Nano Word Count 11/1/16: 825

Happy first day of Nanowrimo! I’m going to use this month to finish my FINAL final draft of Hellbound then make it presentable in December. I have three editor and one agent requests for the full manuscript. I want to submit to all four and enter the Golden Heart by 1/1/2017.

So let me back up a step since I’m pretty horrible at keeping up with this blog thing. In August I won the urban fantasy category of the FFP RWA chapter’s On The Far Side contest. No one was more shocked than me. Than I? That’s probably the grammatically correct way to say it.

I also entered the Georgia Romance Writers unpublished Maggies contest, paranormal category. GRW is my home chapter. I go to most of the meetings and know several people there now. I have a tendency to keep to myself 😉

I’m very familiar with the Maggies, heard about the contest in many of the chapters I’ve belonged to over the years. I entered On The Far Side and the Maggies about the same time. By that point I was was a bit burned out on contests, especially since I got that horrible feedback from one. I entered the Maggies at literally the last minute. The contest closed at 10PM and I was entering at like 9:58PM, only because a friend reminded me. To my surprise, I finaled. I registered to attend the chapter conference, Moonlight & Magnolias, where the winners would be announced. To my complete shock, I won. I read the 2nd place entry and I honestly think she got robbed! It’s truly awesome and I can’t wait to read the rest of it. The editor who judged our category requested both of our complete manuscripts.

At the M&M conference, I also did three pitches: one agent, two editors. I’m not going to name names. The pitches went well enough and weren’t as bad as I expected it to be. The agent was a little meh but asked to see the first 100 pages. Other people I talked to said she requested 50 from them. The first editor I spoke with was very enthusiastic and asked for the full manuscript and my series hook. That I do not quite know yet!! The second editor was less than enthusiastic. I pitched to her because her online wishlist included paranormal. She then proceeds to tell me she hates my genre and isn’t buying paranormal. So there I sit like uh…..However she gave me contact info for her coworker who IS buying paranormal and told me to submit the synopsis and first two chapters.

Which brings me to Nanowrimo. I know which of the multiple drafts I want use/modify to get my story where I want it. It’s now simply a matter of getting it done. I’ve had a busy couple of months of doing nothing then traveling. I went to Italy for 10 days. Maybe I’ll do a post about that later on. I have really struggled to get myself back into writer mode. You would think contest wins and submission requests would kickstart and encourage me. Instead I feel more…intimidated? First world problems, right?

So for Nanowrimo, I plan to finish this final draft once and for all. I will be taking Candace Havens’ Fast Draft workshop concurrently. This should get us through the first draft in two weeks, according to the workshop. Then we move into Revision Hell. Yay?

So that’s my Nano plan. Are you doing Nano? If so, look me up. My username is piratitude. I’m going to try to post here regularly with progress reports.

Happy writing!!!