blogging – Page 2 – Meg Dowell Writes

Am I Addicted to Writing?

Nov 1, 2015 Meg DowellLeave a comment

At the end of last week, I finished writing a book. Believe me, there was a lot of dancing and celebration after that 3.5 year-long stretch of wondering if it was ever going to be done. I’d been telling myself for a long time, as an incentive, that I was going to take a week off of fiction writing once I finished. Which worked out nicely, since there just happened to be one week between finishing and the start of National Novel Writing Month (TODAY!).

Friday night was great. Saturday and Sunday were great. And then something happened.

The second I stopped writing, I sort of, well, fell apart.

I know I completely burned myself out the week I finished writing my book. In that same week I plowed through a lot of other work so I could have the weekend off, which at one point involved writing four articles in one day (that’s a lot of work to do if you’re not getting paid to do it, I’m just being honest, it was rough). I could feel it. I slept later, dragged myself through every single school assignment and article I had to get done this week and just barely made a deadline yesterday.

It happens to the best of us, which is why I didn’t let it bother me too much, but then midnight hit last night/this morning. And I just sat there and wrote 250 words of MY NEW BOOK like it was no big deal, like all of a sudden my funk just reversed itself.

That bothered me a little bit more.

They (the experts) say addiction is a person’s way of subconsciously distracting themselves from reality. It’s not that my life is all that awful or anything, I mean, I have a place to live and food and coffee, you know, all the necessities. I’m getting an advanced education and I’m able to do what I love every day and sometimes my cat even likes me. But sometimes, I’m hit with the reality that I’m a college graduate (double that), broke, unemployed and single, and that’s not a fun recurring realization to have.

It is, however, the reality that hit me (again) as soon as I stopped writing for a few days. Which sort of made me wonder: am I addicted to writing? And if I am, is it really such a bad thing?

If I would have broken my own rule and worked on a short story this week while waiting for NaNoWriMo to start, would I have felt better? Did I feel so awful because I stopped writing, or did I stop writing because I felt so awful?

Am I forever trapped in this cycle of always having to be working on a piece of fiction if I want to stay sane? Am I never allowed to take a break? Or was it just a coincidence, and I just happened to feel awful the same week I was attempting to take a fiction break?

Am I writing too many articles and not enough fiction? Does there need to be a balance? These questions have been running through my head all morning. The nice thing is that I’ll be doing a whole lot of both this month now that NaNo has BEGUN! Feel free to join me, by the way.

Am I a little creatively insane? Yeah, probably. I don’t mind it. If writing a lot makes me happy, and someday a miracle happens and I can actually get paid to do what makes me happy (I’ll never stop trying), I’ll shout my writing addiction to the heavens. I’ll write it on my driveway with sidewalk chalk. I’ll write until my fingers fall off. As long as I get a break every now and then, I’m good.

Love&hugs, Meg<3

Image courtesy of Novelty Revisions.

Meg is a twenty-something workaholic with a passion for writing, coffee and health. In addition to her status as an aspiring novelist, Meg is the managing editor at College Lifestyles magazine, a guest contributor with Lifehack and a guest blogger for Food & Nutrition Magazine. She is a seven-time NaNoWriMo winner and has also written for Teen Ink and USA TODAY College. Follow Meg on Twitter.

Can You Relate to These Major Blogging Struggles?

Oct 30, 2015 Meg Dowell2 Comments

It has been nearly eight months since I first launched Novelty Revisions, and when I wrote my first post on this “new” website, my life was undergoing a lot of changes. Which is the main reason why NR came to be. I was starting graduate school. Just starting to adjust to my first full-time job. Just barely three months out of college, struggling to figure out what my next steps and goals were.

It was the perfect time to start something new, or, more accurately, take something that needed a makeover and putting all my heart and soul into making it the best it could be.

When my temporary job ended at the end of April (we finished the project and, you know, big companies have budgets and it’s expensive to hire new people with only four months of experience), my priorities got all mixed up. Some days school was my main focus, while others it was my internship. Some days I was able to make this my priority, and eventually in June I was able to start a cycle I have yet to break – daily posting, because that was what I knew this thing needed in its early days.

