D-3

Three days until the Inkpop editorial board receives Conduit for review!

Excited? Definitely. Nervous? Very much so, especially given the small window of time I have to finish my first round of editing. And through editing and rereading the book a couple of times, I've come to realize that it's far from perfect. So in a way, I can't wait for feedback from professionals but at the same time, I wonder if things might have been better if I had more time, given that I finished the book only a month ago. Not that I would change this for anything; opportunities like this rarely come twice.

I can't take any credit for it though. As sappy as it sounds, I owe it all to the wonderful people on Wattpad and Inkpop, who have been more supportive than I deserve. I don't think Conduit would have been what it is today, if they hadn't always encouraged me to do my best on every weekly update of the story. It was a very inspirational thing.

I also believe that a huge part of Conduit's success is because of Emy Papasideris, who has become a close friend over the past seven months or so. I think it was around July of 2011 when I was uncertain of Conduit's potential and felt guilty about abandoning my other projects, that she encouraged me to follow my writer's heart and do what I wanted to do. It helped me to set aside my concerns and just focus on writing the story without worrying about other issues. So thank you, Emy, if you're reading this!

I've gotten Conduit down to 137k from 149k, just by eliminating the unnecessary explanations (R.U.E: Resist the urge to explain) and simplifying sentences. I also got through half a chapter of Aspect before realizing I didn't like the way it started. But I love the outline of the beginning, as well as the events planned for the book as a whole.

Clocks and Cliches

I have this obsession with the hour 11:11, which is what it is right now as I write this blog post. For whatever reason, my brain is programmed to glance at the clock either exactly at that time or minutes before it--the latter of which leads to me keep an eye on the clock until the infernal hour and minute, thus releasing me from whatever compulsion that had taken ahold of me. I actually googled this a while ago and it turns out I might not be the only one. If I ever plan to belong to a cult, I think that might be my best angle. "The Eleveners" is what we'll call ourselves.

In news related to my writing, I edited the beginning of my book to make it less abrupt and ended up right in cliche territory with a waking-up-in-bed beginning. It seemed appropriate, what with Amisra, the protagonist, oversleeping and being late for her first mission as a newly appointed guardian. But the appropriateness isn't something I want to try to explain to agents that I query in the future, so I'm going to have to rethink that one.

Update: Rethinking has been completed--sort of. I'm still a bit unsure with my latest version, but it's a problem I'll come back to once I've taken on bigger things.

This is also the day that I have officially started writing Aspect, the sequel to Conduit. Coming up with the name was a little difficult; I cycled through so many before it finally clicked, all thanks to a close friend of mine. I was talking to her about it, and she told me to give her a description of the second book. As I described the changes Amisra had gone through in the first book, it suddenly hit me. "Aspect" defined those changes well, plus I really like the word. It's strong and mysterious. And maybe a bit surefooted. Okay, now I'm reading too much into it.

It's really strange to tell someone "I'm going to go write Aspect". In my mind, I'm still working on Conduit because, well, the sequel is still part of the Conduit world...I'm sure I'll get accustomed to saying it.