Camp NaNoWriMo, Laundry, Popsicles, & Gourmet Olives or A royal cat and his merry band of cherubs.

Does anyone else feel like there's a lot of pressure associated with blogging? Sometimes I'll really be in the mood to blog, but won't because I feel like I have nothing valuable to say. So today, I'm here to officially say, THAT IS SILLY. And also, this is going to be a really long blog. Well at least it is right now--in my head.

First order of business: Camp NaNoWriMo or WTF is wrong with me?
So I found out about Camp NaNoWriMo all of ten hours before it started. Now I don't go all out and prepare things before I sit down to write, but I do like to mull things over for a few weeks before I dedicate my time to something. Or at least I think I do, I dunno I'm rediscovering my "process" everyday, so nothing is set in stone over at Camp Murphy. Anyway, going into NaNo I had two solid premises that I had already been taking long walks on the beach with for a while. But, I decided, NAY I SHALL START FROM SCRATCH. Mainly because I didn't want to rush either concepts I had been working with.

So like twenty minutes before I'm about to leave for work the day before NaNo, I say, HUSBAND, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS IDEA.
Husband says, I WANT TO READ THAT BOOK.
Note: Husband is kind and encouraging and cuddly and fluffy, but husband is never too gaga over anything I write. It's just not his style. So this was encouraging, and I knew that at the very least I might not bore myself. (Plus this is the only thing I've ever written that husband has asked to read as I write. Happy-making indeed.)

Husband proceeds to text and email me about said premise all day. So with no plot, and only a premise in my backpocket, I decided to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Again. Which actually, isn't so bad, but currently I'm transitioning between jobs  and am working both jobs. So, timing = bad. Julie = bananas.

ONWARD.

It takes me a good 30 pages to decide how I feel about a manuscript, anyone else with me? So thirty pages in and I'm all voice, and no plot. But then last week it (the plot) came, in the night of course. And I wrote 10k in like a 30 hour window of time. I'm not one for trying it out the latest writing techniques/trends and I don't favorite ALL the writing advice in the world on Twitter, but when I read this 10k in one day article that's been circulating the web, I had to give it a go. I didn't technically do 10k in one day, but I upped my productivity by a bunch. A good day for me is 4k. I doubled it on that first day easily. Not only did I up my word count, but it was also some of my most polished and well thought out first draft material in...well...ever. The author who sent the internet into a frenzy with her 10k writing days is Rachel Aaron and you can read all about it on her blog. It's simple in theory, but not anything I ever took the time to do on my own. Not until the internet told me so. So as of yesterday, day 9 of NaNo, I am at 30k. And I am mighty happy.

Second order of business: I never learned how to be an adult or FEED ME COTTON CANDY.

You will gain nothing as a human being from reading this half of my post.

I was doing laundry today. ::gasp:: And I started to think about how I have no idea how the hell to do laundry. I sort of just dump everything in one load except reds because I've seen like 90 rom coms where the girl turns the guys whites pink.

I'm sure there was a time when my mom said, JULIE LET ME TEACH YOU HOW TO DO LAUNDRY. But teenage chubby girl Julie was too busy obsessing over the latest auditions at her high school or community theatre and day dreaming about all the roles she wanted so desperately to play. Unfortunately though, my wide birthing hips always had me cast as THE MOTHER... or Mrs. Beaver in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It could also be said that my Ally Sheedy from the Breakfast Club wardrobe didn't help much. Anyway. So I never really paid attention to how to do laundry and I think everything I learned about doing laundry came from watching Tide commercials. Also, grocery shopping. I can go grocery shopping and spend $45 on popsicles and gourmet olives, and think, I'M SET FOR TWO WEEKS. So what about you guys? Do any of you have memories of learning how to do laundry... or learning to be an adult? Or am I just a giant six year old?

Also I never posted about TLA, but it was great and I picked up more books than I could carry. Really, I did. And I got to see the lovely Siobhan Vivian!

If you're still trying to figure out the purpose of that cat picture... me too.

yall. 50KNOVEMBER. YALL.