Honestly, now that October is coming to an end, I’ve been thinking about making a lot more changes. That’s just how my mind works: I always like to keep moving forward. But I’ve realized in the past week that even though I’ve been posting every day for this long, it hasn’t gotten easier or better or anything like that. Before this website became what it is now, it was a personal blog. I’ve been blogging for a long time, and somehow, I’ve realized, I am still really struggling.

Because I like to be transparent with my readers (that’s important, in the writing world, I think), I wanted to share some of my biggest blogging struggles. Things I’m slowly figuring out, but that are still keeping me from giving you the best content possible. I know some of you appreciate it, but I promise, it’s not my best writing. I know I can do so much better than this.

Can you relate to any of these?

Expanding on a seemingly narrow writing niche

Writing about writing is not an uncommon thing, and I knew that coming into this. So far, thanks to Problogger and even a few entrepreneurial podcasts, I’ve been able to take some pretty broad ideas and squeeze a few hundred posts out of them. I still write about myself more often than I like (exhibit A) but some days that’s all I can manage. As much writing experience as I have, I’m no expert, so a lot of times I have to go off of only what I know, and not everyone cares to read that stuff too often.

Knowing what your audience wants to read

The most important thing I’ve learned from this is that, if you want your blog or website to grow, you have to be okay with writing about what you want to write about and what you find interesting. Those who enjoy your writing style and topics will follow/subscribe or come back for more. Some won’t, and you can’t force people to stick around. I avoid that kind of marketing as much as possible. I just want my readers to be happy, but my happiness as a writer is important, too. I don’t always know what other writers want to read about that’s writing-related, but I do what I can and run with it.

Balancing quantity with quality

As I mentioned above, posting every day has its pros as well as its cons. The main downside is that I know I’m not giving my readers the best possible content I could. I’m not putting as much effort into finding writers to interview as I used to. Sometimes my tips are too vague or I don’t give enough examples. Some of our most popular posts obviously take more time to do, and some days I just have so much on my plate I need to wake up, get a post published and move on with my day.

These are all struggles I’m trying my best to overcome little by little. Change doesn’t have to be drastic: it can be gradual. The last half of December and the first half of January I will be on break from school (dance dance dance) and should be able to dedicate a lot of that extra time to making some nice improvements to Novelty Revisions. As always, if you have any suggestions for posts or anything else, I’m open to feedback. I like to think of this site, as small as its readership is, as a community. We’re here to help each other. I just happen to be the one with the admin privileges.

Share your major blogging, or writing in general, struggles below in the comments. Everyone wrestles with different ones, but maybe you have a few in common with someone else and didn’t even know it.

Love&hugs, Meg<3

Image courtesy of Novelty Revisions.

Let’s Write, Learn and Grow Together

Oct 18, 2015 Meg DowellLeave a comment

About seven months ago, I published this post. Which, at first glance, doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, right? It’s not much different than the daily posts you’ve seen appear here every day since June (that’s a lot of posts). It’s not like you haven’t seen plenty of posts like this before.

There’s something special about it, though. Can you guess what it is?

It was, officially, the first post I ever published on Novelty Revisions.

That was a big deal, seven months ago. Because even though I had been blogging aimlessly for six years and had about 20 or so subscribers, I hadn’t been posting regularly. My posts weren’t really about anything, and the posts about writing didn’t really have a clear audience. I wanted to keep blogging, but I needed structure. I needed something new, without completely getting rid of the old stuff.

It took me weeks of long train rides and late nights in February trying to figure out what I wanted my blog to be. Seven months ago, though, I figured it out. And at some point, you showed up. Since March, subscribers have quadrupled. Site hits are consistently, well, not zero.

It’s not about numbers, though. I don’t want you to think that’s all I care about. The reason I spend so much time on my work for Novelty is that, in doing so, I get to help other writers. I get to share my experiences and put an honest, yet motivational spin on writing advice. It’s a tough gig. The majority of writers don’t get paid to do what they do. I don’t make money doing this. Numbers aren’t important to me, unless I’m trying to measure growth, and how many people I am able to help with each daily post.

That’s how we improve. As writers and as humans. We look at where we used to be, so we can motivate ourselves to continue to improve.

Our number of readers is slowly, but steadily growing. I really do appreciate the kind comments you all take the time to leave in that handy dandy little box down there. I’m here to help you, but really, we help each other. I don’t always know the kind of content you want to read, but I’m learning. I’m learning that change is actually one of the many keys to successful growth, in anything.

