Well, when I last left off, I had just finished Draft 3 sometime during August. As you can see, it's now late November, and I have spent the last couple of months decidedly NOT writing. There are a few reasons for this. I spent the first ten weeks of the school year (until the end of October) as a full-time, permanent substitute teaching eleventh grade history classes. I absolutely loved it, but goodness, it left me with no energy for writing, that's for sure! It was such an incredible experience, and it was very difficult for me to hand the classes back over to the actual teacher, even if she is incredible.
In addition, in my free time (especially since subbing is now less demanding), I have been doing what I like to call "research" about my genre. Truthfully, though, "research" is code for sitting on my butt, snuggling with my puppies, and reading 20+ books in just a couple of months, most of which I have really, really enjoyed. The Covenant Series, Under the Never Sky, The Scourge, the Mindjack Series, the Divergent Series, The Frost Chronicles, Haven... so many exceptional books. And my favorite part about them? They're stories that keep getting bigger and deeper and more dimensional. There are sequels and prequels and novellas... and they feed in to my absolute love for epic series. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, The Chronicles of Narnia - just the tip of the iceburg. I'd recommend any of the titles above to anyone.
But now back to the biggest reason why I haven't done much writing lately: I've been waiting on beta reader responses. Okay, so really only one or two in particular. And the verdict? It was pretty much what I expected. It wasn't terrible, but some key issues were picked up on. Things like backstory, believable teenaged dialogue, and more character depth are the biggest problems pointed out to me. I know how to fix the problems with backstory - I had initially had more in the book than I do now, but I took some of it out for fear that it would bore the reader. I just need to drop details into conversations. There's also a bit of a romance in the story that needed a little work - also doable. As for the dialogue, I can change some aspects, but due to circumstances, my characters really wouldn't know many coloquialisms. Therein lies the struggle. I'll figure it out, I'm sure.
Anyways, my goal has been and still is to have the final draft completed before Christmas which gives me one month to the day. This shouldn't be a problem depending on how nit-picky I get, and I plan on getting very nit-picky. That will give me a couple of weeks at the beginning of the year to let it sit again and then give it a final read-through to check grammar, spelling, flow, etc. I hope to have some queries sent out by February. That will be exactly one year from when I completed the first draft. I guess we'll see!
Completing the fourth draft and getting it queried is just one of a few different life-changing goals that I have planned for 2013. One of the biggest (at least to me at this point) is a potential mission trip to Cambodia. Human trafficking in that country has been weighing very heavily on my heart for the past several years, and I would like to do something about it. I know that I can't go in and physically save these girls, but I can try to share hope with them through Christ. I don't know if the trip will actually happen - it's something I'm praying over and about which I'm asking for guidance. I just can't ignore the tug on my heart anymore. I guess some might refer to this as a "calling," so I'm trying to be obedient and patient. Anyways, I'll keep you updated on any extra developments. Hopefully I should have some news on the book and on Cambodia by the next time you hear from me. :-)
