projects

literary lighthouses: a writing update

Liesl Young18 Comments

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Quote, Unquote!

Nine weeks ago, I posted about my current writing project and progress. In that post, I outlined where I was at in the Author Conservatory, made a brief introduction to my novel, and said in a lot of words that I wasn’t sure if I was going to do NaNoWriMo this year. This week, I’m back to update you all!

I have one very exciting announcement to make…

I won NaNoWriMo for the second year in a row!

Yeah, funny story–I said that I didn’t think I was going to do NaNo, that going for quantity over quality probably wasn’t a good idea, and that I was too busy to really give it the time it needed…

Then wrote 53,000 words in 27 days.

My novel, Project Restore, is a story with a Hallmark-movie plot about a businesswoman named Eloise who reluctantly leaves her job in the city behind to fix up the lighthouse where she grew up–alongside her ex, Cal. Drama ensues. It’s full of coastal small town lighthouse vibes and a touch of second-chance romance, and I think it’s my favorite thing that I’ve ever written.

I went into an absolute trance while drafting this novel. I have no idea what happened to me. It was like my body was taken over by some novel-writing creature.

Just for fun (and because I’m a data gremlin), I’m going to share some stats from the month of November.

project restore drafting stats

  • 27 days drafting (begun November 1, finished November 27)
  • 53,166 total words
  • 1,969 average words per day
  • 33 total hours drafting
  • 28.3 average words per minute
  • wrote the most between 3 and 4 pm
  • drafted the most on November 20 with 3,562 words
  • 22 chapters

imperfection

While the first draft of Project Restore may be finished, the story is nowhere near done. It’s decidedly half-baked right now. In fact, it’s just bad. It’s about 20,000 words shorter than I wanted it to be, there are so many loose ends to tie up, the prose can be repetitive and, well, not great…

But while the story may not be done, the first draft is.

During the first few days of writing this draft, I was so worried about it having to be just right. Easy and fun to read, not too rambly, weaving in all the backstory perfectly, and so on and so forth.

And then around Chapter 4 I threw all that out the window.

At that point, I had decided that I was going to attempt NaNoWriMo. The whole nine yards, 50,000 words in 30 days. And if I was going to write 50,000 words in 30 days, I couldn’t worry about it being any good.

Drafting was such a struggle at first. I hated sitting down to write–it felt like the words were fighting against my fingers, resisting coming out onto the page. For the first few days, I dreaded my writing time with a passion.

As soon as I gave myself permission to be bad, I started to love writing my story. When I stopped worrying about making it all perfect, I fell in love with my setting, my characters, exploring their world and who they were.

In November, I wrote 53,166 messy, imperfect words. There will come a day when the words have to be slightly less messy, when I’ll have to wade through my murky doc and clean it up bit by bit.

But for now…it’s done.

learning to rest

Another thing I learned while drafting was the importance of rest. I wrote every single day. Rain or shine, work or no work, even if I had no time all day and I had to sit down at 10:30 at night to write–I wrote.

As you can imagine, it was a bit strenuous. There were some days when the words flowed and I wrote 1,000 words in 30 minutes. And then there were the days when I sat down for 40 minutes and I still couldn’t get 500 words on the page.

And I was okay with that. If I only wrote 480 words, that was still 480 words I didn’t have on my draft before. I did the best I could with the mental resources I had, and that’s what mattered.

I gave myself grace. I wanted to do at least 1,000 words on those days, but when they simply weren’t coming, I allowed myself to stop. I could have pushed myself harder. I could probably have done more.

But when I allowed myself to stop, to rest and recharge, I did more good to myself and my story than another 520 words could ever have done.

I didn’t always do a good job of giving myself grace. There were several times when my friends had to yell at me to put the draft down and go to bed or go touch grass. But when I actually did allow myself to rest instead of pushing through, it strengthened me more.

Funny, right? How we were created in God’s image, and even He rested after creating? That was something I definitely needed to hear over November.

where do I go now?

I felt a bit lost after I finished my draft. It was bumpy at first, but I grew to love spending time with my characters and the lighthouse. I felt like I could see them, standing in the surf, silhouetted by the setting sun.

It was a kind of small grief, finishing the story. I could no longer explore my characters, their minds, their worlds. But it comforts me to know that there’s much left to do on this draft. There’s always more to do.

I know that I haven’t shared much about this novel, but to celebrate, I’m going to leave you with a little snippet from the main character, Eloise:

This lighthouse is more trouble than it’s worth. It’s constantly dusty, always in danger, always needing some sort of upkeep. It’s cold and drafty and an absolute pain to keep operational. 

