Quarantine Update – April Part 1

~ britneyshae ~ Leave a comment

Hello! First of all, I hope everyone reading this is staying safe and healthy amidst the current pandemic. I have officially been in self-isolation for *checks calendar* forty-four days. (In some ways it feels shocking that it’s been that long; in other ways I can’t believe it’s only been forty-four days – but what is time?) Also, as many of you know, April is #CampNaNoWriMo. I personally do not take part in #CampNaNoWriMo (although I’ve had many a failed attempt) but I did want to do a week-by-week blog detailing what I’ve been up to… only for it to suddenly be April 26 and I have yet to make a single “what I’ve been up to” post. SO, consider this a catch up post! Even though I didn’t take part in #CampNaNoWriMo, I have been quite busy. So, I thought I’d still share a bit of what I’ve been doing throughout this very bizarre time. To keep you all from getting bored as I regale you with my entire month of April, this post will only cover April 1 through April 15.

So, sit back… and enjoy.

Writing Update

We’ll start with a writing update. If you read my last post, you know that I finished the first draft of my most current project on March 25.

Here was my goal: I was going to start my revisions in about a week after finishing and wrap up said revisions by the end of April.

Here’s what happened: I started my initial read-through on April 1 but ended up getting distracted by a brand spanking new idea. I don’t want to be over-dramatic and I don’t want to get too ahead of myself, but this idea came to me while I was working (maybe working from home has been good for my creative well?) and I have not been this excited for a project in a very, very, VERY long time.

So throughout this post, I’m going to be talking about two projects: My contemporary YA, which I refer to as “EEMRS”, the acronym for its current title (in my head I pronounce this as “ee-mers,” in case you were curious). And then there’s my new idea, which is a thriller (currently I’m referring to it as “WTW3,” again, an acronym for its current title). While I was supposed to be working on EEMRS, I was, instead, working on WTW3.

I won’t be saying too much about WTW3, but here’s an aesthetic I put together… pretty much immediately.

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My plan was for every hour I spent revising EEMRS, I could write 1000 words for my new thriller idea. However… all of my brain power was used up working on WTW3. I made a lot of notes for it and I think I have all of the pieces figured out, but otherwise, I finally put it away (*cries*) and got to work seriously on EEMRS.

For EEMRS, I started my read-through on April 1, as I said above, and I finished my read-through on April 3. I try to do my initial read-through as quickly as possible, preferably in one sitting, but I was distracted (see above aesthetic haha). Normally I like to print my MS out so I can make notes but I have this VERY BAD habit of printing out my MS and not actually using the print out. However, I have a new fix for that problem! Introducing my iPad + Apple Pencil! Now I can read through my MS on my iPad and highlight and make notes with my Apple Pencil! Brilliant!!

 

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And the weather was so beautiful at the beginning of the month. Hasn’t been nearly as nice lately, but OH WELL.

Anyway, I finished my read-through of EEMRS on April 3 and did I jump right into revisions? Noooope. I kept playing around with WTW3. I wrote 3k+ notes. I made a playlist on Spotify (which I might be listening to right now, oops). Basically I did nothing but obsess over WTW3.

I realized pretty quickly that my whole “work on EEMRS for 1 hour, then work on WTW3” plan wasn’t going to work. Apparently I’m not great on working on two projects at once. So… I decided to do my EEMRS revisions so I could get that off to CPs and then I can work on WTW3 with ZERO distractions. (Also my mom really wants to read EEMRS so anytime I mentioned WTW3 she’d be like, “But I want to read EEMRS!” FINE, MOM, YOU WIN.)

So, on April 11 (LOL), I finally began my EEMRS revisions. You should also know that at the end of my digital markup of EEMRS, I wrote the following: “Just finished reading and I have no idea how to fix this ha ha ha.” So yes, I had my work well cut out for me.

Reading Update

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m not a fast reader. I also am not good at dedicating time to reading. However, during this quarantine period, I have been reading a lot more – which has been really, really great!

So here’s my reading update for the first half of April:

On April 9, I finished reading HARLEY IN THE SKY by Akemi Dawn Bowman. I had been really excited for this one for a long, long time. Basically I can only wish my writing style was like Akemi’s!

Also on April 9, I finished an audio book. I’m not a huge audio book fan (my boyfriend, on the other hand, ONLY “reads” audio books) but occasionally I’ll listen to a nonfiction book. (I can only do nonfiction because I don’t actually have the ability to listen to a fiction book.) So I gave SCRAPPY LITTLE NOBODY by Anna Kendrick a listen. And, um, I really liked Anna Kendrick but liked her a bit less after listening to her book. *shrug*

Finally, on April 12, I finished SUCH A FUN AGE by Kiley Reid. I loved this book. Such a fun read (see what I did there?) while also being thought-provoking. I’ve recommended it to pretty much anyone I’ve come into (virtual) contact with.

What Else…?

