nanowrimo

First draft finished

I just wrote the final scenes for Wavesongs #3, the last book in the series. I’ve never finished a first draft this quickly before (3,5 weeks – Astray and Forlorn took 6 weeks each), and even though the manuscript is extremely messy at this point and there are a lot of new scenes that need to be added in, I’m just so pleased with it. Because I did it, I finished this story no matter how many times I’ve been close to giving up over the years.

Book #2, Forlorn, will be out in March and is currently with the copy editor. So I’ll soon be busy getting that one ready for publishing, before I can focus entirely on book #3 again. Hopefully it won’t be too long before I can set a release date for it. I’m really looking forward to the day when I have all three books in my bookshelf at home, next to Entertaining the Sombrevilles.

Right now I’m still an emotional wreck over the book and the final scenes and those characters that I love so much. Before I’ve reached a milestone in my writing I always think of how I’ll celebrate when I’m finally there, but it seems I just have a cry instead and then start working on something else. I guess I’m just not good at celebrating.

Book three, here we go

I’m currently working on the last edits for Wavesongs 2, Forlorn, which will be out in March. My plan was to finish that and then start writing the third book on November 1, since I’m doing it for NaNoWriMo, but… I wrote the first few pages today. I’ve missed that lovely first draft phase so much (my favourite part of writing), and I had an idea that I wanted to try out and see if it worked.

And it’s so good to be back. Technically I spend most of my free time in this verse because of all the editing, but now I finally get to continue the story. There are so many scenes that I look forward to, that I have looked forward to for a long time, and it’s strange to think that I might be writing them in just a few weeks. NaNoWriMo is brilliant because it forces me to put everything else aside and focus, and I grow more and more motivated when I see how quickly that word count goes up each day.

Not that it will be a piece of cake, though. I know I will struggle just as hard with this book as I have with the previous ones. This time it’s not just about finishing a novel, either, but wrapping up an entire series.

November will be interesting.

Queeromance Ink

I’ve listed Entertaining the Sombrevilles over at Queeromance Ink – take a look if you’re interested! I love the fact that you can search using so many filters – being a very picky reader, it’s perfect for me. Hopefully someone will find their way to my book by using the site as well.

Today I’ve also sent my last edits to the publisher. Just a little more than a week left now! And today was also the day when my parents found out about the book – I haven’t mentioned it before because I felt awkward about the genre and the heat level and all, and I’m terrified of either of them reading it. But it feels good that they know now! My parents have always been very supportive of me and they know what a big deal it is for me to be published. So it’s nice to be able to share this with them, though I keep most of the details to myself.

On another note: NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow! I’ve no idea how I’m supposed to make it, but I’m looking forward to getting started. Just writing 25K would be amazing, so I have that as my inofficial goal to begin with.

If anyone else is going to participate: good luck to you! 🙂

Winner!

I finally reached my goal, and won NaNoWriMo! It feels so good to have done this, and to have proven to myself that I actually can work full time, and still write and get things done. I’ve struggled for so long with balancing work and writing, and now I feel like I know a lot more about myself and how I should plan my free time.

Of course, I hope I can make use of what I’ve learnt this month, and keep on writing every day. But right now, I look forward to enjoying a very lazy weekend. 😉

Finished!

I managed to finish the first draft yesterday, just as planned. It’s the best feeling in the world, to reach your goal, and I’m very happy with how the story turned out! The ending surprised me, and that’s good – I want my writing process to be fun, after all, even though I plot my stories very carefully. Now, I have about 11K of NaNo left and I’ll have to come up with some ideas for short stories. Difficult, yes, but oh so exciting!