I guess I should verify…

that not only did I complete Nano, I completed the first draft of the novel. I was aiming at about 60-65K for this one, being as it is a contemporary inspirational romance, but as always, it came in short, at 51690. Sigh. It was an interesting experiment, but now the book dives to the bottom of my revision pile and gets to wait its turn. It’ll be lucky to see the light of day sometime in 2007. Will it still be contemporary then? Hmm.

It’s actually causing me some loose ends. I really thought the first draft would take me a week or two into December, and then it would be nice to have a little break before all my critiques on False Perceptions (2yn) appear in my inbox. Third round of FP is first up for 2006, as I really want to get SOMETHING kicked out the door making rounds to agents/publishers.

It’s kind of a shock to look at an entire empty month. I can’t very well hurry up the critters, but a month isn’t long enough to tackle a different revision in, either. And it only took me one day to clean my desk, so that’s already taken care of!

So, let’s see. A novel crit for a friend. Some goal-setting. Some pre-planning for a new writing project.

Oops, that’s a brick wall. What will my next writing project be? Will it be the sequel to Marks of Repentance? Or should I write a stand alone? Because it really is my goal to have a career in publishing, which would be the better career move, to have two books ready in a series, or to have two totally different options to present? I don’t know. For what it’s worth, False Perceptions is in its own little universe, so it will be a standalone. I don’t have any plans for anything else there, though I suppose I could one day, if readership demanded it. (Come on, readership, start demanding new books of me…what do you mean, you haven’t ever heard of me yet???) Another option is to choose a new cast of characters in Shann’s world (MoR) and write a standalone in there. It’s the option that is most appealing to me at the moment.

Some writers have huge files with half-baked story ideas jostling for position to be written next. My cupboards look pretty bare, without even the ingredients. So far I’ve always found a new idea when I needed one most, they just don’t line up and beg for spaces in advance. I’m not too worried about it, but…

Also, some of my books would be targeted more to Christian publishing, others would fly equally well in either airspace. And the idea of multiple book contracts seems more common in CBA. Dilemmas. Guess for now I’d better just keep writing and revising and start submitting and test the waters for myself.