I had the audacity to start a new project yesterday, because I have this bizarre idea I can write in any genre of fiction.* So here’s my current scorecard.

3 full manuscripts of one YA (youngish) modern fantasy with agent/editors   Idea for sequel languishing in back of mind

2 query invites Chick Lit/Cozy Crime  Second draft of sequel complete

1 query invite YA (oldish) modern fantasy

1 YA coming of age awaiting revisions (on the sidelines now, because even for me, there’s a limit)

And now I’m 600 words into a YA (youngish) mystery

There is a method in my madness. I do have a plan. Whatever sells first, that’s the style I’ll write in. Seems as realistic as any of the ideas I’ve had lately.

*Except the ones I don’t want to write in anyway,  like Dystopian Westerns, picture books about dental floss, historical paranormal Middle Grade romance and anything with an important life lesson that would have been just fine for the 18th century,

Today I had my first (and probably accidental) blog visit from Ukraine. Perhaps it was my Kiev-born grandmother’s spirit animal.

It’s 90° out and a Baby Einstein video is playing in the living room. Beats “The dog ate my creativity.”

The louder people speak, the less they have to say. Also, they probably have no idea what they’re talking about.

Case in point from (where else) my coffee/writing spot. Loud guy #1 gives example of his current project. It involves syncopated hand clapping punctuated by the word “depression.” Guy #2 advises guy #1 that he should do open mic nights, and have someone videotape it so he can use it on his reel.*

*Sound of professional actors stage-whispering, WTF?

 

I saw this on another writer’s blog  It’s a very, very, large group,* and yet it has great therapeutic potential, as in “I know some of those people who sometimes think their writing sucks are future NYT Bestseller list chart toppers, so maybe I am too, because I sometimes think my writing sucks.”

So here’s my (actually straightforward) answer to this month’s question. One thing I’ve learned since I started writing is that if you write 8500 words and throw all of them out, you’ve still written something. I read about an author who had written 85,000 words of the third book of a trilogy (first two already published), threw them out, and started over. Realized she want to tell a different character’s story. Yes, the new version was a hit.

*As in “All of us”

Good part: My fantastically gifted daughter-in-law took time out from her thousand-hour-a-week work schedule to critique three chapters of my manuscript. She said many very nice things and also pointed out some potentially fatal (yet fixable) shortcomings.

Bad part: My brain turned on and wouldn’t turn off. I wrote until 3:30 and got up at 7:30. Almost afraid to review my changes, which, though they seemed brilliant at the time, may read more like, “See Spot run. Run, Spot. Run!”