Novels and Narrations No 12

Last Updated on July 28, 2021 by ThoughtsStained

Welcome back to another monthly post in my Novels and Narrations blog series! In this series, you get updates on my writing in all facets: from the celebrations and excitements of the high moments, to dealing with imposter syndrome, hopelessness and rejections. Thanks, as always, for caring about my work as a writer and supporting me in this way. ❤

Let’s see how the month went, shall we?

Last month, I mentioned how life was keeping me in the way of writing as consistently as I wanted to. Even with proofreading, which, for my own books, tend to go a little faster than most other forms of editing. However, I found a trick that actually got me to work on my novel consistently (like, every work day for like, two weeks straight, kind of consistency). And it’s so bloody simple, I feel like a fool. But, with my freelance editing clients, whenever I start a project, I break down my timeline to work on it in this way:

1. Set deadline/due date
2. Figure out how many days I’m confident I won’t be available versus how many days I plan to work on it
3. Divide the number of available days by the total manuscript’s word count
4. Tada: number of minimum pages I need to work on per session to meet deadline.

I…don’t know why I never used this same process with my own writing? Perhaps it’s because I, unconsciously, didn’t give my writing the priority it deserved; never took it serious enough to even consider using a method that obviously works, since I employ it with paying work.

I implemented this in the middle of July and edited every work day for two weeks straight, even during my busiest time of the year. It was really eye-opening. You best believe it’s a trick I’m going to be using for all my future projects.

Because of that, I was able to make steady progress and wrap up the last 100 pages this week! So, draft eight of BLOOD PRICE is DONE. I’ll be the rest of this week and early August as time to update and polish my query and synopsis, before going back to do research on agents (looking at you, MSWL) and then, finally, the trenches.

Thanks for supporting me and this book, friends. I am so proud of it. I love it so much. And I really hope to get Kajsa’s story out into the world, one day.

That’s it for this month! I won’t lie: I’m really excited to go into the trenches again. Not only to give this book another chance (!). But, that also means I can return to working on my fantasy romance; a story I can’t stop thinking about, and one that deserves my full attention. 👀

My fellow writers, what are you working on? How can I support you? Let me know in the comments and thanks for supporting me in my own journey and reading another installment of Novels and Narrations! ❤