Working on draft 2.5 of Wish You Were Here

[owlectomy]

21,000 / 40,000 (52.5%)

That it's draft 2.5 means that there are parts that are going very quickly--cutting-and-pasting, with a little bit of time for adjusting the prose--and there are parts that need to be reshuffled or rewritten or written new. But I'm optimistic about getting a final draft in time for the Delacorte Press YA novel contest deadline, which is sometime in December.

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

Exciting! Can you post a little bit more about it for those of us relatively new around here?

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

I haven't been posting many details about it even when I was first writing it, because it's the first novel I've written that's set entirely in the real world and it made me anxious, basically, that there are a handful of autobiographical details in what is really not an autobiographical book. But these days I'm feeling braver thanks to having a few chapters vetted by my friend from high school.

It's about Cassandra, who is sixteen and dealing with the death of her best friend, Julia. This is hard enough, but Cass isn't really sure how she felt about Julia--whether her feelings were platonic or romantic. And then Julia's boyfriend decides to put on a production of the musical Julia wrote before she died-- "Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad"-- and casts, of all people, Cass's arch-nemesis in the lead. The one who, in middle school, spread rumors about Cass being a lesbian.

It's too much to take. So Cass decides to follow her original summer plans of a cross-country road trip with Julia. Even if she has to do it on her bike, and even if Julia's ashes are coming along in Tupperware.

[littlebutfierce]

That sounds really fun & interesting!! Good luck w/it.