Monday, November 5, 2012

Monday Musings: My head is cluttered

This month, I feel like I have this nonstop shot of adrenaline coursing through my veins.  There's just so much going on, and it's tough to keep up with it.

My biggest source of anxiety is the fact that I'm juggling two novels right now.  While I'm very anxious to get Phoning It In out, it was also important to me to participate in NaNoWriMo this year, so Phoning has been shelved for the time being.  I will get it out by the end of the year, though, and I have a cover all ready to go.  I'm itching to do a cover reveal, so it's now just a question of deciding when, exactly to do that.  Feedback and suggestions on that front are very welcome!

As for NaNoWriMo, the manuscript is coming along nicely.  I made it over the 10k mark today, so I'm very pleased with my progress.  I set a goal of 3,500 words per day, five days a week.  Trying to write every day really stressed me out last year, and I've noticed that, lately, I get a bit twitchy when I don't write.  The problem with trying to make a career of being an author is I find it hard to just relax and unplug at times.  I always feel like I should be doing more work, so I'm making a conscious effort to treat this like a regular job, with certain hours being "work" hours while other hours are exclusively for family time, including weekends.  This does ease things for me.

That aside, I'm having a lot of fun with Asleep, though it is hard to drown out my inner editor at times.  I usually have a lot of anxiety when I write my first drafts, and I tend to think a lot of what I've written is bad.  This is why NaNoWriMo has been so invaluable to me.  It's taught me to push past those moments, get the words down, and then go back and polish things up later, and I think my writing is the better for it.  It's not always an easy thing to do, but it has definitely made me a much more productive writer. 

What's been really great about NaNo so far is feeling these characters come alive.  I had a pretty vague idea of what they would be like, and did a bit of planning the last few days of October, but I admit I'm mostly pantsing this one, and I'm really happy with the way things are working out.  I'm also developing a bit of a crush on my male lead, so hopefully I won't be the only one who finds him loveable!

I'm very excited to announce that, this Thursday, I'll have my very first post on YA Indie.  If you haven't taken a look at the blog yet, be sure to stop by.  A great variety of authors participates, and the blog features lots of great posts. 

That's it for me for now.  Stay tuned for details on the Phoning It In cover reveal, as well as details about a late November promo that's in the works.  I'm really excited about it as it'll not only help me reach out to a broader audience, it'll help introduce my readers to some other amazing authors.  Happy Monday!