teamTEENauthor: Breaking Up

I was sixteen when I started dating my first boyfriend, and we were together for a year and a half–breaking up right before we graduated from high school. A year and a half felt like forever, and a lot of it was great, but by spring of my senior year, I was unhappy.

I thought about breaking up a lot. And every time I did, I thought about all the good things about my boyfriend, and about being in a relationship in general. I always decided it was worth it, but the unhappiness spread. It crept into everything. It made even the good things miserable.

So one day I’d had enough of being unhappy. We got into a fight and I decided I was done. I’d said it before, but for the first time, I meant it, and we both knew the difference.

And then something happened that I didn’t expect. I’d expected to feel worse, but I didn’t. I felt better. Lots better. Peaceful and happy and like I was really done with all the things that made me unhappy. And while my ex did lots of things after that that made me lividly mad and then eventually we became the acquaintance kind of friends, never, never did I think it would have been better if we’d stayed together

And that’s when I learned this important truth: it is better to be alone than to be in a bad relationship. It’s better to make a scary change than it is to be unhappy.

Want to read what other teamTEENauthor members have to say about breaking up? Read on!

E.C. Myers
Hilary Weisman Graham
Elizabeth Amisu

Nano Wrapup

So, I “did” Nano. I started writing a brand new novel on November 1st (largely because I finished my new outline on October 31st).

And in November I wrote 9,500 words, which is slim for me in a normal drafting month. So much for Nano.

November also held a teething baby, a flu, a cold, and a whole bunch of drama. But really, I didn’t write 50k because I didn’t take it seriously. When the goal of every day of my life is to write words, it’s really hard to get more dedicated to it than I already am. So, 9.5k instead of 50.

I’m not upset about it, though, because about 8k of those words are really good words that I’m going to get to keep. I’ve already written the emotional heart of the story, and it’s solid. That gives me a powerful foundation for writing the rest, which is a great accomplishment for any month. (The other 1.5k is the first chapter. I’m going to have to write that again, as always.)

So I failed at Nano but won at life. I’m okay with that.

(And I still hope to have this book done by the end of December, which was always the real goal. That means I have to write four times as many words this month. Better get cracking.)