Friday, February 5, 2016

The Recap

So if you read my last post, you know that I was gone for about nine months. This is just a brief post that will recap some of the bigger things that happened in the last nine months. And it's going to be in list form, because it's one of those days :)

1. I graduated from my university in May. A year early. With honors. So there's that. And the last full month of school, I also started writing a very special book (see number 4). I still don't know how I exactly did that to be honest.

2. I started my gap year with the goal to write 50,000 words every month until next September, which sounded crazy when I first decided back in May, but save for July (when I was out of the country) I have met that goal every month and plan to do so until September 2016.

3. I decided to shelve THE LOY because it was a little too derivative compared to the current YA market. It was not an easy decision. And to be honest, it still stings when I think about it.

4. I decided to write and revise another novel that I absolutely love. Like seriously...this is "the book of my heart". I didn't even know what that phrase really meant until I wrote this book. There's just something about these characters and this world that makes it...well...my heart.

5. That book of my heart has been through at least three sets of revisions and there's still more work to be done, but this is the first time I'm not sick of the story or the characters. All I want is for it to be the best book possible before I start querying.

6. I sent out my first every query for a feedback event hosted by the agent. It made me quickly realize maybe the book of my heart wasn't exactly ready. At least the first ten pages weren't good enough. But it's great motivation and only made me want to be published and pursue writing more seriously.

7. I met an awesome Critique Partner (CP) through Susan Dennard's CP Match-Up. I'm still working with her and I am so grateful to have her as a CP. She's critiqued THE LOY and she's critiqued the book of my heart and I couldn't be more grateful for her sticking with me. She's an amazing writer and I know I'll see her books in the stores one day and you can bet that I'm going to be first in line to buy them. I learn something new about writing and revising from her every time we talk and I really couldn't imagine going through this without her.

Those are the big things that's happened in terms of my writing journey with a little hint of my life :) Hopefully I won't write one of these for a long time because I'm going to at least blog about writing and my publishing journey once a month. But now that I look back on the last nine months, I can't say I really regret anything--not even leaving/forgetting about blogging because it's been a good nine months. I don't have anything to show for it other than my unagented self and the five manuscripts I've written, but it's made me happier than I've ever been, which really just goes to show: do what you love.


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