Today was a huge milestone for me and my daily writings. I have always been a writer, story teller, and imaginative person in general. I used to draw comics back in college. During college I took short story writing courses and they were a blast. It was a really fun way to be creative and the prompts were interesting and fluid. From there, I began writing a collaborative story with a friend of mine but it never really got off the ground because we were both so busy with life and then I moved away for work. About 4 years ago I started writing just for fun. I don’t think I ever had any true intention of finishing it. It was just something really fun to write.
The average novel has about 50,000 words so I made my goal to be about 50K words. I felt like that goal was very far away but it was a goal none the less that might push me to keep going. I eventually made it to 65,000 words and over 200 pages of story after those 4 years but an end was never in site. I felt like at the rate I was going, I would never finish because the story was not even halfway through the plot I had dreamed up. So in mid November I gave myself a goal to finish my book by 1 January 2023. I made a Facebook post to hold myself accountable and gave friends updates on word count, book completion percentage, and page count. AND IT WORKED!
I finished my goal! I finished my very first YA novel at 123,009 words and 368 pages!!! All that writing while also keeping up with this blog as well as the renovation and working my normal hours! I am so very proud of its completion so now it is time to begin the editing stage. That is the part I am dreading most because I promised certain friends that they could beta read for me…… There is always that fear of others reading your works and hating it or thinking it is lame but I am also aware that none of my friends will ever be mean about it and likely they will help me find plot holes, grammar errors, and truly help me to refine it. No matter how much I want to hold onto it, it will be good for me to grow as a writer with their help, the same way they read my blog and give me feedback in that regard.
That being said, once all editing has been completed, I am going to see about getting it published. Why not, right? The worst they can say is no! And even then, it isn’t because the story is bad. It may be because that isn’t what is “in” for publishers at the moment. Publishers may be overwhelmed with too many manuscripts and they have to cut it off at a certain point. Or it may just need more editing.
I am posting this here to once again hold myself accountable that I will have this completely reviewed by friends, edited, and sent in for potential publishing in the next 6 months! Wish me luck!
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