A Self-Reward

Laura Highcove

I am a super fan of self-rewarding myself. I have already planned on finding a resturant that serves dry-aged beef for when I land an agent. I have also given myself other smaller rewards, like I get to go to Bdubs for finishing NaNoWriMo (food is a common reward), or I get to read a book for an hour after finishing my writing for the day. Bribery is an important part of my writing process and it works well for me.

Last September I bought my reward for finishing The Huntsman. The plan back then was to pound out the whole novel for NaNoWriMo. That ended up not being something I was able to achieve. So that reward is still waiting in a little gold box until I finish my rough draft. My new plan is to have it done by the end of May. I’ll post a picture of my reward when I get to give it to myself.

A Challenge Overcome

Laura Highcove

I’ve overcome a number of challenges as a writer. One would be the act of completing a novel, which is impressive, but was my answer for the ‘a dream achieved’ post, so it would be cheating to use it again.

I have lots of little challenges that I have overcome and even more that I have to keep overcoming, like doubt and a lack of time. But I think the most important thing is to acknowledge the challenges as I conquer them (big and small) and then look forward to the next one.

The challenge I am involved in right now is writing The Huntsman, the sequel to The Storyteller, and it has been difficult. I’ve read from some authors how each book can be a completely different type of beast to tackle, but somehow I had assumed that my process would be at least similar. The Storyteller, I wrote pretty linearly in two months, revised for a year, rewrote the second half of the book, revised for another year and I had a novel.

The Huntsman I have been jumping around all over the place since November of last year. I have rewritten scenes from scratch three or four times, and I still don’t have my ending written out yet. (I have an idea what it is at least.)

Now I can at least look at The Storyteller and remind myself that yes, I really can do this, so that helps with the doubt. At the same time I was hoping to be one of those efficient writers who doesn’t take years to put out each book. And maybe one day I will be. Right now, I’m still focusing on overcoming my current challenge.

My Most Recent Five-Star Read

Laura Highcove

I am rather sparse with my five-star ratings. I have to actually think to myself ‘I am so glad this book exists’ or ‘this book is so great’ to myself several times during the reading of the book for it to qualify for five stars. As such I don’t have a ton of them.

I went to check goodreads, where I record how I feel about a book so I don’t have to remember. 😀 Off the top of my head I thought my last five star rated book was Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, but it turns out it was Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron. Rachel Aaron is the author of the Eli Monpress series which was also five star rated by me a long while ago. At some point I was like ‘I remember this author, has she put anything out since then?’ and lo and behold she had. I just seem to jive with her writing style.

So far I only have read two authors who have multiple five-star rated books I’ve read, that is Rachel Aaron and, of course, Brandon Sanderson.

Fan Love

Laura Highcove

I don’t think I have any real fans yet. I have plenty of friends who support me and would buy my book when published, but I have not managed to snag any fans through the power of my writing yet.

I would like to think that when I have fans, I will be a graceful and benevolent author. I suppose only time will tell.

What I Do Besides Writing

Laura Highcove

I have a number of other hobbies outside of writing. I work at a horse barn part time and I currently own two horses and ride somewhat regularly.



I am rather creative outside of writing as well, and I like crafts of various kinds including painting miniatures for my table top gaming (another hobby), crochet, and newbie attempts at creating gourd lamps.



I also play video games (though far fewer than I used to), watch/read the occasional anime/manga, and I love well-written TV and flashy movies.

A Dream Achieved

Laura Highcove

Finishing a novel was one of my most important writing goals/dreams. The Storyteller is the first story I’ve written that is actually complete as a story. That’s not to say it’s perfect, but it’s as good as my current talents are able to produce. I wrote it, revised it, fixed all the plot holes, had two sets of beta readers, went through tons of drafts.

Now an agent might be interested in it and they might not. My next goal is to do the same thing again, only better.

Bookish Bucket List

Laura Highcove

I had a lot of trouble with this prompt. I have never been much of a bucket list kind of person. I mean I always wanted to go on a cruise and see clear blue water. (Did that one.) And one day I want to go to Germany and possibly Japan, but it’s more that I want to be active. I don’t want to just allow myself to stagnate.

When it comes to my writing I don’t have a bucket list. Sure I’d love to get a book published, I’d love to have fans, and I’d like to make money, but I don’t really see those as items on a bucket list because I have no control over any of them.

The only thing I have control over in my writing career is whether or not I write and whether or not I do my best to improve my craft. And yet those are not really things to go on a bucket list, those are just ever present goals. I may be nit picking the definition of ‘bucket list’ a little bit here, but that’s really how I feel.

Researching

Laura Highcove

I really don’t like research. I wouldn’t say that I write fantasy because I dislike researching the real world, but I don’t doubt that it’s a bit of a factor. The amount of time and effort that can go into minute details that may only come up once, but to which people will latch because of human’s intense desire to be right and/or prove other people wrong. The more stuff I just make up, the less things people can point at and tell me I’m wrong.

However, technically the Storyteller came about because I was doing “research” into fairy tales. And by research I mean I was reading obscure fairy tales. I landed on The Little Wildrose and realized the eagle could be a gryffin, and that was the last spark I needed in order to jump start that book.

I have found some other things that I enjoyed researching. I love reading about Norse Mythology, whether or not the novel I did that research for becomes more than a trunk novel. I have also looked into sociopaths because I find that particular mental affliction interesting as someone who is entirely too sensitive of the emotions of others. And recently I have become interested in mushrooms for a world I’m playing around with that has no sun. Not super deep into that one yet.

There have been story ideas that I’ve ignored because the research I would need to do in order to write the book seems too tedious. I think the big thing is finding something I’m interested in enough to be willing to put in the time.

My Beta Readers

Laura Highcove

So with The Storyteller, I had my first real set of beta readers. It was the first time I ever had a complete book to hand to anyone. I was really happy with the people who agreed to beta read my book and it was a tong of fun to be able to see each of their personalities reflected in the notes they gave me.

Overall it was a wonderful learning experience and I am so grateful for each and every one of them. The feedback I got back was really invaluable. And I know how time intensive it is to read a novel, but they did that as well as giving me feedback on it. I love them all.