How do you start blogging? This is my current conundrum. For
all that I am a perpetual oversharer I’m terrified of putting myself out there
for the whole internet. I was hoping to find a brilliant idea to start this out
but no such luck. Instead it’s just me. Might as well start as I plan to go on!
I think today will focus on writing since this is a writerly blog and other
things can come later.
So what is the purpose of this blog? My name is Jennavier
Gilbert. I’m a very hopeful writer of YA. If I wasn’t extremely hopeful and
slightly delusional I wouldn’t be traveling the road to publication. I’ve been
at this for about 11 years. Sometimes I think I’m trapped in a Mel Brooks movie
and just don’t know it. Every time I think I know everything that the writing
life has to teach me I find out how much I still have to learn.
For example I just finished Nanowrimo for the second time. Two
wins out of four tries, not too shabby! There were no hiccups, everything was
going smoothly, and I was thinking how easy edits were going to be. I was
already fantasizing about querying it because obviously it was The Perfect
Novel. Then it ended with a bang… at 42 thousand words. About twenty thousand
words short. Seriously. I’m now going to have to completely rework the plot so that
there’s actually progression. In the words of another Christmas grump bah
humbug!
Now that I’ve been properly humbled by Nano it’s time to
move on to edits. I’m pulling out an old first draft that I can’t get out of me
head. I’m crazy nervous about trying this! I’ve tried to edit my WIP’s before
but never had the skill level to do anything rather then mess around. You know
how a great painter adds details to the painting in the final go around?
They’re barely perceptible but make a huge impact. Sadly I’m nowhere near that stage yet. With
Chaos Rules, the novel I’m editing, I’m going to have to gut it and start
almost at square one. My first draft will now be an example of What Not To Do.
Wish me luck!
I think that’s enough for today. I’m going off to wade into
the writing swamp. See you next time!
