How could I have forgotten this blog?! Must be all the excitement of progressing on writing my novel. It's not the first novel I've started to write, but I finally decided that I have to finish one before I can work on another. There are nearly a dozen waiting in the wings for me to turn my attention to them.
Self-discipline is a necessary component for a writer. It's very easy to be distracted by children who need something...laundry washed, something to fill that empty place, and husbands who are intimidated by a woman's independence, intelligence and skills with a computer. I mean, really. What does he think I'm doing with this computer anyway?
So, I've set some limits for myself. One novel at a time. The self-imposed completion date is Thanksgiving. Actually, a writer friend, Jay Hudson, set the deadline for me. "I think you can have it done by Thanksgiving," he said. So, Thanksgiving it is.
I've created my own town and county for this story. All of the others will be set in the same place, a series. I made the decision because I read someplace that series sell better to publishers who are looking to keep customers coming back. So I want this first novel to be VERY good, so good that a publisher will want my entire series. It will be a six-book series at this point, I think.
JD Robb (Nora Roberts) move over and make room for the up and coming! Me!
Another writing friend, Janet Elaine Smith, commented on my fiction writing and was I encouraged by her remark! I write occasional little things at jayswritersplace at yahoogroups. She thinks I'm a fiction writer! So I am working harder at meeting that Thanksgiving deadline. It won't be in an editor's hands by Thanksgiving, but it will be by the end of November!
Having a support team is very helpful to a fledgling writer.
I didn't sign up for NaNo, though a lot of writer friends did. I don't know that I could spend the entire month of November writing all the time. My family probably wouldn't stand for that for very long and I would get lost in the shuffle. So like the story of the tortoise and the hare, I'll just mosey along steady and hopefully get the same results as the rabbits that are hopping all over November to get their first drafts done.
Guess I'd better get writing!
