I think I can...

Most of you know that this summer I took a big step forward in my writing, which was to join a group called the Writers' League of Texas. I went to an annual conference where I met with an editor, and learned about how to approach getting published.

At the conference, I ran into a friend who used to work at Dobie, and she and I have been meeting every two weeks to critique each other's writing. We are both writing young adult fiction, both our main characters are teenage girls, and we're both writing in first person, present tense. Other than that, our subject matter and writing styles are quite different. The great thing is that we're really getting to a point where we're digging into the writing, and pushing each other to revise in certain ways and make the writing really strong. It's fantastic.

It was my original goal to be done with my book by the end of the year. I've always gauged that I wanted to write about 150 pages. Since then, I've learned that in the world of publishing, you talk more in terms of word count, not page numbers. Right now I have 27,000 words, which is 115 pages. Typical YA fiction is between 25,000 to 35,000 words, and I'm still expecting to write several more chapters, so I think I'm right on track.

The exciting thing is that if I work really hard over the holiday, I may still be able to meet my goal of finishing by the end of the year. There's an end in sight, and I'm looking forward to the day when I can write my final page, close my laptop and feel that I created something I'm proud of. And yes, I sometimes broke the rules of grammar, like how I ended that last sentence with a preposition, or started this sentence with the word "and." And that's okay.