Here are a couple of quarantine highlights:

(1) Food. I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been eating a lot more snack-y foods than usual. The highlight is my boyfriend’s attempt at a “Japanese pancake” (I think better known as “soufflé pancake” – we just happened to have these in Japan when we visited last summer) on Easter. I made cheesy potatoes, he made soufflé pancakes. They weren’t quite perfect, but not bad for a first attempt! Also, they were delicious.

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Some other highlights include all the cookies I’ve been baking, a bagel every morning (normally I try not to eat too many bagels; little known fact, bagels are my absolute FAVORITE food), and a lot of other goods.

(2) TV & Podcasts. Like most people in quarantine, I have been watching TV, although my boyfriend and I try not to binge watch (apparently we like to torture ourselves). A couple highlights for what I’ve watched or been watching include: (1) Onward on Disney+; (2) Little Fires Everywhere on Hulu; (3) Nancy Drew on the CW; and (4) Bachelor: Listen to Your Heart on ABC, which my friend and I watch at the same time so we can text each other while we watch. As for podcasts, my boyfriend and I have been living for Staying In with Emily & Kumail. We listen every Thursday when a new episode drops.

(3) Exercise. Prior to the gyms closing, I ran a mile a day on the treadmill at my apartment’s gym. I stopped going to the gym a little bit prior to the gym officially closing out of caution and now of course the gym is closed so I can’t go. At first I tried doing at-home workouts through YouTube but I hate being sore, so I went back to running – outside. It’s been oddly refreshing? Especially now that I don’t get out much. I look forward to my run because I get to go outside and get some fresh air. I only run a mile (I am not a runner) and my goal is to get to 8 minutes and 30 seconds, which was my time back in the fourth grade when I had to run a mile in gym. Unfortunately my time seems to be getting worse and worse, probably because I sometimes get stuck waiting for traffic so I can cross the street or sometimes I have to zig-zag around my neighborhood to avoid other people…

Still, I am proud to announce that I ran a mile outside every single day from April 1 through April 15.

And yeah, I think that about wraps up what I’ve been up to! Stay tuned for my next update covering April 15 – April 30. Some teasers: I came up with another thriller idea and made an aesthetic for that one, which I’ll share. Plus, you’ll find out – was I successful in my first round of EEMRS revisions?? Did I get too distracted with my new thriller ideas? What have I been reading? More importantly, what have I been eating??? Did I keep up my mile streak??

All these questions will be answered!! For now, stay safe!

Quarantine Update

~ britneyshae ~ Leave a comment

Hi friends!

I wanted to start this post off by saying that I hope everyone has been safe and well in this very unique and, honestly, kind of difficult time. Even though I’ve been joking that, as an introvert, I’m “thriving,” the truth is, it’s been difficult to maintain productivity and I’ve felt a lot of pressure to “create” during a time where, honestly, it’s been difficult to do so.

SO, I wanted to just take a second to chat here and share what I’ve been up to. I hope no one is discouraged by what I have managed to get done (I finished the first draft of a new manuscript, for example) but I also hope this post provides some comfort because while I did finish the first draft of my new manuscript, I haven’t done much else. And that’s okay!

Let’s just dive in, shall we? This post will basically cover March 14, 2020 through March 31, 2020 (I want to do a different series of posts for April).

Backing up just a bit, my boyfriend and I traveled to my hometown in southern Minnesota on March 4 – March 8, in part so that I could do some research for said manuscript I’ve been working on since January. However, because things changed so quickly and because my boyfriend and I had recently traveled, we began self-isolation and self-quarantine a bit earlier, aka before our state issued the shelter in place. I have essentially been in self-isolation since March 14, 2020. I am also so fortunate to have a job that allows for remote work and all of my in-person meetings were cancelled.

So what have I been up to?

Honestly, the main thing I’ve been filling my time with is reading. I’m also extremely lucky that a bunch of my library holds came in and I was able to swing by and grab them literally the day before my library closed. Best timing ever!

I’m a bit of a slow reader, not because I’m not capable of reading fast but because I tend to find it difficult to sit around for long times. It also doesn’t help that I live in a rather small apartment and haven’t quite created a proper reading nook (which is the dream). However, during this quarantine period, I have been voraciously reading. Probably still at a slower pace than most, but for me, reading three books in three weeks is HUGE.

(Of course, I’m also running through my library book pile way too fast – I have five books total and I’ve already read 3/5.)

I would love to get more into goodreads and to rate books but if I’m being honest, I hate the thought of “officially” rating a book with less than 5 stars and on the flip-side, I hate the thought of rating a book 5 stars if I don’t actually think it was a 5-star read. So instead of update my goodreads page, I thought I’d post about the books I’ve read during quarantine (so far) here.

#1 – THROW LIKE A GIRL by Sarah Henning

As a contemporary sports YA author myself, of course I had to give this book a go! I loved how awesome Liv was at stepping onto the field of a male-dominated sport and making a name for herself. Most refreshing for me was that, for the most part, her all-boy team was welcoming. She had some boy-drama on the team but it wasn’t because she was a girl on a team of boys. I really liked that a lot.

