Otherways- Fiction Fanatics

Although I have two grown kids, I have to say I never really experienced this particular cliche, quite probably because we spent every car trip reading. Since this would obviously be a decidedly unhealthy proposition if the driver participated, and unfair if they didn't get to, we fell into the habit of the adult passenger reading aloud to everyone. This is how my family experienced a number of books, from Brian Jacques Redwall series, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and dozens of other novels. Rarely did we finish a trip before the novel was done, which meant that bedtimes for weeks would include the entire family snuggled around while we read.

Reading the novels, we never wanted time to pass. Now that I'm writing them, I find it is a different matter entirely. You see, it really takes a long time to get from an idea, to the final printed page. Time actually spent writing flies, at least in my experience, just like reading does. Waiting for a response, on the other hand, feels a bit more like waiting in line at the dentist's office. You see, you really want good news, but you know there's probably work to be done, and it's going to hurt. 

Of course, once you've written, edited, re-written, edited some more, expanded, re-plotted, and generally bludgeoned your story for months, you get to send it out into the cold, hard universe, where the odds are it will be rejected, at least if you're starting out. Because of this, a lot of authors subscribe to the 'no news is good news" way of thinking, and I admit, it is gratifying when someone at least chooses to actually read what you've been bleeding over for months. 

So what do you do in the six to twelve months that most publisher's tell you to allow them to review your manuscript? You could, naturally, become very bored, irritable, and whiny, and e-mail them every week or so asking what they thought of your work. This response is likely to be just as irritating to the publisher as the endless "Are we there yet?" refrain is to parents.  So, while I do desperately want to know, I ignore whatever is sent off and just keep writing. 

The way you choose to organize your projects depends a lot on your personal situation. How do you think best? How much time per day do you actually have to write? Are you energized by multiple projects in progress, or frustrated to tears? There is no right answer to these questions, so what I'm telling you I do may not work as well for you. For me, boredom is the enemy, so I work on at least two very different projects at the same time. One of these will always be my primary, on which I attempt to write at least 1500 words per day. Currently, that project is a dark romance, slated to have its rough draft complete next month. Then I always have a secondary project, which at the moment is a fantasy novel set in a world influenced strongly by Chinese mythology. That project gets 1000 words per day. Other than those two, I write at least one blog post every day, and keep a growing set of stories that are in the "idea" stage.  As an idea gets more weight to it, I'll outline it.

The process then becomes a bit like baseball. As soon as my main project, the runner on third, slides into home plate, my secondary project takes its place, and word count, at third base. This leaves second base open for the outlined idea to step into, and frees up space for a different idea to become an outline.

So, no, I don't ever actually get done. I just keep writing, which means I no longer really notice the wait.

Cheers,

Michelle