We are growing, which is great. But if I just kept doing what I’ve been doing the last seven months, that growth will eventually level off. I don’t want things to stay the same. And I’m sure you don’t, either.

That’s right, Noveltiers. Change is coming. And it’s coming soon.

Our flow of content and the content itself will stay the same. I’m not going anywhere. It’s still my mission to help you put your ideas into words, whether I’m talking about a literary concept or time management or just motivating you to keep going and stay strong when you want to burn all your manuscripts (don’t do that). But I think this blog, website, whatever you prefer to call it, can do more than that. I want to do more than that, for you.

You’ve given me a lot, over the past seven months. I owe you.

So starting next month, for the first time in the history of this blog and all its transformations over the past six and a half years, I will be sending a weekly newsletter straight to your inboxes. This newsletter (one of many “novelty” add-ons coming your way) will contain weekly top favorites, for those who don’t get the chance to visit daily (I don’t expect you to, that’s a lot of reading). And plenty of more exciting updates, both about my personal writing updates and more stuff you can apply to your own crazy awesome writing life.

There’s only one thing you need to do to get these updates. You guessed it this time. If you sign up for my weekly newsletter by tomorrow, you’ll receive the first-ever weekly issue, in which you’ll get even more news about what I’m planning. Including the exclusive option for you to guest post and a preview of an upcoming project I will refer to only as “Brain Rush.”

If you want to take any guesses as to what that might be, go ahead. Guess. You might even get it right. And I might even have a special prize for you.

That’s all you get. It’s free. It’s written by me. But it’s not for me or even really about me. It’s still all about you. That’s what I’m here for. If I only did this for me, quite honestly, I would have stopped a long time ago. I have a lot of ideas. All I want is to be able to share them with you, in hopes you’ll be able to get something out of them, too.

Check back in tomorrow for some tips on how to stay healthy during NaNoWriMo, and if you hit that signup button, you’ll be hearing even more from me then, too.

Until then, though – write on!

Love&hugs, Meg<3

Image courtesy of Novelty Revisions.

[DISCUSSION] How Can I Help You Write Better?

Sep 27, 2015Sep 27, 2015 Meg Dowell1 Comment

For the first time EVER, you’re going to get a little background about how Novelty Revisions became Novelty Revisions. Trust me, it’ll all make sense in a minute.

When I was a junior in high school, it seemed like everyone had their own blog. I wanted to be a writer, and didn’t really have an outlet for anyone to read the things I wrote unless I asked specific people (or begged, pretty much, I didn’t know any better then).

So in January 2009, I started a blog on WordPress called … wait for it … Writer’s Blog. OMG SO ORIGINAL GUYSSSS. It was a lot of weird stuff, I mean, I was your typical weird (in a good way?) 16-year-old Nerdfighter. Highlights included Sonic the Hedgehog ramblings and jokes about polygamy. Don’t ask.

Eventually, I’m not quite sure when, Writer’s Blog turned into Heartfelt. I think the point was to convey how I wanted to share words straight from my heart, or something like that. There were a few emotional posts, probably really personal stuff no one should ever post on the Internet. Let’s pretend it never happened.

At some point while I was in college, Heartfelt turned into Tales of a College Novelist. Some of you probably jumped on board at this point, which is when this really started to transform from a personal blog about my life to a content “hub” meant to help writers, I guess, write better. We got a Facebook page. We had a nice, very pink site redesign. I paid for a .com domain. Everything was great.

Except it wasn’t, because by the time I bought my domain, I wasn’t in college anymore, and it didn’t really fit my style anymore. I stuck with it for awhile longer, but toward the beginning of this year, I decided TCN needed to grow up a little. The pink smileys were getting a little old.

So while I was working full-time and wasn’t in graduate school yet, I spent my evenings creating what you now know as Novelty Revisions, which I designed to help writers, quite simply, learn how to put their ideas into words.

“Novelty” is a play on words: “novelty” means original, as in creating original content, but it also has the word “novel” in it, which is why it’s written Novel[ty] in our logo. Novel as in story or novel as in innovative—get it? We want to help you take your ideas and put them down on paper, but we want to help you carry them through the revisions process, too. In case you wondered where Novelty Revisions came from.

