[Savannah] in Wonderland is FIVE.

Five.
Years.
Of.
This.
Blog.

Talk about things that grow with you.

On January 7, 2019, my blog turned five years old. FIVE. I remember the day I created this little internet space: I created a blog while we were in Disneyworld on my dad's birthday. I even did some graphic design, too. The very first color scheme I had was pink and blue. The blog has gone through quite a bit of style changes since then, but I'm always happy to try new things with this blog's layout.

For some fun, here are some of the header/logo of the past:

Peach (2017)

Neon pink and Holo (Early 2018)

Teal and Holo (Late 2018)

Teal, Holo, & Ombre (Present Day!)

These days, I'm rocking the blue and teal ombre with holographic glitter (because I'm Savannah and that's what I do). The colors are based on my favorite combination of hair colors I've ever had: the blue and teal ombre underlights I got last year. After wearing them in my hair for a few months, I grew to love this color scheme, so I figured I'd transition those colors from my hair to my corner of the internet.

My hair is fully blonde again, but I'm so glad I went on such a fun hair color adventure in 2018.

I wanted to write a quick little update to let you know that A) I'm still here, and 2) I've been super busy. But I mainly wanted to let y'all know that I'm still here.

This blog has seen me through SO much of my life, from college to writing my second novel (Oh, yeah, I partook in NaNoWriMo again...and won!) And I intend to keep this blog around, so don't you worry...plenty more adventures are coming. :)

Happy 2019! See you soon! And stay awesome.

A Quick Weekend in New York City

It's been awhile since I've been to New York. I know it was before I self-published my first short story - which takes place in New York - but if I recall right, the last time I visited was when I was about to be a sophomore in college. So...it was 2012. 6 years ago. Wow.

But anyway, it was good to be back in this city again, even it was for a little while.

So, cue the highlights.

The Burger Joint

It's become tradition for my family and I to go to this burger place whenever we come to the city, even when it's super late at night. That's exactly what we did; we got into New York very late, and within 30 minutes, we were at this super secretive, super cool, super delicious burger shop.

It's behind the check-in desk at the Parker New York. Just follow the burger sign, turn a corner, and you're there.

The only things on the Burger Joint's menu are hamburgers, cheeseburgers, grilled cheeses, and fries by the paper bag. And, yes, the burgers are delicious.

Norma's

Hey, Sav, you may be asking me, Haven't you talked about Norma's before? Isn't it in California? Well, yes. There is a Norma's in Palm Springs, and yes, I've raved about it. But there is a Norma's in New York with a slightly different menu, but guys. It's SO good. I got the nutella and fruit crepes.

Keep in mind that if you do visit New York and want to try Norma's, make sure you get an OpenTable reservation. They don't take anything else.

Ground Zero

Last, but certainly not least, we went to Ground Zero, also known as the September 11 memorial.

We had never been to this part of New York before. But this place holds even more significance for me because I remember where I was the day 9/11 happened.

I was 9 years old, and I was in a homeschool group at the YMCA. We had just finished our gym period, and were about to start arts and crafts. When we went into the arts and crafts room, they had the scene on TV: two towers burning. A plane had just crashed.

It was somber to visit the place where so much tragedy happened, but it was so nice to see how the city gave back to the families who lost loved ones that day. They place roses on the names of the victims around the fountain that marks where the old towers were on their birthdays. A whole entire mall was built (the white building shown below) to symbolize peace and tranquility in a place that must bring back hard memories.

And on top of that, they are rebuilding a second tower next to the new One World Trade Center. This shows how strong of a city New York is, and how they aren't letting the tragic actions of seventeen years ago keep them from being even more unified in the future.

Thanks for reading my recap of New York! Have you been to this city lately? What is your favorite part of NYC?

ATX Travel Guide || Packing, Food, Shopping

Austin, Texas.

This was a place that I'd wanted to visit for a long time. I finally got to go this past May with Mom for Wild for Planners' Go Wild conference. This was the same conference I attended in New Orleans, and I got to go to that same conference in my home state last year, so it was cool to finally get the chance to go to Texas.

