National Novel Writing Month has begun, and I’m hiding.
You see, every year, about 101 of you ask me if I’m participating. Ha! You’re funny. All of you.
I’m a slow writer, and NaNoWriMo strikes a fear in my heart like that of a stunned deer standing in the oncoming headlights. Or, if you prefer a Dave Ramsey
reference, I feel like the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train. Every year, I toy with the idea of signing up, and every year, I back away from the website like the vicious anaconda that it is.
It took me about two years to fully complete The Stolen Lady. And I’m sporadically working on my new contemporary novel—in first person, no less—and while I’d love to tell you that the new project is trucking right along…it isn’t. I’m really struggling with my creativity right now, particularly plotting, and that makes moving a project forward rather difficult. But just like I did with TSL, I’ll get there with the new (untitled) work.
Speaking of TSL, when I attended a Bob Mayer writing workshop with my local RWA chapter recently, some of my writerly friends told me I need to start querying again. I queried a bit heavily for a while, and I managed to send out 16 of them. But after 16 (apparent and not-so-apparent) rejections, I fizzled out. They encouraged me to get back in the game because with the positive rejections I’ve received, surely the right agent could be out there waiting for me to submit. So I may start that up again. We’ll see.
One of the things I really took away from Bob’s workshop was the need to work on your weakest areas. This should be an obvious assumption, but I really needed to hear it. My strongest point is character development. Often, I can actually hear the characters talking in monologues in my head…or even having conversations with one another. (No, I’m not crazy. I promise.) I obviously have no problem envisioning exactly who I’m going to write about; it’s the what I have trouble with.
Bob also emphasized the importance of knowing whether or not you’re a pantser or a plotter. What’s the difference? Well, I’m your classic pantser. Basically, I don’t know what I’m going to write until it appears on the page. As the story progresses, it meanders and wanders and often surprises the heck out of me because I didn’t see this or that coming. A plotter plans the story out from beginning to end, often making full character sketches, outlining the plot, etc. Ideally, I’d like to fall somewhere in the middle. This is an area I simply must work on in order to get better.
By the way, if you ever have an opportunity, go listen to Bob speak. You can find his books on Amazon.com and BN.com, and he speaks all over the country at writing conferences, including the Romance Writers of America national conference.
