233 days. That's how many days it's been since I started this journey to the Wattys. What started as an idea to write a new story on February 11th of this year turned into the brainstorming and planning of a story I had been planning to write for a while. It was exciting. It motivated me.

I spent the next few months plotting, outlining, and researching. Time seemed to be on my side. Even with COVID-19 causing havoc in our world, the ability to work from home allowed me to save time otherwise spent on other aspects of life. It seemed like a win-win and the perfect time to dive into a new literary adventure.

However, sometimes things don't always go according to plan. Life took a different turn, and I ended up spending several months on house remodeling and other things related to my family. By the time I started writing, my effort was essentially already doomed, and by the time July 1 rolled around, I knew I had to abandon The Departure Protocol and shift my focus to other things.

I've spent the time since then, on and off, editing Intervention. One would think three months would be plenty of time, but again, situations that have arisen because of COVID-19 derailed even those plans. As I'm writing this, I only got through a fraction of the story.

But, it doesn't matter. Intervention as well as The Descent have both been submitted to the Wattys with a day to spare.

The question then is, if my original plan did not succeed, wasn't this whole Road to Wattys an abject failure?

No, of course not.

Why not?

First of all, I have one of the best outlines to a story I've ever created. As a pantser, I've always abhored outlining. I always felt it was tiresome and didn't fit my writing style. However, as I dove into the world of The Departure Protocol, I discovered that even a pantser can find freedom in a good outline and proper research. I intend to use this to improve this aspect of my writing even further and, of course, better plan all my future stories.

Second, as a result of the above, I'm in an excellent position to write the story I have planned. I can sit down at any moment and write. Before I stopped in July, I got as far as chapter 4. I'm excited about the prospect of getting back into this story. In fact, I may dedicate November and NaNoWriMo to this project instead. We'll see.

Third, I've rediscovered Intervention and the reason I wrote it in the first place. I've rediscovered the characters, their motivations, the world that I built and the conflicts I concocted. It's been very satisfying to go back and refine what I could, make it better, to take the feedback offered by my peers and let the world come alive even more. In that sense, I'm excited about the story again and the prospect of editing it. There's a lot of work to be done still. However, I'm also excited about the sequel that I started plotting last year, a story that I now feel needs to be written at some point. Having spent this time plotting The Departure Protocol, I feel better prepared for jumping into this new story as well

What else? Well, the obvious: be flexible. Even perfect plans can go sideways, be prepared to go with the flow.

Now, it's a waiting game. The Descent was shortlisted once before but I didn't have the time to work on that story the way I wanted to. Intervention got a little bit of a refresher but it's still rough around the edges and it's a story I'll keep working on, Watttys or not. Whether any of them get close to winning, who knows. I did my best and that's all I can really ask of myself.

As for this story, it's not complete yet. It won't be until the Wattys are announced. I may do periodic posts while waiting for the Wattys. We'll see. For now, if you also submitted your story to the Wattys, I'd like to wish you the best of luck! You put in the work to have a complete story, you deserve a shot at recognition! I hope to see YOUR story as one of the winners (alongside my own, of course ;).) Good luck!

If you submitted one of yours to the Wattys, please do share!