The Importance of Writer Friends

Confession time: I don't like making new friends.

That doesn't mean I'm not good at it. I'm actually pretty good at making friends. It's easy for me to strike up conversation with people. I'm skilled at making fast friends.

But I don't like it. 

I have fantastic friends. I really do. I have wonderful, fun, supportive, caring friends. I'm happy with them. I don't ever feel like I need new ones. But there is one problem.

For the most part, they don't write.

Now I don't say that to criticize my friends. As I've said, they're fantastic. But there's something to be said for having friends who share your interests, studies, and goals. 

I recently adjusted my college course plan to include an English major with a concentration in creative writing and I couldn't be happier with my decision. My classes consist of a few literature classes and a few writing classes and I love it. Finally, my school work is intended to prepare me for what I absolutely love to do. 

But by far the best part of the new classes is the students. Everyone around me has the same goal. We all write. We all hope to get published. We all enjoy reading and writing and don't consider any one work to be better than another. It is only my second week of classes, and I've already had so many good conversations about books, about writing, about publishing, about all of it. These people get it. These people get me.

Before now, I had one friend who is a serious writer and she is amazing. What's even more amazing is now I have multiple friends like her. 

I may have amazing friends who are supportive, but as a writer, there is nothing more valuable than having writer friends. Seek out those writer friends, even if you hate making friends. You will not regret it.

KMG

Never Delete Anything and Never Give Up

Hey everyone! 

So I realize it's been a while since I last posted. Summer turned out to be busier than I thought. My summer classes turned out to be much more intense than I thought they would be, I've been trying to do a lot of writing, and I've been querying, not to mention my personal activities, where I've been trying to make the most of the summer before it passes me by!

Basically, I've been super busy not only this summer, but trying to get everything ready for the fall semester, when I start my English major. Unfortunately, blogging fell by the wayside, but now I'm back!

So let's talk about how things are on the writing front. Near the end of my spring semester (April?) I started work on a new manuscript. For the sake of clarity, let's call this one manuscript #3. I had stalled with the first story I started writing after my completed manuscript (we'll call this one manuscript #2) and this new idea came to me out of nowhere. As it always is when a story is fresh, I couldn't write fast enough to keep up with my mind. As summer started, I found myself with 10,000 words of a new story just like that. That is about 1/5 of a completed young adult book! I was so exhilarated by manuscript #3 and so frustrated with manuscript #2 that I basically just gave up on #2 and decided it wasn't meant to be. I've read a lot of information from published authors about how sometimes they write, or begin to write, a new manuscript and find that it just isn't right. And that's okay. 

So I accepted that that must be what happened. I was okay with it. It happens. So I focused on the new one, #3, and on everything I else I've been up to this summer. 

But like all new things, the writing fervor I was experiencing on #3 died out. I don't mean to say that I've given up on it as well, because that's the furthest thing from the truth. I am still working on it and I'm very happy with where it's going. I think this is going to be a good one. 

But that old one, #2, the one I gave up on, is bugging me. Lately, I can't get it out of my head. It's begging to be written and it's getting harder and harder to ignore it. I looked at it again. I only have about 7,000 words. I thought I had written more than that. I tried to write and couldn't come up with a single word. I got frustrated, growled at the computer, then gave up and ran back into the comfortable embrace of #3. 

But #2 is still bugging me. I whined about it to my mom and my boyfriend, and while I complained, I realized something so stupidly obvious, I feel ridiculous for saying this. My first (completed) manuscript was so hard to write. Was it hard because it was my first? Certainly. Was it hard because I had wanted to give this story words for so long so I felt pressure? Of course. Was it hard because it was fantasy and required special considerations while writing it? Definitely. But I persevered because I knew it had to be written. Even if it never gets published (even though I really hope it does), I'm glad it's written.

I think if I was meant to give up on #2 now, it wouldn't still be bugging me. I think I would have long ago forgotten about it and not worried about it. But it's pestering me because it deserves to be written. It's an interesting story, I think, and I want to see it through.

Is it going to be hard? Oh, most certainly. But I think it will be worth it. And in the meantime, when I get frustrated with it, I still have #3 to work on as well. I hope to finish #3 within the next couple of months, based on the pace at which I'm writing. 