Anyway, it took me a little too long to figure out what I wanted this to be. I’ve finally figured it out. Well, mostly. See, I wouldn’t necessarily call myself an expert. I get a lot of my ideas for posts from my own experiences as a writer, which is great and all, but I’ve been struggling lately. Not to come up with ideas, but to come up with ideas that will actually help our readers, which is the whole point of doing this in the first place.

Honestly? I don’t always know what you guys need or want to know. I don’t always know what you struggle with or what you’ve already learned. Which is why I started discussion-oriented posts in the first place. I think they’re more personal. I’m doing this for you. You’re the reason I make it a point to post every day. I’m here for you. I mean it!

So it’s the end of September now. I’m going to keep our LET’S GET PUBLISHED series going for a little while longer, and then we’re going to move into prepping for NaNoWriMo—which is going to be interesting, since I’ll be serving as an ML for the first time this year, and I don’t want to neglect all of you just because I have a region of writers to mentor. YIKES. Exciting, but terrifying. I don’t want to just throw content at you for the sake of having something new to post.

Here’s my question for you today: how can I help you write better?

From the idea-organization stage to the revisions stage of writing “stuff”—I want to be able to help you. But I’m not always sure how.

Would a weekly e-newsletter help? Did you know we already have one? You can sign up here!

Would more “how I do it” posts help? I don’t want to make this all about me, but does it help when I explain strategies from my own perspective?

I don’t know! If you have suggestions, comments, concerns, leave a comment. I’m open to feedback. I just feel like I’m not being particularly helpful, and that’s not good for any of us.

This site has come a long way since 2009. I’m proud of that. But for the first five or so years, I didn’t really have an audience in mind. Now I do. I don’t want to forget that.

I’m looking forward to what you have to say. You can be honest. I don’t take constructive criticism personally. I mean, unless you tell me I publish with too many typos. That hurts.

Love&hugs, Meg<3

Image courtesy of Novelty Revisions.

My Characters Aren’t Getting a Happy Ending

Sep 7, 2015 Meg Dowell8 Comments

Everyone deserves to experience a happy ending. It might take a few tries to get there. It might take a pretty long time. It might not even actually last for very long, or forever. But at least for one moment, for one chapter, everyone should get an equal chance to know what it’s like.

Except my characters. They won’t.

Not all of them, anyway.

There are plenty of reasons for this, of course: I’m not some heartless, evil literary dictator (and if I were, would I really tell you about it?). I’m writing a soft SF novel, which means I have to make the plot and elements realistic enough for readers to believe it.

It’s not a near-future story, though. It takes place far enough into the future that technological warfare has long since come and gone. It’s a different world. Love is complicated. It wouldn’t make sense for everyone to end up together, in a relational as well as en emotional sense. One of the story’s motifs is that bad things sometimes have to happen before good things can (a gross simplification, sorry to be so vague). You have to lose before you can gain. You have to hurt before you can thrive.

Then there’s the fact that I’m not quite sure where this book falls in terms of prequels/sequels/etc. I do know it’s the first and I do know there are other continued storylines that have to come after. So one major reason this book (the one I’m working on now) doesn’t end happily is because, well, if I ended it on a happy note, there’d be no incentive for anyone else to read more.

I hate putting my characters through rough circumstances. But how else are they going to learn to overcome obstacles? I’m crying right along with them sometimes, trust me. I wish I could keep Character X alive. I wish I could keep character Y alive. I … okay, so a lot of characters end up dead. It’s necessary. Which, again, makes me sound like a bad friend or a mean parent or something.

There is one character who ends up getting something she’s always wanted, but of course there’s a cost.

There’s another character who overcomes one of his biggest fears and becomes a much better person for it.

But the love triangle isn’t resolved; it’s broken into pieces. A mother has to say goodbye. There’s one estranged friendship you might expect to get resolved, but the opposite happens instead.

My main character, the book’s narrator, needs to learn by the end of the book that emotions aren’t black and white. You’re not just either happy or sad. Everyone experiences emotions at different degrees, and certain emotions affect everyone differently. But to fully be able to understand that, she has to learn what happens when you let your emotions do all the thinking for you. That’s not a happy lesson to learn.

I don’t know about you, but I get bored when stories treat happiness like it’s the easiest emotion to feel. Happiness is the hardest. It’s easy to let yourself crumble when things go wrong, as my MC/our narrator finds out. It’s harder to learn to be happy even when it seems there’s nothing to be happy about.

