What's My Next Step?

Today I have a film crew swarming around me. It’s a little hard to focus on my regularly scheduled writing work, so here I am on my blog. I do love when the film crews come, there’s always someone to talk plots and TV shows with.

It’s the second time this crew has been at my family club, the ZINC BAR, filming parts of the GYPSY television series with Naomi Watts. I haven’t seen her. My husband stays for the shoot into the evening.

With NaNoWriMo around the corner, (I love me some NaNoWriMo sprint-race-writing. Messy drafts are all the rage!) and a project ready to draft, writing notes on index cards and Scrivener, gathering resources, and using KM Weiland's incredibly helpful plot and writing tips. Helping Writers Become Authors >> Check out her blog!  Thank me later. 

And I have a YA historical project ready to query that could use more eyes on it. However, I'm concerned with taking too many opinions to heart. I’ve done this before. Destroyed a beloved project through several online workshops and contests. I like to learn the hard way, apparently.

I’ve also come to an impasse. My cancelled MG book has not hooked an agent after 76 query passes, and 59 no responses, for the grand total: 135. What’s my next step? Do I shut GLITCH out—(That name is changing, btw. My life has been rife with glitches) put it in a drawer with its drafted option book? (that I LOVE) Or do I begin searching for another book publisher? I’m just not completely sure. Being creative you see SO MANY OPTIONS. They all sound pretty good. After the year’s worth of editing for GLITCH, it’s hard to think about rewriting at this point—though I do have ideas. Ideas are everywhere.  

In other news: THE UNMOVING SKY, my young adult, contemporary, thriller, will have an audiobook soon! Stay tuned for more details. And--my good friend, Sheriff Bob, is busy mixing an MP3 of a song I wrote and sing from Brianna's POV. She's Jackson's girlfriend. It’s her story now. I DON’T BLAME YOU is coming soon!! Can't wait to hear it myself.  

Are you doing NaNoWriMo 2016 this November 1st?  I'll be on the sidelines because I already have five chapters drafted, but I'll be rooting for you!  #WritersRock  

Find me on Twitter and say hello! And if you're in the Village, stop in at Zinc Bar/Cafe during November, and I'll buy all NaNoWriMo writers a coffee. 

What Do You Do In-between Manuscripts?

Here I sit, at an impasse. Finished two novels and querying one, somewhat, with the other on hold. I have a NaNoWriMo rough draft I'm just dying to revise on my fancy Scrivener program. It's going slow with Scrivener being a huge learning curve for me. I'm unsure of what's  in store for my two "revised" manuscripts and should probably hold off before I begin another.  Maybe?  So in the meantime . . .

I’m playing around with Scrivener and learning its features by writing short stories. I usually enter writing contests or flash fiction, to keep the ol' brain muscle flexible. I like to jump around genres and POVs with each story, figuring this is a good exercise. Write about people I've never been, or want to be, people who scare me, or I don't understand, situations that change us, dreams of a better world. Valid reasons to tell a tale I suppose. 

If I write everyday I’ll develop into a better writer, one that gets published. Right? That’s the mantra I repeat every morning. That’s when my internal world will finally see the light of readers. If I’ve touched their hearts as much as my own—then it’s the ultimate dream to reality.

I write mostly at the day job, lucky to have a place that's quiet enough (except for the kids’ chess camp). In the mornings I can usually clock in a few hours, before the bustle. Did I mention we have espresso on tap? 

Anne Lamont says the joy is in the writing itself -- and it is.  It's a lifesaver for me. When the world and my family -- and their problems, become too much, I'm happy to have an escape. It's a personal journey, one most writers long to share with readers. Of all the arts I love and experienced: singing, painting, sculpture -- writing a novel has been the most fulfilling. I feel most connected to the world somehow. I may open a page and pick up writing where I left off, and find myself surrounded by the scene in some way similar to what I’m writing.  An example is when I wrote a hospital scene for a book, years ago, and found myself in the hospital (comp book in bag) writing a scene in a hospital. Those were the days I used to carry a composition book around with my little two boys in tow. Writing wherever, and whenever I could squeeze in a few pages.  I’ve come a little further on this journey. I have a set writing schedule. This is huge. I can organize myself much better. . . and in time, who knows. 

So, what do you do when waiting for beat readers to finish with your manuscript? Or waiting for editors notes, or just waiting?  I’m going to work on the short stories of wild and crazy ideas I love to entertain -- and if I’m lucky, if it’s pertinent, I just might get one published.  Keep writing. 

-- ( it's the fun part) 

* Had trouble finding Ann Lamont's exact quote. But here's a slew of some of the BEST quotes on Writing and they're from Ann Lamont. 
Thank you, Ann!  We need these.