WIP IT! Chapter Zero: The Beginning of An End

good morning, cyberspace!

This post was supposed to come out on Saturday. Today is not Saturday.

PRETEND IT’S SATURDAY, PEASANTS.

Ahem. As I mentioned briefly in my last post, I have some VERY exciting news to share with you all today!!! And while I’m sure most of you already have an inkling as to what this news is, I’m just going to pretend like you have absolutely no clue. Because that is clearly more fun.

And also I technically have two pieces of news to share, and I know for a fact that virtually no one else knows what the second part is, so. . .? There are definitely going to be some surprises in this post, my friends!

hopefully they are good surprises. aha.

So without any further ado, let’s get right to it!

PART ONE . . . Super Secret Project #1

Ahem. *clinks silver chalice delicately* I have some very, very happy news to declare today, dear peasants! For on March 16th, 2019 (*cough* the very day this post was supposed to come out *cough*). . .

I FINISHED SUPER SECRET PROJECT #1 !!! ASDFGHJKL!!!!!!

^^ my actual reaction upon finishing it

*insert incoherent screaming here*

For months and months and months you guys have been listening to me go on and on about SSP #1, and now . . . it’s done! I honestly cannot believe it. I totally failed my initial deadline of February 28th, but that hardly seems to matter now. All my hard work–all the tiresome mornings and the late nights–have coalesced into a completed project, and that always makes all the effort and failed deadlines worth it. Not to mention the fact that I feel like I’m finally starting to get the swing of setting reasonable deadlines and goals. I only overshot by 16 days this time around! (much better than some of my previous failings, I can assure you.)

But anyway, now that SSP #1 is finally done and set off to the side where it can rot and fester for the next three months, I can officially tell you all what it actually is!!! *jazz hands*

. . .are you ready?

Drumroll please. . .

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, marshmallows and cupcake fronds! Super Secret Project #1 is. . .!

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

I know. Super anti-climactic for you all, I’m sure. I’ve been squealing relentlessly about a SUPER SECRET PROJECT!!! for about a million years, only for you to find out that said super secret project is . . . the very same book I’ve been working on since November of 2016.

But I mean. . .???? It’s the FOURTH. DRAFT. I have rewritten this book FOUR TIMES, PEASANTS. FOUR. And I am extremely excited about it. You have absolutely no idea. I’ve literally poured my heart and my soul into these characters and this world, and now that I’ve written four drafts of it, (with some VERY major changes between the third and fourth drafts, mind you) I feel like everlost is finally starting to become the story it was always meant to be.

I mean, there are definitely some rough patches within the book still–believe me. there are P-R-O-B-L-E-M-S.–but that’s what my alpha reader and beta readers and critique partner are for! And yes. I am perfectly aware that I tried sending this book out after I finished the second draft last April, and it . . . aha . . . did not go very well. But I’d like to think that I’ve grown a little bit within the past year. I’ve been working on cultivating my appropriate headspace for when I receive constructive criticism, and I’ve learned to be more willing to let people see my mistakes and flaws.

Because sometimes that’s what sending your book out into the great unknown feels like.  Like you’re giving your friends and family one giant amorphous flaw to stare at and poke with a stick. But I think I’ve finally reached the point with this story where I can no longer trudge forward by myself. I need people to poke at it with a stick, because that’s the only way it’s ever going to get any better. And I very desperately want it to get better. Even if this book never gets published–which, believe me, is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately–I still want this book to be something that I can be proud of. And while I am very proud of all that I’ve accomplished with it, I know there’s still a lot of work to be done.

And that leads us right into the more exhausting bit of the matter, because I just really need a break from this book right now. Yes, I love this world and these characters and the feeling of divine power I get when I totally obliterate their lives, but I’ve come to a point where I just . . . don’t want to look at this story for a while. I want a break. A hiatus, you could say. A very long holiday, Gandalf. I want to spend time working on some of my other plot bunnies, and now that I’ve finished yet another draft of everlost, I feel like I can finally do just that.

So what’s my next step forward? << letting the story go. Not completely, of course, and most definitely not forever. But for the next three months (maybe more, maybe less), everlost is no longer in my hands. I’m going to try very very hard to separate myself from the story so that when my alpha and my betas are finally done with it, I’ll have a completely open, refreshed point of view for looking at it and its many many flaws.

But does this mean that I totally won’t stalk my readers while they’re reading it?

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA–no. No, it does not. I literally have no self-control. But I WILL try very hard not to pay attention while they’re reading, because I feel like that would be the best thing for my sanity.

