I did it!!!? I made it! National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)? has come to a close and I finished strong! In case you don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, it’s a challenge every November to write 50,000 words in 30 days.
Sound easy?
Try it.
By the way, please enjoy the randomly placed selfies of me in my winner shirt as you read.? 🙂
It was a long month but it was invigorating.? Not only did I work on my novel every day, but I finished the third class in a creative writing cluster course, wrote a small stack of short stories, continued to read books on writing, finished number book number 66 of 70 novels I pledged to read for the year, and even managed to enjoy Thanksgiving with my family!
Phew!
I never once dreaded any of it.? The more I write, the more motivated I get.? Writers write every day.? It’s the only way to become better at what we do.? It’s the only way to push through the rejections we get (and I got a ton of those, too, during the month of November).
So, what’s next? Well, today I am going to work on the book summary and tagline for my novel. The former is basically my 30-second elevator pitch.? Those aren’t my strong suit, so I’m taking some extra time to get that done.
A tagline is that one-liner like what you see on a movie poster.? I will write a slew of those and then let my friends on Facebook vote for the best one.
The novel itself is going to sit untouched for about three weeks.? Then I’ll bring my fresh eyes to it and do my first round of editing.? After that, I’ve carefully selected some beta readers to test the waters.? I have a set of questions that go along with the book.? This will help me to see what works and what doesn’t.
After that, I find a professional editor to tear apart — I mean read — my novel.? Then I find a publishing house to publish it.
But I am going to celebrate a little bit today.? This was a major accomplishment!? And then I’m going to continue to write.
Every day.
Writers write and then write some more.? I even have a character scratching around in my head and I’m not sure who she is or what she wants but I’m going to storm write and she where she takes me.? To tell the truth, I’m a little sad that NaNoWriMo is over.? It’s nice to have that support from other writers.? This writing life is very solitary, and I don’t mind that, but every once in a while it’s nice to opine the daily struggles with other writers in the craft.
So, onward we go! I have every confidence that my tagline here on my website will be changing from “pre-published author” to “author” very soon!
I leave you with this quote that is one of many that seems to sum up this precious writing life:
?Long patience and application saturated with your heart?s blood?you will either write or you will not?and the only way to find out whether you will or not is to try.???Jim Tully, WD
Until next time, my beloved readers!
