Tag: nanowrimo

Iridia Update

Hello, friends!

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared anything about Unrooted or the rest of the Iridia series. I think I spent time away nursing my wounds from parting ways with my publisher, so I wasn’t inclined to share much (it’s a little embarrassing when you’ve been talking up something that doesn’t end up happening). So, I’ve kept a bit quiet on here, though if you follow me on Twitter you might have seen updates now and then. But, here’s a quick rundown of Things That Have Happened.

1. STARTED QUERYING

I revised my query letter and begin sends queries again not too long after I separated from my publisher (God it sounds like a divorce). One of the first queries I got back was a request for a full manuscript, which was really exciting!

2. REVISE & RESUBMIT

That agent replied saying that she loved my worldbuilding and loved Pomona, but that Nevea read a bit young for her. This set off a lightbulb in my head, because in the process of realizing that Unrooted is adult, I never stopped to revisit Nevea’s voice to better make it fit that category. To address this problem, I aged up all the characters by three years, so Pomona now turns 22 during the book and Nevea is approaching 21. I also made appropriate adjustments to her voice and arc to better fit an older character, and I’m thrilled with the result. I’ve since sent the revision back to that agent, but even if she decides to turn me down, I know that this change has seriously elevated the series.

3. NANOWRIMO

For this year’s NaNoWriMo, I reworked one of the major plot lines in Book Four, which I initially wrote from NaNoWriMo 2016. While I loved the character beats, the plot was dull, so in this new version I saved some old things but also added new characters, which I think really flesh out that part of the book. I wound up with 18k more words than I’d planned, but cutting down is Future Sarah’s problem. 

4. TIMELINE WORK

Today, I revisited the timeline now that I’ve aged up the characters. Now that I don’t have the restrictions of a YA timeline (i.e. keeping the characters within spitting distance of teenaged), I can stretch things out a bit more and also, as a result, make things more realistic. As of right now, the whole series takes up four years, though I may push it to five depending on what happens when I write Book Five. 

5. MORE QUERYING

I’ve put off querying until I was settled into the revision, and publishing is about to go asleep this month, so I’ll start querying again in January. I hope to hear back from the R&R agent then, but otherwise I’ve got a list of other agents to query now that I have revitalized the book. 

That’s about all she (I) wrote! I’m going to try to update more often this coming year, but if you’re ever hungry for more, I often share my quick-and-dirty thoughts on Twitter. ❤

Hi, I’m doing nanowrimo working on an idea I’ve had for awhile. It’s supposed to be a YA novel but one of the themes in it is teen pregnancy. I’m not writing it to glorify it or anything but I am worried that it may be problematic. Do you have any advice on this situation?

Oh my goodness, nonnie, sorry it took me a couple of days to get to this! I’m terrible at answering messages during the work week. 

Without more information I can’t offer any input about how this might be problematic. If there’s slut-shaming that you don’t tackle, that’s definitely a problem. And you’ll need to do research about how income disparity, education quality, and religion all play into teen pregnancy. As long as you’re not using it as a gimmick or a moral lesson, you’ll probably be okay. To my recollection, That Summer by Sarah Dessen is a book that tackled teen pregnancy fairly well in a way that didn’t include shaming. 

So I tried to write part of my fourth book for NaNoWriMo last year, and I haven’t revisited it because I remember getting super frustrated and thinking that the plot sucked.

But now I’ve gone back to it, thinking I was going to revise it, and … I don’t hate it? I’m actually pretty pleased with the emotional beats and the characters’ individual arcs? I think there are a couple of things I can still afford to change, and I have a new idea for the climax of this subplot that I haven’t written yet, but there’s far more of this that is salvageable than I originally thought. It’s odd, but definitely satisfying!

Hi, Sara :) How many words per day do you use to write? I love your writing style. Keep up the good work!

Hi! Great question. This varies tremendously by time of year/what the heck is going on irl. When I was writing ACOWAS, I had a simple lowkey sales job and was able to write at work, so I could write 3,000-5,000 words a day! During NaNoWriMo, it was around 3,000 because of fics and NaNo, and that was because I’d started graduate school and had less time. Then, over the holidays, I was back up to around that 3,000-5,000 point because of MFW. Right now, sadly, I’m hardly writing at all because I have so much work irl to do. 😦 I miss it, but school is a priority! 

Blergh I’ve fallen behind on writing!

I got no NaNo done today (I queried instead, so still productive in a different way), and I’ve also fallen behind on Feysand Smut Week (I fully intend to do the rest of the prompts, and in fact I thought of an interesting spin I may want to throw in … concerning specific applications of daemati magic hurhurhur). 

BUT I just have one class left tomorrow and then I’m on Thanksgiving break! So plenty of time to catch up. 🙂  

6, 16 and 25, sorry if you’ve already answered them. I’m eagerly awaiting the day I’ll be able to read it! 😁

6. are there any former titles you’ve considered but discarded?

OMG so many! This edition has been titled The Stolen Light, The Thief of Truth, and The Broken Throne, as well as Unbound. The current working title is Unleashed, but my titles change so often, who even knows?

16. do any characters have distinctive birthmarks/scars?

Pomona has a tattoo on her chest and Gia has one below her abdomen. One character (I won’t say who) has a burn scar stretching from her shoulder to her temple on the left side. Tal has a scar across his chest from a recent injury. Lina has many scars on her feet from her curse.

25. which character would you most like to be?

Ooh, wow, another tough question! It sounds odd, but I’d like most to be my character Cassian, because our personalities are similar (though I’m more personable), and he’s got some awesome magic and is driven by his intellect and pursuit of knowledge. At the same time, he’s never idle. And the end of his story (as I have it planned so far) is so satisfying and is kind of like what I want for myself. 

I literally see everyone posting about it and I still haven’t figured it out what it is. So what’s nanowrimo?

NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month! It takes places every November, and the goal is to write 50,000 words (about the length of a short novel) in 30 days. This comes to about 1,667 words per day. We’re about a week in now, but if you’re interested in joining next year, you can learn more about it at www.nanowrimo.org!

Ooh… 1, 3, 24! <3

Forgot one! 13.

I’ve done 1, 3, and 13 already, but here is 24!

24. which character is most like you? least like you?

My three main women all have a piece of me in them. Pomona’s struggle find her own identity, Nevea’s determination, and Delia’s desire to see everything work out and be helpful. That said, The character most like me in this book is probably Pomona (only it was me about two years ago, not me now). The one who’s least like me is Gia, since she’s such an extrovert and a flirt, and I am neither of those things.