It is insanely hard for me to read a novel while I’m working on writing one. I know writers are supposed to be voracious readers, gobbling up books constantly to fuel their own brillaint ideas and inspire their own artistic minds, but I always feel like I’m caught up in one or the other. I… Continue reading The Challenge of Reading While Writing
Did anyone else feel that deep, collective breath of relief yesterday as NaNoWriMo ended? Washington state is in one of the last time-zones before the date line, so I usually end up finishing my novel with the last of the last. Fortunately, I clocked in at 50,132 around 4pm on the 30th. Home for Thanksgiving… Continue reading Post-NaNoWriMo
I like Seattle in November. It gets a lot colder in the winter, but November is the last of the beautiful fall. You have those yellow-gold and sun-orange leaves soggy and mushy like cerel once you get the milk on it. The way the clouds uniformly cover the sky, especially when its not raining…it just… Continue reading Too Few Words
For as much time as I’ve spent noveling in other places and trying to keep pace with NaNoWriMo in California, I’ve actually only ever won NaNoWriMo in Kenmore (my Washington state hometown) and twice in Bellingham (the college town I lived in, 100 miles north of my hometown.) Needless to say, I’m heading home for… Continue reading Prepping for Home: Where Does Your Writing Live?
It’s interesting to see at what stages different people lose steam during NaNoWriMo. Sooner or later, that initial burst of enthusiasm and coinciding energy runs out and you’re left to finish the project on the dregs of inspiration and a (hopefully) heaping stash of will power and deep-seated motivation. Looking at my Writing Buddies list,… Continue reading Plot-Bunny People
It’s day seven of my seventh NaNoWriMo, and I’m only moderately behind. As my book has 15 chapters planned, I’ve been focusing more on getting a chapter done every other day than exactly hitting word count. It’s a new strategy for me, but I feel good about it. Rather than focus on the pedantic, quantitative… Continue reading NaNoWriMo: Lucky Number Seven
Watching the vast majority of my non-artsy, analytically minded friends go into computer-science and mathematics makes me jealous sometimes. In their field, there’s such a thing as a right answer. That’s attractive sometimes. As a girl who’d rather draft another two novels than spend a few months editing the one she has, I’m not too… Continue reading If a Novel Were a Math Problem
Looking around as I attempt to establish myself as an author, I see a lot of people caught up in the dichotomy of, “To traditionally publish or not? That is the question.” Every corner of the literary internet has an opinion on whether self-publishing or traditional publishing is better, or who it is better for.… Continue reading Starting Small: Thinking Outside of Traditional and Self Publishing
Well, I’m at it again. I think writer must be an old Latin word for “foolishly persistent.” As if I didn’t learn from those three early years of seeking and writing and querying for representation, I’m back to the drawing board again with new novels and new resolve, determined to get myself published. It’s almost… Continue reading Querying Again
You know NaNoWriMo’s over when you’re not sure of anything anymore, but people are handing you hot chocolate and telling you it’s going to be okay now that it’s December. I feel like WriMos should have their own campaign: It Gets Better (in December) As always, I’ve finished my 50,000 words, and as usual, I… Continue reading NaNoWriMo’s End
AUDREY GREATHOUSE 