If I just handed out happy endings, there’d be no reason for anyone to read my stories. I write for other people, to give other people something meaningful to read. They deserve better. They deserve the non-happy endings, so later in the series, when there is one, it will be worth the wait.

If I ever get that far. To the ending, I mean. I’m still not finished. Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever be.

Love&hugs, Meg<3

Image courtesy of Flickr.

Meg is a twenty-something workaholic with a passion for writing, coffee and health. In addition to her status as an aspiring novelist and Grammar Nazi, Meg is the managing editor at College Lifestyles magazine and a guest blogger for Food & Nutrition Magazine. She is a seven-time NaNoWriMo winner and has written several creative pieces for Teen Ink. Follow Meg on Twitter.

I Finally Did It (Midweek Novel Update #10)

Jul 22, 2015 Meg DowellLeave a comment

It only took three years of confusion, rewrites and anxiety, but I’ve finally done it.

I’ve finally figured out which genre my book belongs in.

Ha. You thought I was going to say I finished writing the book. Ha. Haha.

HA.

Not even close, my friend. But you see, there’s been something holding me back a little: not knowing which genre I was even writing in. I floated between YA and sci-fi and I just couldn’t figure out what I wanted the story to be. It’s a story with mostly realistic elements, but takes place in the future. I wasn’t sure that could be a thing. I was almost afraid I would have to change something, choose one thing or the other, even.

Then I discovered soft SF.

Basically, and I’m both paraphrasing and simplifying from multiple web sources here (okay fine, Wikipedia came first), soft science fiction is a sub-genre of sci-fi that deals more with social and behavioral issues, character development and plot than most of the science fiction you’re probably used to. The “science” part of the story is just that: a part. It’s not the primary focus.

I felt relieved when I made my discovery, and okay, pretty embarrassed that I run a writing-focused blog and didn’t know this existed before now. My book has a place. If I ever get to the point where I feel ready to start sending out queries, I can narrow down which agents might actually give me a chance. I can actually explain the kind of story I’m writing, instead of “it’s kind of like Divergent but not really” (yes, direct quote from yours truly). I can keep my storyline and my character development without having to add more explosions and tech. (Though it’s tempting, especially the explosions. Explosion Wednesday? Anyone? Anyone?)

So I still have a long way to go. I’m a little over 30,000 words in and am starting to connect more and more of the literary dots. The thought of giving up crossed my mind only once, back in April, when I was only four months into my second major story revision and feeling like nothing I wrote was working.

There’s no reason to quit now. I can’t imagine giving three years of my life to something I truly cared about and then throwing it all aside the second things started getting harder. It’s the same reason I finished my fourth year of college even though my junior year was a train wreck and I wanted out.

I think writing a book is about more than just writing a story. If you’ve never written a book, I’m not sure it’s possible to completely understand what it means to do it. Half the time I find myself so engrossed in what I’m working on that I forget about the outside world. I forget I’m not getting paid for this (a thought that crosses my mind about 500 times a day amidst other tasks).

You start writing a book, and you become too involved with your characters to back out when you know things are about to get good. You can’t just leave them to their own devices. It is still sci-fi, after all. Anything could happen.

Love&hugs, Meg<3

Image courtesy of Novelty Revisions.

A recent graduate with a B.A. in English and a completed major in nutrition, currently seeking a graduate degree in health communication, Meg is a twenty-something workaholic with a passion for writing, coffee and dietetics. In addition to her status as an aspiring novelist and Grammar Nazi (and the mastermind behind this site), Meg is an editor for College Lifestyles magazine and a guest blogger for Food & Nutrition Magazine’s Stone Soup. She is a seven-time NaNoWriMo winner and has written several creative pieces for Teen Ink magazine. Follow Meg on Twitter.

It’s Easier to Write Young Adult Fiction at 23 than It Was at 15

Jul 21, 2015 Meg Dowell1 Comment

I started writing longer fiction probably in middle school. I wrote a lot of little pieces of stories here and there before then, and a lot of poetry and song lyrics even earlier than that. Writing has always been an important part of my life. I’m not the best with making words come out of my mouth the right way, but give me a piece of paper and I’ll write something worth a read. I hope.