I finished this book on March 21, 2020.

#2 – A GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER by Holly Jackson

I’ll be honest that this book took me a quick second to get into because the third person POV/past tense narration threw me off (been a while since I’ve read that!) but once I got into it… ooooh boy. Y’all, I could not put this book down and it is RARE for me to feel this way about a book (again, small attention span over here). I loved this book. I saw on goodreads that people were claiming the main character, Pip, wasn’t realistic, but honestly, Pip was me in high school a-ha-ha-ha. A little obsessive… I will say I didn’t love the ending and while I didn’t guess the twists, it seemed a bit out there to me. But that didn’t ruin my reading experience!

I finished this book on March 23, 2020.

#3 – OPPOSITE OF ALWAYS by Justin A. Reynolds

Let’s first take a moment to appreciate how well this book’s cover matches my favorite mug…

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Anyway, I loved this book purely for the main character’s voice. Ahh to be able to write like Mr. Justin A. Reynolds!! THE DREAM. I loved our hero, Jack, so so much. I also loved the friendship in the book and I love how while this book was basically about Jack trying to save the love of his life, really it was about him being there for his friends. And did I mention the voice???

I finished this book on March 30, 2020.

What else have I been up to?

As I noted above, I finished the first draft of a new manuscript I’ve been working on since January. My *official* start day was sometime in December when I wrote 500 words (lol) but I really rolled up my sleeves and got to work on it on January 8. I had about 25k words by the end of January, took a quick break to add some tweaks to my previous MS, and then got back to it in the last week-and-a-half of February, ending February with around 50k words. As I mentioned, in early-March I went home to Minnesota to do some research for the project, and got back to work pretty much when this self-quarantine hit.

…now, that doesn’t mean it was easy. In fact, the week of March 16 – March 22 I really, really struggled to get words down. My goal was 10k words for the week (yeesh why so many) and I had to write that out in my planner to force myself to do it… which meant I’d write a minimum of 1k words a day to a maximum of 3k words a day and on Friday, March 20, I didn’t write at all.

Then the week of March 23 – March 29 I wanted to finish the draft before March 29 because, well, March 29 was my birthday and I didn’t want to have to write! So on March 25 I hit 70k words and I wrapped up the first draft (*ahem* may have wrapped it up too quickly, but WHATEVER). And hey, as a bonus, I got to write outside!

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My plan after finishing this first draft was of course to let it sit for a while, but I got antsy and decided to start revising for Camp NaNoWriMo, which I will update you on next week!

So what’s next…?

I thought it might be helpful to list some things that I am excited for as we move forward into April (I know it’s April 5th as I write this, but bear with me). I mean, it looks like we’re doomed to another month (MINIMUM) of quarantine, I’m nearly out of books to read (lol LIBRARY books; I still have my whole bookshelf), and I have a very ugly first draft to tackle and barely any motivation to do so.

So here’s a list of GOOD things:

(1) For my birthday, my boyfriend bought me a second monitor that I can hook up to my laptop. It’s been AWESOME purely because it’s so helpful when working from home, but the real reason he got it was so I could use it when revising. I love to have a huge screen when revising and this second monitor is massive. So, while I am dreading revision because this manuscript is such a dumpster-pile, at least I get to revise on my pretty new monitor!

(2) Speaking of revising… I can finally revise solely in Scrivener!!! I’ve had Scrivener now since 2018 and I really, really like it (like, a lot) but I don’t get to use it very often because when I’m actively writing/revising/editing I often do it between my home laptop and my work computer (I often write/revise/edit on my lunch breaks at work). I don’t have Scrivener on my work computer so it doesn’t make sense to use Scrivener when I have to go between computers so often (literally daily, other than weekends). Plus, I have a PC at work, a Mac at home. Anyway, now that I’m not going into work, I can revise solely on Scrivener! I think this is going to make revising not only easier, but more fun as well.

(3) Comfort reads! I can FINALLY not feel guilty for doing some comfort reading. My idea of “comfort reading” is really weird (I have the oddest desire to re-read Mrs. Dalloway for the… fourth time) but I’m such a slow reader that I always feel guilty re-reading my favorite books when there are so many other books in the world to read. But now that I’ve been flying through books, am nearly done with my library list, I figure I might as well finally enjoy Mrs. Dalloway again!

(4) Tea, tea, and… more tea. This really isn’t anything new for my quarantine life, but I’ve been drinking a lot of tea and not feeling guilty about it. Normally, at work at least, I attempt to only have one cup of  tea a day. But tea is like a hug in a cup and since person-to-person hugging is frowned upon, why not fill that void with tea? (And I’m a bit touch-adverse, soooo I actually prefer tea to a real hug, heh heh.)