*says the girl who has no sanity left*

“But Kenzie!” you say, suddenly realizing that you haven’t asked me any questions for a very, very long time. “What are you going to do now that you’re not working on everlost????”

Aha! I am very glad you have asked this, my dear peasant! For the answer is–as always–most exciting to me.

PART TWO . . . A New Story, A New Series

So if you haven’t already guessed what my second piece of exciting news is by that annoyingly specific title . . . I’M STARTING A NEW STORY, GUYS!!!! And also a new series for this here blog.

And also I’m hastily driving myself insane with all this newness ahahahahahahahaha it’s fine.

If you read the title of this post and had a reaction similar to this >>

You: *scratches head in confusion (and also you might have mites, who knows)*

You: *squints at screen*

You: What on earth is a WIP IT??????????

<< then allow me to clarify, my mite-infested friend!

WIP IT! is a bi-weekly/once-a-monthly/I-have-no-clue-how-often-I’m-posting-these blog series, in which I talk about . . . my writing! And also my writing process. And also do fun character interviews with the casts of my current WIP’s (TITLE REFERENCE MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA–HACK) and other weird stuff and I PROMISE THIS IS GONNA BE FUN, GUYS.

#fun.

As opposed to my usual Tuesday blog posts where I talk about complete and utter randomness that sometimes includes really vague writing hacks and tips and other bookish things, WIP IT! is going to be strictly about the stories I’m working on right now. I’m not entirely sure how it’s all going to work out quite yet, but I’m assuming it will eventually come together to be a sort of roadmap through my journeys as a writer.

Because while I probably won’t be outlining every single detail of the stories I’m writing (so be prepared for vagueness, apparently), I really don’t want these beginning years of my writing life to slip by uncharted. Someday when I’m old and gray and wondering how on earth I ended up in this nursing home, I’m going to want to look back on my writerly career and remember all the good ol’ days of really choppy sentences and horrible character motivations. I’ll wish that I could go back to the days of being an unagented, unpublished writer, that I could pinpoint exactly when and where I had the most Amazingly Stupendous Idea smack me in the face. And I’ll wish that I had had the common sense to put all of my writerly things in one easy to locate space, rather than sprinkling them like pixie dust across every single random page of my blog.

And so that is exactly what WIP IT! is–hopefully–going to be: a documentation of my writing adventures, all neatly filed and put away in its own little space. But more so than that, I want this to be fun. Which means there’s probably going to be a lot of weird little behind-the-scenes stuff and Pinterest board reveals and playlists and character interviews (already mentioned this) so I mean?? HOPEFULLY THIS DOES NOT SOUND SUPER BORING. A lot of it is probably going to start out as experimentation, and if it turns out that this whole thing is an epic fail, we’ll just forget that it ever existed and tuck it into a very deep corner where it can ne’er return. But I’m hoping that it’s not a fail, and that it will somehow turn into a really fun way for me to share my writing stuff with you all!

And also we have a theme song, so I mean there is literally nothing not to love about this, amiright?

^^ Full Disclosure: that song is 9/10 the reason why I decided to name this series WIP IT. #noregerts

But anyway, I think that about sums everything up for this post! I finished the fourth draft of everlost, I’m starting a new writing series thing-a-ma-jig, and hopefully the next chapter of WIP IT! will be coming out in a few weeks! Or a month. Who really knows with Camp NaNoWriMo on the horizon.

But I’m also planning on telling you all a little bit more about my new Camp NaNoWriMo project–a.k.a. SUPER SECRET PROJECT #2!!!–soon, so I’m really excited about that, as well! But first I need to start outlining the thing.

Aha. I should probably get on that. . .

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TALK TO ME, PEASANTS!

Was this post all over the place and confusing? I feel like this post was all over the place and confusing. . . I’M NOT GOOD AT UPDATE POSTS, OKAY? (hopefully I’ll get better at them, though? that’d be nice. . .)

But anyway! Question time!:

On a scale of 1 to 10, how excited are you that I finished the fourth draft of everlost? (I’d say I’m about a 53 right now. . .) Does WIP IT! sound like something that has the potential to be really fun, or something that sounds like it’s going to take a dump and die in about two weeks? What kinds of writing adventures have you been going on lately? What do you think Super Secret Project #2 could be?? and most importantly. . .

ARE YOU PARTICIPATING IN CAMP NANOWRIMO NEXT MONTH? because obviously this is really post-relevant. totally.

Let’s talk about ALL OF THE THINGS!!! down in the comments below, my friends! And as always, until next time. . .

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Featured Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

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