#WIPMarathon October Update

It's time for another #WIPMarathon update, hosted by Ifeoma Dennis!

Last report wordcount:

I was at 49K of the YA SF WIP. I'd also finished editing the Indestructible trilogy and Collision (Alliance, #3).

Current report wordcount: 

I finished my draft at 62K. Then I started a new urban fantasy manuscript featuring necromancy, dark magic and evil faeries. The past few weeks, I've been re-evaluating my writing career and what I want to publish next. I found some notes on the YA urban fantasy I wrote from January-March 2014 which needed a complete overhaul, so I just decided to take the worldbuilding and some of the characters and made a whole new series from scratch. I'm currently at 54K words of the first book.

First-round edits for Darkworld Book 5 came in, so I worked on those.

I also did the final proofread and formatting on Collision and Indestructible.

And Demon Heart was published on the 19th.

WIP issues this month: The last draft I finished was... awful. Barely-salvageable-first-draft awful. A little demotivating!

Four things I learned this month in writing:

• I can't take a break from writing mid-draft. My last draft was interrupted three times by edits, and by the end, had veered so far off-outline that 90% of it was illogical. This happens so rarely, I was totally thrown off. (I normally have to fix a billion issues in edits, but not a total rewrite like I'll have to do with this one.) So I guess I'm always learning!
• Related: sometimes it really is easier to start from scratch. Especially when the last version of a manuscript didn't have a focused plot...
• Timers are an awesome motivator, probably because I'm really competitive. I can get 1000 words in 25 minutes, so it really helps when I'm having one of those days where I'm interrupted by some disaster or other every half-hour.
• Urban/contemporary fantasy is my thing. I love writing other genres, especially high fantasy, but out of 24 manuscripts I've written, 20 have been some form of contemporary fantasy. (On the other hand, I think I need to branch out more...)

What distracted me this month when writing:

Ugh. Life. >_<

I'm kind of amazed I managed to get all that writing done while my offline life imploded, but I guess writing's always been my escape when reality goes to hell...

Other than general work stress, I spent most of the month in post-breakup land. Long story short, managing two busy careers has been incredibly tricky over the past few months, and has wreaked havoc on my offline life. It wasn't the only reason my ex-bf and I split up, but I ultimately ended up losing someone who's been there since the beginning of my publishing career (nearly five years), right before a book release. October can go away. >_<

*sets calendar page on fire*

On the other hand, the month ended on a positive note. I got tickets to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child with some of my friends next October, and I'm getting to do my first book signing in August next year! ^_^

This month has given me emotional whiplash, I swear.

Goal for next month:

Collision comes out on the 17th. :)

I'm hoping to finish this draft and work on a secret side project. So I'm kind of cheating at NaNoWriMo.

Also: catch up on emails. Seriously. I've been behind since July. (In other words, since my schedule went crazy.)

Meanwhile, figure out my life. That's... kind of over-dramatic. I love my job(s), and I've been really lucky with work this year, but I really need to find balance. It's just hard when everything falls on you at the same time and you have to choose which thing to mess up because it's impossible to give 100% to everything. In the end, deadlines won, and believe me, I'm paying for it. *insert dramatic be careful what you wish for voice here*

On the plus side, at least I haven't had the mental capacity to stress about writing-related self-doubt this month...

Last 200 words: 

I'm in spoiler territory of my urban fantasy draft, but here's an unedited snippet from the first chapter:

A moan came from near her converse-clad feet, and a smaller head rose, this one pointy-eared like a miniature version of a cartoon alien, but with feathery gossamer wings. A piskie. Seelie.

“He stole from me,” said the imp. “I pursued him. Begging your pardon.” Its teeth stretched into a grin. “A trade I offer.”

“Absolutely not,” said Ilsa. “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t throw you over the fence back into the winter estate.”

The imp’s face paled and it shook its head. “No,” the imp whined. “Not there. Bad magic.”

“Should have thought of that before.” And, imp in tow, she marched up the road. At the foot of the hill, her family’s house lay on was the boundary with Unseelie House, which belonged to the other branch of the Lynn family. Ilsa’s cousins. She hadn’t seen them in years, but she didn’t particularly care what they thought if she threw an unwanted faerie into their garden.

The imp writhed and screamed bloody murder all the way back down the hill. Ilsa gave up and flung the creature headfirst over the fence at the first opportunity. Apparently she’d been more annoyed than she thought, because the imp flew several feet into the air before plunging into a bramble thicket. More screams followed her back up the hill. Serve him right.

The piskie had disappeared by the time she got back. “That’s gratitude for you!”