(5) Rediscovering other creative outlets! I’ll talk more about this in my next post, but I got an iPad and an Apple Pencil on Black Friday but felt like I wasn’t fully utilizing said Apple Pencil, so I finally bought Procreate because it was only $10 and people said it was such an awesome program. At first, I was kind of like, oh, dang, did I totally waste my money? because I had no idea what to do with it. But then I started doodling a cartoon hockey player (which is allllll I did in high school) which led to doodling the picture that now serves as my “author logo” picture for this website! So I also drew my best friend, another one of my really good friends, and then my boyfriend. It makes me SO HAPPY. I’m definitely no “artist” (my boyfriend continually points out that I hold my pencil wrong, which, yes, I do) but I’m SO HAPPY. Although my best friend now wants me to doodle her roommates and her so they can frame it and that’s a lot of pressure… still, that’s a good goal for April!

(6) Finally, checking in with myself. This is a stressful time. A weird time. Something none of us have experienced before. So I need to remind myself to be kind to myself. Be patient. If I don’t feel like working on my revisions, then that’s okay! If I want to read all day, no problem! If I want to binge watch Tiger King, have at it! (I actually haven’t watched Tiger King, but I know from my countless hours spent on social media that’s it’s very “in” right now.)

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And on that note, I’m going to go ahead and wrap this post up! This has been my quarantine update. I will continue updating you as long as I don’t get bored of doing so. Hopefully posts about my revision process will be coming!

NaNoWriMo 2019 ~ two week update ~

~ britneyshae ~ Leave a comment

Hello and welcome to Day 16 of NaNoWriMo! Hopefully it’s been another happy week for all my fellow NaNoWriMo-ers out there!

I think I told you all last week that I live for NaNoWriMo. It feels like it’s made for me. I am a fast drafter (and if that makes you jealous, just keep in mind that it means I’m a slow reviser because, whew, my first drafts are nightmares!) so getting 2,000 – 5,000 words a day isn’t too difficult for me (I averaged a little over 3000 words per day this NaNoWriMo).

You might have noticed what I did right there – averaged, past-tense.

That’s because, dear readers, I reached 50,000 yesterday! Woo hoo!! Not only that, but (despite my pantser ways), I was able to draft this “just for fun” MS in a way that it wrapped up clearly at the 50,000 word count. So I also finished my NaNo project!

As a reminder, in case you missed last week’s post, I wrote a totally for fun Christmas story with equal parts romance and gothic murder mystery. And a bonus love triangle.

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I thought about updating my aesthetic to match Act 3, which was ALL DARK, ALL GOTHIC, but I’m lazy, so here’s the same Christmas-y aesthetic from last week!

Okay, let’s get to the recap.

NaNoWriMo 2019 – Week Two

As I just said above, Act 3 got a bit dark. I went way off the notes I’d written during “Preptober.” Oh well, this MS will never see the light of day so it’s fine!

Here’s a day-by-day breakdown:

Saturday, November 9
Words Written: 5,045
Total Count: 29,107

I really killed it Saturday. I was trying to get to 30,000, because I felt like if I was in the 30,000 word count come Monday, I could definitely wrap this NaNoWriMo project up by Friday, which was my goal all along. If you’ll recall from last week, I was STOKED for a new project. But more on that in a bit.

To get this pretty hefty word count, I wrote 2,000 words in the morning and then sat down to do a few more words in the afternoon and got on a roll. Like I said, I wanted to push for 30,000, but whew, I was exhausted after that.

Sunday, November 10
Words Written: 4,247
Total Count: 33,354

I had brunch with a friend on this day, so I did 1,000 words before brunch and then 1,000 after. And then, you guessed it, I kept plugging along into the afternoon. I think my main motivation at this point was wanting to finish on Friday so I would write enough that the NaNoWriMo stats page reflected that I’d finish on November 15.

Monday, November 11
Words Written: 3,064
Total Count: 36,418

Alright. Monday. If I’m recalling correctly, I wrote my 1,000 in the morning, my second 1,000 on my lunch break, as was my NaNoWriMo plan (which I stuck very much with, thank you very much). I was able to get about an additional 500 words written during my lunch break, so when I got home that evening, I sat my butt down and forced another 500 words for the 3,000 total. I also wrapped up Act 2 and moved into my very odd and dark Act 3.

Also it snowed on Monday which is what I get for writing a Christmas story. *eye roll*

Tuesday, November 12
Words Written: 3,582
Total Count: 40,000

Okay, y’all. I did not set out on Tuesday to write 3,500 words or to reach 40,000 words. On this particular day, I got to work early to write my morning 1,000, went to update my word count on NaNo’s site… and discovered that SOMETHING WONKY happened with the site and it said I had 38,000 words, which was NOT the case. And at this time, I could not go back in and change my word count by day (they changed it later in the week, but ugh, it’s so complicated and took me FOREVER to do). Since I didn’t want negative words, I had to write greater than 38,000 words. So I pushed myself to get to 40,000. And then the site only reflected that I’d written, like, a little over 1,000 words. It was a sad day. But, hey, I ended up writing more than I might have originally written!

Wednesday, November 13
Words Written: 3,020
Total Count: 43,020

So by this point in the game, I knew I was going to have to continue to write 3,000 words+ if I wanted to reach 50,000 by Friday. So I wrote 2,000 in the morning and another 1,000 on my lunch break.

