Welcome back to “Margaret rambles about writing and nobody knows what she’s talking about”!
Last time I gave a writing update, I was finishing off my NaNoWriMo WIP, which I managed to do in January. After that, I spent February alternating between taking a break and researching for my new WIP, which is what I’m going to be talking about today.
Introducing my new WIP
The book I’m currently writing is….[insert title here]!
Yeah, I don’t have a title. Titles are hard! How do people even come up with those things?
I’m thinking of this as How To Train Your Dragon meets upper YA/NA coming-of-age contemporary (think: Alice Oseman) (wow it feels so presumptuous to compare myself to Alice Oseman).
Anyway, I’ve been writing this thing since the beginning of March and I’m currently at 17k words. Not quite as far as I’d like, but hey, it’s progress!
For the first few weeks, I was just writing ahead doggedly, until I got to a point that I realized that I didn’t really know my plot or characters? So right now I’m taking a break from actually writing to figure those things out. I’m especially focusing on characters, since they’re such a central part of this book. My character document is ten pages long. Yikes.
Despite these setbacks, I’m still unbelievably excited to be writing this book. It feels like something I’ve been wanting to write for a long time without realizing it, and the further I go, the more I love it, despite all the frustration. Right now it isn’t where I want it to be, but I feel like I can see that end point and I want to get there so badly.
Here are some things that this book includes: dragons! sports??? secret societies. a group of people who reluctantly become friends. fame. dragons. snowy mountains. college-aged characters who aren’t in college! also college-aged characters who are in college. did I mention dragons???
And now I’ll introduce my main characters through John Mulaney quotes, because that’s a normal thing to do.
Cece, aka “everything is fine 🙃🙃🙃“:
Devya, aka Fight Me™:
Joss, aka “emotions? never heard of them”:
Eli, aka “drink respect women juice, it’ll quench ya”:
Noah, aka The Dad Friend, aka “how did I become responsible for all these idiots”:
I love all of them so much!!!
First quarter writing goals check-in
This year I’m dividing my writing goals into quarters, which means I had some goals for January through March. I talked all about them in my last writing update. Let’s see how I did.
1. Finish my current WIP
This was referring to my NaNoWriMo WIP, which I finished in January, coming out at 85k words!
2. Start outlining and researching for next WIP
Check! I not only researched and outlined, I started writing!
3. Make a plan for revision
This is one that I didn’t complete, because I’ve decided to put my NaNoWriMo WIP on the back burner for the time being. I’m still figuring out what direction I even want it to go in, so I’m letting it simmer for a while.
Second quarter writing goals
Now to make some goals for April through June!
1. Participate in Camp NaNoWriMo
For the month of April, I’ll be joining in with Camp NaNoWriMo! This is basically a less formal version of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where you choose your own word count goal instead of aiming for 50,000. I haven’t decided what my own goal will be, and I haven’t even signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo yet, but I’m gonna do it!
2. Finish THIS current WIP
I want to have a completed draft of this dragon WIP by the end of June! Big goals, since there’s a lot to do still, but I believe in myself.
Writing music:
- Nobody by Mitski (all of these characters are super lonely lmao)
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- “And I don’t want your pity, I just want somebody near me. Guess I’m a coward, I just want to feel alright”
- What’s Up by 4 Non Blondes (it just fits the vibe of this book so perfectly and I can’t explain it!!!)
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- “And so I cry sometimes when I’m lying in bed just to get it all out, what’s in my head. And I, I am feeling a little peculiar”
- the soundtrack from How to Train Your Dragon (how better to get into the mood of riding dragons???)
Is anyone else doing Camp NaNoWriMo in April? What are your writing goals for this year? What John Mulaney quote would you use to describe yourself??
x Margaret
Dragons?? Secret societies?? Dragons!! I’m already so excited for you! 💕 (But also a little jealous because I’ve been working on my WIP since October and I think it’s only 16,000 words, haha!) And titles are really hard to come up with, because even when you /do/ find one, what if you don’t like it later on and you have to change it? So many decisions!
But seriously, how do you do it? Everything seems so put together for you! I would probably, quite literally, collapse if I tried to do Camp NaNoWriMo! I’m so proud of you for being so motivated!
I’m excited to hear more about this WIP as you progress! I already love your characters! And I don’t know much about the story, but I can tell you right now that I would definitely read it! 😊
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Ahhh thanks so much! I’m super excited too and I’m glad that these random tidbits were enough to get you excited as well! 😀 Titles are the bane of my existence, but I’m not gonna worry about that quite yet 😬
I think it’s totally fine that you’ve been slower getting your word count up! Everybody has different ways of writing, and for me, getting it all out quickly at once is my best method. It also helps that I don’t have much going on in my life at the moment haha. So fitting in Camp NaNo won’t be too difficult in my busy, busy schedule. 😉
Thanks so much for your excitement, and good luck with your own writing too!! ❤
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I think you will produce something great because I can feel your enthusiasm. I wish you all the best with it!
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That’s so kind of you to say! Thank you! 😀
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First of all, I love the sound of your WIP! There seriously aren’t enough books about people who are college-aged, whether in college or not. It’s such a formative time and I just…as someone who’s barely still a 20-something, I love 20-somethings and I want to hug all of them and tell them it’ll be okay (which is pretty much what my WIP is about tnh)
Secondly, I love your idea of having quarterly writing goals instead of month by month. I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself and expect more than I’m capable of. Plus, I am always in a state of writing panic: I don’t know what to write next, what to revise, what to set on fire…basically, I’m a mess. But I think I may adopt your idea of quarterly writing goals and see what comes of it!
Happy writing (and reading)!
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Thanks so much! I agree that there aren’t nearly enough college aged characters, which is a shame! Good for us for filling in that gap of 20-somethings 😉
And quarterly writing goals have been a great way, as least for me, to set reasonable goals and actually meet them! I highly recommend it!
Happy writing to you as well! ❤
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I love your writing updates! 💕 Your WIP definitely sounds amazing to me, I’m always excited for some more dragons and secret societies + friendship are other buzzwords for me 😍 I loove that you did your characters as John Mulaney quotes, that was fun 😄 Good luck with Camp NaNo! I will be participating as well and focus on revision! 😊
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Thanks so much!! I’m super excited for this one 😀 And finding those John Mulaney quotes was so fun! Good luck with Camp NaNo to you as well!!
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Thank you!! 💕
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Hello Margaret!!!
Wow that is awesome that you’ve written 17K words of your new WIP already!! It already sounds intriguing from your short description here, and I can’t wait to hear more about it!! I LOVE the GIFs you chose to describe your characters hahahaha 🙂 They seem like a fun bunch.
Looking forward to Camp Nanowrimo ❤ 😀
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Thanks so much, Sophie! I’m glad you found my character descriptions entertaining 😂 Good luck in the final days before Camp NaNo!!
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Thank you!!! I have lots of planning to do before April 1 so hopefully I will be ready for camp haha. Happy writing to you too!!!
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