sixteen

I went through all of the ideas I have for novels, and found out that there are sixteen of them. Granted, two are co-written and one is a glorified picture book, but still. :) I have plenty of material, I just need to be dedicating enough time every day to get them done.

My goal this year is to have three novels under my belt. I have one written, one being written, and one in the planning stages. So I've gotta revise, finish writing, and start writing them. I'm sure that #3 will be a NaNo, so I just need to focus on revisions for #1 and writing #2 for now. Should be good, should be good.

I was recently told that Carol knows an agent who is looking for the kind of stuff that I write, so this is good motivation. Ee!

I'm 12,000+ words into HP, which is roughly 1/4th the way through, and there's about 9 months until November. Should be easy. If I can get motivated!

NaNo/Writing

I am very bad at updating my blog, though I keep up with my LJ fairly well. It might have something to do with the fact that I don't have many people who read this blog, so why bother? Though, there are good reasons for it...

Anyway, the point of this was to mention that I won NaNoWriMo this year! Yes, I finished a novel of 50,225 words (I think that's what it was, anyway) ... and in the next couple of months, I will be revising My Imaginary before putting it to the mercy of my wonderful test-readers. Then, after more revisions, it will be ready to move on to the next big step!!!

But in the meantime, I will continue my work on Hailey's Pearl. It's just over 10,000 words so far, and I estimate that it will end up being 50 or 60,000 in the end, but I'll have to see how I'll get there. Once HP is ready for the revision process, I'll start on my Frog Prince story, which HAS to be finished (at least draft one) by December of 09 in order to beat Disney's version. I don't think that there will be a problem (though I doubt it'll get to be published as a result???), but just to be sure that I have proof that I didn't copy...! Yeah.

Ahem, yes. So Hailey's Pearl, then Spellbreaker (for this is the secret name of the book - oo!), and for NaNo next year, I have an idea, but no title... not even a working one. But it will be written and dedicated to my hubby, Aaron.

Speaking of which, he and I are going to be working on our joint-written middle-grade novel some time soon as well, though he has to go through his own revision from his NaNo-winning novel, Enforcer, first. Darn the luck! But at least we're not the only ones in the boat - - Crystal and Eric both won with their novels (Fire Cougar and whatever Eric's is called), so we'll likely be holding more write-a-thons and book-groups in addition to our standard, weekly writing group meetings. :)

Crystal and I also need to get together to write our joint-novel, but we have other projects to focus on first. Hmmm....

I do not think that I will be able to afford going to the writing conference this summer at BYU, because it is quite expensive and I am not-so-rich at the moment, especially with Aaron and I trying to get into a house. But you never know what will happen.

That's what makes life so great, isn't it?

Writing, but still sleepy

I feel tired all the time! Ugh! I have been trying to get a lot more sleep lately (and yes, I've been taking my thyroid meds), but I still have to fight falling asleep all day long. It's so frustrating.

However, Hailey's Pearl has broken past the 10,000 word mark and I've gotten through my awkward stage -- the first 3 1/2 chapters! :) Now the fun can really begin. I love writing novel-middles. I forced my way through those hard chapters and I think it's paid off.

My writing group seems to really like it, too! So that is a huge plus. Woo! Tonight is going to be another writing night for me. Maybe I can add a chunk of words to that count.

Sleepy, not writing

Lately, I have been struggling to keep my eyes open almost all of the time... Ever since I got home from Washington, I've wanted to do nothing but sleep. :( And not that I was doing a great job writing before, but now it's really difficult to get myself motivated. Sob. There's less than a month before October and I said I'd have this novel done.

Crossed fingers are appreciated. ;_;

Vacation Writing

Writing has been slow, but fairly constant. I am going to need to pull some long writing sessions if I hope to get this done by October, though. That opportunity might come next week, though... we're headed out to Seattle for a gaming convention, and I suck at games. So there is a good chance that I won't go every day and can stick around in the hotel to write.

I really hope that's what happens.

In my freewrite today I discovered that I have 10 books that I want to write. Of those, only one isn't fantasy. Still fiction, but nothing really "weird" happens in it. It breaks down to this:

7 YA novels
1 really long picture book (re: The Katurran Odyssey)
1 co-written middle grade series
1 collection of short stories

I am certain that there are more that I am forgetting, but that is the current plan. :) I have all sorts of notes written for, like, all of these stories. Right now. Hailey's Pearl is going pretty well. Woo hoo!!!

Hailey's Pearl - Progress

I started writing the novel this week on Brandon Sanderson's suggestion. The Tailor will be worked on later, which is hard, but for the best. I just started Hailey's Pearl on Thursday and I'm already up to 2,830 words. I don't know what will happen, but it's exciting and fun to write. My goal is to get all the way through without revising anything, and then I'll go back once the first draft is completely done. So far, so good.

I have a bunch of sketches from writing conference that I'll post along with some tidbits about the characters, maybe tonight or tomorrow.

Funny thing is, I know what the Pearl in the title refers to on a metaphorical level, but I haven't figured out what role it will play in the story, if any. I guess we'll see.