50K!

I just made my 50k words for NaNoWriMo (actually 50 hours, as I was rebelling this year by editing) in 10 days. That’s 5 hours a day, which means I wasn’t doing much of anything else but writing in my spare time.

It was insane. On the other hand, I think I have Gaia’s Hands to the point where, after a friend reads it, I could publish it. I think I learned a lot about editing. And focus. And feeling braindead at the end of a day.

I will finish a read-through on it, and then, I will probably start on Whose Hearts are Mountains. Only 2 hours a day, though. And it’s going to take a lot more work, because it has structural problems in the first third.

Time to pass out now.

Day 7 NaNo

Another boring post. 35 hours.

It’s really interesting finding out how long a good edit takes. I’m 35 hours into a book and not at the end.

I promise more content after I’ve made 50k.

Day 6 NaNo

I’m not going to have the brain work to write entries until I’m at least at 50K on NaNo. Which, at this rate, will be Monday.

30 hours so far.

NaNo day 5

25 hours (25K words) on NaNo. I’m very lucky I have the time to do this (aided greatly by the fact that I don’t watch tv and I have an excellent attention span.) I wish I could find those excellent graphics that NaNo offered us!

The hard part comes ahead — so far the path to revision (including adding material) has been easy, with some of my best writing happening. Now I know things that are going to happen but not quite what to do there. Wish me luck!

Day 4 NaNo

20.000 words. I’m really pushing myself on this because I want to be done (which means still working on the project but done with NaNo hours) before Thanksgiving. Phew!

Third Day NaNo

Yesterday I was at 20 hours, equivalent to 20k words. I also got schooled on how I really should proofread better, because a submission of mine had a wrong name at least once in the 1000 words.

I’m still getting more rejections and wondering if it’s me or the stories. And if it’s remediable. I’m getting inspired by editing since I’m seeing possibilities opening up with Gaia’s Hands.

😒 Wait. I have emojis! I just discovered this!

Second Day Nano

Can’t find the cool picture today.

Edited 4 more hours for a total of 10 hours. I won’t be able to keep this pace for long But it’s sure fun to try.

First Day NaNo

6000 words (or more accurately for a Rebel, 6 hours).

It’s November First?!?

I’m sorry for not writing yesterday — I was pretty sick.

I’ve been fighting a cold or something over the past two weeks, but yesterday morning it went supernova — I ached so badly I couldn’t move, I coughed constantly, had a sore throat — so I stayed home and slept for 20 hours.

Only to wake up on November 1st and realize — OMG, it’s NANO TIME!

So today, as promised, I have to spend at least two hours today editing*, something I have been avoiding up till now. Two hours. When am I going to do this? When?

Deep breath. I have time after 2 PM today, being that it’s a Friday and all and there won’t be any meetings today. And I have a place — the Board Game Cafe.

All I need now is the initiative.

Oh, by the way, I had a poem make Submittable’s Rejection Horror Stories 2019. (Mine is the poem).

***

* I’m a rebel this year, doing some much needed editing instead of writing something new. On NaNoWriMo, I’m lleachie.

Sorry for the Debbie Downer

I got a big rejection last night — CRAFT’s first chapter contest. It would have provided lots of opportunity and support toward publication of a book. It was a long shot submitting, because I think they favor literary fiction and I write genre/literary crossover.

It was worth a try. I’m trying to analyze whether the effort I spend writing and improving is worth the results. Whether the money I invest (in dev editing, in reader’s fees for short fiction, for writers conferences) is yielding enough return on investment. Whether staying in writing because I’ve invested so much is just the sunk cost fallacy in action.

I keep going back to writing, fancying that it will be my retirement career. But for it to be a career, I have to go someplace with it. I need to be published; otherwise it’s just a hobby.

I really have to figure this out.