Puzzles

While Brian and the kids are downstairs working on a giant floor puzzle, I am upstairs working on a bit of a puzzle of my own. 

Here I am surrounded by some of the pieces.

I've got two marked up manuscripts.
I've got emails.
I've got binders.
I've got meeting notes.
I've got phone conversation notes.
I've got multiple documents with "thoughts for revision."
I've got hundreds of ideas swirling around in my head...
and I've got to put them all together.

Revision.

A bit of a puzzle? 

Yes, indeed. 

Too bad you can't see the girl behind the camera, pulling her hair out, trying to put it all together. 

A First

This is a little celebration. 

Wooo-hooo!

I finished the first draft of my first novel! 

This is what 86,000 words printed on double-sided paper looks like

Finishing it didn't feel at all like I thought it would though. It's probably because the editor in me knows that I'm not really finished--that there is a lot of work left to do. 

For starters, I need to read it, send it out to a trusted group of readers, revise it, send it to my agent, and then start that process all over again. 

But first...

I'm going to take a deep breath and celebrate just a little bit. 

Yay! 

Little by Little

Every single night, with very few exceptions, for the last three years, I have worked on writing my first novel.

I never write A LOT in one sitting. I only write a little. 

But I write a little A LOT.

Now, I am only a few pages away from being finished. And those final few pages seem like a whole helluva LOT. Let me tell you!

But tonight, after everyone in the house is asleep, the sound of my fingers clicking away on the keys of my computer will fill our quiet house. And little by little, I'll get there. I hope. 

And then I'll start revising...

A Real Treat

This weekend, my writers' group stole away for our second annual retreat in the mountains.

Here's the setting:

Here are the main characters:

Here's a snippet from one of my favorite chapters:

And here's a quick summary:

A Writers' Retreat is a time and a place where you get to write for hours. 

Where the characters in your book become a major topic of conversation, as if they were real. 

It's where you discuss endings and new beginnings. 

It's a commitment to:

your writing

your story

your goals

and your writers' group.

It's a commitment to you.

And it is SO MUCH FUN!

A Not-So-Lonely Business

Three years ago I started writing a book.

It was just something I felt like I had to do. I wasn't sure where or how to start, just that I had to start.

Let me tell you that writing can be a lonely business.

But it doesn't have to be.

About forty pages in, I realized that I needed to get a little outside of my head and start talking to other people who were also writing books, namely young adult novels.

I consider myself extremely lucky to have found a supportive, creative, and dedicated writer's group right here in my own town. Once a month, we get together in a coffee shop downtown to comment on each other's work. We are five women writers of mainly young adult and middle grade works. Our books span many genres within those categories: paranormal, dystopian, humorous, historical fiction, etc. Our lives outside of our writing span all sorts of categories as well: mother, grandmother, teacher, editor, on and on and on. But it's the insatiable urge to write that brings us together.

We write.

We read each other's work.

We offer encouragement, suggestions for improvement, ideas, and advice.

And we lend a ready ear as we go through the long and not-so-lonely business of writing.

Let's discuss