All of this to say that I never deleted #2. I still have it on Scrivener, and I'm so glad. If I had deleted it, I would have to start all over and that would be nearly impossible. Now I already have 7,000 words and an outline to go off of.

So here's my point. Don't delete anything and don't give up on anything just because it's hard. See it through. I'm going to start trying to take that advice myself. 

<3 KMG

On Protagonists Who Act Their Age and Readers Who Don't Like That

If there's one thing I can't stand about the literary world, it's bad reviews.

Now let me be clear. You, as a reader, are absolutely free to give a book a bad review. If you genuinely did not like a book, you are free to express that opinion in a non hateful way.

My issue is when you give a book a bad review because you don't understand literature.

Let me give you an example, which also happens to be the thing that made me want to write this post. I recently finished a book (and for the sake of the author and the reviewer, I won't say what the book was) that I absolutely loved. It was part of a series that is one of my favorites and this book lived up to the glory of its predecessors. I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

So, my first step upon completing the book was to freak out about the cliffhanger to add it to my "read" list on GoodReads. I happily added the book, gave it five stars, and was pleased to find that the average rating was about four and a half stars. Good. That book deserves it.

My mistake came when I scrolled down and started reading reviews.

The first review on the page gave the book one star. I was horrified, but curious. What could have provoked this person to give such a great book such a terrible review? I started to skim the review, but the more I read, the angrier I got.

The gist of it is that the reviewer did not like the main character. He thought she was bratty, selfish, immature, mean, and a million other things. Which is fine. You know why? She was supposed to be.

The whole point of that story was that she was self-centered and immature. That's what made the story so compelling. 

The point of the protagonist is not the be the perfect example of good character and likability. The point of the protagonist, or any character for that matter, is to feel real. If characters fall flat, the book suffers, no matter how good the story is. Real and relatable characters make all the difference in storytelling.

So yes, the reviewer is right that she was kind of bratty and very self-centered, and a little annoying sometimes with how immature she was. But here's the thing: She's eighteen. She's facing challenges that are beyond what an eighteen year old should have to deal with. 

I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a teenager who isn't a little selfish and immature.

Somewhere along the line, the notion that protagonists had to be 100% likable 100% of the time became popular, and frankly, I think it does literature a disservice. Some of the best books I've ever read have had protagonists who have made me actually yell at the protagonist for being stupid, annoying, selfish, rash, heartless, or a million other things. They have frustrated me, annoyed me, angered me, and, usually, in the end won me over. 

And that's a sign of really good writing. If this author really inspired this much anger and hatred in this reviewer, then clearly she is an excellent writer. 

Again, I don't say any of this to criticize the reviewer, but honestly, I kind of like when a character inspires that much emotion in me, even if it is annoyance. It means they're doing their job.

Avoiding the Editing Burn Out

So the past few weeks have been super crazy. I finished up my most intense semester of college yet, went out of town for a week, then immediately came home with a massive to-do list.

Let's keep in mind that most of my to-do list is fun stuff, but it is still overwhelming. 

I am currently about 2/3 of the way through what I'm hoping is my last round of edits of my completed manuscript before I start submitting (excuse me while I have a panic attack). I am about a third of the way through reading my friend's debut novel (shoutout to the lovely K.E. Ormsbee on the release of The Water and the Wild!). I have another book already on my Kindle waiting to be read. I have a list on GoodReads of so so so many books that I want to read. I have a short story that I never finished writing from like a year ago. I have two in progress manuscripts that I want to keep working on so I don't lose momentum. I also have two online college classes to do. 

And this list doesn't even include all the random day-to-day stuff that I need to do.
 My goal is to finish editing completed manuscript by the end of May so I can start querying in June.

All of this to say that, basically, I burned out. Not a total oh-my-goodness-I-can't-even-function-in-life-anymore burn out, but an editing burn out (Side note: this has totally happened to me before). I reached a point where I just didn't want to edit anymore. Some people prefer the editing phase of writing, but others, like me, prefer the actual writing (word vomit) stage. I like putting words on paper. That's the easy part. Making them sound good is much harder for me.

