What I Do While Waiting on Responses From Agents & Publishers

    Every writer reacts differently during the time they send out submissions to agents and publishers. But this is how I react and spend the time while I wait on responses about my book. I have serious mood-swings during this time...

 Right After Sending Submissions: Yes! I finished my novel, revised it, wrote a query letter and now I've sent out my first submissions. This is awesome!

 10 Seconds Later: Okay...Now I'm really nervous. What if no one likes it? What if it sucks? I don't know if I can wait 2-3 weeks for a response...

 A Few Days After Sending Submissions: Why didn't I edit my book one more time? I'm sure there are tons of mistakes. No one is going to want to publish it. The plot is stupid. The characters are weird. The writing is terrible. My writing sucks!

 A Week After Sending Submissions: I'm bored, maybe I should write. Wait, no! I can't start writing a new book yet! I'm too nervous to write another book when my last book is being criticized.

 A Few Days Later: I give in. I can't stand not writing. I don't care if my writing is crappy! I need to write!

 After I Start Writing Again: All of my ideas are stupid. This book is stupid. The book I sent out is stupid no one is going to publish it. I should just stop writing all together.

 A Few Minutes Later: I can't not write. I feel like I'm going crazy, I'll just write. It doesn't matter if it sucks or not, I just can't go without writing.

Happy Easter everyone!! :)
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A Writing Playlist

   So, I didn't do what I said I was going to about keeping up with blogging while on spring break, and I did not write any posts for the future. I got wrapped up in writing and spending time with my friends so I'm just going to try to wing it for the next few weeks and blog when I can.

 But, today, I thought I'd talk about writing playlists.

 Studies have shown that listening to music increases brain function. Some disagree because they think that the lyrics in songs replace thoughts. I think it depends on the person. Everyone is different and everyone has different ways of writing. Some need complete silence to write, others listen to music to help with the flow.

 For me, I can't write in total silence but if people around me are being too loud, I need to block them out by listening to music. If it's not too loud around me, then I don't listen to music. It just depends on where I am and what kind of scene I'm writing that day.

 Everyone has different musical tastes and the theme of your book will also tie into the kind of music you listen to while you write. The kind of music you listen to doesn't matter as long as it helps with your writing. To write a sad scene, some people have to listen to sad music to get them in the mood to write a good, believable scene. Listening to different genres of music can easily change your mood.

For the series I'm writing right now, the playlist is really short but this is what I have so far:

Enchanted Series Playlist

Waiting Game - by Banks

My Blood - by Ellie Goulding

Dead in the Water - by Ellie Goulding

I Love You - by Woodkid

Alive - by Sia

Elastic Heart - by Sia

Begging for Thread - by Banks

Howl - by Florence + The Machine

Outside - by Calvin Harris

Hollow - by Tori Kelly

Rumour Mill - by Rudimental 

Tenerife Sea - by Ed Sheeran

Kiss - by Ed Sheeran

Give Me Love - by Ed Sheeran

Everything Has Changed - by Taylor Swift

 Okay, now go make your own playlist!

Happy writing! <3
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The Stages of Writing

   Spring break has started and I plan on writing as much as possible before classes start again and tests prevent me from writing. It's been over a month since I've last written, maybe even longer, and it's only been 2 days but I'm finding it hard to get in "the groove." I keep putting my book down, telling myself that the plot is dumb and that the writing is terrible and I need to fix it. Every writer does this at some point while writing. What can you do to stop thinking about this? Well...

 Stage 1:  Just write. Don't reread what you wrote. You have your plot and ideas, now go for it! As a writer, if you read over your work as you write it, you will second guess yourself and end up working on changes instead of doing any actual writing, and that's not good. You need to focus on writing and finishing your book before you start editing.

 Stage 2:  You will overthink your writing/book even if you don't read over your work. You'll think your writing is terrible, the book idea is bad, the plot has too many holes to fix, and maybe you should just give up! No. Don't stop writing. You may think your book idea is bad but there is a reason why you wanted to write it and you should stick with it. And also, just because you think the book might be bad, doesn't mean that your readers won't like it. The most original stories sound terrible. Stick with it, finish your book and then get opinions on it.

