I Finished Novel Number 3!!!

It happened! It's done!!! Novel number three has about 62000 words complete with a big old THE END at THE END.

So yeah, feeling this :)

This novel still is yet to be titled. However it is another YA novel about a 15 year old named Gertrude. She collects albino taxidermy and has panic attacks. The romantic interest is a Samoan boy named Lani, who serenades/teases her with Disney songs.

Much editing ahead of me, but I'm one of those who finds the editing process easier than the drafting. (Those of you who draft quick and easy--I envy you.) But yay! This novel is done and shall be edited and out to beta readers hopefully very soon.

On to the next project!

Sarah Allen

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Sell What You've Already Got

One of the hardest parts about trying to make a living as a writer is figuring out how to find ways to get paid for what you're already doing: writing. I had a bit of an epiphany about this lately, and I'm going to see how it pans out.

See, I think many of us have ideas and random projects going on all the time. Just side stuff, but still. If you're like me, you like to go from poetry to flash fiction to magazine article to blog post to one-act-play to comic strip. I'm not sure how good I am at any of it, but I get a thrill trying my hand at all sorts of fun different things.

Here's how I've sort of been thinking up till now. I've been looking at these as what I just called them: "side" projects. Which in many ways they are, except not really. I've been focusing on selling myself, or my services maybe, finding people who want to hire a sort of week end freelancer. Which is great, don't get me wrong, but honestly it can be a little tedious and defeating a lot of times.

So now I'm sort of looking at it a little differently. Because if I'm doing all those random projects in my free time anyway, then in a lot of ways it doesn't make sense to try and get people to hire me for their random projects. I'm already working and creating, so why not focus instead on finding good homes for the work I'm already doing? I mean, I've been sort of doing that up till now as well, but I think that should be the main focus.

And that includes pitching non-fiction articles to magazines in topics I find interesting. And selling all the poems and stories and scripts and things I'm working on anyway. And maybe finding other talented artists to collaborate with.

In other words, I think its wise to take a book from the inimitable Hank Green, and create our own careers. To really be our own artists and make a career out of what we do best, rather than being someone elses artist. Does that make sense? And of course, that doesn't mean not taking opportunities when they come, and searching out new and interesting teams to join. To do otherwise is foolish, I think. But we should also give ourselves credit and fight the good/hard fight until we do place our work in a good home, even though that can be really difficult sometimes. Because if we keep fighting, and are willing to continually learn and grow, we will find homes for our best work, and eventually lots of people will want to start paying us for it. At least that's what I'm telling myself :D

Sarah

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Me as a Cop

So this is something new I'm trying out. I'm having fun with the Wacom tablet I bought a couple months ago. Not anything too intense (obviously. My skills won't allow it) but hopefully some good fun. I'll be posting semi-regularly on the Pink n Purple comic blog.

Sarah Allen

For more frequent updates, writing tips, and funnies, follow on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, 
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Sleep: a poem

Sometimes what you need is sleep

and sometimes that's the same thing

as needing to never sleep again

and stay up till four am...okay five

watching every movie with Colin Firth

and then John Cusack

and then Meryl Streep

Because it's not that this cinephilic trance 

is what finally gets your brain to stop 

contorting and fritzing like broken neon

(although it does)

It's that wide eyes and tussled hair 

and twitches at the corners of mouths

and long Scandinavian noses

refresh and redefine for you the meaning

of the words

Human

Chimerical

One

The good kind of One

The not one One. The All for One.

The chimerically human one.

There are so many vulnerables

making, relating, exposing

so many it's bloody

and so I think

Thank God for Insomnia.

How Old Is Your Soul?

I had a birthday fairly recently, and my sister asked me if I felt my age. And actually, the answer is definitely a no. In fact, my actual age is in many ways the age I least feel. (Does that sentence make sense? You get it, right?)

What I mean is that I feel both quite a bit younger and quite a bit older than I actually am.

On the one hand, I am probably way too fond of barbershop quartets and bread pudding for anyone born after like, World War II. There are probably less than one handful of "teenager" movies that I like, and just the thought of the upcoming 50 Shades of Grey movie makes me want to gag. And it doesn't help that the majority of men I find attractive are older than my father. (Hello Colin Firth.)

(Is this post another excuse for me to look up pictures of Colin Firth? Do I need another excuse to look up pictures of Colin Firth?)

But then, I've also spent a significant amount of time watching Dexter's Lab, and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and I mean within the last year. It's good stuff. My preferred food (other than bread pudding) is Waffle Crisp. The book I am currently reading is a YA novel called Everlost by Neal Shusterman (super great by the way. Would recommend). And if I was forced to pick a favorite artist, it would probably be Don Wood. (You guys have all read Piggies, right? I mean, serious work of art.)

Not that any of this really super matters, and not that there is a right or wrong age to feel. I just find it interesting. We're all different, inside and out. I think the only thing this age dichotomy really means is that I get to buy Waffle Crisp whenever I want, because I am a real life grown up girl with a real life grown up job. (Kind of). And it means I get to buy the YA, MG and picture books I love, and maybe one day make money writing them. It means I can watch Pixar movies with a literary, analytical lens, maybe one day with a scruffy, middle-aged British gent at my side.

How old is your soul?

Sarah Allen

For more frequent updates, writing tips, and funnies, follow on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, 
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