NaNoWrimo 2014 Winner!

Today from 11am-2pm I worked solely on my NaNoWriMo novel and finished it. I cannot believe it, but I've finally finished my fourth book, Bloodline Inheritance. It is complete at 54k words, which is very short for my books. Now that it is finished I plan to start on revisions right away and add much more to the book. Since a lot of the chapters were handwritten I did not realize how short some chapters were compared to others. With revisions I am certain I can add on another 25-30k more words. The main point is that I have the entire skeleton of the book written down.

After writing three books I did not know what to expect from my fourth. As I shared earlier this month, Bloodline Inheritance is told from Dyanna's POV. So once again I was working with a new story and a new narrator. Honestly the hardest part about this book was deciding where I wanted it to go. I spent a lot of time looking at art work and finding inspiration. When I first started writing I had no idea how I wanted the book to end. Now I do have an ending, though I will most likely rewrite it during revisions. 

Quote directly from the book!

Now as for how I wrote for NaNo this year... Well that was interesting. I really kept myself writing no matter what. If I didn't have my laptop I would handwrite chapters. At night I usually typed up chapters on my iPad (using Werdsmith) if I did not feel like using my laptop. The only problem I had with having such a variety of ways to write was that sometimes my chapters were split in parts. When I went to type up chapter 11 for instance I found 3 parts of it: one in my journal, one in Google docs, and one in a different journal. Next year I definitely do not want to run into this problem again because it ended up as more work for me. Handwriting chapters might not be as efficient as typing, but it actually was very efficient against writer's block. I find writing in a journal is less intimidating than staring at a blank computer screen.

Now that I've reached the end, what's next? Well, I have a lot of work ahead of me in regards to this book. I want to work on revisions and add in a lot of new scenes. It also needs to go through editing stages. This book will still not release until 2015, but I'm hoping now that I have the skeleton finished the entire book will be ready for publication by early 2015. November has been such a busy month for me, but I'm glad I was able to dedicate the time to finish the first draft of the book. Also I am excited that once December 1st comes around I can receive two free copies of my book from Createspace. This will be great to use as proofs before I actually need to order proofs of the final draft. Once this book is released for publication then I can start thinking about my next project (that won't be part of the Magicians series). 

Overall, I am very happy with my choice to participate in Nano this year. I updated my Twitter and Instagram throughout the weeks with my progress. It definitely was not easy, but I am glad I did it and am farther than when I first started out. While revisions might not be as exciting as writing the book, I will be updating my social media with my progress. Perhaps I will even share teasers of any new scenes I add in. 

Last but not least, I hope everyone enjoys the Thanksgiving holiday. I am thankful for my boyfriend, our home, and my readers. I doubt I will post tomorrow because of the holiday, but on Friday I am considering a special giveaway in honor of Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Be sure to leave a comment below with what you are grateful for, and also tell me about your Nano project if you participated this year. 

Lindsey R. Sablowski