I Did It!

Hi Everybody,

I know I have been away from this and my Glad Living blogs for the past couple of months. I thought I would update you all on what I have been doing. I took the NaNoWrimo (National Novel Writing Month) Challenge back in November and wrote 60K words. I finished my novel on January 9^th and pre-editing I have 146, 548 words. This has been a wonderful experience overall, despite a few times where I doubted I could actually do it. I would encourage writers with novels inside them that have been putting them off for another day to learn more about the NaNo Challenge, and to look around the various communities there where writers can find plenty of free resources to help with writing that blockbuster novel. Bookmark this blog first and then follow this link for more information. http://www.nanowrimo.org/

What’s next for my novel? Editing, editing, editing! I am also researching going the route of obtaining a literary agent to do the work of shopping my book to publishers. I know there is a lot of “buzz” about self-publishing these days, however this just does not seem appealing to me at this point. I may change my mind on down the line, but for now I will polish my manuscript, draft a powerful query letter, and make a few submissions to literary agents and see what happens. I have read in various web articles and blogs that it can take a year or more for a good novel to make it onto bookstore shelves. I will keep you updated on what happens with my novel Wish me luck gang!

 

Online Grammar and Punctuation Tool

It is easy to forget the rules of writing sometimes. Refresh your memory, see real examples of how to use punctuation correctly, and even test your knowledge if you dare. Visit the GrammarBook Today.

Free Online Thesaurus/Dictionary Resource

I found this tool especially useful when I was writing my book. I even came across slang words not included in Word’s main dictionary for my main character’s southern speech. I now use it when writing articles and I need some more suggested synonyms than my Word processor offers. You can check out this free thesaurus and dictionary using this link.

Writer’s Roundtable

Happy Valentine’s Day Wishes to everybody. I have my TV tuned to NASCAR, with the race delayed by a pothole of all things. Sounds like Indiana roadways to me. I have spent weeks editing my novel and I am now happy with everything although I accept the fact that an editor will suggest even more changes. Welcome to the realm of working to get your works published. I have also sent out queries to a few literary agents seeking their representation so I am now in a pins-and-needles wait mode which may continue for quite some time. Through my research, I have learned that waiting...waiting...waiting, is pretty much to be expected. I am trying to steel myself against the inevitable rejections which every writer gets. Wow! That is not so easy when writing is your passion and you pour your heart into the words you write. This is how it goes though and I have signed on to see this through knowing that I will gain experience and knowledge from each facet of this process of trying to get my first novel into publication.

In fact, I have already learned several aspects from the novel writing and publishing industries that I did not know before. I did know beforehand that I could not simply write a novel and “poof” it would somehow magically wind up on a Barnes and Nobles store shelf or listed for sale with Amazon.. I was under the false impressions that if I could write it in 30 days, I could edit it in 30 and have a publisher pick it up by day 90. Yeah...I will wait while you all laugh your butts off over that one. In actuality, it can take a year or more to get a book published and on store shelves and that is assuming you have an agent that can convince a publisher to take a chance on you and your book. Even many established writers still need a skilled literary agent to broker publishing contracts for them. I discovered that how you format your novel manuscript is ripe with controversy. Some say to format your manuscript using the font Courier 12pt. while others insist it should be Times New Roman 12pt. No one seems to be able to agree on word counts either. The more I read the more confused and worried I got that I was not doing something right. I finally decided to just write my novel and to worry about formatting it to suit a particular publisher’s editor when the time came which freed my mind up to let my creativity flow.

I will share more of what I have learned so far and what I discover as time goes on in with my first novel writing experience in future posts. Feel free to add your comments about this post and to share your own experiences with writing and publishing your book length works.