What is nanowrimo? Nanowrimo is National Novel Writing Month. It is also the time of the year where many people from different countries and ethics gather online under the same purpose, writing their novels. In 2013, there were 310,095 participants .Everyone, from english teachers to middle school students, was able to participate.The only things needed include the internet, an email, a burning idea that he/she is dying to write ! 30 days to write 50K words, that is not a big of a deal ! Many people people participate every year, and many people win. One of the great things about nanowrimo is that there is a lot of pep talk throughout the month from authors who have already published their books and have become successful. This year, Veronica Roth , the author of the Divergent Series, gave a pep talk! Now all of that may sound perfect and amazing, but then, can this really happen in just 30 days? People may wonder, how can a person possibly write an entire novel in 30 days? Well,in nanowrimo it is not about writing perfectly every single line, or even completely developing your characters. It is all about having a first draft finished by the end of November. After that, edits and multiple reviews can take place. Since it is such a big event , a lot of writing and publishing related companies pitch in with huge discounts on writing programs, or even open the gates to self publishing , and other stuff that will make the participants even more anticipated to finish their novels and actually proceed to the next step, which is publishing. I was lucky enough to interview Pauline.C.Harris, the author of Puppet, which is a retelling of pinocchio. The Book is filled with androids,action, and a great journey of self discovery that I loved reading and reviewing .Since she have participated in Nanowrimo and got her book published , I believe that she can fill in many gaps considering nanowrimo and publishing. 1) How did you know about NanoWrimo? I found out about NaNoWriMo back in 2012. I had just gotten a Twitter and everyone was talking about it and I decided on November 2nd, on a whim, that I was going to do it. :) And it was great! 2) You have written Puppet, your latest novel during Nanowrimo, would you like to share your experience and talk a little bit about your book. Puppet was the first novel I write for NaNoWriMo and I had the most fun I've ever had writing a book. I started NaNoWriMo a little late that year because I found out about it a few days into November, but I ended up finishing the book in three weeks. It was totally wonderful and really made me fall in love with NaNoWriMo. 3) Where there times where you doubted what you were writing during that month and what kept you going? Oh definitely. This happens every time I write a book, but I've learned to just push through that phase and get to the end. Usually about half way through I begin to doubt everything and think the book is terrible and by the time I'm done I start to recognize the good parts again. 4) Did you have any buddy writers ? If yes, how did that affect you? I've never actually had any buddy writers. None of the friends I've had were into writing (or reading, for that matter!) so I was always doing my writing alone. Although lately, now that I've signed with some publishers, I've been meeting some of the other authors and we've been swapping feedback and encouragement so that's been really wonderful. 5) How did NanoWrimo affect your daily life during November? It's funny, because you'd think it would be stressful but it was really invigorating. I made sure to not let NaNoWriMo effect my schoolwork, but by doing NaNoWriMo in my free time I felt so productive and excited about my book throughout the whole month. I have to admit though, I usually don't get a lot of sleep in November thanks to NaNoWriMo. :P 6) After winning Nano wrimo, how long did it take you to edit and decide that the book was ready for publishing? Puppet went through quite a bit of edits but I knew right away that I wanted to eventually publish it. I suppose I thought it was ready for publication earlier than it actually was. I'm definitely glad it went through all the revision rounds that it did before it went out into the world, even though it was about a two year process. 7) Nano wrimo usually offers great offers for pushing writers forward in the publication field, did you benefit from that? They do! They have wonderful pep talks and encouragement, and as far as the actual prizes for winners, my favorite is the free copies of your book from Createspace. Createspace is what I've used when I've self-published so it's great to get some free copies of your book. :) 8) I did a little of research and found out that you are a self published author, can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah! I was about thirteen when I wrote and self-published my first book. That book wasn't great, but it really taught me a lot about the whole publishing process and cemented my dream to work in the publishing industry. I signed with a traditional publisher after that and that's gone well, but now I'm back into the self-publishing field by teaming up with Patchwork Press. 9) I believe that you have teamed up with Patchwork Press to publish Puppet. Is that a traditional publication house, or does that make you a hybrid author? Patchwork Press is really cool in the way that it functions like a traditional publishing house, but still leaves their authors the freedom of self publishing. I have no contract signed with them, but instead all the authors pitch in and help each other with whatever they need. For instance, one of the authors there designed my book cover. I suppose this makes me a hybrid author, as I've done traditional and self-publishing. 10) If you are a hybrid author, could you elaborate a bit about what goes behind the scenes of publishing a book? It's definitely different for everybody, but it's a lot more work than I think most people realize. I don't want to sound like I know everything about publishing because I'm still learning new things every day, but there's a lot more than just writing the book that goes into publishing. As a self-published author especially, you need to set up the actual printing and formatting of your book, get a design for your cover, and do all the marketing on your own. It's tough and sometimes frustrating but I think it's totally worth it. 11) Finally but not least, describe your nanowrimo journey in a one word ? Rewarding! At last, I would like to thank you for answering my questions and I wish you the very best in your writing Career . Thanks!
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