To be fair, my plan was pretty ambitious. Two months to write a draft? One month to revise it, and one month to beta read it? Oh, my sweet summer child.

Maybe when I’m a bit more experienced, a timeline like that will be more realistic. Or maybe it will never be. Who knows? Writing is hard, y’all, and from what I can tell, it doesn’t get any easier the more books you pen.

But that’s okay, because I have a shiny, brand-new plan!

My New Plan

1. Finish my revisions and synopsis by September 25.
2. Submit materials to the agents/editor who asked for them at the Writer’s Digest Conference back in August. (More on that in a bit!)
3. Apply to be a mentee in PitchWars.
4. Work on my Twitter pitch so I can pitch during PitMad on December 5. (Unfortunately my manuscript wasn’t ready to participate on my birthday like I’d hoped… ToT)
5. Start cold querying agents.
6. Write. Another. Book.

Ideally I’d like to write one book a year, which I think is definitely realistic considering my current work-in-progress took me about that long. I’m also considering writing a short story a month, starting in October.

Writer’s Digest Conference 2019

This was my first writing conference ever, and ohmigosh it was fantastic. Incredible. Amazing, even.

I got to see one of my favorite authors, N.K. Jemisin, speak. (If you haven’t read any of her books, what are you still reading this for? GO. GO READ HER BOOKS.)

I pitched my book to three agents and an editor. One wanted the first 50 pages. One wanted the full. The other two asked me to email them and they’d request pages. Now, chances of me getting an offer of representation from one of the agents is low (because hardly anyone ever gets an offer on their first try), but that isn’t the goal. Okay, it kind of is, but ultimately I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. That my book isn’t as crappy as I sometimes think it is. That people other than me or my family or friends would be interested in reading it. And I accomplished that, so high five me.

Most importantly, though, I met my people. That was the major reason I decided to attend a conference, because I need more writers around me. People who can be my critique partners, my support network, my cheerleaders–and people for whom I can be all that in return. Community like this is invaluable to me in my translation career, and I knew I needed it if I was ever going to be serious about writing. And now I have it, and I’m so excited to see where we all go from here.