#WIPWednesday

20,107! Whew.

I was determined to finally hit the milestone of 20,000 words in my novel and I fought for every one of those words this week, over weather-cancelled school days and with sick and puking kids.

I find it extremely hard to write the novel without silence, which is problematic. But other writerly tasks do not require silence, and I accomplished quite a bit this week beside reaching my goal of 20,000 words.

I submitted my children's book manuscript to three more publishers. It was still out for consideration with two publishers, bringing that total up to five, for now.

I also submitted a few pieces to different places for syndication consideration. InspireMore syndicated another piece of mine yesterday (I am hoping they feature it on their social media pages in the coming week). My last piece for InspireMore broke 3K views this week.

I reorganized and updated my query spreadsheet, too. The more queries I send, both for my children's book manuscript and for personal essays, the more I rely on having an accurate spreadsheet to keep track of it all.

I also made a couple of new memes for social media. I'm still not sure if Instagram is doing any good in reaching a larger audience for my work, but I am going to give it some time.

I jotted down a few lines for some new essay ideas and I finished a first draft of a short story I am planning to submit for consideration in an anthology.

And I also helped my kids submit some of their own writings for consideration in an anthology. I have my fingers crossed for them, they were so excited to think they could have something published in a book!

#WIPWednesday

The biggest news this week is that my nearly 10-month-long quest to get my Facebook page name changed has finally come to an end!

I whipped up a new cover photo to celebrate.

The timing couldn't be more perfect (I mean, sure, last April when I first submitted the request would have been ideal, but...). Back in December, I set the goal that I'd love to get my Facebook page to 500 likes by my birthday – which is a month from tomorrow! I feel like, with the cover and page name now, new visitors to my page will have a much clearer idea of what the page is about and what to expect. Hopefully, that will translate in to gaining more page follows.

The new essay I mentioned last week was published on InspireMore this week. It was shared on their Twitter & Facebook pages and is now my best performing piece for them with over 1,700 views to date.

I also had an older piece syndicated on The Good Men Project this week.

I made a couple new memes this week, too – one was shared already and one is scheduled.

What I didn't do was hit the 20,000 words mark on the novel like I had hoped. In my defense, all three of my kids have been taking turns being sick since last Wednesday. I did manage to open the file once this week and add a few words, bringing the total to 18,479.

Still eyeing 20,000 words for next week...

Finally, Facebook Granted My Page Name Change

On Friday, I made this post on Facebook and crossed my fingers.

"First of all, THANK YOU! This page recently reached 400 “likes” and I appreciate each and every one.

Those of you who have been here the longest probably remember that back in April, I shared that I submitted a page name change request (https://www.facebook.com/WriterElizabethJoyce/posts/354519168377825).

Though my first essay was published in 2016, I didn’t actually start this Facebook page until January 2018, when I decided to pursue my writing career. At the time, I was unsure about what direction this page would take and ended up naming it “I May Never Write A Book” after my blog where I write about writing. It quickly became clear that I should have named the page to promote myself as a writer, not my inconsequential side-blog.

By March, I was sure I needed to make some changes with how I was presenting myself as a writer (https://imayneverwriteabook.blogspot.com/2018/03/presenting-myself.html). One of which was to change the name of this Facebook page to "Writer Elizabeth Joyce." This would better represent that the page is a place where I share all my writings, as well as posts related to topics I write about, and it would create more consistency with my social media handles.

Unfortunately, my page name request got stuck in some sort of glitch (https://imayneverwriteabook.blogspot.com/2018/05/is-this-sign.html). It wasn’t approved nor denied – it simply sat at “pending” for months on end. I’ve been trying tirelessly to get page support from Facebook to fix the issue. It looks like something finally worked!

Earlier today, I received a notice that my page name request was denied. This may sound like bad news, but I was actually thrilled. Finally receiving a denial means that the request is no longer stuck in “pending” purgatory. And, it allowed me to appeal the denial.

Part of the appeal process is to publish a post to my page followers to make them aware of the possible page name change. So, it is with fingers crossed that I am posting this and hoping the appeal process moves forward in a timely manner.

I sincerely hope you all stick around, regardless of the page name. You being here is such an encouragement to me. Thank you for all the support over this past year. I am looking forward to continuing this journey with you."

I felt hopeful but leary and weary of the process. Something that is a few simple clicks for most people had inexplicably turned into a near 10-month-long quest for me to get Facebook page support (which was feeling impossible by this point).

So, I am not exaggerating when I say that I was absolutely thrilled (and relieved) when I received a notice this morning saying the my page name request had been granted.

Thank goodness!

#WIPWednesday

I finally got back to work on my novel this week!

I spent some time reacquainting myself with what I had written, so far. I am not being self-deprecating when I say it is an absolute mess– practically incoherent and unreadable. But it is exactly what it needs to be, right now. And I need to let it be a complete mess until I can get this rough draft finished. Once I've hashed out the characters and the world-building and the story lines into about 100,000 words, then I can start cleaning up the mess and shaping in into a readable first draft. As it stands now, I am 18,275 words in and eyeing the milestone of 20,000 as a possibility for next week.

I wrote a few more new poems this week, as well. Those, along with the new poem I mentioned writing last week, motivated me to research poetry publishers. I found an intriguing call for submissions and sent in two of my poems for consideration. It may be a couple months before I hear back.

I also drafted a new piece for InspireMore's January writing prompt contest for their featured creators.

#WIPWednesday

The kids are back to school but I haven't quite yet settled back into my writing routine.

I'm not bothered by it (this is me practicing "the art of letting go"). I'd still like to get to the point where I am writing every weekday. I'm not managing it, so far, but I'm also not beating myself up over it.

So, no new words in the novel.

And my children's book manuscript received another silent rejection by not generating a response in the publishers stated time frame.

But, I did submit that new piece to SNAPSHOTS (the one I mentioned that I had prepped before the holidays and held for when I knew I wouldn't have much new). It was published on the 3rd.

I also submitted another piece to InspireMore for syndication and it was accepted and published on the 4th. My resolution piece was featured on their Instagram page this week, too (my first IG feature since I joined) and also featured in their monthly Creator Network newsletter, making it my best performing piece for them, so far.

On Monday, I was notified that the piece I submitted to The Mighty back in November has been accepted for syndication. It will be published soon.

And I wrote a new poem the other night. That felt good.

#WIPWednesday

I took a little holiday hiatus and have not written anything new nor submitted any new queries this week.

An editor from KinBox, a new online family and parenting magazine, reached out to me a few weeks ago, interested in running one of my stories. I am happy to be working with them and glad to have them share my work with their growing audience. They syndicated The Woman Who Gave Birth To My Daughters Is Not Their Mother last week.

My piece that won the InspireMore writing prompt contest was featured in their newsletter and on their social media pages this week, as well.

December ended up being the most exciting, successful month of 2018 for me as a writer. I can only hope 2019 builds from that momentum.