NaNoProcrastination: Why I Read Industry Blogs
So, I should be making up a huge NaNo deficit right now, but my muse needs to be throttled into action after a tragic day involving chest pain and bear spray in my tiny kitchen.
In self-defense, I figured that maybe doing some non-NaNo writing would help motivate me to do some very NaNo writing. Before I get too far into my topic of the day, I would like to say that this attempt at NaNo is moving along far more swimmingly than the last. I came up with the concept in October and have only done minimal plot work, so the writing quality, not to mention the intricacy of the story, is way down from what I'm used to. This time, however, I'm not too upset by it. Writing the thing can be a challenge. particularly on the days when I'm not sure what's going to happen next, but I keep discovering things about my characters and their world that I never imagined and I'm loving every moment of it. The story is growing dear to my heart, but in a 'this deserves a chance to edited' way, rather than a 'this deserves to be perfectly preserved and unwritten' way. Overall, my main character has some moxy, my side characters are interesting and my villain is deceptively normal acting.
All of which brings me (sort of) to my overall topic for tonight. I've been distracting myself by looking through the blogs of publishers, editors, agents and authors. Pub Rants, by agent Kristen Nelson, and blogs by authors Marie Lu and Sarah Rees Brennan are particular favorites of mine.
I follow them in part to learn about the industry I want to join (QueryShark has forever put the fear of God into me regarding proper query writing) and in part as a reminder to myself that authors are real people who, at some point, sat in front of a blank screen and cursed the heavens that their muse had decided not to show up to work.
Then, they worked through the text anyway and this was their reward. I look at their success and think "this is possible." My ideas may not be better than theirs, but they're certainly not worse.
Looking at these blogs reminds me that there is an end result at the end of that tunnel as long as I keep moving forward.
And that, of course brings me right back to NaNo, because it makes me write badly and in doing so, makes sure I write something, anything at all. So thank you NaNo and let's try this chapter four thing again, shall we?