Writing With a Deadline

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon Amanda Hocking and I feel my life has changed. No, I'm not being facetious, I truly feel changed. A month ago I wasn't writing and I hadn't restarted querying. And I certainly wasn't rethinking the self-publishing route. I did that once, it cost me a lot, and I only sold about 125 books. And then I read Amanda's blog, which I realize is not the normal outcome from self-publishing, and I felt a jolt of inspiration. Maybe, just maybe I could consider self-publishing again. If I still don't get any positive responses from the remaining agents.

As the idea was forming I thought back to Summer At Nineteen, which is where my story begins. For years I've been tossing around the idea of doing a spinoff/sequel using Sam as the main character. I think we all know how annoyed I was with Kaylee by the end of Summer At Nineteen and there's no way I would write again from her perspective. Sorry Kaylee. So on Sunday I started writing. In three hours I had 15 pages and I felt pretty good. I have promised Head Cheerleader Molly that she will have a first draft by May 17th to take on her trip. That gives me a total of 26 days because I should get the manuscript to her on the 16th to print out. As of last night at 11pm I am up to 24 pages. Heyo! It's a start.

I had forgotten how obsessed I become when I'm really into a story. It wasn't that way with Summer At Nineteen, but I was 19 at the time and busy being a teenager. It was certainly that way with the story I am still querying, where I couldn't wait to write after work each night. However, yesterday I learned a hard lesson. I was nursing a Starbucks tall coffee between 3 and 5 pm. I figured it would help me keep on pointe when I got home. It did, certainly, but it also kept me awake until after 1 am. Laying in bed counting down the hours until you have to get up for work is awful and I do it too often. So no more coffee after... two. And maybe I better stick to caramel macchiatto's because those are diluted with a lot of milk.

Anyways, back to writing tonight. I've only got 23 days left!

Happy reading.
~Stephanie