Novella Challenge: Post-Derby Thoughts
If you’d told me last Christmas that I’d have written not one, but three books by the time the next year had rolled around, I would have laughed in your face. Seriously, right in your face. I never would have imagined that I would finish not only a novel (which still very much breathing on the shelf until I’m brave enough to edit it!) but also a collection of microfiction, and now a novella!
The truth is, I probably wouldn’t have dared to try this many projects at once if it weren’t for the Inkfort Press Publishing Derby.
I found the challenge by chance via the Reddit Serials Subreddit (where I post my weekly serial Emotiv), and fell in love with the concept right away.
The challenge goes something like this - after signing up you are assigned a book cover and a pen name. In the months that follow, you must write, edit, beta and self publish (and market!) a story that fits the title and image on that cover. The minimum word count is low, only 10,000 words, but many participants opt for longer novellas, and some even go to full length novels!
How it Went
Taking part in the Derby was a really nice way to get more comfortable on the RS discord server, but for me personally it was also a really nice way to try out a different genre. I don’t often write Romance, and the cover that I had lent itself nicely to a Fantasy with a Romantic subplot, so away I went! Drafting Sealkeeper was actually a lot easier than I expected it to be - partly because I was lucky enough to have been matched with one of my top picks, and partly becuase I was in a really good mental space for writing this summer.
The hard part came when I had to do developmental edits. Usually, i would give myself a month or two as a break before diving back in to edit a story, but I didn’t have that luxury on this project. The endless cycles of write, edit, beta, repeat got very tiring towards the end, so I didn’t end up with much energy left for marketing.
What I Learned
I thrive on deadlines, even when (or maybe because) the stakes are low. There was nothing to lose if I didn’t finish this project. Nobody was holding a knife to my throat, or threatening my income. I voluntarily signed myself up and got myself exicted about the project, and it worked! Sealkeeper has become one of my favourite stories I’ve written so far. True, I say that about all my stories and I love them all…. but it’s my favourite. For the time being, at least.
What I haven’t figured out yet is whether the low stakes made a difference. I feel like sometimes I procrastinate takss which actually have high stakes or repurcussions, whereas tasks and projects with lower urgency feel less threatening to me, so I just get them done. Then again, the opposite can also be true. I’m participating in NaNoWriMo for the first time this month to test this theory - low stakes, but a project I can get excited over. Will I finish?
Would I Do it Again?
In a heartbeat. Not only was the lottery-like process of cover allocation super fun, it was also a really nice opportunity to learn, to explore ideas and to do it all without fear of judgement or bias. You conduct yourself entirely anonymously throughout the whole projkect, and are not allowed to spend any money on marketing etc, so it becomes an almost level playing field, where you can learn from each other and give honest feedback. You choose at the end of the project whether you want to ‘out yourself’ and claim your pen name, or stay anonymous and keep writing under that pen name.