So I cleared thirty seven thousand words tonight on the YA modern fantasy WIP (my productivity has increased since I started enjoying my evening glass of wine while writing, instead of after). It's such a rush to realize I am closing in on the climax. Love, betrayal, and power are about to come to a head, and things will begin blowing up, metaphorically and literally.
I can't wait.
This is my fifth novel, but it's the first one I've felt so confident about. I hope that feeling isn't unfounded: this is the novel I want to have polished and ready for my second visit to the South Carolina Writer's Workshop Conference next fall.
My first experience at this conference in 2010 taught me so much. I was woefully unprepared to make the leap into the agent pond, although goodness knows, I put in a good effort, met some amazing agents, and realized that I was closer than I thought. I've been submitting my YA historical novel in verse sporadically since the conference, something I had never been ready to do before, so for that push alone I am thankful.
I have so much excitement for the conference this year, and this time around, I even have a plan to make sure I am as ready as I can be. My first step is to finish the first draft of this novel (I had been aiming for 80,000 words, but since it's YA, I might accept 60-70). I want to be done with the first draft by June so I can spend the summer reworking and having other folks take a stab at it. By September, I plan to have this novel in at least the second draft stage: and then I will submit it for a critique session (or two, or three) at the SCWWC.
It feels really good to be cruising away. I am starting to twitch, however, and am tempted to return to an old project, but this WIP takes priority...at least until September.
You can do it! I was just posting about the same thing but you put it much better--starting to "twitch" is exactly right!
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to focus on my other WIP--one that actually follows a linear path--unlike the mess that I keep calling a WIP. (You'd recognize that mess!) ;)
If this "other" is actually easy to write AND follows a mostly-linear path,it seems that this is the one that deserves my attention. But I am itching and twitching to get at the first one, feeling guilty for leaving it in the woeful state it is in!
Good luck with yours!