This summer for Camp NaNoWriMo, I was finishing up my revision from last quarter. My word count was about 38,000 and I wanted it to end up at 50,000, so I made 12,000 my goal. With four days left and 8,122 words left to write, I…may not make it. And that’s OK. Either way, I’m going to keep revising until it’s done.
Things I did this week:
– Got up at 6:30 every morning to write for an hour. And every day my sweetie made me tea because he is the best. The first day, I was so full of joy and inspiration afterwards that I danced my way through my morning routine. On the third day, I stared at my screen for the first twenty minutes in a sleepy daze and eventually wrote only 150 words. But it’s getting a little easier every day. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…
– Connected with the friends I met at PNWA so we could start sharing our work with each other for critique.
-Started a Pinterest board for visual inspiration for my novel.
– Updated my spreadsheet of agents with their respective submission guidelines and how many pages they requested from me. Then I color-coordinated it:
– red: no pages requested, only a query—submit ASAP!
– yellow: 4-10 pages—polish up the opening and then send it off
– green: 50 pages—get as much peer feedback as possible before sending
– blue: whole manuscript—finish the darn thing first
– Requested at least a dozen books from the library so I can read what’s new in the world of MG and also try to find comp titles (other books that are comparable to mine).
– Discovered that the folks over at The Pirate Tree have been doing all along what I said I wanted to do: writing about social justice and children’s literature. It took all of my self control to not read every darn article while I was at work today.
Next steps:
– Finish Camp NaNoWriMo—write as much as possible, even if I don’t make my goal.
– Write my synopsis and first query letter, then get feedback from my peers
– Send off my very first query ever!
Beth Anna Cook 