Yet it’s a part of me. I’ve climbed these hundred and thirty-four stairs more times than I can count. I’ve sat on the lantern room and watched the ships and the sea for hours and hours of my life. I’ve come here to cry and to celebrate and everything in between. I’ve poured my blood and sweat and tears into it.

As much as I hate to admit it, as much as I try to leave it behind, this lighthouse is my home. 

Chapter Thirteen

Thank you so much for reading! I appreciate your support more than you can ever know. It’s more than I ever dreamed of or hoped for.

I’ll see you next Wednesday!

let’s chat about my writing: updates, projects, NaNoWriMo

Liesl Young17 Comments

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Quote, Unquote!

I talk a lot about writing on my blog, but there’s one writing-related topic I don’t usually cover, and that’s what’s going on with my own writing. And with NaNoWriMo fast approaching, the time when I usually share what I’m working on, I wanted to give you a glimpse into what my writing life looks like.

Without further ado, let’s jump into the behind-the-scenes of yours truly!

the Author Conservatory

I joined the Author Conservatory four months ago almost to the day this post is coming out, on June 19. If you don’t know what the Conservatory is, it’s an amazing online college alternative-slash-apprenticeship for Christian authors. The three-year program teaches you not only the fundamentals of story structure and craft but also how to launch your own pop-up business and the skills to keep it running to equip you for later in your career as an author. You receive editorial, one-on-one feedback from industry professionals who really care about you as a person. It’s challenging, life-changing, and overall an incredible opportunity.

I have grown hugely since joining the Conservatory, not only in my writing but as a person. The support I have received from the instructors and peer community around me has been invaluable, and I’ve made more progress in my author journey in four months than I have in the last three years. I’m learning the fundamentals of story and why they’re important, the process of developing a novel, the functions of individual story beats, all about character arcs…it’s a lot, and I’m living for it.

If you’re wondering what I’m actually working on in the Conservatory, well…more on that later.

National Novel Writing Month

I’ve done National Novel Writing Month (known as NaNoWriMo or just NaNo) for three years in a row, finally winning the challenge to write 50,000 words in a month last year. Historically, I’ve shared about my NaNo project here on my blog every year with Christine Smith’s NaNo linkup, but things are a little different this year. I have decided not to put pressure on myself to attempt NaNo this year for several reasons.

The first is that I am just busy. I’m working part-time and doing my senior year of high school and my first year of what is essentially college on top of it. Not to mention, you know, trying to live life and help out at church and be there for my friends. I’m not complaining! I love everything I’ve been doing. But unfortunately, NaNo doesn’t really fit into that this year, and I haven’t tried to make it.

The second reason is that NaNo doesn’t slot neatly into my work in the Conservatory. I haven’t actually been given the go-ahead to begin drafting my first novel yet. Though it’s very close and I’m hoping that it will be ready within the next week or so, it could go longer than that, and I could only begin drafting halfway through November.

If the timing of drafting happens to fit with NaNo, I may try to complete the challenge anyway, just for kicks. I enjoy the fast-paced, frantic month of keyboards clicking, and I’m a little disappointed that I’ll be missing out this year.

But at the same time, I want to pull back a bit and really focus on honing my craft. My first Author Conservatory novel may not be the best time to go for quantity over quality. Whatever the case, I won’t be putting pressure on myself to finish the challenge if I do attempt it.

That was entirely too many words to say, “I may or may not be attempting the National Novel Writing Month challenge in the year of our Lord 2023.” Whatever the case, I’m excited to finally be drafting the novel that I’ve been working on since June.

what am I working on?

Here it is. The moment you’ve all been waiting eagerly for, I’m sure. (I hope. It’s nice when people have interest in your writing.)

While I don’t yet want to share all of the details of this project because I don’t know what its future will look like, I can tell you that its code name is Project Restore.

It features an uncannily Hallmark-movie plot, dark, stormy coastal Maine vibes, a sort-of second-chance romance, a broken-down lighthouse, a cozy small-town setting, and a main character who learns to love again. And, of course, chocolate chip cookies.

Right now, I’m in the final stages of outlining this project. As I mentioned before, I hope to be able to begin drafting soon.

This story has taken so many different forms. It’s been in my head as a vague aesthetic for a long time now, and I started developing it a bit more in May. The final concept looks absolutely nothing like the first one. I first developed the final concept in late June, so it’ll have been in progress for just about four months.

I love this story. It made me fall back in love with writing. Every minute I spend in it is a genuine joy, and every time I get to talk about and brainstorm it with others I get unreasonably excited. It’s probably my favorite project ever, and I love that I can share a little bit of it here.

final thoughts

I hope you’ve enjoyed getting a little insight into what I’m working on. I tend to keep my projects pretty close to my chest. While in some cases this is a good thing, I also want to practice being a little more open and letting people in.

