From the Writing Cave: My Enjoyment for Writing is Renewed | Author, E. S. Elias

 

Hello, readers! Wow, I cannot believe it has been four months since I posted anything on this blog. I know many viewers here are also following me on social media, so you might have already seen me mention what I am about to mention today.

Here is a recap: After an emotional NaNoWriMo and several weeks away from writing at all, I made a small list of goals I wanted to achieve in 2022. I was going to post that list to this blog, but I ended up keeping them to myself, for the most part. In January, I wrote a short story under my romance name and was very happy to have "completed" a project, but it didn't give me the full satisfaction I was hoping to feel.

Mid-January, an author I follow, on Wattpad, announced her plans to enter in the 2022 edition of the Open Novella Contest (from here out referred to as ONC). This is a writing contest put together by moderators and Wattpad Ambassadors, not affiliated with the Wattys. I think what intrigued me the most was the fact that in order to participate, all we had to do was pick a prompt (provided by the ONC team) and write a 20,000-word novella in 12 weeks. 

I had seen and heard about this contest before, but never took the risk of entering because I thought I lacked the commitment. This year, one of my goals was to step out of my comfort zone, try something new, and finish a project.

I know. How dumb of me to think I lack commitment. Me, who has committed to NaNoWriMo, and CampNaNo, every year even when I don't reach the finish line. Me, who wrote five (5) 60k+ novels in 2016. I gave myself a pep-talk, reminding myself that 20k in 12-weeks is so easy to do. I wrote that much in the two weeks I was doing NaNoWriMo just three months prior.

So, I made the decision to try out the ONC. But I would have to wait until February 1st to read the Rule Book and find the story prompt I wanted to write. I had every intention of writing a romance, to give me time away from my fantasy works. I thought it would be a good thing since I was very close to burnout after NaNoWriMo2021.

February first comes around, I read through the prompts. They were so AMAZING. Even the fantasy ones looked so cool that I could not stay away from them. Ultimately, I threw all the prompts into a hat (literally) and chose one at random. I did end up choosing a second time because the first one was a zombie prompt and while I was going to go out of my comfort zone with that one, it didn't feel right. My second pick was the following: See next image. (I took a screenshot of the page in the ONC Rule Book.)

When I read this prompt, I felt it in my soul. This was the book I had to write. So, I created my book and immediately published an author's note to announce my participation.

I knew what my title would be within the first five minutes of planning. And I was deep in creating my inspiration board on Pinterest. I also decided I did not want to outline the full story, just a few important scenes, and then I let my imagination run. It was the best thing I could've done because I had a prologue and my first chapter two days later.

I've been documenting my ONC journey on the WriMo Blog, so I won't recap everything in this post. If you would like to check out the full journey, click here.

Within the first week of the contest, I had already written over 5,000 words and I submitted my entry as soon as the ONC entry form was open, which was on February 4th. Here is where it gets really awesome.

On February 11th, I had reached my second milestone of 8,000 words (milestones are split into 2k, 8k, and 20k words). I was on a roll. I hadn't had this kind of motivation in so long. Even more so than my first week of NaNoWriMo (because that was a good week for me). This was when I decided I need to do something for myself to celebrate when I met the 20k goal. (You can check out my WriMo post here to learn about it.)

By February 26th, I had written 16,000 words and was rapidly approaching the 17k mark. There was a short lull in my writing as a few things in my life got turned around, but I was determined to not let it push me out of my zone. I destroyed the brick wall with a sledgehammer before it even had a chance to become a wall. I feel so proud of myself for sharing this.

February turned into March and on the 7th of this month I work up to a load of notifications. Other ONC participants congratulated me for progressing in Round 2. Looking back, I knew I would make it through, but I didn't know how I would feel when I saw my name in the list of over 700 entries. Yes, I cried for joy. I was totally overwhelmed it was the reason I was able to beat down the coming brick wall. I smashed through the remaining words and reached 20,000 on March 14th. Pi Day. Yes, my book is totally finished.

Adding the milestone sticker to my book's cover was an ordeal. I plastered the thing all over the place, any chance I could. I've since let the book sit for a while. I still want to write an epilogue, which I had planned from the beginning. And I also have bonus chapters planned, which are going to be told through the perspective of the love-interest in my book. Let me tell you a little about it!

My novella is a stand-alone YA Romantic Fantasy, titled "THE LARK'S PEARL". It follows Ariabella who starts receiving the gift of pearls from a playful little Lark when she is 18-years-old. She receives a pearl once a day, every day, for a year. Then the Lark just stops coming and she doesn't know why. Her brother announces his engagement and Ariabella decides to use some of her pearls to make a wedding gift for her future sister-in-law.

This leads to her possession of the pearls getting reported to the royal treasury and brings her to the palace, in front of the king of Evæqesta, and his very handsome son, Prince Elias.

My blurb is still WIP, but here is the one I have on Wattpad: Ariabella is a young woman who receives the gift of pearls from a bird of mysterious, playful nature: a Lark. How does this sweet, little bird come by these pearls and what will Ariabella do when she finds out why this bird chose her?

The day I learned I was progressing to the next round was the same day I submitted my next milestone. At the time, I was just shy of 17.5k words. I intended to let everything sink in before submitting my next word count, but I couldn't wait. I am now biting my nails waiting for the next round of results. The results for Round 2 won't be announced until April.

What do I plan to do in the meantime? Apart from getting the epilogue and bonus chapters written, I did announce my plans to write a short spin-off from a secondary character's perspective (it will answer a question I leave open-ended in the main book because it was not really relevant at the time). I am also finalizing the interior for my personal paperback copy of the book. I was making it up as I was writing, so it is pretty much finished. I have also created character art, the same way I did for the Xiphis characters. I have them in the back of my personal copy but I also want to get them made into stickers. I am planning an "official" character reveal in the coming weeks, but the art is already featured in the book.

That is all I have for now. I probably won't update again until April. I think once-a-month updates for this blog are a good choice of action right now. I am not really working on anything else that needs to be mentioned. 

Thank you so much for joining me. If you want to check out my book, THE LARK'S PEARL, you will find a linked banner below. Stay safe, stay awesome. See you in the funny papers.