Writing, writing
I've been sick and busy and that's made me a slacker when it comes to writing. But I did force myself to sit down and finish my proposal for book #4 of my vampire series. I've been dragging my feet on that one, for some reason, which is stupid since 1) my editor is waiting for it and 2) the sooner I pass it in, the sooner I get paid.
In any case, I sent it to my agent this morning and am glad to get it off my plate. Can't wait to see what my editor thinks. I'm pretty amused with the plot I came up with. (No, I can't tell you until she officially buys it. I will say it's back to Sunny's point of view, though.)
Now I need to do my agent's edits for the middle grade proposal I'm working on. I'm giving myself til the end of the week to get that done. If I slack, then it's not going out til after I finish writing The Camelot Code. **cracks whip**
I'm not really a math person until it comes to book writing. Then I'm all about using complex equations to meet my deadlines. For example, The Camelot Code is due June 15th which means I must start my 1,000 words a day on April 15th. Seeing as it's a 50,000 word book and I've written 10,000 words (approx) already that means I will be done May 25th. That gives my agent a week to edit it and me approximately 2 weeks to revise based on her edits, give or take a few days.
Then I'll need another book to work on, which is why I need to get in the vampire and middle grade proposals passed in now so those schedules can be set for when I'm done and there's not too much downtime between books.
My biggest problem is I want to write so many different books and I have limited time to do the actual writing. I have some great new series ideas, but I can't overcommit myself too much or then the writing becomes a chore. That's one thing nice about YA books, actually. They're half the length and go a lot faster. Yet, I still want to write adult books. So I don't know. We'll see, I guess. :)
Mar
3 comments:
My friend sent me over here and I'm glad she did! Great blog!
How do you decide what to write? I seem to get in the same predicament...there are so many different kinds of books that I want to write. Any personal tips on staying focused but allowing other ideas to come through for future work? Thus far I'm really stickin' to my one WIP, but it's so hard to not start developing other ideas!
I'm exactly the same. A million ideas and then stuck writing one book at a time. But it's DEFINITELY worth sticking to whatever you're working on. I think that's the biggest mistake new writers make. They start writing something, get bored in the middle, start another project - then they never have a complete book!
I heard someone once say you have to tell the children (aka your ideas) to be quiet. Focus. Make the book you're working on the best it can be. You can always take notes on the new ideas, just don't allow them to take over your brain. It's far too easy for that to happen and then you ruin the enjoyment of writing the book you've already started.
If a new idea is truly great then it'll stick with you til you're ready for it!
So good to hear that we're similar in this regard! I hear about all of the other writing "problems" that people face, but I never seem to hear about anyone having quite this issue. I feel better :)
In support of what you said about focusing and not abandoning your project in the middle of it, I read something today that said for new writers, getting side tracked with ideas is part of the "Commitment-Phobe" writing excuse. I wanted raise my hand and say, "That's me!" I guess I need to focus on not letting new ideas take over my current project!
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