If you’re a writer, what are you working on? Let me know in the comments!

Thank you so much for reading, and I’ll see you next Wednesday!

know the novel – part two: writing Project Runaway

Liesl Young14 Comments

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Quote, Unquote!

We are deep into NaNoWriMo by this point, and with that comes the second part of Christine Smith’s NaNo linkup!

I really don’t have much else to say that won’t spoil the answers to my questions, so I’m just going to hop right in. Let’s go!

1. how’s the writing going overall?

I’m pleased to announce that it’s going very well! I’m actually ahead of schedule due to my 10,000-word head start on the first day. I’ve been able to keep up my motivation thus far and I hope it continues. As of yesterday, I have 30,326 words on my draft!

2. what’s been the most fun aspect about writing this novel so far?

Chapter eleven. Not going to lie, I had more fun writing that chapter than I have basically the entire rest of the book. It’s just kind of a vibey chapter–the characters don’t really do much, per se, but it was so fun to write that I don’t really care.

3. what do you think of your characters at this point? who’s your favorite to write about?

Not gonna lie, they’re kind of bugging me. They are making some really poor choices in the way they treat themselves and others, and I wish I wasn’t in charge of them because it’s like herding cats. Gosh, is this what being a parent feels like?

My favorite to write about is Cady. She’s more innocent than Tessa, her best friend, and writing about her experiencing the real world for the first time is so fun. She’s a lot like me, too, so that makes it a little bit easier. Plus, I love her interactions with her siblings.

4. has your novel surprised you in any way?

Not too much. Since I did so much plotting–well, it wasn’t so much plotting, but it felt like it because up until now I’ve never plotted–nothing is really coming as a surprise to me. I’m right on schedule, my characters are doing everything I expected them to…all is well.

Now, of course, it’s all going to derail and I’m going to wish I had answered this question differently.

5. have you come across any problem areas?

I haven’t come across any in the actual story itself (haha…yet), but one of my biggest problem areas overall has been finding time to sit down and write. I ended up being way more busy on the weekends than I anticipated, so once it became clear that the schedule I had planned wasn’t going to work, I had to do some tweaking. Once I did that, though, everything’s been running rather smoothly.

That’s kind of concerning, actually. The novel is going…really well. Like, surprisingly well. I’m a little suspicious now. There’s gotta be something that jumps out at me and completely derails me.

6. what’s been your biggest victory with writing this novel at this point?

Genuinely just sitting down and hammering it out. I planned really well, and now the writing is going really well. I’ve been really good about writing every single day since November 1st, and I’m on track for finishing well before the 30th. I’ve never been this consistent with writing before, and I’ve definitely never written this much in this little time before. It really shows how much I’ve matured since I last attempted NaNo.

7. if you were transported into your novel and became any one of the characters, which one do you think you’d be? would you take any different actions than they have?

Like I said, Cady is a lot like me, so I’m pretty sure I would become her. She’s a worrier, she’s never really seen the world but wants to, she dreams big, and she is good at making plans. These are all things that I also embody, and I feel like we’d be good friends if she were real.

I would definitely take different actions than she has. There is no way I’d have the gall to book train tickets on a whim and run away to California with my best friend. The story wouldn’t even get past the inciting incident if I was Cady.

8. give us the first sentence or paragraph then 2 (or 3!) more favorite snippets!

Please don’t laugh at my unedited snippets.

The story starts from Cady’s perspective.

Dear Ms. de Smet,

We are pleased to admit you to the University of California, Los Angeles, class of 2024…

Cadence’s heart stopped. 

I got in.

The next one is from chapter five. It’s right before the first plot point.

“Let’s run away.”

It burst out of Cady’s mouth suddenly and spiraled through the air. She could almost see the moment it landed in Tessa’s mind, her eyes widening, mouth opening…. She didn’t know if she wanted to take it back or if it was the most brilliant idea she had ever had.

“That’s the most brilliant idea you’ve ever had,” Tessa breathed. “Let’s do it. What do we have to lose?”

And one last one, from chapter eight, where they take a detour in Chicago, Tessa’s old hometown:

Sometime in the afternoon, Tessa saw Cady pushing her phone deep into her pocket, looking annoyed. “What is it?” she asked.

“My parents keep calling me,” Cady explained. “Henry too. I feel kind of guilty for ignoring him.”

Tessa frowned as something struck her. “Can they track you?”

