Blog | Abbie Lynn Smith
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Author Updates!

Hey everyone! I’ve got a lot of fun stuff to pass along, so bear with me!

I recently did a complete redesign of my website, to include my own domain name: abbielynnsmith.com! It’s still the same site, but now it is more streamlined and has a clear design! You can also click on the “Newsletter” link to stay up to date with the latest news and events! Be sure to check your spam if you do not receive a welcome email right away. I will only send those out with news and events, so please know I have no intention of spamming you!

I have AUTHOR PAGES! As a long time writer only dreaming of publication, I always wondered what it would be like to officially have pages on Amazon and Goodreads, and let me tell you, it’s so COOL. You can follow me on either platform by clicking the above links.

Of note, I am publishing currently under my pen name: A. Smith. This is because Guns & Smoke is going to be self-published, and I wanted to differentiate my self-published works from anything I may traditionally publish in the future. If the traditional route doesn’t go as planned, then I will revisit this. Until then, feel free to follow me on both platforms!

Guns & Smoke, my co-authored project with Lauren Sevier, is available to add on Goodreads! We are currently deep in the developmental edit stage. Next month, we plan to hold a cover reveal! The book is publishing in July, so be on the lookout for preorder and other fun stuff along the way!

Some other fun Guns & Smoke related stuff:

  1. We are looking for beta readers! If you’re interested, please go to the following link to sign up! Sign ups will close around January 13th: Beta Reader Sign Up

  2. If you have a bookish blog or social media account and you want to take part in our book cover reveal tour, please go here to sign up.

I’ve joined TikTok! Well, I’ve had the account for forever, but I just recently started posting author content there. As with all of my social media accounts, my TikTok handle is @abbiewritesx! Please follow me on that platform as well!

I’m really excited for this year!! Already, 2021 has been much better than 2020. Look for more content here and by signing up for my newsletter! I will continue to post book reviews and other fun writerly content.

To end, what’s a blog post without pictures of my fur babies?



Thanks for reading, Abbie

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NaNoWrimo 2020: Wrap Up




For the five years that 2020 has lasted, I find it hard to believe that the year is almost over! It feels like just yesterday, it was Halloween. Now we’ve moved right into Christmas season, and I have to admit, the last thing I want to do is decorate. It’s been a tough year. I’m really glad that it’s almost over.

In my last blog update, I outlined that I wanted to write an adult fantasy novel. The normal goal for NaNo is 50,000, but I set my goal slightly higher than that at 75,000. Another personal goal was that I wanted to see if I could write a project that was entirely one perspective. Too often, I’ve leaned on having multiple perspectives to get my word counts up. I challenged myself to do 75,000 of just one character.

If I’m being honest, that was a very scary to me.

What if I couldn’t do it? What if my main character wasn’t well rounded enough or interesting enough to write that many words? What if, like last year, I started hot and immediately flopped within a couple of days?

Imposter syndrome, am I right?

So? Did I do it?

I started NaNo a few days early. I was scheduled to have a small surgical procedure done within the first week of November, and given that this was my first ever surgery, I didn’t know how I would do. I gave myself a little breathing room so that in case things went south, I’d be able to get back into the swing of things. So before November 1, I wrote 12,000 words.

I kept up with the daily minimum until my surgery. And even for a couple of days after, I wrote a word or two, just to be able to log in and get that coveted badge of updating my word count every day. Yeah, that didn’t happen.




Though it was a small procedure, surgery knocked me on my butt for a week. By the end of that week, I still wasn’t 100% myself, but I knew if I didn’t jump back into the manuscript, I was going to lose. I didn’t want to lose. I struggled at first, but I managed to get caught up to my minimum counts (2,500 each day). I’ve always struggled with the second act of a story leading up to the midpoint. That was the same here. It felt like the story was barely moving along.

Then I hit the midpoint.

And I wrote 15,000 words in a single weekend.

While it was completely exhausting, it was also absolutely exhilarating to just be able to sit and write and not worry about anything else. With COVID all around us, I’ve opted to staying at home even more than usual (which is a lot, considering that I am a homebody), and it made it easier for me to get my words done.

I also found that it was easier to bang out my words right after I got home from work, instead of waiting until later in the evening.

And now, for the finale: I finished NaNo on Thanksgiving (another almost 10,000 word day!), and came in right at 75,000 words.




Honestly, first drafts are always crap. It’s in the revisions that you find the story and refine the characters, but I have to say, I am really happy with most of it.

I haven’t written an entirely new project in nearly five years. I’d forgotten what it was like for a story to take over and the characters to do things on their own. If this gets picked up, I have a main character for the second book that showed up in book one when I never even planned for it. I had a big character reveal planned for the ending, but guess what? It happened at the midpoint, because it felt natural for the characters to do those things when they did. I love drafting solely because it’s fun to watch characters jump off of the page.

However, drafting is hard if you haven’t prepped, and let me tell you, I prepped. I wouldn’t have made it through 50K, much less 75K if it weren’t for all of the prep work I did in October and November. I built the world, I read Save the Cat!, I explored the lore and religion behind the main character. I read comparative titles (From Blood & Ash being one of them). If I hadn’t done all of that, there is no way I would have finished.

