Milestones: The "HOLY CRAP I WROTE A NOVEL" Edition

On Saturday afternoon, January26, 2013, at approximately 3:45 in the afternoon, I completed my very first novel.




I asked for real Champagne and a chocolate fountain, too, but I didn't get them.

Allow me to be forthcoming when I say that, while the bare bones of the novel are finished, there is still a ton of editing to be done. So, I'm not headed to the presses just yet. 

However, I have, in my possession, two-hundred and seventy-four pages that are MINE, ALL MINE.

The smell of new paper, fresh ink, and potential rejection is a heady elixir, my friends.

Now comes the time of nit-picking, of finding all the missed commas and typos, of fixing timeline issues and capitalizing the word "Twitter" eleventy-hundred times. Now is the time of rewording wordy sentences and reworking flawed characters. It is the time of red ink and highlighters. 

(It may just be my favorite part.)

Let me back pedal and tell you a little bit about this book. I started writing it in November of 2011, in association with my first NaNoWriMo experience. For about twenty-five days, I pounded out a little over 60,000 words. And as it turned out, it was a story I was totally in love with.  However, with the sudden death of my grandfather, along with the holidays and other life events, the novel got shoved into a tiny corner on my hard drive, and I didn't look at it again until November of 2012. That's when I picked up where I'd left off, and pounded out another 50,000 words for NaNo 2012.

By the time the dust had cleared, I had about three-fourths of a completed novel, a clear direction, a main character I totally identified with, and her heart throb--a character based on Donnie Wahlberg.

Put your eyebrows away. You know you aren't surprised.

In case you're curious, here's a little synopsis about the book I'm calling "#TheContest."

Lena went to all the right schools, followed all the right paths, and shook all the right hands. And yet, 8 years out of New York University, she still finds herself in a dead-end job, working out of a tiny cubicle, with nothing to look forward in her immediate future. The only thing that gets her through each soul-sucking, boring day is her infatuation with The Beantown Boys, the popular boy band from her childhood. 

She's been in love with Derrick Walsh, the band's "bad boy," since she was 10 years old. Her childhood was spent writing love letters to the fan club, in hopes that somehow, her celebrity crush would read the words she wrote to him, so earnestly, in purple crayon. With the invention of social media--Twitter especially--Lena found a whole new way to connect with her favorite group. And in the past few weeks, the band has been hinting at some major announcement. Their biggest fans--Lena and her best friend, Greg, included--are all a flutter. 

Lena never suspects, on a random Tuesday in November, that her life is about to take a rapid turn from cubicles and coffee runs to road trips and potential romance. And it all boils down to one Twitter contest, a girl's undying love for a boy, and the opportunity of a lifetime. 

That's the general idea of the book. A jacket-cover insert, if you will.

So, if we're keeping score here, I have a completed first draft, a title, a jacket cover insert, and a dedication page (already written but not to be shared here.) So, if I'm doing my math correctly, all that leaves is finding a publisher.

Ahem.

It's not purple crayon, but it's still a love letter, readers. I swear.

Someone Please Inspire Me

I've been totally uninspired lately.

I was so uninspired I couldn't even whip out the real camera for a decent photo.
Sorry, readers...it's a fuzzy cell phone photo for you. :(

Ok, wait...let me backpedal a bit and rephrase. Because that's not 100% true. I've been inspired to write, just not to write blogs. Which is good and bad, all at the same time. I mentioned last time that I've decided to turn my focus toward writing a novel. And I've put a lot of time into it over the past few days.

(Which, let's face it, is totally awesomesauce. Right? RIGHT??)

I get SO EXCITED every day to sit down and start writing that, by the time I look up, six hours have flown by, I haven't eaten anything, and my coffee cup is sitting in front of me, empty and sad. It's wonderful and exhausting and exhilarating and draining and wonderful...wait, did I already say wonderful? Well it is, so I'll say it twice.

But the truth is, by the time I've spent a few hours writing my book, I feel like my creativity gas tank is a little low.

I'll click over to my blog dashboard with every intention to write for Abby Gabs. And inevitably, smoke starts pouring out of my ears because my brain is over-heating. (Didja like that continuation of the car metaphor? Huh, didja??)

I had planned on getting up this morning and writing my blog before I did anything else, confidant that while I slept I would have some brilliant idea that would turn into the Blog of the Century.

That totally didn't happen.

So I turned to the innerwebs instead.

You guys rallied. I got some great blog ideas. Robbie K from Fractured Family Tales came in first with the idea to write about all the things I hate about fall. I really spent some time marinating over that idea---you all know how much I love list blogs---but the truth is, there aren't very many things I hate about fall. Except how EVERYTHING is pumpkin flavored (right Robbie?) I'll take a pumpkin spice latte all the live long day, but you can hold the pumpkin flavored bubble gum, thanks.

Alex from Late Enough shared a unique idea of "my day in pictures." Which is a totally awesome idea!!!...if I lead an exciting life. Truth is, I'm usually by myself, so you'd just be getting pictures of me and my cats doing a whole lot of household chores. That's not very exciting, so you'll just get a few drive-by photos instead. 

(A few other ideas by a couple of my favorite readers (Jessie and Rachel) have been filed away for a later date. Thanks guys!! If nothing else, I've got some awesome blogs ready for next week!) (I couldn't remember the grammar rule about parentheses inside of parentheses. It's legal in math, though, so I'm going with it here.)

As if it isn't bad enough that I could not, for the life of me, think of any blog topics this week, I also had to take my fuzzy brain on a pumpkin carving adventure last night. Great way to tell your brain is overcooked-----sit around and watch all your cool and creative friends come up with nifty jack-o-lanterns while you drool on yourself and swat at imaginary gnats.

Seriously. I couldn't come up with a single idea.

Thirty minutes into the process and my pumpkin still sat in front of me un-carved. That's when I had the most brilliant idea ever. I can't think of a single idea for my pumpkin, and I decide to try and jump-start my creativity with a little liquid encouragement.

It worked. Sort of. I wound up aborting the whole stencil thing and free-handed a pumpkin that said "Trick or Treat." Friend and teammate, Steven, did one that read "Smell My Feet." They were AWESOME. (Except after carving, the "e" in "Treat" sort of broke, and so mine looked like it said "Trick or Truck." Which is basically the same thing.)

Arielle is credited with the cute monkey face. Fred did the Clemson tiger paw. And if you didn't know by looking that Brian did the Autobot symbol, then you've not been paying much attention.

Wine + friends + a brain dead Abby = awesome Halloween pumpkins. 

Oh. Wait. I just figured out what's missing from my blog brainstorming. Gourds!