Audely Bensen Writes

Last week I participated in Tasha Harrison's #20kin5days challenge. I was very unsure about participating in this challenge. I put out in to the world that I was going to do it, but then had some doubts: I wanted to write a new story but didn't have an outline fleshed out, I had too much to do revising for my AMM submission, I was too busy at work.  So I decided to shelve the idea and participate in the next quarter. And then the night before the challenge started, Tasha posted a prep guide. In this prep guide, she wrote something that she probably didn't mean to be this impactful; she instructed us to set the timer for 1 hour and write.  I'd just come home from my first session with a new therapist, and had a half of an idea percolating around in my mind. So I followed the instructions. I sat down, set the timer, and just wrote.  By the end of the hour, I'd cried harder than I've cried in ages and had a full outline.  The next day, I decided to continue f...

This is my public declaration that I am officially throwing myself (bodily) in to the ring/goblet/hat as an Author Mentor Match round 7 hopeful!  As someone who recently organized my google drive, I have to admit that while I've only considered myself to be writing "seriously" for about two years, I've been doing this for ... a while.  I've participated in at least one Nano Camp every year since 2012.  Of those, I've written "the end" on five full novels and one novella.  I've queried two of those novels and the novella, and while the rejections have been very encouraging, they've all still been rejections.   After spending about a year and a half working on the same WIP over and over and over, I decided it was time for something new.   Currently, I'm working on a lower-YA fantasy in which a pair of 14-year olds with strange powers fight to save their town, while trying to find their places in it.  Featuring giant centipedes,...

It took me a while to compile my reading stats for last year, because one of my closest friends made me a beautiful hand-bound book journal for the year, which I kept up religiously ... which meant I did not update Goodreads at all.  I finally got all my reviews in today, and am interested by my reading history! For one thing, the amount that I read was way skewed towards the beginning of the year.  I think there are two things that contributed to this.  First off, I moved in August.  I barely read anything in July as I started packing and slowing transitioning my things over, and din't read at all in August, while we unpacked and got accustomed to the new place.  August was also incredibly hectic at work. Second, I really dug in to writing this fall.  I still read, but not at my usual volume while participating in writing challenges like Nano.  I also read a lot more thick fantasy novels later in the year, which also contributed to the decline ...

Tomorrow is January 10th - also known as the first day of both the Winter Writing Festival AND the kickoff of the 20Kin5days challenge .  On top of that, there are 35 days until the submission window opens for the next round of Author Mentor Match. I've participated in the Winter Writing Festival for the last 2 years , and I have to say it's probably been the biggest instigator in moving me along my writing journey. Without the WWF to keep in my my seat, I probably would never have discovered the 5am Writing Club, or developed any of the habits that have lead to finished drafts. For the last week I've been planning on postponing my participation on the 20Kin5days challenge. I really wanted to use that challenge to draft something totally new.  I debated using the 5 day period to work on my current WIP, but I'm worried if I push that hard on a project that I can't finish, that I'll burn myself out on it.  I have 45,000 more words to revise in my current WIP,...

This series first came across my desk in a used bookstore's annual clearance sale. I spent $3 for this whole series - or at least, what I believed to be the whole series.  While the first book, The Serpent Bride, reads pretty well as a stand-alone, by the second book it's clear that many of these characters are repeat characters. Much of the backstory is vague in a way that makes the reader feel they're expected to know it - as if there was a prequel as well as a whole separate same-world series preceding them. The second book, Twisted Citadel, is where this story gets a little too Game-of-Thrones-y for my taste. Structurally, every couple chapters we hop across the world to another location. Within that scene we're in any number of character's POVs. At any given moment there are a ton of things happening and competing priorities across dozens of characters. I did appreciate that each set of side characters could, for a hundred pages or so, become almost as imp...

Wow. I knew that I'd dropped the ball on blogging, but I didn't realize that I'd left it all the way back in 2018. As always, I'm hoping to get back on the blogging track this year.  We'll see if that happens - best laid plans and all that. January 2019 - February 2019 : I participated in the Ruby Slipper Sisterhood's Winter Writing Festival for a second year. I tried using beat sheets for the first time, and tried to summarize all the pintresty-internet advise in to one massive spreadsheet. February 2019 - July 2019: I wrapped up the summer with a massive 143,700 word draft - too massive for YA fiction.  I discovered the 88 Cups of Tea podcast, which became my favorite thing to listen to while cooking dinner. August 2019 : I went deep in to articles about plot links, and spent a lot of time moving my outline from excel spreadsheets, to paper clippings taped to the wall, to scapple outlines.  I sent my last draft to my very first non-friend beta reade...