Writing ...

I wasn't going to bore you all with the details of my writing, but as some have asked, here's what's going on. I've had a plot line for a novel in my head for quite a while. (Now that I think about it, it goes way back to freshman year in college, when I had my major declared as English ...) Last summer I decided I was actually going to sit down and finish writing it. I had the first three chapters done already, and I figured it would take a long time, but I would work on it slowly and eventually get it done.

Unfortunately, when I re-read the chapters I had written, they were awful. Not to be discouraged, I started over from scratch. I worked on it at night after the girls were in bed and sometimes in the afternoon when they napped. It gave me something to do during the time we were out of work. I got quite a bit done - thirty-six pages single spaced, the first seven chapters.

Somehow working on my novel sparked a fire under the creative part of my brain, and I started getting idea after idea for more novels. I started writing them down, so I could come back to them someday.

Then, Nov.3, 2008, I was reading a magazine that had an add in it for NaNoWriMo. I was intrigued, so I checked it out. For anyone who hasn't checked the link, National Novel Writer's Month is a writing "contest". The point is to write a novel from beginning to end between 12:00am Nov. 1st and 11:59pm Nov. 31st. You can have notes and outlines done beforehand, but any and all writing of the actual novel must take place in the month of November. If you are able to write 50,000 words or more (by definition, up to 40,000 words is a novella) in the month, you win! And here's the question: What do you win? Aside from the witty quips you'll hear from other NaNo authors (you win a novel! You win the pride of having done what so many people say they're going to do, but never actually do!) you win absolutely nothing. But for me, I wanted to see if I could, so I gave it a try.

I had an idea for a "fluff" mormon romance novel. I knew I could write it with minimal research, which was important, considering it was already Nov. 4th, and I was four days behind. By Nov 30th, I had 55,324 words, and I was thrilled. I knew most of it was crap and I ended up cutting the first 37 pages down to 7 pages later, but it was still a rush to know I'd done it. I didn't write in Dec, so I could let it sit and come back to it with fresh eyes in January. When I got back to it, I took my time, rewriting, revising, and completely redoing the ending. I finished in April and sent it off to a few people to read over for me. I'm so glad I did. Every single comment I got back was useful, and I made a lot of changes from the comments I got. In the end, I reached a point where I was happy with the manuscript - all 283 pages (just under 90,000 words).

I think I mentioned that my printer was kaput a while back, so I submitted it to the only LDS publisher I've found that accepts emailed submissions. I realize I will probably be rejected quite a few times before I finally get it published, and now I have a new printer, so I can print out the manuscript and send it off to another publisher as soon as I hear from the first.

Meanwhile, I'm back to working on the original novel, the one I started a year ago. I'm also excited for NaNo this year, and I'm pretty sure I already know what I'm going to write.

If anyone wants to join me this Nov, you're more than welcome. It's really a lot of fun. There's even a forum for people with degrees in science who are writing for fun (geeks like me).

I hope that answers your questions, and I hope I haven't bored you too much. (My book is much better than my blog, I promise. :-)