The Learning Curve: A Guest Post by Kristen Strassel

I just reached THE END of my fourth book. It’s mind-boggling to think about.  Finishing this particular manuscript also closed the door on this series.  I’m actually mourning not being able to work with these characters anymore. They became such a huge part of my writing identity, as well as who I am, to not be able to live my writing life through their story is going to be just plain strange for a while. 

A writer friend of mine just nabbed an agent. While this isn’t his first book, this is the first one that just might get published.  Now he’s waiting anxiously for revisions. We chatted a bit about it last night, and I realized that the decision to publish really changed the way I wrote.

Once you want to make your book available for the world to love as much as you do, you really do have to let go. For many of us, representation means the first set of industry eyes that will look at our manuscript. I thought my first book, the one that I was offered representation on, was perfect when I got The Call. You can laugh, I’ll wait. Several rounds of revisions later, I learned how to write subsequent manuscripts tighter and more effectively. My later books haven’t needed as many revisions because of it. 

The book I just finished was the first one I started writing with the knowledge that it would be published. It intimidated the hell out of me. As I finished it, feedback started coming in on the first two books in the series. To hear how these characters effected people, and to know what they thought of the story, was extremely humbling even with good reviews. As much as we all say we write fiction, it’s hard to keep some autobiographical elements from sneaking in. I was much more aware of the rules I broke, and the how people might react to this new chapter of the story.  My main character had a major decision to make to close out the book. Would she do the right thing, the thing many readers might hate, or would she screw it all up? Were those all the same thing? I had to let my main character do what was best for her. 

In this series, many of my parameters were set by the first book. I already started working on a new book, and it’s exciting.  This new project already has all the benefits of the things I learned while writing this last series. No book is ever perfect, but thanks to books one through four, book five starts light years ahead of where I used to be. 

Want more of Kristen? You can check out her book, BECAUSE THE NIGHT, right over here and follow her on Twitter for extra awesome! 

**HAPPY HOLIDAYS, SECRET LIFERS!**

We're going on our annual holiday break, but no worries, we'll be back with more awesome than ever on January 6th. Have a great holiday, everyone!

Guest Post by Kristen Strassel: Standing on the Sidelines During NaNoWriMo

I didn’t Nano. But I still learned something standing on the sidelines.

Hi, everyone!  I’m Kristen and I’m stepping in for Andrea for a couple of posts.  This site offers such good, real, in the trenches advice and I hope you’ll all get something out of what I have to say! I’m currently writing my third book in a series, and I’m always amazed how no three books are ever alike. Even if I wrote all three of them.

Sometime around mid-October, I could feel the anticipation and anxiety level of my writing friends rise. It was time to hunker down and get ready for Nanowrimo.

I never had any intentions of participating. I was already ankle deep into my current manuscript. I was under the impression that all Nano projects had to be started from scratch, even though I did see a few authors use it to accelerate what they were working on. Plus, I know myself. As much as I fantasize about 50,000 words in a month, that’s what it is for me. A fantasy.  I edit a lot as I write, I need time to visualize my next scene. While I have a number I like to hit each time I sit down to write, I knew all those added up over the month of November would never equal 50,000.  

For me, I knew stressing over a number would make my writing suffer. But I decided to keep track of what I did for the month anyway, just to see how I stacked up.  I found out that numbers do matter. I still wanted to keep up with the Joneses. There were days I could have pushed off writing that I sat down and cranked out a couple thousand words.  So far this month, I’ve hit about 25,000. Having a monthly goal in addition to a daily goal for me did make a difference. 

So many people woke up in the middle of the night to write, worked tirelessly on their manuscripts on their days off, and made those words happen!  That’s amazing. But watching some of the extreme things writers did to get those words reminded me of a crash diet. Sure, they’ll get 50,000 words in November, but what’s going to happen in December? That’s a tough pace to keep up forever. Like dieting, everything in moderation works for me.  I know I can commit to 1500 to 2000 words a day, minimum. Life doesn’t let me write every day, but I have to write every day life lets me. 

During Nano, you are instructed to go forward and create words. Don’t look back. I saw one author won Nano while still calling a character “Name?” That gave me a panic attack!  Before I write a manuscript with new characters, I need to draw up a character profile. When I sit down each day to write, to get into the mood, I review my last session. These are things that work for me. I’m not willing to give them up and that’s okay. We’re all different. As long as each one of us eventually types “the end,” we’re all doing it right. 

I’m so impressed with everyone who’s hitting that 50,000 word mark.  Finishing anything you set out to do is a huge accomplishment.  Even if you don’t “win,” if you love your project and got anything out of National Novel Writing Month, you still “won” as far as I’m concerned. 

Want more of Kristen? You can check out her book, BECAUSE THE NIGHT, right over here and follow her on Twitter for extra awesome!