One key takeaway for me: taking a couple of mental health days is OKAY! I used to beat myself up each day that I didn’t feel like writing, but even during NaNo, there were a couple of times that I needed a break from writing, from life, from everything. I still managed to get my words. I can only push so hard for so long, and I am so glad that I took that time, because I feel like the work wouldn’t have been as good if I hadn’t. I’m not the type to write just to write. I want to write with purpose, and if I wasn’t feeling a scene or a story, I didn’t write. I wasn’t going to force it.

All of that said: what’s next?

That’s a great question! I’m so glad you asked.

I have two other projects: Halflife and Guns & Smoke.

Halflife has been the bane of my existence for so long. It’s a great project and has a lot of potential, but I feel like I truly need to step away from it. Honestly, I feel like the project would work better as a TV show, mainly because of its ensemble cast and the visual elements that are hard to write into novels. There’s also SO much to cover. I think I may try to write a pilot script just to see if I can do it at some point, but this is not a high priority.




Now…Guns & Smoke has deadlines. Currently, my co-author is completing her developmental edits on the draft. Once those are done, I am hunkering down to go through them. It’s going to be very busy for me once she’s done, but I am so looking forward to getting out of 2020!

And now, time for the reveal of my 2020 Christmas Card! I couldn’t get all of my fur babies to cooperate in a single photo, so I went with these adorable shots! Thanks for following along! Here’s to 2021!

Abbie

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Carry On

My content here is usually all books and writing, but I felt the need to share my thoughts and feelings about one of the my favorite shows ending after fifteen seasons–Supernatural.

I wasn’t an original fan. Honestly, I thought the show would have a silly spin since it was on the CW, but a friend introduced me to it and I was hooked!

So after ten years of being a loyal fan and enjoying the finale, I get online and see the commentary of fans who claimed to be a part of the #SPNFamily spewing off about the finale…and it really bothered me.

The second to last episode of season 15 was amazing. It brought the penultimate fight to the precipice–SPOILER: The good guys won!–and ended with a beautiful montage celebrating fifteen (FIFTEEN!!) years of storytelling. I would have 100% been happy with that ending, because that was the ending the fans deserved. To ride off into the sunset with your best friend in “Baby” and call it a day.

The finale episode is the one Sam & Dean deserved.

Can you imagine working on a show for fifteen years? A show that never would have survived after seasons six and seven if not for its fiercely loyal fanbase? Only to have fans moan and groan because this happened or that didn’t happen.

The final episode of Supernatural was true to the characters.

MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD, DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE FINAL EPISODE OF SUPERNATURAL

When you think about the characters logically, it makes 100% sense that Sam would stick with Dean through anything. It also makes 100% sense that Dean would die doing what he loved–“Saving People, Hunting Things”–and that he would make Sam promise to continue on (“ALWAYS KEEP FIGHTING”). It makes sense that Sam would eventually settle down–that is all that Sam ever wanted prior to Dean showing up in his dorm fifteen years ago. He wanted a normal life. And some fans claim he gave up hunting, but Sam’s son (Dean!!) had gotten the anti-possession tattoo just like his father and uncle! This proves to me that he passed on his legacy to his son, even if the show didn’t completely spell it out. We’ve seen on the show that it’s possible to have somewhat of a normal life–something Sam would have NEVER had if Dean lived.

On the other side of things, Dean got his happily ever after too! Him and Baby, on the open road forever in Heaven. How can you be mad about that?

Oh yeah, because you wanted Destiel. Look, y’all. I’m all for LGBTQ+ representation. Please, give me ALLLLLL of the gays. Representation is severely lacking in the mainstream media, but you can’t force things to happen in shows, no matter how much subtext is underneath. You got the “I Love You” moment before Castiel went away. Dean was always a fiercely heterosexual man. He loved Cas like a brother, not a lover. This is why FanFiction is a thing. Write to your heart’s content! Give them the ending you wanted!

Another complaint I’m seeing is that Castiel wasn’t in the finale. That’s sort of the point. The finale brought the show full circle, back to its basics of two brothers saving people and hunting things.

Supernatural started with Sam and Dean. It ended with Sam and Dean. That’s how it should have been all along.

Oh, and be glad Kripke wasn’t in charge of the finale, he’s already stated that it wouldn’t have been a happy one.

I hate that some people are comparing this to the Game of Thrones ending. Believe me, as a writer, nothing is as bad as that garbage! (#JusticeforDany)

All of this to say that the final two episodes made me laugh and then ugly cry (over and over and over again!). Dean has probably the most beautiful speech he’s ever given as he’s dying, but it still brings it back to the core of Supernatural: Sam & Dean. Brothers. Family for life, and Always Keep Fighting. It was a beautiful ending and the ending that they deserved.

That’s all. I look forward to rewatching the show in ten years, when this has all died down and I can revisit all fifteen seasons all over again.

Thanks for reading! More bookish content is on its way. 🙂

Abbie

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