Blog Chain: Greatest Accomplishment

This round was started by Michelle Hickman. She asked:

This is the month in creating writing goals and making big accomplishments. What is your greatest accomplishment -- in writing, your life or perhaps something incidental that had a big effect on you?

I'd like to say I've accomplished a lot over the years, but my life seems to be filled with many, many half-finished projects and ideas that probably could've gone somewhere if I hadn't gotten bored with them. At one point, I thought maybe my kids were an accomplishment, but truthfully, they're really only halfway to adulthood. Not that I'm giving up on them, not at all, but most of the time, I think the accomplishment belongs to them, for surviving another day with me as their nutso mother. ;)

Two years ago I probably would've said my greatest accomplishment was that I'd written a novel, start to finish. And I could've stopped there, patted myself on the back, and congratulated myself on actually finishing something. But now I know it wasn't really finished, and I think deep down I knew it then too. My subconscious just knew better than to make me aware of that fact because it probably would've stopped me from moving forward. I mean, a year to rewrite the entire thing from scratch and then another nine months to do it again? Talk about daunting.

So, at this point, I'll say my greatest writerly accomplishment is sticking with that story until it was as good as I could make it, despite HATING it at least 50% of the time I was working on it. Now I just have to muster the courage to query the thing. I know I said I sent a query out a couple of weeks ago (and I did), but that one doesn't really count since it came with a safety net. It's those this is your ONE chance to impress me queries that keep stalling me. Maybe that'll be my actual greatest accomplishment: hitting send on an email. ;)

What about you? What is your greatest accomplishment, writing or otherwise?

Be sure to check out Jon's post from Tuesday and Amparo's post tomorrow. :)

The Hunger Games!!!

Can't wait! :)

NaNo... Out... Mo?

I'm sure all of you are aware that NaNoWriMo starts today. I thought about participating, but I just can't write that fast. I'm too much of a perfectionist. Yes, I realize getting over perfectionism is a really good reason to do NaNoWriMo, but I think it would be counterproductive for me. I tried it once, for a week and a half, and I wrote a lot (around 18,000 words). But I got so burnt out, I couldn't write anything for like a month. So, yeah, not happening.

I'm a pantser through and through, but I think I might be able to outline successfully if I really dedicate myself. So that's what I'm gonna do. I've had a story bouncing around in my head for several months now as I've been wrapping up the last round of rewrites on Embrol. And now that I'm querying Embrol--first query goes out today (yikes!)--Descent can finally have my undivided attention. Poor Descent. So neglected. ;)

Armed with my shiny new copy of Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success by K. M. Weiland, my goal is to have my whole story completely mapped out by the end of November. And the number one rule is NO WRITING. This will be hard so for me. Every time I try to outline I only make it through three or four chapters before I just want to get going on it already and then it's bye-bye outline and hello 7000 rewrites. :(

So, who's with me? Any pantsers out there who want to join me? Maybe we can form a support group. ;)

Good luck to everyone doing NaNo!