NaNoWriMo aka National Novel Writing Month is now over, and so many people around the world succeeded and completed a 50,000 word first draft in just 30 day! Sadly, I’m not amongst the winners this year – but that’s okay. I still wrote 21,873 words this month (spread across 2 projects), and my final NaNo graph looks like this:
So what happened? Well, despite my valiant attempts on days 1 & 2, the first third of the month was taken up with much excitement and distraction in the form of my sister’s wedding! Not only did I spend my spare time making seating charts, signs, throwing a hen’s party and writing my maid-of-honour speech, but we also had a heap of family fly in from overseas who I really wanted to catch up with – hence the lack of writing time until half-way through the month. Although by then I realised it probably wasn’t the best year to attempt NaNoWriMo, I still pushed on once I’d recovered from the wedding festivities. This was also the point when I decided to switch projects (more on that below).
Later in the month, my in-laws got a puppy which served to batter my writing will-power a bit… hmm, stay home and try to write a novel, or go and play with a new puppy for a few hours?? This doesn’t seem like a fair choice… and probably explains the final third of the NaNo graph. Seriously, who could resist this little guy?
Book Updates:
Laura the Explorer
We have action! And by that I mean, after submitting my changes to the publisher five months ago, I finally received a response from them! Yay!
In a weirdly bizarre coincidence, the same day I submitted the manuscript with changes (which was the end of June) was also the same time my partner and I ordered a new leather couch, which had to be custom made in Italy. We didn’t really know how long the couch would take – especially when Italians seem to take the entire month of August off work – but we thought it should be sometime before Christmas. And then earlier this week, on the exact same day our couch was delivered, I also received a response from the publisher. So if anyone asks how long it takes to hear back from a publisher, the answer is the same amount of time it takes to have a couch made in Italy and shipped to the other side of the world…
But jokes aside, I received some really great feedback on Laura the Explorer. I won’t go into details, but let’s just say that the publishers are still interested, I’m going to be making some stylistic changes, and fingers crossed that when we’re over the other side of Christmas and New Year the manuscript might, might, might just make it to an acquisitions meeting.
Kalileia
I love this manuscript. Really love it. I started sending it out to a few US agents, but I’ve realised this is completely the wrong time of year to do that. Apparently the last quarter is the busiest time for agents and publishers all year, and of the two agents that actually sent me rejection letters they were the most general, standardised emails I’ve ever seen – so I don’t think my query email was given more than a passing click of the mouse. One agent has asked for further materials, which I’ve sent, but have not heard anything further. So, with Christmas and New Year right around the corner, I’m going to wait until January and try my luck on submissions again. I’m also planning on entering this manuscript into the 2018 Text Prize, which opens in January. Part of the reason I’m submitting this rather than jumping into self-publishing plans is that I have something big myself coming up in March, and I’m not going to have much time to dedicate to anything else until April. So if I have to limit my writing activities until then, I might as well have this book out on submission rather then lying dormant for months.
Kalileia Book 2 & New Project
This brings me to what I was working on during NaNoWriMo. At the start of the month I jumped into the sequel for Kalileia, but things stalled. The main reason for this was that I found it really hard to write a sequel when I don’t know what’s happening with book 1 yet. What if book 1 gets picked up by an agent or publisher and they want to change the ending? It will throw all the future plotlines out. So until I’ve decided what I’m doing with the first book (either trying for a traditional contract or self-publishing mid-next year) I’m going to hold off working on book 2.
The rest of NaNoWriMo was spent working on a completely different YA fantasy novel – one I’m simply going to refer to as New Project. And all I’m going to say is that I LOVE THIS STORY. Absolutely love it. I hadn’t meant to start on it, but the ideas for this book have been building in my head (and in notebooks) for the last year, and when I was trying to think about Kalileia book 2 I found that all I could think about was this other story instead, and so I decided to switch projects. And if it’s possible to be in love with a story, then I think I’m in love with this one.
What I’m Reading:
This month I read:
Hunting Unicorns by Bella Pollen
Various snippets of non-fiction writing-related books that I got in a special NaNo author bundle thing.
Overall this month, I was trying to spend all my free time writing, not reading, hence the lack of books! As we're coming into December and the Christmas/New Year break (+ lots of time at the beach!) I'm hoping to get through a mountain of books in the next few months.
Image courtesy of National Novel Writing Month