Amren Ortega - Writer

Hey, all. Thanks for tuning in to...whatever this is. You could be looking at cute cat videos, but you're here oh wait now that I've said that you're gone whoops. Well, for those of you that stuck around, there's been a lot going on since my last post. I've been querying my fingerprints off, got some rejections, that's fine. It happens to everyone, and it just means I haven't found the perfect agent yet. I'm cool with that. Nah, what's bugging me is the fact that I finished the first book in my series and now I have to move on to the next. See, the complex thing about "Thicker than Water" is that the ending is ambiguous. I love the idea of branching timelines, that a single decision can change the world. There are two possible endings, and I wanted to leave it up to the reader to decide whether...well. Spoilers. But after six rounds of revision, I'm finally feeling confident in this draft. So, I started on one of the sequels, that...

*gasp gasp* ugh I made it *struggle gasp* Day one is done, and I'm already tired.  I forgot how much work it is to write 1,700 words every day.   I had an idea, and what I thought was a pretty good one at that, but still, 1,700 words is about 3 pages, and it's been quite a while since I wrote anything particularly original.  I do a lot of academic writing, and that's all based on my data and other people's data, so I guess I'd forgotten what it's like trying to pull the thread of an idea from my head.  That didn't make any sense.  I'd forgotten what it was like to have a completely original idea of my own, and then write that idea and try to develop it at the same time.  In the past year or so, since I did NaNoWriMo last, I've mostly been editing.  My first project, "Thicker than Water," ended up being about 168,000 words.  Turns out, that's not a great length for a young adult book, unless you're J. K. Rowling.  I recently mana...