Wow. Going into the merry month of May, I knew my schedule would be busy and my writing time a bit limited, but as the month raced by, I found myself scrounging for a few minutes here and scraps of time there, trying to fit in all the things I wanted to accomplish this month. I wasn’t completely successful, but the summer months usually provide me with a great deal of free time to work with, so I look forward to those long days to give me the time to make up for time lost in the spring. Such is the struggle of the writer who also works full-time.
On to the good things. As I planned, I was able to submit my story to the Book of Choices anthology. I really wanted to get it in early, and I had been spending far too much time nitpicking and fixating on one word or another, so I sent it off to keep me from obsessing over every detail. The title for this story is Repercussions; I do prefer shorter titles, and that was my original choice for the story, so I decided to stay with it.
Titles often cause me nightmares. I have a very difficult time picking a word or short phrase that sums up what I am writing. It is a constant source of headaches and anxiety for me. No title ever seems adequate or even remotely suitable. Most of my titles are compromises; I come up with one or two just to have something to refer to the story as, and as I edit and clean things up, I just shrug and leave my placeholder title at the top. Look at my YA books that I am working on – book one is completed and in editing mode, book two is fully outlined and I am about 25% of the way through it, I have already started working on research and ideas for book 3, and I have the last 2 planned. But I still refer to it only as “my YA book series.” I have no titles for any of the books. Nothing seems to work. I have an idea for what to call the whole five-story sequence, but even that is in flux. Every title I come up with either seems insufficient or (in my opinion) spoils too much of the story. Since one of my goals for 2024 is querying agents to (hopefully) find representation for those books, I will have to settle upon one at some point. I can always change it later. If I am successful, maybe my editor will have a better idea.
Speaking of that as-yet-untitled YA series, I had a productive month despite a dearth of available writing time. Getting that one piece unstuck was liberating, and I have gotten into a much better flow with the earlier part of act two now that I have a better idea of what the characters will be dealing with later. That middle act is broken up into six sections, each one based in a different location. Two of those will be one-and-done – taking up a single chapter – and the others will have extended pieces of the story. Currently I am writing the first of those six sections, but I have dialogue outlined through the second and into the third. There are some dialogue challenges ahead in that section, so I am taking my time with it.
I should also mention that I have a plan for this story that involves doing a heavy amount of dialogue writing in the future, probably in the fall, in preparation for NaNoWriMo. November is a tough month to write in but having that motivational goal has helped me in the past. In a perfect world, I will have the dialogue written clear through to the end of the book or very close to it, so when November first arrives, I can hit the ground running and get well beyond the 50K word goal.
My writers group met in May and though our numbers were reduced, we had a great time. It has been many years since the last time I read anything of my own in front of people, so the butterflies were active for the first few paragraphs. But everyone was attentive, responsive – I got a few chuckles and gasps – and gave me some great feedback and ideas. The story I read is one I began for The Face Project, but it just got too long and I had so many ideas, plus the set up at the beginning (which they all loved) took up too much of the one-thousand-word limit. So, it sat on the backburner until I received the prompt for this month’s meeting – Conversation – and this old incomplete story fit perfectly into that assignment.
Everyone else read from their own work as well. It was wonderful! We have a varied range voice and style represented in the group, we heard fantasy short fiction and autobiographical poetry and realistic fiction and a portion of a spiritual and metaphysical story. Some have broken-in and comfortable voices that gives their work an intimate feel, others are still developing their voice but have solid grasp of their style and control over their narratives. I am grateful to be a part of our group and hopeful that we can continue to grow in numbers over the coming months as we all work together to become better writers. They inspired me to do more to help other writers as well – you can see more about that here.
As always, let’s end with my goals for 2024.
1 – I want finish editing book one of my YA series to the point that I consider it good enough for publication (it probably won’t be, but I want to get it as far as I can take it). I am still doing my second pass through book one, focusing on dialogue and continuity. It has been taking a long time because I am reading it out loud (when no one is around). Once I work through that, I will let it sit for a while as my wife goes over my changes.
2 – I want to begin querying agents to see if I can publish that book, and its sequels, traditionally. I’m not there yet but accomplishing goal #1 must happen first. I have some different ideas for the query letter as I try to come up with something that will stand out in the pile.
3 – I want to finish the first draft of book 2 in that series and begin outlining book 3 with an aim at starting the writing process this year as well. Now that I have sent off those two stories and I can focus more on this, I am gathering speed and momentum on book two. My goal is to be halfway through before November so I can finish it in the mad dash that is NaNoWriMo.
4 – I want to have at least 2 short stories accepted for publication (not ones I submitted in 2023). I have two stories with their prospective publishers – Blade of Glass and Repercussions – and I hope to be able to call this goal completed soon.
5 – I want to extend my visibility as far as social interactions and publicity goes. The Facebook needle is moving slowly. I’m hoping that some publication news in the coming months will really get this ball rolling forward more.