C.R. Pigg's Blog, page 2

NaNoWriMo 2022: Results

I know I’m a little late (okay, a lot late) in posting this, but as I’m sure all of you know, “the most wonderful time of the year” tends to also be the busiest.

Due to work, family, and some non-NaNoWriMo-related writing things (which I hope to discuss more on here soon), my 2022 project fell to the wayside.

As expected, I got nowhere close to 50,000 words, let alone my pseudo-goal of 15,000.

Still, I’m content with the 4,253 words I wrote in November, because progress is still progress, no matter how small.

I’m a fairly slow writer, so this is actually decent progress for me in one month. Outside of putting words to the page, I also got to spend some time pondering on my characters’ composition and where I see their arcs taking them.

I’ve often heard writers say that the majority of writing doesn’t involve the act of writing itself; it involves staring off into space and just…thinking.

There’s not much else to say on NaNoWriMo 2022 other than I’m glad I participated this year, and I’m hopeful I’ll finish the full first draft of this novel by November 2023.

I plan on writing at least one more blog post this year, but if plans fall through, or if this is the last post of mine you read in 2022, I hope you have the happiest of holidays and that the new year brings you peace and inspiration.

Happy Writing!

C. R. Pigg

Preptober: NaNaWriMo 2022

If you read my last post, you’ll know that I decided pretty late into October that I wanted to participate in NaNoWriMo this year.

This means I haven’t had much time to partake in Preptober, a crucial antecedent to NaNoWriMo that takes place throughout October; a time for making character sheets, mood boards, outlines, etc.

Luckily, I came up with a novel idea fairly quickly and have had several brainstorming sessions with my husband regarding plot and character development. Still, it’s been a bit of a challenge to get it organized in time for Tuesday.

I used to identify as a panster, because I liked creating a general premise and a handful of characters and just seeing where they took me. However, in recent years, I’ve become more of a plotter (apparent by my semi-detailed novel outlines). I still enjoy letting the story reveal itself to me but with a few more guiding points along the way to keep things from going too far off the rails.

Therefore, I now proudly claim the title affectionately known as the planster.

In addition to my outline and reference guide, I’ve also made a simple log to keep track of my writing progress day-to-day. I’ve found that tracking my writing sessions like this is a great motivator.

Attempting to reach a goal you know is going to take a lot of time and effort to achieve can be intimidating. But if you give yourself smaller goals or challenges along the way, it makes the journey a lot more manageable and even fun.

Just the act of filling in the rows on a log like this elicits a sense of accomplishment in me.

Plus, it’s nice to have tangible data to see if I can beat my previous writing session time or word count. And of course, it’s great for creating charts to better visualize the progress you’ve made.

What type of writer are you? And what sort of prep have you done to prepare for NaNoWriMo 2022?

Happy Writing!

C. R. Pigg

NaNoWriMo 2022 Goals

Eleven days from November, I decided maybe I should give NaNoWriMo a try again.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve never actually reached 50,000 words by the end of the month in any of the previous years I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo. Still, I find the atmosphere surrounding this month-long challenge captivating and inspiring. While I have participated in novel writing, I usually make a more reasonable writing goal for myself..

Last year, I focused on preparing my witch fantasy novel manuscript for querying. Now, I’m a little burnt out from querying and want to reinvigorate my passion for writing.

It’s been too long since I’ve sat down and written for hours on end…so it’s time to push myself to write every day this November.

I’ve spent the last two days brainstorming ideas, and thanks to some help from my husband, we came up with something I’m super excited to start writing! I don’t want to go into too much detail, but basically, it’s an adult unrequited romance novel from the perspective of a ghost.

Like in 2020, I might start writing a bit before November 1st. Although, I’m hoping to get a decent chunk of the story written during NaNoWriMo. I think I’d be satisfied with hitting 20-30k words by the end of November, and even though I don’t have a strict goal, I’m going to attempt to write at least 500 words a day.

Realisitc goals cultivate encouraging results.

If you’re taking on the NaNoWriMo 2022 challenge or are already writing a novel, I wish you the best of luck! And whatever happens along the way, I hope by the end you realize what you’ve created is something you should be immensely proud of.

Happy Writing!

C. R. Pigg

July Grid Journal

It’s been a long week, and I don’t have much time to write a blog post today, so here’s a quick wrap-up on my July grid journal (see my first grid journal post for more details).

The second half of the month didn’t start off great, but I was a bit more productive towards the end. It helped that I took off work the last week of July for a much-needed staycation.

Still, it’s enlightening to see how I’ve spent my time over the past month, and this journal motivates me to do more, or at least try to be a little more consistent.

Here’s the breakdown of the number of days I completed each task in July:

Tasks# of DaysRead14Write3Querry Agents9Blog/Social Media10Exercise3Game with Husband12

I’m sticking with the same tasks for August to see if any patterns start to arise from month to month, and my main goal will be to increase the number of days spent on each task, particularly writing and exercising.

As you can see, I’m off to a slow start, but I’m starting to ramp up and can’t wait to see what the remainder of this month holds in store for me!

Happy Reading, Writing, and All of the Above!

C. R. Pigg

Just Keep Querying

*Update: I got my first full manuscript request a couple of days after writing this post!*

If you’ve read any of my recent posts, you’d know that I’m in the process of querying my new adult witch LGBTQ+ fantasy novel/series. This is the 2nd manuscript I’ve ever written and attempted to query.

It’s apparently common for writers to go through several rounds of querying numerous manuscripts before achieving publication. It would’ve been nice to know this before I started querying my 1st manuscript (YA dystopian novel); I might have not even attempted to query it.

It’s not that I think my first manuscript isn’t any good, but it would’ve saved me a lot of grief if I had started my querying journey with more realistic expectations.

I’m now 50 queries and 26 rejections deep with my latest manuscript (around where I stopped with the 1st) and more motivated than ever.

I’m not sure if it’s because I’m more confident in my story/writing or because I have a better understanding of the process this time around. Either way, I’m determined to not let those rejections keep me from keeping on.

I’m aiming for 100 queries sent this year and am hopeful for a nibble or two of interest. Though my heart is set on traditional publishing, I’ll reevaluate my plans at the end of the year and possibly start querying more independent publishers.

Happy Querying!

C. R. Pigg

P.S. I’m waiting to share specific details about my novel until I have a publishing deal or at least an agent, but you can check out the playlist and Pinterest mood board if you’re interested.