In short: I love Austin. A lot.

In this post, I want to tell y'all how I packed for Texas (and what stuff worked), the food we tried, and the shops we loved.

How to Pack for ATX

First, before we start, I have to say I love writing out ATX. Tennessee really doesn't have any abbreviations like that, except for maybe Nashvegas.

But, anyway, let's talk packing. Texas weather is like Florida weather, meaning that it can change at the drop of a hat. If any of y'all have traveled to Florida and experienced their random, short pop-up showers, the exact same thing happens deep in the heart of Texas, too. (And that song reference was totally intentional.)

So, that being said, Texas this time of year was mostly what you'd expect: pretty hot. It got up to 89 degrees at one point, so I was thankful for sleeveless blouses and dresses. The only thing I would change is that I'd pack pairs of shorts next time.

Food!

It's true what they say about Austin being known for its food. Mom and I didn't find a restaurant that we didn't like.

Here are the two places we kept coming back to:

• Torchy's Tacos: We. Love. Torchy's. These tacos are easily the best I've ever had, and I wish that we had a location back home. This is a taco restaurant that has unique tacos, from fried avocado (my and Mom's favorite) to catfish (my other favorite), to jerk chicken (my mom's other favorite beside the fried avocado), and so much more. In fact, I got so good at ordering what I wanted that somebody asked me if I was a local. But, y'all, these are good tacos. Also, try the hillbilly queso (queso dip with chorizo and guacamole) and the street corn.

• South Congress Cafe: Just down the street from our hotel (and the Torchy's location we visited) was this awesome brunch spot. I got the Crab Benedict with chipotle hollandaise sauce (I love spicy stuff), and Mom got a shortrib hash that was awesome, too.

Shopping!

While we were busy with Go Wild, we did have some time to shop, too. 

Here are the shops we loved:

• MODCLOTH!: I finally, finally got to visit Modcloth's flagship Fit Shop. A Fit Shop basically means that while I could try on any of the clothes, I had to have them shipped since all they typically have in stock clothes-wise is the items to try on (i.e. they had each size to try on and that's it). But it was the coolest to actually try on clothes from and visit a store that I'd been buying clothes from for years.
• Erin Condren: I bought a planner from the Erin Condren flagship store! I'll be doing a full blog post on this soon, so please stay tuned.

And that wraps up my Austin, TX travel guide, guys! Thanks so much for reading, and have an awesome day!

Want to pin this guide to your Pinterest? Pin the image down below!

Camp NaNoWriMo Wrap-Up: What an April.

So I know that it's been a while since Camp NaNoWriMo ended, but I'll get straight to the point: I achieved my goal of 25k words. I wrote an entire novella. I won!

To those unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo/Camp, you don't actually "win" anything, nor is there a ranking. All "winning" means is that I achieved my goal. That's it. And, I can actually say that I wrote twenty-five thousand words in a month.

In this post, I wanted to share with y'all how the rest of my writing adventure went, and what I learned from this month of writing a novella. Also, I want to tell you about the actual novella itself and FINALLY give y'all a synopsis of this thing I've been working on. :)

How'd it go? What'd I learn?

I'll be honest, I kind of lost momentum writing this novella. And you know what? That's okay.

Writing anything in such a time crunch as a month isn't always easy anyway. I mean, when I was doing NaNoWriMo back in November, and I told people I was having to write at least 1,337 words per day, people's reactions varied from cringing to "wow, I couldn't do that." Does that mean it's easy for the person writing it?

Well, it depends.

I figured out that the secret to projects like this is heavy outlining. I heavily outlined my NaNoWriMo novel, and I found that it was way easier to meet, and even exceed, my daily writing goals. Being a little more spontaneous with this project made it a little more challenging, and I wish I would have outlined my novella more this month.

But the thing that ultimately led me to finishing this novella was the story I was trying to tell. I knew that if I didn't finish writing the first draft of this story, I would regret it, because I loved the plot I came up with. Having that goal in mind was what kept me going, and I'm so glad I was able to finish the novella and have another finished first draft in my hands...well, on my laptop, but still.

