Rejections, Finishing First Drafts, & Other Updates! (Patreon)

Hey y'all, hey! 

So I took an impromptu hiatus off social media and streaming this past week to get shit done....and I did!

(I'm somehow always surprised when that actually happens? In the past, I've totally told myself that I'm going to do something, and then a day passes, and then the next day, and then the next, and then that thing never really gets done. BUT NOT THIS TIME.)

Anyways, all this preamble to say...I finished the first draft of my romance novel!

This is the one I started back in February and shared in my goals video that I hoped to complete in a month. (Because....why? Only Past Kate truly knows.)

I then hoped to complete it in March and, while I continued making progress, absolutely did not meet that goal.

Then here we were, midway through April, with Camp NaNoWriMo fully in swing, and I still had not finished that project.

It was starting to make me mad, honestly. As most of y'all know, I'm a "multiple projects going at one time" kinda writer. I enjoy the juggle.

But as I near the end of projects, when that finish line is almost in sight, I stop enjoying that juggle. It gets too hard. Every time I work on another project, my mind isn't fully invested. I get to a point where I just want to be done. I want to write The End and put it away for a couple months until I can see it with fresh eyes and make it better. My characters want rest from the hell I've put them through and I definitely need the rest bahaha.

So that's what I did! Really this is my way of screaming I DID IT, I DID IT, I DID IT. No matter how many times I reach the end of a first draft (or any draft), it never gets less exciting.

And most importantly (within the context of April), that means I now get to concentrate fully on Camp NaNoWriMo! I've been slacking - as my brain has been fully onboard the Finish The Romance train - but now I'm ready to focus my attention on this weird, fun project with my brother.

HOWEVER! That wasn't the only bit of news that happened today. (Well, today as I'm writing this. Yesterday as I'm posting, because I knew my brain would be goo and would need a day to rest and reread this post to try to catch all the typos bahaha.)

I also received my rejection letter from Hallmark's Open Submissions! (A little snippet below.)

As I told my friend (when our co-written project was also rejected), this is an AWESOME thing. Rejections mean that you tried. And trying (and failing and trying again) truly is the way of the writer.

So if, once upon a time, I had a Year of Finishing. (Which, admittedly, this year has been much moreso than that year, but I digress...) I'd like to claim this year as the Year of Submitting. 

The Year of Trying. 

The Year of Failing and Trying Again.

(More about all the places (and stories?) I hope to submit in my next patron-only goals video!)

And now, let's move on to some livestream announcements for the end of April!

I'll be hanging out with Natalie and Chandra on Saturday the 30th at 7:30am CDT for their regular Flash Fiction stream. That same day, my broski bro bro (David) and I will be co-hosting our final write-in of Camp starting at 3:00pm CDT.

Which means I'd like to squeeze in our patrons-only Double Stream Day on Thursday the 28th at 6:00pm CDT and Friday the 29th at 7:00am CDT. (Which will then be followed by my regular Twitch stream -- when I said I need to catch up and focus on Camp NaNo, I MEANT IT. I need all the sprints!)

To skip ahead to the first week of May, I also want to share some MasterClass passes. JC Carpenter and I are vlogging our experience taking Shonda Rhimes class and will have a livestream discussion after our videos go live. But I figured I'd send these out now in case anyone wanted to take it and join us! :)

And finally, I'd like to end on a very quick, very personal note. Within the past month or so, I've had several friends lose loved ones, some in my area that I've been able to run over and help to arrange things. This has been a very busy, very chaotic time, and it's been a challenge.

Since December 2020, it's felt like I've lost someone I love, or someone I know has lost someone they love, every few months. This compounding affect has really knocked me down and I'm not handling that as well as I would like sometimes. (If something like this even can be handled "well.") I'm tired. I think we all are.

So really I just wanted to say that if you're also feeling Very Tired, you're not alone. I'm glad I started working on being kinder to myself BEFORE the pandemic, but really this has forced my hand in a lot of ways.

All that to say, I'm taking the good days in full swing when I feel like I can, and I'm also letting myself spend good days on the couch when I feel like that's all I can manage. And bad days are bad days and that's okay too.

So despite the rejection, today was a very good day! And that's what I'm sending out into the universe and hoping for y'all too. (The good days; not the rejection. I'm sending out AS MUCH SUCCESS AS POSSIBLE bahaha.)

Thanks y'all and happy writing!! 🦄