#28: New Year, Same Vibes 2.0

feat. a look into the process of creating my debut novel

Jan 18, 2022

Hey you!

Welcome to the future! It’s 2022. How you livin’? Are you still going strong on your New Year’s resolutions or have you already given up?

Either way—same. Some resolutions I’ve been kicking butt at, like my resolution to listen to 100 albums in 2022. But others, like my resolution to meditate every day, have been a complete and utter failure.

Having January 1st as a “fresh start” is cool—but it’s also just an arbitrary date. Cultures around the world celebrate the new year at a variety of different times (here’s an Insider article with a list of a few).

Your day 1 can come whenever you’re ready for it.

As I mentioned in previous issues, this year I’m doing a bit of tidying and redesigning to Oh, Write, to spice things up a bit—like our fancy new banner and logo!

*pauses for inevitable oohs and ahs*

Want to see what else has changed and what’ll come in the future? Keep reading!

Enjoy issue #28 my beautiful and creative internet homies!

Writer’s Log #15:

So—if you follow me on Medium, you probably already know what I’m about to gush about: writing the first novel that I plan to release publicly.

I first started working on this story for Camp NaNoWriMo in July 2020, which was about a year and a half ago.

A few months ago, I started thinking over the idea of releasing a novel serially. My first instinct was to release the book for paid Substack subscribers only. But, now, I think I’m going to release it on Medium and Substack simultaneously—for free.

When all the chapters are out, I plan to self-publish the whole thing in an e-book (or physical book? or both?) on Amazon.

Out of all the drafts collecting dust on my computer, I chose my Camp NaNoWriMo to work with—because who doesn’t love a little rom-com razzle-dazzle in a world that gets increasingly more depressing as the days go by?

I revamped the story’s plot and characters throughout the month of December.

Here are a few resources that I used during my prep that really helped me better organize the elements of my story:

Save the Cat! Writes a Novel – Jessica Brody [My general knowledge of this beat sheet helped me create a realistic, yet eventful plot. But, I really cracked this bad boy open to flesh out my character backstories. Her section on creating a hero really helped me out. Here’s a free mini-resource, from the official Save the Cat website, about creating a dope hero.]
ServiceScape’s “8 Ways a Scene List Can Make Writing Your Novel Easier” [This quality article heavily influenced how I formatted my scene list.]
Well-Storied’s Blog Archive [Well-Storied is probably one of my favorite websites on writing–period. Shout out to the author, Kristen Kieffer, for creating a quality website with so many great, free resources. I personally used the Characterization section a ton, especially character roles. But, I ain’t gonna hold you, all of her articles are fan-freakin’-tastic]

With a redesigned story and characters, I started writing the first draft on January 1st of this year. As of right now (I’m writing this log on Monday, January 17th) I’m at just over 26,000 words.

The question you may have lingering on your mind is: “Nia, when are you going to release it?”

I’m not sure. I’ve never published a book before so I don’t know how my timeline’ll look. But, what I do know, is that I’m working on it (nearly) every day to get it where it needs to be: actually good.

I want this story to be the best I can possibly make it. So, I can’t rush the process. I’ve got to just put the time in.

My ideal goal would be to release it at the end of spring/beginning of summer. But, will that actually happen? That’s anyone’s guess. But I’m going to try.

Cheers to trying, and especially trying in public, because that in particular, is scary as hell.

The Many Things I Consumed Over the Past Month-Ish

As a fun 2022 resolution, I declared that I was going to listen to 100 new (to me) albums in 2022. At the point of writing this newsletter, I’ve listened to 22.

That’s wild. I know.

I’ve listened to over a fifth of the albums I’d like to listen to this entire year, and January’s not even over yet.

I guess I just really like music, or whatever.

I’m currently documenting my challenge on my Medium account, with the publication The Riff. They’re a great music-focused pub on Medium; be sure to check them out!

Here are the links to the articles that I’ve already written about the challenge. (These are all friend links—so they’re free to read at any time without a monthly subscription to Medium.)

Introductory Article: “I’m Going to Listen to 100 New Albums in 2022”

Albums I’ve Written About:

Also, I don’t know if y’all have noticed—but we’re living in a golden age of Black television. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen as many Black television shows on at the same time. The ones that I’m watching, right now, are Euphoria, Abbott Elementary (give Quinta Brunson her flowers y’all she is kicking ASS), and Grand Crew.

But there are so many that are currently on air. Please go support these shows! Here are the other ones I can remember off the top of my head: Our Kind of People, Queens, Power Book II: Ghost, and Naomi.

I Created a Lot of Stuff Y’all

So, as for my creations, I’ve been putting most of my creative energy into this book. But, I’ve also gotten into the groove of creating public diary entries on Medium, which I’ve enjoyed.

Y’all know I love oversharing on the internet. It’s kind of my thing.

Here’s a free link to the latest one I wrote: “I Had an Existential Crisis After Watching Netflix’s Don’t Look Up”.

Today’s Question For You

One of my ideas, for the future of Oh, Write, is creating some sort of free coworking space. There are tons of places that would work well, whether it’s a Discord server, a Twitch live stream that people can watch and chat with each other in, a weekly/monthly Skype/Google Spaces/whatever call.

I’ve found a lot of value in online coworking spaces. I attended a ton of write-ins during NaNoWriMo, where we do writing sprints together. And, I like attending live writing sprint events that YouTubers hold.

Would you be interested in a coworking space? What would be your preferred platform be? Leave me a comment below OR send me an email with your thoughts at our fancy, schmancy new digital mailbox: ohwrite1@gmail.com.

Conclusion

Thank you so much for reading Oh, Write!
For more Oh, Write content, check out the Medium publication.

Have any questions, comments, or concerns? Hit ya girl up!

Oh, Write