Madness Descends

This time tomorrow I will be madly typing away. That’s right boys and girls, tomorrow is November 1st, official start date for the month long madness that is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). This is my third year participating and I’m happy to say the previous two years I’ve managed to meet then exceed the 50,000 word count. I’m hoping this year goes equally as well although the idea I’m working from is a different genre and has a bit of a more complicated story line. And I’m writing in first person, which I normally don’t do. Not sure if I’ll stick with that. I might get two pages in and ditch it for third person.

But I digress.

In preparation for this monumental month of mayhem, I do a few things every year that may seem odd to some.

For starters, I buy a new notebook. Now this may not seem odd to most writers, after all I’m starting a new project. But this notebook will not be used for the NaNo project. I already have a notebook half filled for that. No, this notebook will sit in the stack of other notebooks (I admit, there are a number of them and I needed another like a hole in the head) until some later date. But it sure is pretty. Hard sturdy back cover and a very pretty red cover with white swirls on it.

Then, I do up a monthly calendar to figure out what is going on that month. Not that it matters really because all my writing is done between 6:00 am to 8:15 am and I don’t schedule any appointments during this time, so… I don’t know, but the calendar gets colour coded and slapped on the refrigerator door. There’s something about a schedule that makes me feel calm.

And thirdly, and this is perhaps the most weird of the preparatory to dos – I cut my nails. Stop screwing up your faces. This makes perfect sense. I type much faster with short nails. I make fewer mistakes. There is a significant difference in word count when my nails are short and sailing across the keyboard unfettered then when they are longer and clacking away at the keys in an annoying fashion. Trust me.

So there you have it. I have my notebook, my calendar is on the fridge, and my newly buffed short nails are ready to fly.

If anyone else is signing up for NaNo, feel free to add me as a friend. You’ll find me under lochbriar.

Good luck NaNo-ers!

The Dreaded "R" Word

Come on over to Pop Culture Divas where I'm blogging about the dreaded "R" word - Rejection.

Rejuvenation!

The writing gang (aka 10 members of the RWAC chapter) converged on White Point Beach this past weekend for our annual Writers’ Retreat. Each year we rent a private cottage on the resort that sleeps about 10 and we spend Friday-Sunday writing our little hearts out. Not to say writing is the only thing we do. We also do brainstorming sessions, writing exercises, plenty of eating, movie watching (for inspiration of course), and wine drinking.

This year’s format allowed for more writing time, so I had lots of opportunity to work on the two new manuscripts I’ve decided to concentrate on and figure out which one will be the chosen one for NaNo. I had intended on working on a contemporary story with romantic elements, but I think I will save that one for the new year and use the YA paranormal for NaNo. It means a lot of work trying to get the structure of the book outlined and the characters figured out before November 1st, so I’m hustling my butt and my brain, and the retreat gave me the opportunity to do both.

The retreat always rejuvenates me and as soon as we leave I’m already looking forward to next year’s.

Below are some pixs of retreat that Julia took. Mine are still languishing on my digi-cam and will hopefully get downloaded this weekend when I find a spare minute.

Meanwhile, in other news – we’re still waiting to hear if we are getting a pup from the current litter the breeder has or the next one. I’m really hoping for this one, but if it doesn’t happen, guess there’s not much I can do but wait until the next one. I’m really happy with this breeder and her dogs and definitely want one of them.

In preparation however, we did get the kitchen and hallway floors redone and now have the ugly peeling linoleum gone, gone, gone replaced by lovely new ceramic tile. Which is very cold in the morning, but oh so pretty to look at.

It was REALLY chilly when Julia and I arrived. We were the first ones there and the heat was turned off, so we had to bundle up until things got warmer.

This must be where I'm regaling everyone with my brilliantly constructed plot. Or where I killed the clown. I forget. Either way, they're obviously riveted.

Me and Julia imbibing during dinner. I did mention there was wine drinking. : )

The Great Re-evaluation of 2009

Well, I managed a second place finish in the Toronto Golden Opportunity contest, breaking my past winning streak with this contest. And sadly, no request from Leis Pederson despite the 8/10 rating. Unfortunately there were no comments on the scoresheet from her so I have no idea why she chose not to pick it up for further inspection. I’ll tell myself it was due to timing and economy.

To be honest, while disappointed, I wasn’t crushed. You see, for the past little while I just haven’t been feeling things writing-wise. It’s almost like I’ve just been going through the motions. Yesterday, before the contest results came in, I started giving it some thought. Did I want to give up on writing? That was a resounding no. For one, I really have no back-up plan. There is nothing else I want to do. This is it for me. But when I asked myself did I want to keep writing historical romance, well that answer wasn’t quite so clear.

The problem I’m having right now is the trends in the market. You keep hearing how editors want that ‘sexy historical’. They want you to try something different. But by different, they don’t really mean a new setting, a new time period, a new anything really other than a new way to fit more sex into the book. At least that has been my take on it based on the information and feedback I keep getting. It is beginning to feel like more sex, less story. And I prefer the opposite – more story, and sex only when it is appropriate to the story and the characters.

It seems to me the parameters of what is acceptable are getting narrower, not broader. The timeframes continue to be mostly restricted to Regency (getting the lion’s share), Victorian, and those Scottish highlanders, with maybe a little medieval thrown in from time to time.

When I originally started writing historical it was because of the variety. I was excited that I could pick and choose from a vast array of times and settings. Along with the usual – Regency, Victorian and the Scots, there were also Cowboys and the Civil War, the American and French Revolutions. Crusading knights and medieval lords. Pirates even! Where have they gone?

Anyway, my point is, this has all led me to re-evaluate what I want to be doing. Lately, I have had the urge to write something deeper. Something more from my gut. Grittier, more emotional maybe. I'm not entirely sure what.

So I have decided to put my regular writing on hold for the month of October. I am going to play around with some new ideas and see what I come up with for NaNo. I’ll resume the edits on Invitation to Scandal in December. I still like that story – I still like all the historicals I’ve written. I’m just not sure they are what the market is looking for. But I’ll do the editor/agent search in December either way and see what happens.

As for next year, that depends on what happens with the manuscripts I have out for submission right now, but my current plan is to not worry so much about pumping out the manuscripts to add to my inventory, but instead to take the year and work on a book I love, maybe take the time to do some thorough research and write historical mainstream, or develop the YA novel I’ve been toying with for the past few years. Or maybe I’ll work on a contemporary story with romantic elements. Who knows? Whatever it is, it’ll be a story I want to tell the way I want to tell it.