A sudden look of horror passed over Cady’s face. “Oh no. They can. They can see me on Find My. What do I do?” She began hyperventilating, panicking. “I’m going to compromise this whole thing. They’re going to find us.”

Tessa wanted to panic too, but one panicking party was bad enough, so she willed herself to calm down. “We have to get rid of your phone,” she said urgently. “How are we going to do that?”

“I don’t want to just leave it here,” Cady said. “But I don’t see what other option we have. I feel like we have to destroy it. Like…for good.”

“We could put it in the street and wait for someone to run over it,” Tessa suggested. 

“Or…” A slow, almost sinister smile spread across Cady’s face. “We could throw it in the river.”

Tessa grinned wildly. “Let’s do it. Come on.”

They were nearest to the Michigan Avenue Bridge. Within minutes, they had raced there. What are we doing? a tiny part of Tessa was screaming at her. But she ignored it and looked over the rail of the bridge.

Cady held the phone in both hands, staring at it. She laughed suddenly. “I feel like we need to have a funeral.”

Tessa made the sign of the cross over Cady’s phone with two fingers. “You have served us well,” she said solemnly, “but it is now your time to be committed to the sea.”

Cady giggled. “You will be missed,” she said, pretending to wipe away a tear. 

“Not by me,” Tessa said. 

Cady tossed the phone over the rail into the rushing river below, and they both watched as it disappeared. Cady stared at where it had sunk below the waves.

“You good?” Tessa asked her, worried that she was about to start panicking again. Maybe she regretted her decision.

Cady shrugged. “I feel like we’re littering. But if a sea turtle starts posting from my Instagram account, I guess it’ll be worth it.”

That last one was kinda long, but it’s one of my favorite scenes overall, so I decided to share it.

9. share an interesting tidbit about the writing process so far!

Well, I did change a character’s name entirely about two days before I started drafting. Meredith changed to Cadence, but I call her Cady most of the book. I felt like it fits her better. I’m still not entirely hooked on Tessa’s name, but until a better one comes to me, she’s staying Tessa.

I also finally caved and reactivated my Pinterest account so I could make a Pinterest board for my novel. (Here it is if you’re interested.) It’s been serving me well, because whenever I feel like I don’t want to continue writing, I just go in and add some new pins and it makes me feel productive and inspired.

Another thing I’ve been doing is filling in this little chart that I made whenever I write another thousand words. It has five rows of ten thousand words each, and whenever I hit another thousand-word milestone, I fill in another square. I keep it on my desk next to my computer. It’s a great motivator. I highly recommend having tangible progress in front of you if you need motivation to keep going.

10. take us on a tour of what a normal writing day for this novel looks like.

Well, there are no “normal” writing days, because my schedule is crazy, but here goes.

On weekends and Wednesdays, I’m usually busy, so I don’t get a ton of writing done, usually only about 500-700 words. It’s all I have the mental energy for on busy days, but at least I’m churning out something.

On Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays, I have schoolwork, so I get it done and then sit down in the afternoon to write. I usually start around 2 or 3 in the afternoon and finish around 4 or 5. How much I write on those days really depends on my mental energy, how much schoolwork I have, and how motivated I feel. I try to churn out at least 1.5k on those days.

However, Tuesdays are my productive days. I finish all my schoolwork in three days so I have Tuesday to write. I’m usually home alone for most of the day, and I can get massive amounts of words out in one day. The first Tuesday of the month I obviously did 10k, and after that I’m hoping to do about 3-4k every week.

As for the actual writing process itself, I usually write in silence. Sometimes I light my amber and sandalwood candle that my sister hates because she thinks it smells like cologne. Generally, I’ll write in my room at my desk with my knees tucked up under me. I write in 50-minute sprints with 10-minute breaks in between, and sometimes I’ll eat snacks or drink my favorite tea. (I’m not being paid to say this, wish I was, but if you like tea, try Tazo’s lemon loaf tea. If you put a little bit of sugar or sweetener in it, it literally tastes like cake. It’s my lifeblood.)

So that’s how my NaNo is going! Thank you so much, Christine, for hosting this linkup. I’m having lots of fun with it!

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? If so, how’s it going?

I’ll see you next Wednesday!

know the novel: part one – introducing Project Runaway

Liesl Young16 Comments

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Quote, Unquote!

It’s October! And October means Preptober! And Preptober means…Christine Smith’s NaNo linkup!!

I’ve done this linkup for the last two years, and every year I’ve loved answering Christine’s questions about my NaNo project and seeing others’ answers. And since I’m doing NaNo again this year, it’s that time once again!

This year I’ll be sharing about my WIP Project Runaway. (That’s its placeholder title. It doesn’t have a real title at the moment, but there will likely be one by the end of November.)

