I've done twelve rewrites/edits. And you know what? I'm starting another. And every time you go through it, you'll find mistakes, and things that need changing.

I've added characters, cut characters, added and cut scenes, made it more literary, less literary, added more action, changed the ending, changed the beginning, etc. etc.

A tip I have when you revise, is I change the name as if it's a new version of software. So right now I'm on Mending Fences 13.0. I have Dena Powers 3.0, What Gets You In 2.o, and Lockdown 2.0. It makes it less confusing when trying to find the right version of what you're working on.

Writing/revising is a never ending process. Eventually you have to stop of course, otherwise you'll make yourself crazy. It's hard though, to reach the point when you say, "okay, I think it's finally done."