Welcome to What's Up Wednesday, a weekly meme run by Erin L Funk and Jaime Morrow. Here's what I've been up to this past week!What I'm reading
Because it seems to be my mission lately to read all of Brandon Sanderson's books, I'm now reading Words of Radiance, the second in the Stormlight Archive series. And wow. Despite being a very l-o-n-g book, it's nonstop action! And the worldbuilding is fantastic, of course. Absolutely loved it.
I also read the other two books in the Chaos Walking trilogy, The Ask and the Answer and Monsters of Men. I'm struggling to get my thoughts into coherent order to write reviews, but wow, this is how you write dystopian, folks. So intense and thought-provoking!
What I'm writing
I'm editing my YA post-apocalyptic, as I said in my #YABBootcamp update on Monday. :) Second major revision is almost complete! :D
I also FINISHED MY DRAFT!!! Woo! I've been stalling for days on this, slowly inching towards the end, but it's done. Problem is, like with the last one, I'm totally conflicted. I enjoyed writing it, but thoughts of it's not marketable and other such depressing business-related thoughts have been making my confidence flipflop all over the place lately. So I'm putting it away for now. Like I don't have enough drafts already stacked on my hard drive...
Still. It's finished! And I have another WIP in the planning (well, technically I've already written 3000 words!). This is my 13th novel, for anyone counting, which is probably just me. And I'm leaning 90% towards doing Camp NaNoWriMo next month, because this crazy writer apparently has Compulsive Writing Syndrome! Send help. Or perhaps, a clone.
What inspires me
When revisions are going well and I have that rare confidence that the changes I'm making are improving the story! Also, finishing the draft and being all excited about my next project. Yay! And I got some #Pitmad requests for Beneath the Waves yesterday, which I totally did not expect and which may have given me a mild panic attack. *breathes into paper bag*
What else I've been up to
I've been happily busy with freelance work! I finished up my first MS notes for my new role at Entangled, and I've been working on several other projects, too. ^_^
I'm also setting up my first newsletter to send out this Friday, so if you want to be the first to get a sneak peek at two books (Walking Shadow and Fear's Touch: A Darkworld Novella), there's still time to sign up! :) There may also be a release date in there, too... ;)
Emma, do you sleep? Or can you share how you managed to write 13 novels so far in life? So inspirational. I need to put you in my "What Inspires Me" section next week. You rock. Marketability and such is a confidence killer, but you wrote the book, and you love it, and saving it until the market is better suited for it is totally fine!
ReplyDeleteLol, it did take me ten years to write my first book, and a lot of those thirteen are still in first-draft form. But I do have a blog post on my drafting method planned for the next few weeks! :)
DeleteCongrats on finishing your draft! Team Mazama is blowing word count goals to pieces. Good luck with Camp Nano if you decide to do it.
ReplyDeleteAnd I signed up for your newsletter.
Thank you! :D
DeleteYay for successful revisions! Hope you continue to stay busy and productive. Have a great week, Emma!
ReplyDeleteCongrats for finishing your draft, that's great. Good luck with Camp NaNo if you end up doing it :)
ReplyDeleteYay for finishing your draft! And I know those thoughts of marketability are pesky, but sometimes you just have to write what you love to write. Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Too true - usually I just end up writing what I love anyway!
Delete"When revisions are going well and I have that rare confidence that the changes I'm making are improving the story!" Yes! That's exactly how I've been feeling lately too. Talk about inspiring. :-) You've had a pretty awesome week from the sounds of it. Congrats on finishing your draft and on receiving requests too. Hope this coming week is even more awesome!
ReplyDeleteYay, glad you're feeling it, too! :)
DeleteCongrats on finishing your draft! I always find that the hardest part. And I'm going to put Words of Radiance on my TBR list. I love books with tons of action - even thick ones;)
ReplyDeleteThanks! :) It's definitely worth a read!
DeleteCongrats on finishing your draft, Emma! Good luck and have fun with the revisions!
ReplyDeleteHappy reading and writing! from Laura Marcella @ Wavy Lines
Thanks! :)
DeleteYay! I'm thrilled to hear you got some Pit Mad requests! That's awesome! Also, I feel your frustration on the whole marketing issue. All I hear lately is that sci-fi is a hard sell (which I thoroughly disagree with) and it's completely disheartening seeing as I write and read sci-fi. I find it so inspiring that you've got 13 novels under your belt! Wow! Congrats on finishing your latest draft!
ReplyDeleteI've been hearing so many contradictory things, I'm getting the impression that YA as a whole is hard to break into at the moment! But there definitely seems to be an emphasis on contemporary over fantasy/sci fi at the moment. I guess all we can do is write the best book we can!
DeleteThanks! :)
YAYYY for finishing your draft and for the Pit Mad requests!
ReplyDeleteThanks! :)
DeleteYay for finishing a draft! And also, Congrats on the PitchMad requests!! That's awesome. ^_^
ReplyDeleteYou're amazeballs! Yay for progress. And PitMad requests. I love contests.
ReplyDeleteThank you! This is the first time I've had any luck in contests, so I'm excited!
DeleteI'm happy to hear that you've been doing so well. Here's hoping that April goes even better. ;-)
ReplyDeleteThank you! I hope things start looking up for you soon! :)
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