NaNo is coming! The fear! The Fun!

I’m aware NaNoWriMo is as widely hated as it is beloved. Who likes it? Those who participate and find in it the motivation needed to draft at the speed of light. OK, at the speed of sound. Maybe just to write as much as possible. Now, who hates NaNo? Many people, for many reasons. In…

Thou shalt become a brand, right?

Since I’m finishing editing that book I’ve been editing FOREVER SO FAR, a number of questions and tasks have popped up in my head, including but not limited to: Girl, you need to rework your query letter And also, when will you finish editing your other two manuscripts? Because you have to finish writing book…

Sometimes, I dislike being a pantser

Going through my NaNoWriMo 2019 draft, I noticed two things: This book is dumb and fun. I still need to reinforce the main plotline (aka everything that isn’t the parties and the romance between 2 of the 3 main characters. I feel so uncomfortable writing cute relationships; I need to wreck that thing somehow). The…

The 2020 agenda

I love lists. Lists are the only way I can get anything done. The sheer pleasure of crossing off something I’ve successfully completed/done is similar to the pleasure the chocolate and cake I devoured during NYE gave me. Guys, I ate way too much. Anyway, I started off the year by: Sleeping in Eating more…

2020

As probably 90% of Earth’s population, I was slightly panicking about the impending beginning of a new decade, thinking I’ve done nothing with my life so far, regretting imaginary and real decisions I respectively imagined and actually made; wondering, “what the fuck next?” The truth is, the past ten years were fruitful, interesting, invigorating, and…

The first sex scene

I mainly write YA fiction, which means my nun’s brain thinks I shouldn’t include sex because parents will be horrified and get all protective of their precious teens who have definitely NEVER heard of or had sex even though they aren’t 12 anymore. #People #LOL Moving on, for NaNoWriMo 2019, I decided to write NA…

I WON NANO, AND IT’S INSANE! (Bonus track: sneaky advice)

GUYS! I WON NANOWRIMO AGAIN! (Here’s where I say I cried and all that but, to be honest, it went like a breeze this year, so I won’t lie: it was fun!) I don’t know what changed. Maybe the fact that I wasn’t doing loads of worldbuilding because this is a contemporary book? Whatever it…

I can write, but I can’t edit

We’re past half November, which means 30th November is LOOMING, PEOPLE, LOOMING. In what I’m sure has now become tradition, I’m doing NaNoWriMo. Surprisingly, the time of the year when I’m able to write first drafts. Unsurprisingly, always under severe pressure. Except this NaNoWriMo is going remarkably well, and this book is happening. While I…

How is it October already?!

Guys, it is October. The fucking year basically ENDED. In 2019 I was going to: Query my YA sci-fi book. The one I’m still editing because it is 9k words too long, yay! Finish my 2018 NaNo WIP—with which I’m probably only halfway through because it needed a lot of “pre-editing to make ANY SENSE,…

When we visit other worlds

In reality. And in books. I just returned from my first trip to the US. The biggest surprise was how different the culture is when you are there, in comparison with the image you might have from movies, music, and other cultural products. All in all, it was fun, exciting, slightly surprising, and revealing. I…

I, somehow, won NaNoWriMo

Somehow (aka by working my ass off and producing words like a f-cking robot), I wrote a 1st draft of 50,209 words in 29 days (and nights, yay! ¬_¬). AND IT FEELS SO FINE!? I’m actually proud of myself! THIS IS GOOD, GUYS! A new book drafted before the end of 2018! WIN! CHEERS! For…

NaNo Lessons, Part 1

Deep in my heart, I always wanted to write fantasy. But I thought I couldn’t pull it off (for a variety of reasons, including: a) flowery prose isn’t my jam, and b) I used to believe I would need the grandiloquence of a 19th-century poet to write a fantasy book). Turns out, I was wrong….