Author archive: Tania
3951 Words and Counting…
NaNoWriMo just isn’t going my way at the moment. One week in, and I’ve only written 3951 words of my novel. This means I’m approximately 7,700 words behind schedule.Now, it’s not like I’ve been slacking off. I’ve been writing. A lot. In fact, I’ve probably clocked in close to 10k words in the last week……
3 Days Till NaNoWriMo!
That’s right. Three more days till I allow my life to be consumed with writing a 50k word novel in 30 days. Should I be freaking out yet? I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet, because I still feel more excitement than dread. Also, I feel emboldened by the fact that I have this…
NANOWRIMO
National Novel Writing Month seems like it has been around for ages. (Actually, I just checked their website. It started in 1999, picking up in popularity with each subsequent year). It’s always been something I’ve wanted to do, but every year I have found numerous excuses as to why I simply could not. “I’m too…
Letting go of the beginning
I’ve been reading Irresistible Kidlit by Mary Kole (which I picked up at the Writers Digest conference), and it’s awesome. It’s got so many great tips and it’s so current (I mean, literally. It’s hot of the presses.) I hit the section on “Starting Your Story” where Kole lists common clichés for how one, well,…
My First Writers Conference Part 4: Pitch Slam Dunk (Well, sort of. Mostly I just wanted to use that pun)
In my last post, I went over some Pitch Slam Pointers that I gathered from my own experience, which I shall now detail here. I didn’t get in line early enough. I went to the Keynote speech, I went to lunch, and I socialized with other writers and practiced my pitch some more. Honestly, I…
My First Writers Conference Part 3: Pitch Slam Pointers
Having survived my first Pitch Slam I have learned, firsthand, some valuable tips which I shall now impart here. 1.Do not be tempted by the free lunch/panel/etc etc. that happens directly before your scheduled Pitch Slam. Skip these, and go wait in line outside the Pitch Slam room early. Granted, waiting in line is generally…
My First Writers Conference Part 2: Terror! Sinking Feelings! Etc.!
Now, let’s not gloss over the fact that I woke up that morning feeling like I was going to vomit from a nerve-induced frenzy. Literally all I’ve been thinking about the past couple weeks is this dreaded Pitch Slam (even the words Pitch and Slam sound vaguely violent). The last few days in particular have…
My First Writer’s Conference Part 1: Great Unexpectations
I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Writer’s Digest Conference West, as this was my first ever Writer’s Con. My main experience with groups of individuals gathering for a likeminded purpose are comic conventions. Now, a convention is not a conference, and yet I kept imagining WDCW as a place full of people dressed up…
First Draft Complete!
After nearly two whole years of working on this manuscript (on and off, not non-stop, mind you) I finally have the first complete draft of my first complete novel! It clocks in at 95,000 words and 365 pages. In other words, there’s still a lot of work (read: editing, trimming, slicing, and dicing) to be…
The Obligatory Origin Story
I began writing Winter Wilder in November of 2010 following two other attempts to finish two other novels that I never completed. You see, I always have a ton of ideas, but get distracted easily when something more enticing pops into my head. But I knew Winter Wilder would be different. (Back then, it was…