
NaNoWriMo 2016 is officially over, and I’m neck deep in rewrites for my upcoming novel, Fillius Glint. More on that in a later post.
Editing this book has been a roller-coaster. For those of you who haven’t followed along on Twitter, here are some of the highlights:
But Fillius Glint isn’t the only piece I’ve been working on. Earlier last month my flash fiction piece, The Girl with the Stick, was shortlisted over at Esther Newton’s Blog. Though it did not place in the top three, I may publish a more polished version of it here if people express interest.
I also submitted a hook for the Writer’s Digest Your Story Competition #78 which I’m hoping will make it to the top twelve. Finalists are announced later this month, so keep your fingers crossed.
In addition to that, I have several short stories which have been floating around in various submissions piles for months. Many of those stories have returned to me with a “thank you but this isn’t a good fit for us now” rejection email. (Most of those emails get sent out on weekends. Isn’t that funny?) Anyway, I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow. The rejections have been a wonderful way for me to practice acceptance and have also spurred me to problem solve. Instead of feeling defeated, I sent out one more short story after several rounds of edits and a deep dive into the needs of the magazine and its audience. I am tentatively optimistic about the results, which I probably won’t know for another six months.
Lastly, I put together a yeti-themed vignette which is available for download when you join my mailing list. If you sign up by the end of the day today, you’ll also be entered into a drawing to have my book, Fillius Glint, dedicated to you.
Writing Resource Round-up
Focusing on Craft:
- Using Multiple Points of View: When and How Is It Most Effective?
- Four Ways to Create Empathy in Your Writing
- 7 Reasons Writers of Serious Novels Should Use Humor in Their Fiction
- Your Two Plots
- When to Use Ensure vs. Insure
- How to Review Your Plot: Using Your Notes and Outline at Revision
Motivation and Inspiration:
- Four Traits of a Master Writer and How You Can Develop Them
- Use Genealogy to Enhance Your Writing
- Train Your Brain and Make Writing a Priority
- Want to Earn More Money at Your Job? Be a Good Writer
- 7 Simple Ways to Generate New Ideas
- You Have Permission to Suck
Marketing:
- Marketing and Publishing Checklists for Writers
- 6 Basic Steps to Score Your First Freelance Writing Gig
Professional Development:
- 5 Reasons for “Quick Pass” on a Query Letter
- What No One Tells You About Page Proofs, Blurb Requests, and More
Opportunities:
- 2016 Nightlight Readings Short Story Writers Contest (Free entry, Deadline Dec. 31)
- Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition (Free entry, Deadline Dec. 12)
- Romance Me Novel Writing Contest (Free Entry, Deadline Dec. 15)
- Story of the Year Contest (Free Entry, Deadline Dec. 31)
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Find me on Twitter:
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Good luck in the Writer’s Digest competition!!
And those tweets are scarily realatble… haha!
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Thanks! I didn’t make the finals, but there’s always next time. 🙂
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I’m taking my time with the NaNo hop, too, and making quite a project of the blogs. At some point in the coming week, I need to make writing my priority again! Though I wrote 56K words in November, there is more story to tell. And I want to get back to editing my first novel.
Good luck with your plans!
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Great post and pleased to have linked up both here and I’ve just followed you on Twitter. Good to see you’ve picked up the pace again so soon after NaNo…alas I not yet caught up with things !! Heads still engaged with finishing the novel I started on there. Decided it was going to be about five chapters longer than the NaNo target. Will check out your FB page right now too 😊
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Thanks for connecting! I will like your Facebook page next week after my ban expires. >.< Guess I should have stopped a few names before the bolded name. Haha. And good luck with your NaNo novel! I always have a hard time writing long, so fleshing out my story as I'm editing has been a bit of a challenge for me.
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Ha, ha..I’m very wary of aggressive followings on Twitter and FB…ergo I’m doing the blog hop at a steady pace! Have to say though, it’s a brilliant way to link up with authors all over the world! Same here too wrt writing so intensely over one month. I’m having a hard time getting back into the routine at the moment, although this time of year has many distractions! I enjoy the challenge though and I am definitely aiming to finish this first draft soon. Really hope you manage to get yours finished too 😊
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