WIPMarathon #11

Happy (almost) 2015, fellow WIP Marathoners! 🙂 I love checking in with you each month. Even when I don’t get much done, it helps to remind me to get back on track. Congrats to all of you on your writing and editing this year, and good luck next year!

Things I’m Glad I Did In 2014:

1. I finished 3 manuscripts, including both books 2 and 3 of NEVER VEIL. (Well, the drafts are finished, anyway!) 2/3 of the manuscripts I’d done some work on in previous years, but it was still nice to get to “The End.”
2. I got to announce my book deal! (I kept it secret in late 2013 waiting for the go-ahead to announce.) It’s been fun getting to know readers who are looking forward to the book and willing to give a new author a chance.

In 2015, I’ll love to:

1. Celebrate the release of NOBODY’S GODDESS! (Hopefully in April. And I’m hoping the cover reveal will be much sooner than that. I’ve seen the mockups and can’t wait to share!)
2. Sign at BookCon (I hope it works out) and/or do signings locally or visit schools.
3. Complete another manuscript and try for an agent again.
4. Direct submit my agent-rejected manuscript to smaller publishers because I still believe in it. (I’m still waiting on a few responses, but I doubt I’ll get an agent with it after all.)

Last report wordcount + chapter count/scene count:  1. 88,426 words and 36 chapters in NEVER VEIL 3–first draft done

2. 82,790 words and 26 chapters in NOBODY’S GODDESS (NEVER VEIL 1), in the process of revising

Current report WC + CC/ SC: 1. 88,514 words and 36 chapters in NEVER VEIL 3 (I spent very little time on it)

2. 85,589 words and 26 chapters in NOBODY’S GODDESS, latest round of revisions done and sent back to publisher

WIP Issues This Month: Oops. After that first week, when I was finishing up the latest NOBODY’S GODDESS edits for my deadline, I really barely did any writing or editing at all. So… Finding the time and motivation to get back into it.

Four things I learned this month in writing: 1. December is not a good time for me to write.

2. You can resurrect scenes you liked you long ago cut out when an editor suggests something and you think you have the perfect thing to address that in your reject folder. (Yay!)

3. You wind up reading a manuscript MANY times before publication. Many. Good thing I love my characters!

4. Juggling writing, work and so much else can be hard.

What distracted me this month while writing: The holidays! Not just the actual celebrations (I’ve had two so far :)), but preparing for them took up a lot of my free time, and I don’t even consider myself someone who goes overboard. Also, work picked up a little (yay) and multiple people in my life, including me, got sick, so that sucked. (I seemed to have it easiest with a head cold, though.) I saw The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies, but it was my least favorite of all six LotR films. (Yet I want to see it again.) I also got distracted by Super Smash Bros. throughout the month.

I don’t usually mention my reads here, but My True Love Gave to Me was the PERFECT December read for me and gave me many warm fuzzies.

Goal for next month: My editor tells me I may get the final round of revisions to do and approve in January for NOBODY’S GODDESS–that’s right, the FINAL round. It’s off to the printers after that! So that will come first, of course. I do want to add a new scene to NEVER VEIL 3 and fix a few things and then start the whole beginning-to-end read-through before passing it along to my beta, but I have time before it’s due and may not get to it. (My goal last month was to start it and I barely did, so…) I hope to, though. I have no plans to draft anything new or work on any of the other projects on hiatus this month, though.