Sunday 13 September 2009

Decision made

I have finally made a decision about my writing. No, I'm not stopping it, I can't but how much I write. After a v bad week sleep wise (had 4 broken nights in a row and had to take 2 days off work sick) and a comment my mum made, I've decided that maybe I am doing too much in one go. As well as working full-time I had been writing 2 books (Checkmate and Georgina) and trying to organise school visits (no interest yet) I have made the decision to put one aside for now - Georgina. There is another reason too which I shall say in a minute. I went to an agent's party on Thursday night and have decided to try my luck again getting one, this time with Allie but that will wait for a few weeks because what I have decided to do is this - try to get published with People's Friend Story Collection with Checkmate. I went to an RNA meeting yesterday and had a short chat with a friend (Hi Pia) who is published by My Weekly Pocket Novel. I talked to her about my novella and what I had done so far. I was concerned about the word count as it wasn't quite 50,000 words yet but s told me that it is actually 45,000 words which made me happy. She also told me the name of the editor and would email me the address as they have recently moved, and said to go for it. She told me too that if you get published by them, even though you might have to wait up to 18 months for a reply from them, they pay you quite a bit for it, which I was quite surprised at. So, this is my decision. Perhaps I am doing to much in one go so I am going to concentrate on finishing Checkmate and the synopsis of it first and send that off once I get the address from Pia, and when I've done that, I will continue with Georgina and send a query to one of the agents at the party on Thursday about Allie. This wil prob take about 2 weeks as I want to put my full focus on getting it done, starting tomorrow. I have the last chapter to revise then I will work on the synopis and then read aloud from the beginning to make sure it sounds OK to me. Will let you know how I get on.

Well, decision is made and am determined to stick with it. I happen to think that working on one book at a time, I can concentrate better on it rather than working on two at a time. I have found that I tend to forget what I've written if I don't work on it for the whole week, so it should prove better for me in the long run.

Watch this space....

2 comments:

Nell Dixon said...

Hugs, sounds like you've been doing too much. Peoples Friend are lovely to write for.

Julie Day said...

Yes, maybe I was. Now concentrating on the novella, on the final draft which I call my read aloud draft to hear for any mistakes.