When I was younger, I was like every other tween and teenager: I wanted nothing to do with being a tween or teenager. I wanted my independence. I wanted to live the kind of life I thought adults lived, where things were still complicated but I could make my own decisions and plot the course for my own life instead of someone else always being there to do it for me.

Obviously, actual adulthood is never like you thought it was when you were 13. But I was so content with my stories then: adult characters, living adult lives—which of course I thought meant living out your dreams and always getting the happily ever after no matter the core conflict.

I settled into high school eventually, though, and finally decided to try writing about characters my own age. But … that wasn’t any easier than drafting characters older than me. I still had no idea what I was doing.

I think it’s easier, now that I’ve survived adolescence. No, being 15 isn’t that bad in a general sense, I guess. But up till that point in my life, it was the worst I’d ever felt. So of course I turned to writing to cope, because writing takes you out of the present and into a different world, where feeling is different, because you’re not telling your story anymore. You’re telling someone else’s story.

I won’t lie and say I have it all figured out. I’m between jobs, I can’t find freelance work, I’m trying to write a book and get an advanced degree and run a magazine, I’m single, I don’t even know which direction I want to take my career half the time.

But do you know what I’m not? I’m not a broke high school student biting my nails over whether or not it’s okay to go to prom with a friend instead of a date (it is). I’m not dragging my feet because I have to retake my ACTs so my prospective college will pay me more money to attend. I’m not crying over that same stupid guy who doesn’t remember my favorite color. All that drama you deal with as a teenager, it’s all you know. It’s normal to feel lost and dependent and invisible. But.

Writing is about solving problems. How can you write about a character who has all these problems, and come up with a solution, when you’re going through the same things and have yet to find a solution?

Now I can take all those lessons I learned way back when, all those solutions I eventually found, and make stories out of them. That’s why YA is my favorite genre, and where I think I’ll stay. Because I remember what it was like. My characters have no idea how to put the ripped corners of pages back together. But I do.

In all honestly, I’ll take living with my parents after having survived four years of college without them, having no money to pay my way through graduate school, with no friends left in my hometown to confide in, over being a teenager with absolutely no clue how to navigate the real world, do a load of laundry or flirt with a crush subtly enough that no one else will notice.

This life, I can handle. It’s good to have made it here.

Love&hugs, Meg<3

Image courtesy of dotmatchbox [Flickr].

Too Dear to Kill (Midweek Novel Update #9)

Jul 15, 2015 Meg DowellLeave a comment

I promised myself I wouldn’t do this.

Keep him alive, I mean.

I’ve had it all planned out for months. Even before I started writing a new version of my story, a prequel to better familiarize myself with the characters and storyline, I knew what I had to do. I knew, eventually, he would have to die.

I knew this book would have to end in tragedy. Tears.

And then, as writers often do, I changed my mind.

I decided I couldn’t let him go.

The story still doesn’t end as happily as some would prefer: you can’t tie up all loose ends and leave the reader in a happily-ever-after haze when there are at least three more books (maybe five) that continue on the same track. You have to leave some things hanging. You have to leave some questions unanswered.

But I just couldn’t let myself be that heartless to a character that’s basically been part of this project from the beginning. We’ve been through a lot together. His role in the later books will change now, which is fine; I’m figuring out his role in the later storylines was one of the barriers keeping it from going the way it needed to. Different characters will take on those roles. He served his purpose in the prequel, and I guess I convinced myself that meant he had to go away and never come back. You know. Literally.

One thing that bothers me about T.V. shows (going off on a tangent here but I’ll bring it back) is when characters disappear for no reason and don’t come back at all. If you think about real life, people go away for a while all the time; sometimes they come back and sometimes they don’t. But a character can’t just disappear and not be missed. So if this main character, as mysterious as he already is, needs a different place in the story, even if that means disappearing, he has to “go out with a bang” right?

Awful choice of words.

Part of me doesn’t want to stray from my original plan. Because, I’ll just say it: it was good, the way I was planning his demise (muahaha?). It was supposed to serve a purpose. It was supposed to, you know. Mean something.

As you may or may not know, sometimes characters do have minds of their own. If he would have done what I asked, and only fallen in love with my narrator, I guess you could say it would have been easier to let him go, because she’s a strong, independent woman and can handle (sort of) that sort of thing.

