Rumination on the Writing Life

Because finishing books always makes me feel contemplative,* I’ve been thinking a lot about my writing history. I have now written ten complete novels, which is a little amazing to me, since the first novel I ever wrote (back in 2001) was actually part of a bet to myself to see if I could string 60,000 words together. Prior to that, the longest thing I’d ever written was my college Literature thesis, which was only 40-something pages long.**

So yeah, I finished that first one. And, having done it, I knew that the only trick would be to actually write a good one.*** By the time I completed the draft, I knew I could do something better. So I wrote it. #2. Then I wrote #3, which is still to this day my favorite of my unpublished novels (so favorite, in fact, that I stole my favorite character from it and cast her in Rampant). While I was writing #3, I wrote a few other proposals (including the one for #4), half a novella, received my first two requests and my first four rejections, and lived for the better part of a year in a tent in Australia and New Zealand.****

Then I wrote #4, which was actually a sequel to one of my earlier, unfinished proposals, but which I liked much better. By this time, I was winning writing contests, attending writing conferences, and getting a lot of close but no cigar responses from industry pros. #4 was a tough thing to write, for a variety of professional and environmental factors. By the time I finished with it, I was dying to start a new project.*****

As soon as it was done, I dove headlong into #5. I banged out an 80 page proposal in no time flat. I edited it furiously. I was so excited about it. It was so different from my first four books, in tone, in scope, in genre, in voice. And before I knew it, it had found an audience. I had an agent, and an editor, and a book contract to finish it and write another like it.

So I did. In fact, I wrote four of them: #5 (Secret Society Girl), #6 (Under the Rose), #7 (Rites of Spring (Break)), and #9 (Tap & Gown). #5 was a joy the whole way through as I fell into the life of a contracted author. #6 was written during the lead up and release of #5, and there is a learning curve involved with releasing a book into the wild. #7 involved a lot of plot adjustments, as political scandals of the day kept stealing my plotlines and I had to change things around so as not to make readers think I was talking about a particular political figure. And #9 was my first attempt at concluding a series, wrapping up all loose ends. Also, I bought a house in the middle of it.

Somewhere during #5, I got the idea for Rampant, wrote a lot of it in between my deadlines for the others, and finally finished it at #8. It was my second longest manuscript (#4 is the longest). Though I experienced several false starts, as my “back burner” manuscript for three years, I was never stressed about it, and when it finally made it to the front burner, I remember it being mostly a joy to write.

During the writing of #10, I also wrote: a killer unicorn story for an anthology, and a new proposal.

I’m hoping the new proposal will be manuscript #11. It might implode, as stories have done to me in the past. There’s a very sticky plot element that I’ve been trying to figure out since February. I still don’t know how to fix it, and every day of writing brings me closer to the make or break point. This is not something I can write past. I may have to write it out, as Scott cautions. Try it one way, then try it the other.****** But I have to figure it out, and soooooooon.

Meanwhile…TEN BOOKS. W00T! Maybe when I’ve got ten books published, I’ll have a party or something, but for now, this is my personal celebration. Because I think I totally won that bet.

__________

* And ebullient. Finally free from the shackles of the last manuscript, I can start on something new and shiny!
** And was on the topic of James Hilton’s LOST HORIZON and the invention of Shangri-La in the modern Western imagination.
*** This is a harder trick than one might think.
**** Proving to myself that I could, if pressed, write anywhere.
***** Sounds way familiar.
****** I am totally loving the Westerlestier NaNo tips, aren’t you? And no, it’s not Larbafeld, that’s totally not as cool.