Did you know this has been the craziest month ever?

so NaNoWriMo. I did it. I wrote a 50,000 word novel in twenty-four days. I think I might have internal bleeding going on in my brain, but that's okay. I hit my word count buuuuuuut my story isn't finished. My estimate is that it will take me about 7,000-10,000 words to finish, not to mention the random pages that say INSERT _______ SCENE. But when all that is said and done I will have finished my second novel, which means I will have written two novels in five months (as long as I finish before 2012 :0)). 

Nano wasn't easy. Actually it was tough as fucking nails.

This is how I survived:

1. You see what you don't know is this: I'm lucky. I have great friends. I Have a small little handful of great friends who read as I write. They read the messy unedited gunk I write and they say YAY or NAY. They keep me on track, because sometimes I am way, WAY, off track.

2. I am in love with this manuscript. I mean it's not going to cure cancer or anything (which, by the way would be awesome), but I fell in love with my characters. I had to know more about them and the only way I could do that was to write about them. Here's the funny thing, I've had like four or five premises on the back burner. For most of them I've written the first ten to twenty pages for each idea, just something to play with. BUT THEN this little "what if?" scenario hit me and HAD to write it. It was festering. This scenario grew characters, who grew feelings and lives, and then it just blew up. Which made the whole nano thing a hell of a lot simpler. Really it all went way too quickly to even think about getting stuck in the mud.

3. My husband is awesome and doesn't whine when I'm up until 4 in the morning writing.

4. As things come to me I jot them down. I've got post-its all over my car. That being said I cannot sit down and do a couple hundred words. I don't roll like that. I write in what I call "bursts." At the very least I have to finish a chapter. But  just to give you an idea of word count I usually range anywhere from 2k-8k(big number span I know) in one sitting. This probably sounds a little crazy, but if I do little writing sprints of a couple hundred words my writing comes out disjointed and splotchy. So when I write I have to commit myself to it for a couple hours and just bust some wordage out. Why this is awesome: If I write a couple thousand words a sitting, then I only have to do X amount of writing sessions.

If you haven't noticed yet, I like stats. I do.

Final NaNoWriMo count was 50,133.

I finished in 24 days which means my daily average was 2,088. HOWEVER there were at least nine full days I didn't do any writing.
Those were the boring stats here are the fun ones.

SAY MY NAME (yes, that was a Destiny's Child reference)
Alice: 366
Harvey: 342
Bernie: 132
Martin: 51
Natalie: 113
Deborah: 53
Denis: 44
Mindi: 10
Misti: 4
Eric: 63
Luke: 35
Tyson: 18
Glen: 15
JUICY WORDS
Love: 122
Hate: 35
Shit: 20
Fuck: 15
Bitch: 11
Ass: 43
Damn: 7
She: 654
He: 728
EFFING GRAMMAR:
": 2,087
.: 3,996
,: 1,559
!: 55
?: 327
And in case you were wondering my current-unofficial-probably-won't-make-the-cut-working-title is LOVE AND OTHER FALLACIES.
So blah blah NaNoWriMo is over... until next year.
Okay so I'm still querying agents for HOMESICK FOR GOODBYE.
Sometime around the end of October I got tired of getting rejection letters. I hadn't hit ten rejections, but I was close. Someday I'm going to write a blog about my rejection letters and it's going to blow your socks off, but not today.
Today I'm going to tell you about how I rewrote my query letter and it started WORKING. (Someday I'll post a little diddy about query letters too, I promise).
So without further ado HERE ARE MY QUERY STATS.
Total queries sent: 27 (eeeeeek)
I haven't currently heard from 15 agents, which means I still have 12 queries floating around the internet world.
Out of those 15 responses, this is what I've got.
Rejections: 12
Submission Requests: 3
First let me say this, submissions are cool. Okay they're awesome. But still my chances are slim. But that having been said....
OMG YALL. OMG. OMG. OMG. OMG.
Okay. 
Because good news is always better than bad news let's break down my 3 requests.

My first request came on my birthday (11/8). How cool is that? BADASSCOOL.
The agent had only read my query letter and based on that, she requested my full manuscript.