But then before I realized what was happening, he developed a “relationship,” if you want to call it that, with a character who happens to become important in later books, and also happens to be, well, a toddler. I can’t take a toddler’s father figure away from her. That’s not fair. She needs stability in her life. I can’t even tell you why, because, well, spoilers. Not that you’re ever guaranteed to be able to read the book because, well, it’s not finished yet. And I don’t even have an agent. Who am I? (Nobody.)

At first I was worried about changing my mind. Every character death is significant. It always means something. But maybe, if you look at it a little differently, every character you save from death is significant, too. Maybe he has a bigger “destiny” in the future of this series and I just don’t know it yet.

Okay, so he doesn’t get the girl you’d expect (sorry). He doesn’t exactly get to keep his own identity, either. (Dropping hints like it’s my job). But he doesn’t have to die, even though I’ve been warning him all along it was going to have to end that way.

I don’t know.

I just go where my brain goes.

Love&hugs, Meg<3

Image courtesy of Novelty Revisions.

When Will It End? 30,000 Words and Feeling TERRIBLE (Midweek Novel Update #8)

Jul 8, 2015 Meg DowellLeave a comment

How many midweek updates will I have to post before we get to the one where I tell you there won’t be any more midweek updates about this book, because it’s done?

I’ve been asking myself that a lot this past week. Not because I don’t enjoy updating you on my progress (I do, most of the time) but because I’m losing patience and motivation and, yes, even confidence.

Ironically, I’ve written more in the past week than I have in the past three months. It’s very easy to set a general daily goal of “write some,” write a paragraph or maybe even just a few sentences and move on to something else “more important.”

At least now, with Camp NaNo and a word count goal (my daily average is a little over 500 words) I’m getting somewhere.

But not fast enough, my head says. Not nearly fast enough.

I know there’s no rush, and if I continue on with this daily word count, I won’t have any problems finishing by the end of the year. That’s my goal: to finish the first draft of this novel by the end of the year.

Why? Because it’s been too long. I first had this flicker of an idea over three years ago now. I’m coming up with other ideas. I’m not bored, I’m just ready to be done, to move on to the revisions stage, to see if it’s worth searching for an agent yet. To evaluate how much more work it needs before I might be able to get excited about publishing it someday.

The pieces are coming together slowly; they always do. I know all the surprises and some of the twists. I know I need to connect the dots and fill in the holes and bulk up the action sequences. It’s not going to be a super long book; honestly, I’m guessing I’m probably about halfway done at around 30,000 words (I don’t know exactly; there are some things I already know I need to take out and just haven’t yet). A book doesn’t need to be long to be good. But I’m struggling. I’m not used to it.

It’s really different, writing a book as an adult, compared to writing a book as a teenager. I’m still a “young” adult, but I’m out of college and I’m trying to find a job and I’m well aware of the fact that writing alone can’t support me right now. At the same time, I’m in graduate school so I can eventually get a really good job so I don’t have to worry quite as much about money and can still afford to write for fun.

There’s not as much time, and definitely not as much motivation, as there used to be.

In high school, writing was all I wanted and it was basically all I knew. So spending hours upon hours writing books was like a no-brainer, I guess. I was going to make a living doing this someday! Of course I was! No! Because now I would love to be able to spend all that time writing, but I can’t. I have a magazine to manage and a full-time job to find and classes to pass and tuition to pay. I literally could never afford not to live with my parents right now. Actually, I guess I could look at it as, I live with my parents so I can afford to spend a few hours a day blogging and working on my book.

It’s not going to get any easier. I know that. As I’ve “grown up” I’ve realized how easy it is to have faith in the promises of your ideas when you’re younger. When you’re older, so much gets in the way.

I’m a good writer, but I’m not great. That pretty much means I’m always going to have to work to support myself, aside from writing, if I ever even get paid for doing that as a side gig. I’ve accepted that. I’m sure my future spouse will learn to accept that, too, wherever he’s hiding (ha). I’m one of those people who does eventually want a family, and a decent career and the luxury to be able to write and enjoy it.

That’s pretty much one of those dreams you have to latch onto knowing it may never come true. I know that, too.

Finishing this book will mean a lot to me. Because I know it won’t be the first book I ever publish; it needs a lot of work and I’m still learning. So to me, finishing means I’m one step closer to being able to write something that’s good enough for an agent. With every project you finish, you get a little better, not just with your writing but because you’ve proven to yourself, again, you can finish something and not give up in the middle no matter how many times you’ve wanted to.