So without further ado, let’s jump into…

the questions

1. what first sparked the idea for this novel?

I’m really not sure, to be honest. I’ve been wanting to write about a road trip for a really really long time, and now seemed like the perfect opportunity! But I guess if I had to pinpoint a specific time, I asked on the YWWC for reasons two teenagers would be running away. One of my friends gave me a whole truckload of reasons, and then my two protagonists sprang from there.

2. share a blurb!

Meredith is running away. Away from her abusive home. Away from the hurt. Away from the suffocating memories, the panic attacks, the broken glass that is her past. The last straw has just been added to the camel’s back, and her life is now in danger if she stays. So she runs.

Tessa is running towards. She just wants a new life. After the accident that destroyed her old one and left her a pariah in her beloved hometown, she knows she can’t stay. Besides, if she did, her well-meaning parents would leave her to rot in a correctional facility, and she knows she has so much more life to live. So she runs.

When the two best friends take off together, it seems like they’re finally getting what they need—a new home, a new life. When Meredith receives terrible news, though, she knows she has to turn back, but Tessa has sworn that she’ll never return. A rift begins to divide the two. Will they ever be able to repair her friendship?

3. where does the story take place? what are some of your favorite aspects of the setting?

My story takes place all over the western United States, really. My protagonists are coming from the suburbs of Detroit (where I’m growing up), and they decide to go west. I’m thinking lots of desert, though. I love the desert (even though I’ve never really been, unless you count Houston), and I plan to weave lots of that into my story.

4. tell us about your protagonist(s).

Meredith values good friendships and great art. She loves to paint her emotions, especially in impressionism–her favorite artist is Marie Bracquemond. Beauty is important to her, and you see this all over her everyday life as she tries to spread goodness everywhere she goes. Despite all of this–or maybe in spite of it–she lives in fear of being abandoned by the ones she loves, whether that’s her family or her best friend, Tessa.

Tessa is a bit of a wild card. She’s been known to do some pretty crazy stuff in her lifetime. As you can probably tell, she loves her freedom and refuses to be held down by anyone. Like Meredith, she is also very artistic, but her artistry comes in the form of music. Her electric guitar is her most prized possession, and she loves to play music from the likes of Guns ‘n’ Roses and AC/DC.

5. who (or what) is the antagonist?

My story is very heavy on the internal conflict, so I guess you would call it something along the lines of man versus self. Both of my protagonists struggle against themselves more than anything else.

6. what excites you the most about this novel?

I think just the general vibe of it is what I’m the most excited about it. I love my protagonists, too, and I have this great mental image of them riding down the desert road at night listening to 80’s rock. And I think I’m also really excited about finally starting a new story. I haven’t drafted in a very long time. It’ll be good to write again.

7. is this going to be a series? standalone? something else?

I’m planning for it to be a standalone, but I always leave my options open.

8. are you plotting? pantsing? plansting?

I’m trying out plotting! I’m plotting my main story beats in-depth, and I might try a chapter-by-chapter outline, too, but I’m not so sure about that one. I’ve been learning so much about the 3-Act Structure while working on plotting this. There are lots and lots of notes.

9. name a few unique elements in this story.

This story is unique because it tackles hard topics. Not a lot of contemporary young adult novels that I’ve read cover controversial things, but I’ll be trying to change that with this novel.

Also, I’ve searched far and wide but haven’t found many books about road trips, so I guess the whole premise is unique. I love reading road trip stories, and I think it should be a whole genre, but there aren’t many out there. So I’m fixing that!

10. share some fun “extras” of the story.

Fun fact: For this novel, I’m using the enneagram personality system to build my characters. If you know me, you know that I’m a little bit of a nerd for personality theory, and the enneagram is especially good for creating characters because it deals with your inner motivations, desires, and fears–all things that good writers should know about their characters. Tessa is an enneagram Eight, and Meredith is an enneagram Six.

Right now, I don’t have any Pinterest boards or Spotify playlists for this story, but I’m sure that will come as I write! I’ll likely be sharing them in later linkup posts.

Also…I’ve decided that as a motivator (and to get over my fear of sharing my writing to real people that I know), I’ll be sharing a snippet from my story every day to my email list! You’ll get an email after I finish my writing most days of November (I’m sure that there will be some days where I won’t be able to write) with my current word count and whatever I’ve written that day. So if you’d like to read my story as it’s being written, you can sign up right here.

So that’s it for now! Oooh, I’m so excited to start writing this. And I’m excited for you to read it!

Thanks again, Christine, for hosting this linkup!

I’ll catch you all next Wednesday,