ozma914: (Dorothy and the Wizard)
( Oct. 23rd, 2011 11:52 pm)
I've finally had a chance to catch up on my DW and LJ friends lists a little, and I noticed a lot of my friends are planning to participate in the National Novel Writing Month this November -- or are at least considering it. It's a big committment, to write 50,000 words in 30 days! Good luck to those of you who go for it; I've tried it only once, but I do think it's a worthwhile project.

I considered starting work on Storm Damage over that month, but due to getting tied up with my home refinancing, maintenance tasks, winter preparation and various RL stuff, I still don't have the fire history book ready to go out the door yet. I have to finish that (I'm close), and I also need to do some columns up in advance, so that if I get too into my first draft I can skip writing a new one for a week or three.

I wouldn't have officially participated in NaNoWriMo this year, anyway. While it works well for many people as a kick in the pants to get that first draft finished, I found it didn't match my writing style. My long stories work best if I go back over the previous day's work every writing session, cleaning it up a bit and adjusting my plot and other details along the way. I've found that if my first draft is too rough when finished, I tend to put off going back to put the work into it, which is part of the reason why Red is For Ick (my only NaNo novel) is languishing on the back burner now, needing some work to its middle.

Just the same, I still think NaNo's a brilliant concept, and good luck to everyone who's participating. Keep writing!
I stumbled across (I prefer the term research) an agent who I think would be perfect to represent the Young Adult mystery I've been working on -- and the best part is she's actively seeking new clients.

But the manuscript for "Red is For Ick" isn't completely done. (The title is a takeoff on all those adult mystery series with numbers/letters in them. I figured if it became a series the next one would be "Murder Makes me Blue" or "Dead Bodies Turn me Green". Or is the joke too obscure?)

Don't get me wrong: It's mostly done but needs a few changes, a final once over, and a bit of polishing. I have a good feeling about this agent, and I want to get my query letter and sample pages in early, but I'm too paranoid to risk getting a request for a manuscript that's not finished. So, I'm going to go somewhat off the grid for a week or two for intensive work on the manuscript.

I'm afraid I might not be able to check my friends lists much, let alone comment, but since I'll still be online from time to time feel free to e-mail me -- and let me know if I'm missing anything big!
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