Thursday, November 14
Words Written: 4,066
Total Count: 47,086

Ah. Thursday. Oh, Thursday. So by this point I knew that in order to hit 50,000 words on Friday I would need to have a 3,000 word day and a 4,000 word day. So I again wrote 2,000 words in the morning and then another 1,000 on my lunch break… knowing I’d have to write another 1,000 at some point.

And then… well, let’s back up a bit. As you recall from my mention above, the reason I wanted to get to 50,000 so badly on Friday was so I could start focusing on the new project I’d come up with last week. Here’s the problem with the idea I’d had last week: I couldn’t figure out how to pitch it in a way that made it… um… worth anyone’s time. I had these vague emotions I wanted to explore, and essentially I was pitching it (to my boyfriend and my friend) as “a story about a girl dealing with change.” WOW. SO SPECIFIC. Okay, it also had a wakeboarding element and a punny team name and fresh water turtles. But that’s about all I had.

So here I am, rushing through NaNoWriMo so I can start working on this project but every time I took to my notebook to write down pitch ideas… it fell flat.

Then Thursday came. And while listening to a podcast, I suddenly got this idea for a rom com. Well, I don’t write rom com, so I tried to take the flicker of rom com idea and translate it to YA contemporary, aka what I do write.

The idea that followed is nothing like the original rom com spark, but… wow. I like it. A lot. And I’m VERY excited to work on it, way more excited than I was for my other idea!

Aka I needed to get through NaNoWriMo. So when I got home Thursday evening, I wrote another 1,000 words. The finish line was in sight!

Friday, November 15
Words Written: 2,358
Total Count: 50,444

Woo hoo! 50,000 words! My biggest challenge here was figuring out if I wanted to hit the 50,000 word mark at work or wait and do it at home. I wrote 2,000 words in the morning, wrote a few on my lunch break, and then, you know, because it was Friday, I ended up pulling it up at 3:30 and got to 50,000 at 4:00 p.m. *Kool-aid man OH YEAH*

I also typed “THE END” on this very strange gothic Christmas tale of romance and woe!

And that wraps up my 2019 NaNoWriMo experience! Which… is kind of a bummer. To be honest, my ACTUAL plan was to take it slow and easy, write 2,000 words a day, and finish around November 25, aka right before Thanksgiving. But, alas, I got carried away.

Going into next week, I’ll start outlining my new idea (yes, yes, I am a pantser, but it does save me time to have *~*some idea*~* of where I’m going – but I rarely, if ever, follow the outline). Although, to be completely honest, I outlined this NaNo idea (following the briefest, simplest of the 3-Act Structure) and I stuck to the outline until Act 3! (Then things went totally off the handle.)

I hope everyone is having a fun NaNoWriMo regardless of word count. I think sometimes we get caught up on whether we’re behind or not proceeding the way we hoped that we forget to have fun! Which is partially why I’m glad I wrote such a silly for fun MS this NaNo.

Good luck everyone!

NaNoWriMo 2019 ~ one week update ~

~ britneyshae ~ Leave a comment

Hello! Today is Saturday, November 9, 2019 which means we are officially on DAY 9 of NaNoWriMo! How is it going for everyone? Good? Great? Horribly? Meh? (If I, personally, had to describe NaNoWriMo 2019 in one word, it might be “meh.”)

When I woke up this morning to get my words in, I felt very much like procrastinating, which led me here to write down my first week recap (Friday, Nov. 1 – Friday, Nov. 8).

First, let’s do a quick background check.

NaNoWriMo 2019 – BACKSTORY

First things first, this is my – *gasp* – 11th year doing NaNo. Technically, it’s my 12th because in 2013 I logged my word count as I worked on approximately three projects at once but I didn’t quite make it to 50,000 words (your girl got to 47,000 and then called it quits). My first year participating in NaNoWriMo was 2006 when I was a senior in high school (oops, I just aged myself, didn’t I?) and I wrote my second full-length novel, a historical fiction YA set during World War II and let’s just say it was pretty horrible.

Regardless, for the next four years (aka all throughout college) I lived for NaNoWriMo. I am a fast drafter. Drafting is my favorite part of the writing experience. So NaNoWriMo feels like it was made for me. I raced against myself and my buddies year after year after year.

Then I went to law school and let’s just say it became pretty obvious pretty fast that I was going to have to choose either NaNo or passing my classes and I suppose I made the smart choice and chose passing my classes. Which meant I had to take a NaNo hiatus.

In 2014 I was back and ready to rock… except that project ended up being a disaster. But, I managed to log 50,000 words, even though most of those words were on the manuscript that eventually got me my agent, not my actual NaNo project. In 2015 – 2017 I wrote a variety of projects purely for fun.

2018 was a different NaNo year because it was my first NaNo as an agented writer. Which added some pressures. And also I decided 2018 should be the year I beat my personal NaNo record of 50,000 words in 11 days and somehow wrote 50,000 words with a full time job in, wait for it, 8 days.