This week, I’ve wanted to give up on this book.

But it’s not finished yet. I’ve invested too much time and effort and tears to abandon it now. I’m past the point of no return.

Still, I can’t help wondering when it will end.

This month? Definitely not. I have about 30,000 words to go. I have too many other things going on to be able to crank out that many more words in three weeks.

This year? I really hope so.

What do I keep telling you? The 30,000-word slump EXISTS and I am DEEP IN IT.

Love&hugs, Meg<3

Image courtesy of Novelty Revisions.

My First Day of Camp [NaNoWriMo] (Midweek Novel Update #7)

Jul 1, 2015 Meg DowellLeave a comment

322 words.

That’s what stands between me and a successful first day of Camp NaNo, otherwise known as the month I, and many others, dare to write fearlessly. And continuously. Probably a bit recklessly.

Since the demise of July Novel Writing Month (RIP), I’ve spent a lot of time wondering if trying a different summer WriMo would be worth it. Some “experienced” writers apparently don’t see the value of cranking out a certain number of words in a fixed amount of time.

They’re entitled to their opinions. I have a close relationship and deep respect for WriMos (“writing months”). I first joined the NaNoWriMo community my sophomore year of high school. This November will be my eighth consecutive participation year, and hopefully my eighth win.

This month is technically my second round of Camp NaNo—if you were following me back in April, you know I hit a 10,000-word goal and had a pretty rough time doing so. But most of the completed works I can vouch for have come from WriMos. There’s something about the numbers game for me. It makes me pay more attention to my story and characters. It makes my brain feel, well, alive.

322 words. That’s all I need to write every day this month to hit my goal of 10,000 words. That’s not so bad. Fairly manageable, right?

A significantly lower mark than usual for me, though. Considering that one summer I wrote an 130,000-word novel in 14 days. According to my TimeHop this morning, I was passing 8,000 words already today, four years ago.

How did I do that?

Well, I was just an English major back then. I was home for the summer with no job or internship or classes. They yanked my wisdom teeth out. I was growing apart from my high school friends (as most post-freshmen do). I had a lot—a lot—of down time. And the words just kept coming.

It won’t be like that ever again, and honestly, that’s fine with me. This is the same book I’m still thinking about sending queries out for, by the way, which isn’t the worst idea—I wrote it fast, but my mind was on over-creative drive or something. I’ve gone back and read a few pages. It’s not terrible.

But I have other things to do now, besides write, which is why I picked up a second major and internships galore in the first place. I love writing, but not all day long. Besides, how can I help you figure out how to balance time, relationships, work, school, etc., and writing, if I don’t practice myself?

I’d love to crank out 50,000 words (or more) this month. But it’s just not necessary.

I’m looking forward to getting to know my cabin mates, something I didn’t take advantage of this past April (it was my first time “camping”—I don’t think I knew what cabins were). I’m looking forward to getting better at writing a little every day, and more than just a paragraph or two. It tends to be all-or-nothing for me. I want to work on that. I like having multiple goals.

I also want to continue posting here every day (June was successful, mainly because I haven’t had a job … it’s fine) and focus more on mainstream content rather than the plethora of blog posts you’ve been getting lately. It’s taken a little bit for my brain to recover from exam mode. I have a lot of ideas for posts in my notes app. As always, you’re welcome to suggest ideas, if there’s something about your writing process you want to improve this month (or any time).

Oh, I’m also participating in Problogger’s 31 Days of Building a Better Blog. If you’ve read our About page, you’ve probably noticed we know what we’re doing, but have yet to nail down a decent elevator pitch. Thanks to yesterday’s podcast, I’ll be updating that page shortly so you don’t have to sift through the fluff to figure out why we exist.

Hurray!

It’s going to be a good month. I have a goal of hitting 100 followers here, too, so if you like what we do and know someone else who might benefit, pass our posts along. I love writing, but even more than that, I love helping other people write better. Ideas aren’t hard to come by, but getting them on paper, well, is.

That’s not the elevator pitch. It’s being—ha—revised.

322 words. On top of everything else on my ever-growing to-do list. I can do that.

But first, let me publish a blog post.

Love&hugs, Meg<3

Image courtesy of Novelty Revisions.