Nano over...what comes next?

Ah, so I reached 50K last night but my internet was not working so I couldn't post until today. Though 50K is an exceptional number of words, I feel like I could have done better considering my past word counts. Over the summer I wrote a 96K book in a month. Then again, over the summer I had more free time and less priorities.

I'm putting the novel on hold this week, even though I only have 15k left (approximately). Grad school applications aren't due for a month, but my goal is to submit by the end of this week so I can relax over the holidays. So every night this week I'll be re-reading my stories and editing/revising my statement of purpose. I'm super nervous to submit. I want to feel like I've submitted my best work and feel confident that 1 of these 4 schools will appreciate what I have to offer and accept me. After being rejected from 8 schools last year, I know I have to step it up a notch. I have to prove myself a writer. I know I have the dedication and talent to pursue a career in writing. I just have to prove it to a group of professors.

The statement of purpose is killing me. My goals are clear, it's just my beginning that is so mundane. Right now I have a few sentences about how I learned to read by typing storybooks into the computer. I feel like it's so cliche. I'm considering this instead:

If I did not write, I'd never shut-up because I have so much to say.

Statements are tricky. You want yours to stand out without being unprofessional.

But besides Grad school...my playreading is next week! Yay. I hope for good feedback. And I'm reading Catching Fire (sequel to Hunger Games). Love it so far, but I've heard it's not as thrilling as Hunger Games.

And that concludes my latest blog posting. December, here I come! Ho ho ho!

Nano

I'm about to hit 25K....I heart nano month! And this'll probably be my last post until December 1st, so good luck to everyone doing nano! Keep going. You're almost half way there. :-)

A piece of advice...

If someone tells you after hearing a brief synopsis of your book: "Oh, your book sounds a lot like ________" just ignore them. Because if you think about it for too long, any creative idea you sprout you'll panic thinking you're copying someone else. Originality isn't solely about coming up with a completely new idea. Originality can also be achieved by taking an old idea and making something new out of it. For example, Twilight (though I'm not a huge fan of series but I admire its market) took vampires and made them sparkle in the sun rather than burn. That's original. Vampires are not. But what you can do with them is.

Especially for Young Adult and Middle School levels, you have to consider that many kids like to read books that will remind them of other books they like. How many times have you seen on a book cover or review: "Fans of Harry Potter will love this book!" or "If you loved Edward Cullen, you'll love Bobby Dumble even more!"

So don't write with the idea that you need to be completely original, otherwise you might end writing something that nobody understands or can relate to. At the same time, don't base what you write on what's hot either cause vampires might be dead in three years, no pun intended ;-) Write what you WANT to write. And your end product will be better. And if it is similiar to another book, there are always ways to tweak a book to make it stand out. PS, the person critiquing your book should read it first before saying whether it's too much like another book.

The reason I'm writing all this is because I am in love with my new project and while the idea of a bullied kid going off on the adventure of his life has been done before, it hasn't been done by N. Blank who has her own way with words and her own ideas of what a real adventure is.

Nano word count: 4,361 words
Goal for today: 6,000+ words
Goal for the week: 12,000+ words