EIGHT DAYS. Look, I wouldn’t recommend that to anyone. (1) I legit had bruises on my wrists from where my hands hit against my laptop keyboard; (2) my back hurt; and (3) I was so sick of that manuscript that every time I tried to revise it I wanted to throw my computer across the room. To this day, it’s still not revised.

Which now brings us up to date. NaNoWriMo 2019.

NaNoWriMo 2019 – “Preptober”

I am a pantser, so I don’t do an official “preptober” other than figuring out my goals for NaNo and figuring out which project I want to work on.

The difference between this year and years past is I wrote a second book over the summer and finished up revisions in the fall. In fact, I turned my revisions into my agent the day before NaNoWriMo.

Which is to say a few things (can you tell I like lists?): (1) I was feeling a bit burnt out going into NaNo 19; (2) I hadn’t brainstormed or worked out what my new project would be following my most recent project; and (3) I didn’t want to invest myself in NaNo too much in case I had to do more revisions during November.

So, after much back and forth, I decided that my NaNoWriMo 2019 project would be something purely for fun, not for any other reason. Which has been a relief because when I start writing a bunch of nonsense for the sole purpose of getting my word count for the day, I don’t feel guilty about it or cringe and think Oh, this is going to be a pain to revise. Nope, I have the freedom to write complete and utter garbage because it’s just for fun!

The other thing I promised was to NOT race. Reminder, I wrote 50,000 words in 8 days last year. Meaning last year at this time, I had completed my NaNoWriMo duties. This year, my goal was to take my time. I still wanted to complete NaNo prior to Thanksgiving, so my official goal is 2,000 words a day, which, because I am a fast drafter, is totally manageable.

So what is my project, you ask?

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Um, well, it’s kind of embarrassing. When I was a kid, I had this character who I considered to be my male alter ego named Robin, and every Christmas I would write little Christmas stories about Robin and his family. Around mid-October or so, I got this idea for a story that would totally work in my “Robin universe” for a Christmas story.

And that, my friends, is how MISFITS & MISTLETOE was born.

Here is my poorly written, not super original pitch/summary:

When a bored college student is mistaken as the heir to a fortune, he decides to cash in. What he doesn’t expect to find is a family he desperately wants to be a part of. If he doesn’t come to terms with his own complicated family history, he might lose out on the thing he wants most: unconditional love. THE SCAPEGOAT x THE DEATH OF MRS WESTERLY

All I’ll really say is it’s turned into a bit of a murder mystery, has some gothic Daphne DuMaurier elements, and has this romance that has been a blast to write.

NaNoWriMo 2019 – Week One

Let’s start with some statistics.

As of November 8, 2019, my word count was 24,062. I am ahead of schedule, both NaNo’s schedule and my personal goal of 2,000 words a day. I will admit that I wanted to reach 25,000 by the end of Friday but I didn’t quite make it. I am averaging about 3,000 words a day but mostly thanks to a high word count on Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Otherwise, I’m mostly writing 2,000 words a day.

Here’s a day-by-day breakdown:

Friday, November 1
Words Written: 2,238
Total Count: 2,238

I had to write most of these words at work because my boyfriend and I traveled to Michigan for a family obligation. On a typical day, I’m able to write 1,000 in the morning while I drink my tea and another 1,000 at lunch. I could technically get 2,000 done at lunch but I usually need a Twitter break.

Saturday, November 2
Words Written: 2,078
Total Count: 4,316

Saturday was full of family time in Michigan with my boyfriend’s family. Both of his brothers were in town. I managed 1,000 words when I first woke up in the morning and then we had some downtime before lunch so I wrote another 1,000.

Sunday, November 3
Words Written: 5,979
Total Count: 10,295

I was pretty excited to reach 10,000 on Day 3. That felt like a huge accomplishment to me even though I’d vowed not to rush. I think I was essentially getting ready to wrap up Act 1 at this time. Part of the reason I was able to get such a high word count was because my boyfriend had a meeting at school so I chilled and wrote while I waited for him, which gave me about an hour and a half of uninterrupted time. As a bonus, I couldn’t log onto the internet which kept my distractions limited. Because I was on such a roll, I got home that afternoon and kept writing.

Monday, November 4
Words Written: 2,005
Total Count: 12,300

On this particular day I went back to my weekday plan of writing 1,000 in the morning and another 1,000 at lunch and then… happy that I’d reached my goal, I didn’t write again in the evening.

Tuesday, November 5
Words Written: 3,874
Total Count: 16,174

I’m actually surprised this was such a productive day for me. In the morning I was on such a roll that instead of writing 1,000 I wrote 2,000. Then I wrote another 1,000 at lunch. I’m surprised I was able to get close to another 1,000 that evening because I went to a happy hour, squeaked out my near 1,000 words, and then watched The Little Mermaid Live (which I didn’t hate if I’m being honest – but what can I say, I love that movie!).

