Seriously, though, you should take a risk!

March is probably going to be a pretty sad month to be my blog (so it's a good thing you're just reading it and you're not actually my blog!).  I've got a lot of grad school.job search stuff going on, while trying to Beta a bunch of awesome manuscripts AND I'm trying to finish up my Star Wars mash-up retelling (and yes, what I'm retelling is still a secret! Sorryyyyyy!).

But before I go on my sad hiatus, I've got one thing to discuss with you (well, technically I have two, but my second discussion will be a guest post on a friend's blog soon!).

Today I'd like to get back on my soapbox and scream at you to take a risk.

Have you taken it yet?  I'll wait.

Done?

Okay.

Here's why I think you should go out and do something that scares you:
When you're successful at whatever it is, you'll feel awesome.

And, even if you fail, you'll still feel awesome.

Unless your risky thing was cliff-diving, and somehow you hit the water wrong and...yeah, okay, don't perform any risky things that might result in physical harm.

My risky thing was this Star Wars mash-up retelling WiP.  Over winter break I was watching a Star Wars marathon on Spike and decided that I really wanted to write a story set in space.  The retelling piece happened shortly after I decided I wanted to do the space thing, and from the very end of December until the beginning part of February I drafted all day every day (when I wasn't at work or in class).

By the time February rolled around, I left on a jet plane to go to NYC, had to write my pseudo-thesis, and had work stuff to do.  Somehow I still fit drafting in there, and right now it's sitting at a comfortable 70K. I still have to write the ending, but it'll be done in a couple of weeks and I'm excited for a few reasons.

1. I'll finally be able to talk about my retelling. a handful of people right now know what it is, and I really just want to be obnoxious and talk about the source material and how/why my retelling deviates from the original novel.  And maybe analyze the source material a little bit, 'cause there's a LOT in there.

2. My grand experiment in third person will be able to rest for a little while.

This second point is the more important of the two.

Before I started this story, I'd only ever written in first person POV. My first book was narrated by a pretty kick-ass Cinderella (in first present) and ASTRAL is a dual first-person POV (present-tense also).

This story is third person past-tense.  So, pretty much something I'd never done and had no idea if I could pull it off.  I've sent Part 1 to a few CPs and a couple of my non-writing Betas, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.  I'm very, very proud of this story and I think it'll be pretty awesome when I'm done with it!

But I'm also proud of myself for taking that 3rd person past-tense risk in the first place!  I've learned so much through drafting, but the best part of this whole process was learning that I can do something if I really want to.  And, not only can I do it, but I can succeed pretty well at whatever I need to!

MUCH LOVE AND MANY THANKS TO:
Julia, who showed me what 3rd person deep POV looked like and helped me figure it out!
Elodie, for being one of my retelling experts, and freaking out over this thing as much as I have!
Jamie, who also freaked out about this story and was subjected to reading the story when I started it in the wrong place :P
Jeannette, who will probably point out the places that I'm relying on too much info from my retelling, and for freaking out too!

Looking back on it, I've freaked quite a few people out (hopefully in a good way!)

Right then, the love fest is done.  Just like this blog post. So go out there and take that risk! You won't be disappointed!

And you might feel like this :)