It’s crunch time — time to make my resolutions. Since I make my resolutions on my birthday and my birthday is fast approaching, it’s time to do some serious thinking about my literary ambitions.
One, I’m going to continue to post short stories every month on my freelance writing website —SweetCopy.
Two, I’m going to do my best to get the fourth Candy’s Monsters novella e-published by the summer of 2013.
Three, I’m going to put out an ebook with a few of my coziest, least monstrous, mini-mysteries. They feature the adventures of a sweet flapper, working for her family’s discrete investigations agency, in and around NYC in the 1920s. (These stories could not be less like my Candy’s Monsters).
Four, I’m going to go back and rework one of the two novels that haunt me. They hover in my imagination, taunting me periodically. Both of them could become good books, but each had a fatal flaw. I’ve written and rewritten one of them three times already. But recently, I’ve begun to wonder if the real problem wasn’t size. Perhaps the story held prisoner in the rambling murder mystery should be a novella? The other, never finished, needs to be taken apart and put back together. It’s a like a jigsaw puzzle with two many pieces.
Five, I’m going to do an experiment in serialization. More on that resolution is coming soon!
So, five big literary plans for 2013! What is going to keep me moving along? MONSTERS of course — they push and prod me along until I type THE END on the last page. Nothing like being frightened into working hard!
Back to work. It’s crunch time!
You know I wonder if the novel you want to write isn’t really something else? And by that I don’t mean a novella. I’m thinking that perhaps subconsciously there was another, different perspective you wanted to bring out in those novels, but it got lost in something else. Or perhaps your subconscious knows it’s there but the frontal lobes haven’t ‘discovered’ it yet?
Sorry, I know how airy fairy that all sounds it’s just that I always /start/ with a very character driven perspective but at some point I realise that the character has to have a world to live and that world will affect him/her. If I can discover the world then the whole thing falls into place. If not…. 🙁
I think I understand what you mean. I start with characters AND a situation. For me the plot determines the length/weight. By getting rid of extraneous tangents, the rambling novel becomes a novella or a short story. The perspective issue is another can of worms — a big one. Having rewritten the same stories from different points of view in order to find the right one, I know it’s a biggie!
You’ll find it! Being away from it for so long will help. Good luck. 🙂
Yup!
Looking forward to seeing what you get up to this year! (Especially the flapper story 🙂 )
I’ve got three short stories about the flapper/private detective. I think I need a fourth to make it a book. We’ll see… soon I hope.
Thanks!
Interesting post that a lot of us can relate to. Go for it and reach for your dreams.
Thanks for the encouragement.
Getting from the daydream stage to “The End” at the end of the page is the trick. My secret? Hard work and coffee!
LOL…
Back to work.
Wow those are five big monster goals. I have one – that is to somehow come up with a book cover. Can’t wait to see how things progress. The sweet flapper sounds good.
I may have bitten off a bit more than is reasonable, but when one wakes up with MONSTER stories on the brain it’s hard to think small!
Best of luck with cover concept. That’s tough. My background in advertising helped as I’m used to working with designers. I had the concept and the designer ran with it. Lightning strikes for all the Candy’s Monsters covers….
I love your flapper PI idea.
Everybody seems to love the flapper! I will definitely move this one up on the agenda!
You have really got some great monster size resolutions going on there. Can you come over and do mine for me? I always wonder if it’s best to aim high & know you might not get to all of them, or start small & know you’ll succeed. Actually you sound like you might go for the lot.
I also have a novel that needs going back to once I finish my current one. But I like your idea of slipping in some short stories as well. I’d thought it might be a conflict, but you might be right. Reading yours sounded a really great balance. So then…coffee at 11on thursday? !! Glad to discover your blog ( via JerWB’s post):-)
So happy to have been discovered via JeriWB. Her blog is great!
Coffee, Coffee, Coffee…. in fact, I’m due for another cup. It is the elixir of fiction. Yes, I think mixing it up with short stories, novellas, novels, blog posts and anything else you can think of is great. Keeps the writing muscles toned. (Even if sitting at my desk is not. Good thing, I’ve discovered that writing in my head at the gym is very effective.)
Back to work…