Wednesday, November 6
Words Written: 3, 832
Total Count: 20,006

Let’s be real here, I just wanted to get to 20,000 words. Again, 1,000 words in the morning, 1,000 at lunch, and then I was able to get nearly 2,000 additional words before I left work for the evening (staying late). But, something happened that hurt my productivity.

I got a new idea for what I think will be my next manuscript. You know, the one that I’ll share with my agent and the one that I hope will someday go on submission to editors. That sort of idea.

But more on that in a bit.

Thursday, November 7
Words Written: 2,037
Total Count: 22,043

Okay. Now that I had this new idea swirling around in my mind, working on my silly Christmas NaNoWriMo project was not nearly as enticing as, say, working on figuring out the nooks and crannies of this new, exciting project. Still, I forced myself to stick to the plan: 1,000 in the morning, 1,000 at lunch.

Also, my boyfriend’s car had to go into the shop and, um, my car has been in the shop (because I scratched the whole backseat passenger side door), which meant we were down to one car between us, a rental car only I’m allowed to drive. So I had to pick my boyfriend up from the auto shop, take him to school, drive home, stream Nancy Drew on the CW (of course), and then go pick boyfriend up again.

So obviously I was too distracted by life and by this exciting new novel idea to work on NaNo. But hey, 2,000 words is 2,000 words so it’s FINE.

Friday, November 8
Words Written: 2,019
Total Count: 24,062

Alrighty. Friday was tough because I had to take my boyfriend to school in the morning (his car was still in the shop and mine is stuck in the shop until TUESDAY) but I still got my 1,000 words in. Then lunch came but oh no, I did NOT want to work on NaNo because by this point I had a whole playlist for my new novel idea and I was much more into brainstorming character names for said new novel.

My friend pointed out I could definitely just stop working on this “just for fun” NaNo project and start working on said new exciting project, but I’m also not quite ready to dive into a “serious” project. As a reminder, I just turned revisions into my agent on another project on Halloween and we still have to do line edits (and that’s assuming we don’t have any more actual revisions to do) to get that one in shape. So in the meantime, I’m still plugging away on NaNo project for fun.

Anyway, got another 1,000 words done at lunch with every intention of revisiting to reach 25,000 words. Instead of revisiting it after work, I left work early to pick my boyfriend up, took him to pick his car up, went to the grocery store, and then we may have done some wine tasting at Whole Foods (we fancy).

And let’s just say I bow down to anyone who can drink wine and be productive because when I drink wine my productivity goes OUT THE WINDOW. So no, I did not touch NaNo again.

But hey, it’s a new day, a new week. (*ahem* I may only have the minimum 2,000 words done for the day. But it’s OKAY.)

That, my friends, wraps up my weekly NaNoWriMo check-in. We’ll see if I have an update for you next week. Obviously I’d love to write another 25,000 words and reach the 50,000 goal so I can start focusing more on this new project that I’m 100 times more excited about, but we’ll see. If I had to guess, I think this week will see lower word counts, which is fine.

However, I am at the midpoint and this midpoint is pretty exciting, so that might get me going. I still want to write another 1,000 – 2,000 words today but I’m also reading HOUSE OF SALT AND SORROWS by Erin A. Craig and it’s SO GOOD. So what I’m saying is there’s a good chance I’ll spend the rest of the day reading instead of writing.

WHICH IS FINE.

I hope you all enjoyed my weekly check in! How is NaNoWriMo going for you?

Also, if you’d like to be buddies or see more about my project, my NaNo username is endless-story! I am always looking for new friends. 🙂

(Bonus: when I made my NaNoWriMo account back in 2006, I was obsessed with the manga/anime/live action film “Nana,” including the song “Endless Story” by Yuna Ito for the movie. Hence my user name!)

Why I’m Not Entering #Pitchwars – But Why You Should!

~ britneyshae ~ 2 Comments

About a year ago, I cried during dinner because I didn’t get accepted into #Pitchwars. I didn’t understand. I revised my manuscript tirelessly for two full months! I was active on social media and was making all kinds of friends! How could I not get chosen?

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Well. There are plenty of reasons, all of which we won’t waste time getting into. Once I had taken some time to lick my wounds, I pulled open my next manuscript, which had started off as my 2015 NaNoWriMo, and completed the first draft in September. With nearly a full year ahead of me to revise (properly), I was confident I’d be entering this new manuscript into #Pitchwars.

But here we are, less than a month before the #Pitchwars submission window opens and all I have is that first, rough draft.

So what happened?

A number of things.  First, thanks to #Pitchwars, I found a lot of fabulous critique partners. I didn’t use my newfound writer friends to go through my newly completed manuscript, though. Instead, I workshopped my #Pitchwars manuscript. I think a total of seven (possibly more) fantastic critique partners combed through my #Pitchwars manuscript and provided me with amazing feedback. So instead of revising my new manuscript, I focused my efforts on revising the old.

I entered the query trenches in Fall 2017 with my first manuscript and was ready to roll up my sleeves and revise the new one. But as the rejections trickled in, I kept nitpicking at the first manuscript, kept sending it off to new CPs. In short, I couldn’t give up.