Savannah, tell us about this novella already.

...sure, okay. ;)

Jessica Smith is about to live the dream. She’s a bright-eyed twenty-something who’s just moved to a place of her own - in the suburbs! It seems like everything is falling into place. She’s hired for a great position at a great job, she meets a cute guy, and her new community is picture-perfect.

Or so she thinks.

Soon, cracks appear in the surface. Why do her personal belongings keep disappearing? Why does the guy she’s dating seem too good to be true? And who is the brooding, handsome runaway who’s stopped at her doorstep in the middle of the night, and why is he telling Jessica she’s in danger?

This is “Do Life,” a novella by Savannah Cottrell that’s a high-stakes adventure that takes place inside a video game that asks the question…what does it mean to be able to make your own choices?

And I guess y'all want a cover, too? That...will have to wait until closer to release...which is going to be this Fall, because I have my debut novel releasing this summer. Stay tuned for that!

Thank you guys so much for following along my novella-writing journey. Y'all are amazing. :)

Writing Update: Halfway Done With Camp!

Hey hey!

It's been a minute since my last update, but I come with great news. As of the middle of last week, I am officially halfway done with my novella!

I wanted to take time in this post to tell y'all how it's been going, what I've learned writing a novella as opposed to a novel, and my plan for finishing this thing.

So, how's it going?

Today's progress. TEN THOUSAND WORDS LEFT. (Insert confetti here)

Long story short (...ha!): Writing a novella is fun!

It's different from writing a novel not just in the length, but how I'm writing it. I've outlined this novella in almost the same way I outlined my novel (more on that in a little bit). And my word count per day is way shorter than what it was when I was writing my novel, too (834 words, give or take, versus 1,333 words) so I can meet my final goal of 25k words.

And, y'all, I love this story. I love where the plot is going, and I can't wait to tell you guys about it!

...I may disclose the synopsis once the novella is done. ;) But what I can tell you is that my novella is called Do Life. It'll make more sense once I tell you what it's about.

What have I learned writing a novella?

Well, here are a few things:

• Just because it's shorter doesn't immediately make it easier. I'm still having to find ways to add length to this novella because I'm finding myself reaching my main plot points super quickly. In high school, I was taught not to be so wordy, and while that's great for academia, it's not for novels (or, in my case, novellas). 
• Make your outline detailed, no matter how short your project is. My novel was detailed down to the letter, because for NaNoWriMo, I wanted to make sure I was intentional with my writing. For a novella, I've learned that I have to do the same thing, or else I just flounder and pad the chapters with text that I'm afraid might be unnecessary. But, hey, the joy is in the journey, right?
• No matter the length of a project, you still have to budget time to get it done. I set goals for myself. For example, if I write 1000 words (as opposed to my required 800-something), I can play Fallout 4. Or something like that. Also, if you only have a limited amount of time, try timing yourself to write as much as you can within ten, twenty, or thirty minutes. The NaNo Word Sprint twitter page is great for this, but if you're not able to catch their sprints in real time, check out Fighter's Block.
• Figure out what time is best for you to write and stick to it. Even with the shorter word count, some days, I've felt less motivated to write. But I've figured out that I write best in the mornings, so I do my best to write before lunch. Or, if that can't be helped, because life doesn't operate by a set schedule all the time, I do my best to either allocate time at the library or just write when I can.
• Speaking of motivation, it's okay to take a break. 
• At the same time, do not be afraid to write ahead. I took a day in the first half of my novella to write 3,000 words. I wound up getting to the halfway mark two days early, and that was the best.

How am I going to finish this novella?

I'm determined to finish this thing strong. And early!

I finished my novel a day early last year, and I feel like I can do that this year, too. What I'm going to do is make my outline way more detailed going forward, and then, just go in swinging, so to speak.

I'm excited to get this thing done, and I'm so thrilled and thankful that you guys have followed me in my writing adventures thus far. :)