 Stage 3:  Edit. Once you're finished writing your book, comes the horrible act of editing it. I highly suggest taking a few weeks off after finishing your book. Mark on your calendar when you plan to start editing and get to it! You're also going to feel like your book is really crappy and you should just stop what you're doing and give up on it. You'll think that it can't be fixed. It can though! It may take some time and several drafts but you can do it as long as you stick with it!

 Final Stage:  Start writing, again. Onward to write another book! The circle of writing!

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Keep Your Writing Up!

   So, I've been "missing" these last couple of weeks because I've been studying for midterms (which are finally over, thank God) so I haven't blogged, written, or have read much outside of school. In response, I thought it would be fitting to write about keeping up writing despite business.

 Writer's block or the problem of where there aren't enough hours in a day can interfere with writing. Maybe you work or go to school all day and, when you get home, all you feel like doing is going to bed instead of sitting down to write. It's understandable. We all do it at one time or another (more than once or write...or over a dozen times).

 But you need to get those creative juices flowing and sit down and write! Even if it's just for a few minutes. There have been dozens of times when I've sat down, only intending to write a few words, and then end up writing pages because I can't tear myself away from my work.

Write a little bit everyday, even if it's only a few words. You might not have time to immerse yourself in your novel for a few hours or have the ability to write a couple of pages--it's understandable. We all have those days where we just can't find the time. But you should at least write a few words. Set aside a few minutes to get a paragraph in (no, a sentence doesn't count), you will feel better for it.

Setting (weekly and monthly) goals for yourself can help with this. I find this very helpful. Don't make this an absolutely-set sort of thing, otherwise, you will get stressed, and stress and writing don't mix well. Unless if your character is in a tense/stressful situation, then by all means, get yourself hyped. Setting goals can help you get time in to write.

Do something that usually inspires you to write. Listen to music, read a few pages from one of your favorite books; just do something that will get you excited and inspired and cause you to feel that need to write! But don't spend too much time trying to get inspired. You could get distracted and decide that you don't have the time or don't feel like putting down that book that you're reading.

 I haven't been able to keep to these tips so maybe I'm not the best person to hear this from but I am generally pretty good about keeping to my writing schedules. I'm just trying to adjust to going to college while working. I'll have it figured out soon (I hope) and get back to writing and blogging regularly, but that's all for this week! Get writing!

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I'm Sorry

Sorry I haven't been around in the past few weeks but I just haven't had the time to blog. I haven't written outside of blogging or have read much either so it's not because I'm lazy; it is legitimately because I haven't had time. I've been taking quizzes and exams for multiple classes these last few weeks and have just finished taking mid-terms so--hopefully--I'm back!

I have a few draft blog posts but I'm not sure what kind of blog posts I want to do so I'm open to some ideas! Comment below what you would like me to blog about, or Tweet me @ashleyc_earley

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Transferring Word Count to Pages

   Here are some general word-count ranges that you can work by when writing your book. Depending on the genre of your book and age group, the word count will be different, as each genre has a specific word count requirement.

Adult novels are roughly 80,000 - 90,000 words in length.

Young adult novels are roughly 50,000 - 80,000 words in length. Even 80,000 is kind of pushing it so I would keep it a bit lower than that.

Middle Grade is 20,000 - 55,000 words, depending on the subject matter and age range.

Children's picture books are roughly 500 - 600 words. If you get too close to 1,000 words, publishers and agents will shy away.

Nonfiction books are usually 5,000 words.

50

But how does this transfer to paper? Well, it will depend on the format of your book document and the font, but if you have the margins arranged as 1 and the line spacing set for 1.5, then 60,000 words will be roughly 170 pages. So, that's about 353 words per-page.

Good luck with writing this week! <3
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Reader Copies

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I love guest posts and interviews and would love to participate in either if available! Please contact me at ashleycearley@gmail.com for availability.


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***Please note: at this time I am no longer accepting requests for physical copies. But I would be happy to send you a PDF version or an e-book in your preferred format.


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