So, early this morning I finally sent off "The Unattainable". As usual, I had a last minute surge of panic: did I attach the story, or attach a grocery list? is my cover letter too groveling and pathetic, or just pathetic enough? how many typos did I miss? what if my story sucks? OMG MY STORY SUXXX!!! And then I hit "send". It's all over now. Too late to bring it back. I guess my biggest hope at this point is that the editors like the story. Anything beyond that is just a pipe dream.
Last night I started playing around with a new story, and about 300 words in I realized it might be the start of my first Tacoma Steampunk novella. I don't know - I'll have to keep writing and see where it goes. I started it only as an experiment in writing from a male POV - a first for me - because I was so nervous about not getting it right. So far there aren't any problems, although I'm definitely going to run the finished project, whatever it turns out to be, past a few male beta readers. The protagonist's voice needs to be authentic, not a "Gary Stu" version of what would typically be a female character. Most writers wouldn't even worry about such a thing, but it's important for me, and not just for the protagonist's sake. If I can learn to write a really kick-ass story from a male POV, the number of markets available to my writing will significantly increase. If that sounds disgustingly mercenary, so be it. I have no problems being skilled in both writing and business. You can't do the one without the other - I found that out when I was an actor.
I'm also debating whether or not to make a detailed outline for the novel I want to write. Normally I'd plot out every single chapter, but for some odd reason I feel very compelled to not outline it, to just start writing and trust that I know the story. I do know the story, I have a 1-1/2 page synopsis that lets me know exactly where the plot has to begin and end. My intuition tells me that, this time around, it's enough. I think I'm going to go with intuition, and trust that the characters' emotional journeys will take the story where it needs to go, rather than plotting it to death. That may have been the problem with my last attempts at novel-writing. We'll see.
Last night I started playing around with a new story, and about 300 words in I realized it might be the start of my first Tacoma Steampunk novella. I don't know - I'll have to keep writing and see where it goes. I started it only as an experiment in writing from a male POV - a first for me - because I was so nervous about not getting it right. So far there aren't any problems, although I'm definitely going to run the finished project, whatever it turns out to be, past a few male beta readers. The protagonist's voice needs to be authentic, not a "Gary Stu" version of what would typically be a female character. Most writers wouldn't even worry about such a thing, but it's important for me, and not just for the protagonist's sake. If I can learn to write a really kick-ass story from a male POV, the number of markets available to my writing will significantly increase. If that sounds disgustingly mercenary, so be it. I have no problems being skilled in both writing and business. You can't do the one without the other - I found that out when I was an actor.
I'm also debating whether or not to make a detailed outline for the novel I want to write. Normally I'd plot out every single chapter, but for some odd reason I feel very compelled to not outline it, to just start writing and trust that I know the story. I do know the story, I have a 1-1/2 page synopsis that lets me know exactly where the plot has to begin and end. My intuition tells me that, this time around, it's enough. I think I'm going to go with intuition, and trust that the characters' emotional journeys will take the story where it needs to go, rather than plotting it to death. That may have been the problem with my last attempts at novel-writing. We'll see.
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