Why I Fail at NaNoWriMo. And my Cover! (Kristin Rae)

Writing a novel in a month. Sounds great, right? So great that this month I gave it a shot. Sort of.

Until this year, I've been a portrait photographer and October/November/December have been a stressy nightmare. Since I've stepped away from photography, I thought I'd jump on this NaNo train and whip out the bones of a middle grade book in a month, shooting for 30-35k words, well below the official 50k goal. I said to myself, "Self, you are going to write one thousand words a day. That's your goal. You can do it."

I didn't even make it one day. The word-vomiting method of NaNo is NOT for me. My brain doesn't let me do that. I LOVE clean first drafts. I edit like crazy as I'm drafting. The less work I have to do later, the better.

I've also been EXTREMELY distracted this month. This is right around that 6 month mark before my debut, so exciting things are happening! I have a cover!

I'm told they're still tweaking it, but this is the one on the ARCs.

I am getting my ARCs, like, NOW! I can't believe a story that came from my brain is going to be printed and bound and blurbed!
“With Italy's brilliant landscapes, a main character you'll love from the first line and a new dreamy book boyfriend (he's mine!), WISH YOU WERE ITALIAN is a charming and addictive read. Devour this delicious treat like a double scoop of gelato.” —Lindsey Leavitt, author of Going Vintage and Sean Griswold’s Head.
 I also just attended an online marketing conference so I'm researching and game-planning and basically doing a lot not-writing. Way too much not-writing.

I think this should be my goal by the end of November: create a doable daily schedule that involves a baseline word count goal. AND STICK TO IT.

Anyone else so distracted by the squirrels of life that you have trouble keeping a schedule?

Comments

  1. What a great cover! It looks so fun! Congrats!

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  2. I can't edit as I draft, because those two tasks seem to use very different parts of my brain. I usually have to be in drafting mode or revising mode. But if these mindsets overlap for you, if you edit as you go and it has always worked for you, then why not stick with it, and not worry about word-count goals?

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