So, basically, when I first started editing, I lived in this state of denial for an embarrassing length of time:

(Except that my novel is a fantasy novel... hahaha puns)

I knew that I needed to edit, but I didn't want to because I was afraid of the challenge it presented. I edited on my own for a long time before I ever let anyone look at it, and even then, I only let one person see it (I have since given 2 people access to the entire thing and 1 person access to pieces of it. Hey, progress is progress, don't judge me). 

I then got really motivated to edit so that it could be the best I could make it in hopes of getting it published. I went through several drafts before finally printing it (see my post about printing the manuscript). 

Printing it brought it's own form of encouragement, but I still experienced an editing burn out. I got so tired of editing, of reading the same scenes over and over because I just can't seem to get them right, of catching weird timeline inconsistencies, and OH MY GOSH I CHANGED THAT CHARACTER'S NAME AND IT RUINED MY LIFE BECAUSE I KEEP FINDING THE OLD VERSION 6 DRAFTS LATER. 

Then I had a mini (okay fine, it was major) crisis moment and despaired in full on drama queen mode and it went a little something like this:

(Fun fact: I don't even drink coffee... This is just my natural state)

But then I took a deep breath, I put the manuscript down, and I picked up a novel and read. I revisited some of my favorite writing related blogs. I wrote a few scenes on my in progress manuscripts. I relaxed. 

Then I came back to the manuscript rejuvenated. I remembered why I wanted to edit this in the first place. I want to send it out. I hope to get it published. I want to be able to let my friends read it without wanting to crawl into a hole and die of embarrassment.

And I want the story to be the best it can be. I want to do the story and the characters justice. After all the years that my MC Jade has spent screaming in my head for me to write her story down, she deserves that much. 

So yes, editing is not my favorite part of the writing process by any means, but it feels really cool to read a scene you've read a million times only to find that it has a new kind of magic to it because of something you changed during editing. It feels like life has been injected into your writing and it's fun. 

Editing is hard and sometimes not fun at all, but when you see the evidence of your hard work, it feels really awesome. And of course, if I am lucky enough to become a published author, much more editing is in my future, so I've learned to love it and what it can accomplish. 

I Printed My Manuscript (Alternatively, The Best Decision I've Ever Made)

So... I did something a little crazy...

I have read several times that you should print out your manuscript at some point during the editing process. Many people say this helps because the words look different on paper and it forces you to slow down and really focus on the words, which is hard to do on a computer screen. 

So I did. I printed my manuscript. 

You guys... Printing this thing out did SO much more for me than just forcing me to slow down when I read.

Here it is.... I got it printed professionally, mostly because I didn't want to wait for 372 pages to print (and yes, it is 372 pages... cue squeals of glee), and because they bind it when you print professionally. I don't exactly have a stapler that goes through that much paper. 

So there it is. Isn't that cool? (By the way, the formatting of that first page is courtesy of Scrivener's manuscript compiling formatting... it's the best). 

Here it is from a cool, artsy diagonal angle. You can now appreciate the really nice binding the print shop put on it for me.

So pretty exciting right? Just you wait, it gets cooler...

Here it is from the side.

Y'ALL. Look how FREAKING THICK it is! It's so huge! When I picked it up at the print shop, the first thing I said when they put it on the counter was, "Oh my goodness, that is so much bigger than I thought it was." 

So I haven't actually started editing it yet, but I have flipped through it casually and noticed errors that I didn't catch in the first 4 read throughs. So, the good news is that printing it out really does work.

The BETTER news is that it's a FREAKING BOOK. Intellectually, I knew that my novel was 83,700 words (which is conveniently printed on the first page). I knew that when I exported it from Scrivener to Word that it amounted to about 372 pages. But seeing how much paper that amounts to is the craziest feeling in the world. The first time I flipped through it, I actually teared up from the overwhelming excitement. There's something very satisfying about holding 372 pieces of paper with words on it in your hand and being able to say, "I wrote every single word on every page of this." 

(I also may or may not be obsessively staring at it 24/7 now... but that's a whole other personal issue...)

If I ever needed encouragement to finish editing this so I can send it out (and believe me, sometimes I do need it), then gosh darn it, printing the bad boy out was the way to do it. Seeing the sheer size of the thing made me so ecstatically happy.

If you're in the editing process, print the thing out. Seriously, just do it. That's all I have to say.

Also, scroll back up and look at my book again. Just because you can. It's not like I'm obsessed with it or anything. 

KMG