Writerly Lessons: What I Learned This Week

As I mentioned in my other blog post, I attended WriteOnCon for the first time this past week. I have also had a really eventful non-writerly week as life is taking off in full force the week before classes begin again. So I will be brief so that I can get some time in to actually write today. Stay tuned for the end for a special little announcement!

Lessons I Learned This Week:

• The online writing community is absolutely amazing.
• I might not be as terrible at critiquing as I thought. I was really happy that the people I offered critiques to at WriteOnCon were so receptive and found my thoughts to be helpful. Yay!
• My word count is too high for a YA novel.
• Buying a car is a tough decision to make on your own.
• I get way too bogged down in the backstory and world building, which can lead to some dry paragraphs that create a disconnect for the reader.
• My word count is too high for a YA author just starting out.
• I can take criticism a lot better than I gave myself credit for before. I had a Ninja Agent critique my query and they told me to scrap the whole thing and start over because it was jumbled and confusing. My reaction? Not to cry. Nope. I squeed. And then I started over.
• There is so much going on in the online writing community that I might not have the time to speak to a real live person again for months.
• My word count is too high.
• My cat's late night/early morning antics can counteract the effects of Ambien.
• People who don't know me actually liked my writing it seems. So I can stop telling my beta readers that they are biased because they know me or are related to me.
• I still hate queries almost as much as synopses. 
• I might self publish because my word count is too high for an agent to give me a good look. 
• I am never going to clear my Google Reader if I keep adding blogs at this rate.

Now for the announcement: I have decided to rework the entire beginning of my first book. Now, for those of you that haven't read it you are probably not having the same sort of visceral reaction as those who have. Give me a moment to address the ones who have and then we will get back to the really fun part of this announcement (for me, anyway!).

My prologue, while very informative, is still very encyclopedic. So I cut that drastically. And I am reordering the chapters as such: 1. Ariana, 2. Zelene, 3. Terrena, 4. Isauria, 5. Rhaya. I have my reasons, I swear. But it is mostly because Terrena's chapter is also very bogged down with world building and history. I think Ariana and Zelene serve as better draws, so I am going to lead with them. They sort of take center stage in this book anyway.

Now onto the fun part! I am going to post those reworked and reordered chapters here on my blog in the next week. I want your opinions on them. It's like one giant critiquing party online! And on the literary altar of ego-sacrifice? Me! What do you think? Intrigued by the idea? Bored? Still trying to figure how you got to this blog and why you are still reading it? (Yeah, me too.)

I'd like to end what was supposed to be a short blog by reiterating once again what an amazing online community of writers I have found. The support and help I have found with WriteOnCon and the AbsoluteWrite forums and just blogs in general is so overwhelming. I've made some really nice connections and maybe even gotten a few critique partners out of the con! I'm very excited to immerse myself into this community and can't wait to see what else it has to offer! Next up: Gearing Up To Get An Agent Blogfest!