October is here, a month full of weird lattes served at Starbucks, all the memes associated with “spook season,” and the undeniable approach of Nanowrimo. Last year, I spent the entirety of November writing 52,000 words of a story I didn’t know much about and, at the end of it, the only big things I learned were 1) I am in desperate need of some varied sentence structure, and 2) I NEED AN OUTLINE. Pantsing in itself sounds fun—just jump into a beautiful story with reckless abandon. So while I had an idea and a beginning, I didn’t quite understand the concept of having an end point. That was a huge mistake on my part.

I spent the former part of this year working slowly on the rough draft I had made, hoping to root out the logistic problems and become a better writer in the process. While I was able to solve a few problems (and am sure that didn’t hurt my future skills), a month ago, I decided to let the project take a nap for a little while.

So…what have I been working on, you ask?

Meet Project Cocoon.

This story is still Young Adult, still fantasy, still has plenty of power-driven and fantastical elements, but it is new characters, new situations, and a whole lot of fun.

The thing about my previous project (officially dubbed Project Fetus), is that I had a really beautiful idea for the ending…of the third book. Once I mentioned this to a friend, she quickly sent this quote to me:

“One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time…give it, give it all, give it now.”  -Annie Dillard

At the time, I thought it was a sweet sentiment (and distantly understood it is something I want to live by), but I wasn’t ready. I had my mind set on one scene and it HAD to come after EVERYTHING ELSE. You see my downfall.

In all honesty, that was the only truly fun moment I had—the only point in my book where I got excited and happy and couldn’t wait to write. Because of this, I quickly got bored. The story lacked plot, motivation, high stakes, funny situations, loving characters, all of it. There was nothing I liked, so editing became a real mother.

All I wanted was to crave writing—to breath through it.

All I want is to keel over a laptop, brows furrowed deep in thought, imagination clawing and dragging me under the waves like a rip tide, fingers bleeding in perfect harmony with my stories.

Their stories.

One of my favorite books ever happens to be a children’s book, and a quote from it happens to be on the Welcome Page of this website:

“Every story has it’s upsets.”

I’ve gone through plenty of upsets, I’m going through another right now.

 

 

I’m ready for the next one.

 

 

“And all the books agreed.” -William Joyce, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr.Morris         Lessmore

-Alexandra

 

 

 

CLICK TO WATCH SOME THINGS I’M DOING TO PREP FOR NANOWRIMO 2018!