The second request came on 11/22. This agent had also only read my query letter. She then made a partial request for my first fifty pages!

The third (and sweetest) request came Monday morning of this week (11/28). This agent has already read the first fifty pages of my novel, because her query procedures require that you send your first fifty pages right off the bat. Anyways I received an email saying she had "quite liked" what she had read thus far and would like to see the rest of the manuscript. So there ya go!

I'm not getting too excited because really it is more likely that my 3 submission requests will lead to 3 rejections rather than 3 offers, but at the same time I'm trying to enjoy this. Because this is surreal. I never in my life thought I would ever make it this far so everything after this is just a bonus really.

Sooooo my rejection/submission ratio is 4 to 1. BUUUUUT because my glass feels half full, let's just say I received 9 rejections with my old query letter. That means I've received 3 rejections with my new query letter, giving me a solid 3 to 3 ratio. (But don't forget those 12 queries still floating around in query land!)
Aaaaaaand I'm done talking about numbers until 2018.
If you think good thoughts, think good thoughts for me. If you pray, pray for me. If you do rain (read as "Julie wants an agent") dances, do a rain dance for me.

Alright so because you're all so sweet and adorable and cuddly here's a cupcake. (I'M 26 NOW :o) My awesome NOVEMBER was literally TWENTY-SIX years in the making. )

Leave me a comment, tell me you have a crush on me. I'll write you creepy love letters.

Love all you boogers and ghouls!

 -j

NaNoWriMo: Where Only the Strong Survive

Hey yall! October has been a crazy month! The month started off with Austin Teen Book Festival which was AWESOME. I got a gazillion books signed for me and my library. I just got back from a trip back home to Connecticut with brief stops off in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. New York was in the travel plans too, but so much to do and lots of family to see! So we decided to put off that leg off our trip until next time! So I've had a nice little writing hiatus and I am ready to get my ass in gear.
November, November, November. November is National Novel Writing Month or otherwise known as NaNoWriMo. Now, once again, because I have all of like four writer friends let me break this down for yall. NaNo is pretty easy in theory.
1. Sign up.
2. Write 50,000 words in one month.
3. Binge eat or something. Whatever coping mechanism suits your fancy will do.
4. Sleep for the entire month of December.
The idea is to WRITE, it doesn't have to be like Crime and Punishment or anything good at all, it just has to be something.... besides the same word over and over. :o) And hey if it's good, then AWESOME. So if you haven't guessed by now I am braving the writing elements and I have officially signed up for NaNoWriMo. Signing up was pretty exciting, until that OH SHIT moment hit me like a ton of bricks. Not only is November National Novel Writing Month, but it's also my birthday (WOO!), Ian's birthday, our nieces birthday, and Thanksgiving. This equates to a BUSY MONTH. Oh and by the way I work two jobs. I've got four stories that I've kind of got brewing in my head and I have a couple hodge podge of pages that could maybe sort of be the start of something. I have a good idea of which idea I'm going with for NaNoWriMo so keep me in your brain or heart or whatever because November's going to freaking suck in the best way ever.
And lastly, YES, I'm still querying. Kind of. I've sent out 9 query letters and have received 8 rejections/no response means no. There's one last letter floating around in query world and I'm not trying to be down on myself or my work but I'm not really expecting a positive response. Since my most recent post concerning queries, I sorta kinda had a breakdown. I'm not trying to be dramatic, I promise, but when someone rejects something so personally tied to you it feels like they're rejecting you as a person. Everyone keeps telling me not to take it personally, but I say NO TAKE IT PERSONALLY. Because, what it comes down to is that one of the major ingredients to good writing is making it personal and letting a huge horrible chunk of you shine through in your work. So yeah it's personal and it hurts but maybe it will be worth it. Who knows? We'll see.
Moral of the story: November is going to awesome suck and take it personal because it is personal.

J
PS- did you know Halloween is my favorite holiday and I have NO costume? I am so slacking, what are your Halloween plans? And because I love pictures check out these bad boys from East Coast trip!

My only ATBF picture, but that's okay because it's with Ashly!