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At the start of 2018, I continued querying and started preparing myself to enter a revision cave for my next WIP. I still had about six months before #Pitchwars—plenty of time to get my manuscript in tip-top condition.

Again, I couldn’t stop going back to my first manuscript.

In April, I was fortunate enough to have my original #Pitchwars manuscript (now very revised and in the type of shape it should have been in for #Pitchwars 2017) chosen by a mentor in #AuthorMentorMatch. I think at this point, I knew my chances of getting Manuscript #2 ready for #Pitchwars was behind me.

From April until very recently, I revised and revised and revised. In all honesty, I worked my butt off—a lot harder than I’d ever worked before. And I think—and hope—the work shows.

But that manuscript I finished back in September for #Pitchwars 2018? It’s still there in first draft format. For about a day I thought maybe I could bust my butt and get it ready in time for #Pitchwars but it only took a few minutes before I decided that’s not going to work for me.

So there you have it. Why I’m not entering #Pitchwars this year.

BUT… I think YOU should!

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I’ve had a few friends tell me they’re intimidated by #Pitchwars.  Or that they don’t think it’s for them. But I’m here to tell you that even though I didn’t get into #Pitchwars last year, my manuscript, currently out with agents and chosen to be mentored through #AuthorMentorMatch, wouldn’t be where it is today had I not thrown my hat into the ring for #Pitchwars.

There’s a number of reasons #Pitchwars is a great experience.

REASON #1: It’s a learning experience.

If you’ve never queried agents before, #Pitchwars is a great way to get your feet wet, so to speak. Like querying agents, you have to follow submission guidelines. You have to prepare a submission package (query letter, synopsis, first pages). You might get a full request from one of the mentors (woo!). You might not.

You might not get chosen to participate in #Pitchwars, aka, you might, like me, get rejected.

Rejection is hard, but it’s also a part of the business. Being afraid of rejection isn’t going to get your book on the shelf. You’ve got to face that fear head-on and #Pitchwars is a safe, friendly way to go about it.

In other words? #Pitchwars is a way to test your submission package without “burning a bridge” or hurting a chance with an agent. This is key. Trust me. When I first started querying agents, I was querying a first draft. That’s a nuh-uh move. If only I’d tested it out with #Pitchwars first!

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REASON #2: #Pitchwars makes you set a deadline.

It’s a little too late in the game for this, but #Pitchwars is a great motivator. Last year, I started seriously revising my manuscript with the #Pitchwars submission date as my target goal to have completed revisions. Without this deadline? I might have never finished this particular round of revisions.

Even if you are running out of time, use the #Pitchwars submission date as a target to get somewhere new in your draft—whether it’s completed revisions so you can enter or whether it’s to get a draft written so you have a full year to revise for next year’s #Pitchwars, if you need a swift kick in the butt, #Pitchwars might just offer that.

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REASON #3: The community.

This is the biggest reason, in my opinion. Going into #Pitchwars, I had a few friends, a few CPs. After #Pitchwars? I had an entire community of friends and CPs, not to mention tons of resources I didn’t have before. A lot of really great people in the community offer query critiques, too. This is INVALUABLE, you guys. INVALUABLE.

Plus, it’s important that you don’t feel alone in the cold world of writing. We writers are famous for liking solitude, but the loneliness can get to us, especially if we’re facing rejection or if we’re stuck in a rut. Fellow writers know what we’re going through—and they can help us through. Or at least help us feel less lonely.

As far as I can tell, Tweeting using the #Pitchwars hashtag and following along with #Pitchwars games is the best way to instantly become connected to hundreds (thousands?) of writers like yourself. Find your people—they’re likely out there under the #Pitchwars hashtag. ❤

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REASON #4: You’ve got nothing to lose.

Seriously. Take it from me, someone who did not make it into #Pitchwars and who took it pretty hard. (After crying I played in a tennis match and tried to vent my frustrations that way—it’s never fun chasing a ball three courts down.) But guess what? I didn’t lose anything. In fact, I gained a lot. One of the mentors I had subbed to was kind enough to set me up in a critique group, which I’m still involved in today (love my GWB ladies! <3). One of my CPs knew more about my novel’s subject matter than I did (*gulp*) and she helped tremendously with my revisions and is now a #Pitchwars mentor herself. You grow as a writer by entering #Pitchwars—trust me on this.

 Also, so what if you don’t get chosen? There are still plenty of opportunities ahead, starting with #PitMad in September. The query trenches are always open, never closed.

And of course I have to boost #AuthorMentorMatch because Round 5 starts in the fall. Don’t get into #Pitchwars? Have no fear. Polish that manuscript off, revise according to all of the great feedback you get during the #Pitchwars submission period, and enter #AuthorMentorMatch. I’ll be writing a separate post on how amazing and beneficial #AuthorMentorMatch is, so stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, roll up your sleeves, set your deadlines, interact with some people and the #Pitchwars hashtag, and know that I’m cheering for you from the sidelines!

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