NaNoWriMo Update

I am really good at procrastinating, which is something I really didn't want to do for this challenge, but I've gone ahead and done it. I don't know if I'm going to hit my 50,000 word count in 4 days, but I'm sure going to try.

I'm currently sitting at around 40,000 words, and all of my writing has been accomplished in 5,000-10,000 word sprints in like 5 days. (For context, I've been rewriting my already-written book from the beginning and editing as I go.) So, I'm kind of cheating, but I also don't know how to make writing every day a priority when I know I can easily bang out 5,000-10,000 words in a day during the weekend.

I will say, I'm really happy with the changes I've made to the story, and I've officially decided to just self-publish.

Why self-publish? Time more than anything. I just want my story out there, I have a career that takes up a lot of my time, and I don't think I could commit to querying agents and researching publishing houses for months (potentially years) on end.

I also like the idea of owning my story in full, not signing my rights away to a publishing house. By doing this, I also see more profits with each book sold.

I want to have my 50k done by the end of this month, and I'm going to try to do it in the next few days, but I'm giving myself the deadline of having the whole story polished by the end of December. The end result is going to fall somewhere between 65-70k words, and I plan on reading through it/ editing it 2 more times before that deadline. (Soft editing, trying to catch typos, changing minor phrases, etc. Not the major changes I'm making right now).

If anyone knows a good graphic designer, point me their way. I have an idea for the cover, but I'm going to need to hire an artist to bring it to life. Controversially, probably, I'm not going to be hiring an editor (mostly because I don't have the money for it). I've been working on this story for two and a half years, and at the bare minimum, it will be typo-free. My beta-readers helped me a ton with big-picture changes that needed to be made, for me, it's just a matter of making sure everything is spelled right and grammatically correct.

So yeah, that's where I'm at with NaNoWriMo and this book. I'm aiming for a release next fall, with early access to anyone who wants to leave (honest) reviews pre-release. I have to learn more about that process, and I have to begin marketing (something I hardly know how to do). I'm excited, and also scared, but mostly excited.

Since I know for sure I'm self-publishing, I'll leave you with some quotes from my WIP that don't give anything away and give you a feel for what my debut novel, Bottle Trees and Broken Dreams, will be like:

With a gasp, my eyes flew open. Letting out a snorting wheeze, I choked on the water. I reached desperately for the knob to turn it off. My hair was only half rinsed. I could hear the bubbles popping right next to my ears. When I looked in the mirror, my skin was burning red from the heat of the shower. My upper arms looked like chicken skin. I had to look twice at my reflection to make sure the condensation dripping off my body was running clear.

I prodded at my nose with shaky fingers, checking, desperately, for any signs of trauma. There wasn’t a nick of scratch in sight. Upon smacking my dry lips together, the metallic flavor sent shock waves across my taste buds. I couldn’t bear to look any longer, so I made an effort to ignore my body completely. Pretending I was nothing but consciousness, floating above the void. Removing myself from worry as best I could.

I could feel my muscles clench and burn as they tried to move, but no matter how hard I tried to push through the immobility, my arms and legs would not budge. It was as if I was tied to the bed. In a complete state of paralysis. As though I was comatose. Like I would never be able to escape. My own personal hell.