Hi! I'm Lena.

[LenaMvx]

Hi!
I'm Lena, a 25-year-old French translator (from English to French). I've written since I was a kid but a few years ago decided to fully commit to it and am currently finishing my novel, a first book in a series of five (with three further connected series planned... I'm not gonna be bored any time soon). Although I grew up and live in France, I mainly write in English.

[Nether]

Welcome to the forgotten board, Lena.

Congrats on nearly finishing your first novel. I came back to writing a little under a year ago, and -- after never finishing anything in the past -- I'm nearing completion on the first draft of my seventh novel (assuming I can keep it under 80k words, which is looking iffy since I'm at 59 words now -- particularly since my shortest standalone novel so far was 88k words). So I know how much of a game-changer it is to finish a first novel. (And I also have a series planned out, for which I've written the first drafts for three novels.) I just need to get through my revisions before I start querying.

What part of France are you from? I've always kinda liked France, and sometimes thought of moving there.

Oh, and what genre(s) do you write in?

[LenaMvx]

Hi!
Thank you, yes I can see it's a little quiet, but that's ok
Congratulations on your seventh novel, that's amazing! Finishing is always the hardest isn't it... Sometimes it feels like there's too many ideas bouncing around to be quite sure how to end it. Can I ask why the limit at 80k words? I'm guessing it has to do with the genre you're working on? If it's any consolation, I'm definitely an overwriter; I just write and write and then cut thousands of words that are completely useless, so no judgement here. Awesome about your series! What genre is it in? Good luck with revisions, I'm sure it's going to go great.

I grew up in Provence, right between Avignon (you might know it as "The City of Popes"), and Valence, but now I leave in Toulouse. Well I for one very much like France, but after leaving after four years in London, I do miss England terribly every once in a while. Where are you from? My husband's English and his parents moved him to France when he was ten, there is quite a large population of British people - and occasionally Americans - in the west.

I mainly write fantasy; this novel is new adult. I have written contemporary before but definitely not my best suit. As far as fantasy goes this is a bit of political fantasy, some urban fantasy... I think there's probably some swords and sorcerers in there too. I'd like to write children's books one day but I'll have to find an illustrator, I draw like a three-year-old that can't colour within the lines. Stick figures are my best friends.

[Nether]

Hi!
Finishing is always the hardest isn't it...

I used to think that, but apparently it's the everything else that happens after you finish a draft. 

The revisions process seems more difficult than drafting a novel, and then begins the hard task of trying to get it published (or, in the case of self-publishing, the task of doing everything publishers usually handle, including marketing)

Can I ask why the limit at 80k words? I'm guessing it has to do with the genre you're working on?

Yeah, genre. Unfortunately with my first novel, I didn't learn about the quotas per genre until I was nearly done with the novel... and was already a bit over the quotas. It was YA, so it should be 60-80k, and it wound up being 102k. When I went to query it anyway, every rejection that listed a non-boilerplate reason noted the length.

Then I also didn't realize the age thing when it comes to YA, and set my protagonist's age at 14 for dramatic reasons (and to justify keeping the content a bit cleaner), but apparently that's right at the cusp which also makes it a harder sell.

Awesome about your series! What genre is it in?

YA paranormal thriller. I had said YA paranormal mystery (which may have also hurt me when querying), but mystery is a harder sell and technically it's more thriller than mystery. In the long-term, I'm thinking it might be 12-13 novels. The first three are more standalone with running continuity, the fourth (not yet drafted) novel is still roughly in that same vein although it sets up the next story arc, and then the next four would be more closely connected (culminating in a major event in book and then the next 3 books would deal with the aftermath, and the final book will be set some years after the previous events.

I'm planning on writing the series regardless of whether it gets trade-published. I write pretty quickly, so I'd still be writing and querying other stuff. The big problem is just critique partners, betas, etc, which take time.

Beyond that, I write horror, fantasy, and then YA horror and paranormal. The WIP wound up being YA since I decided to try writing first-person present tense and the tone just went there. At some point, I might try writing MG/YA fantasy. I had always planned on just staying within the adult space except for that one series, but certain elements of my writing style (such as an emphasis on dialogue) seem a better fit for YA.

Where are you from?

Various parts of America, mostly states on the East Coast.