Late last month, I was joined Romance Diva’s Mentorship program and was assigned to the fabulous Madelynn Ellis.

The mentorship has a specified time period, but from the type of writing workout Madelynn’s been giving me, I think I’ll forever follow Madelynn around like a lost puppy (she’s just too awesome to let go once the three months are up). I just hope I’m not wasting her time (I think I ask far too may odd questions and give far too many roundabout answers – I’m milking my newbie status for all it’s worth, folks).

 I did give pause, though, when she mentioned learning how to write a synopsis and stuff about print publication. *cough* I still haven’t completely let go of the idea of writing PW and then happily shoving the manuscript into a box and then under my bed.

I’ll get over the fear of submitting. One day. *g*

I spent the last few weeks narrowing my genres, my intended audiences, and my own definitions and terminology of what constitutes different types of romance, and more. Needless to say, fiction writing wise, I wrote zilch. Still, I’m happy. More than pleased, actually. I feel like I have proper direction in my Quest to be Published (capitalization and italics, completely necessary) and can write to my own dictations instead of worrying about what others think or how my work should be branded – I was stressing myself out for no reason, especially since none of my work is ready to even be submitted.

My plan is just to focus on the story, telling it the way I envision it in my head. Sounds simple enough, yet I found myself completely second guessing myself because my current project, PW, isn’t particularly standard romance, it’s darker, more gritty. I mean, the female lead has no qualms about breaking the male lead’s hand because she has a job to do and he’s in her way. Things aren’t always pretty and there’s definitely an overcast of darkness over the story and I’m alright with that – and hopefully, others will be fine with that too.

In my last post, I noted I wanted to work on two novel length works: PW and TF. When I made that post, I was so sure I was going to write two (at one point, four even ) romance heavy, if not up and up romance, this year.

Amazing how quickly I swapped stuff around since my last post.

I modified my game plan as I thought about all the things I need and want to accomplish as a writer and in life. From that, in short, I’ve put TF on the shelf . I’m focusing on writing one full length novel a year and  at the moment, my interest for novel lengths all fall under Urban Fantasy,  Paranormal, Futuristic/Science Fiction labels. I’m putting contemporary novels on hold for the moment (contemporary novellas and short stories on the other hand…well, continue reading).

The thing is, for now, PW is also being shelved/in the process of being shelved for a little bit. I applied to Romance Diva’s  Mentor Program and am waiting to see if I’ve been accepted or not. If accepted, I’ll be using  PW as my wip and I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself as I want to make myself open and available to anything my mentor, if I get one, wants to share with me. 

 I’m trying not to think too much about it right now because there’s a lot of interest from possible mentees and only so many mentors/spaces to go around). I’ll be disappointed because just like a child wants shiny, new toys at Christmas or birthdays, I want my very own shiny mentor who’s willing to share their expertise with me (boy, I sound selfish). That said, if I don’t get into the program, it’ll be alright. Worst comes to worst, I’ll apply next year – the good thing about the internet is that there’s always somewhere to go and learn. Maybe, I can even find a mentor on my own. Still…I’m keeping my fingers crossed for good news.

I do plan to write as many novellas and short stories as I can this year while I focus on my one main novel a year approach. I have all these small plot ideas that I think would work better either serialized/two installments/ or just written short. Some have heterosexual pairings, other stories have same sex. Heat levels vary. Some stories feature hard hitting psychic poets, while others have she-pirates in outer space, and others are just about regular people in a contemporary setting meeting and realizing there’s something special between them.

Without going too much into it – I need material for future posts, after  all – this romance writer writes what she likes to read, what she has an interest in, and in short, what fuzzy, little ideas makes her say ‘yes! This is a story I want to tell!’

For those who are still reading, apologies for disappearing – real life issues took precedence. Luckily, all is well and I am ready to jump back into the world of writing. Worry not, at the very least, I will update this blog every other week (and, of course, I’ll be on Twitter). I’ve been thinking about what I want to accomplish, the goals I want to set and hit this year and in the years that follow. Basically, I’m taking names and kicking butt (hiya)!

I have four novel length works (see WIPs above) I’d love to write, but I think if I manage to complete two of them within the year frame (Phenomenal Woman and The Firebird, the latter whose title I may be changing shortly are the projects I really plan to focus on…even enter in a few contests if I can), I’m happy. I’ve done some a little bit of plotting, mainly in my head, so the writing process for these two will be very organic. Currently, I’m quite happy with where the stories are going and I have a good grasp on my main characters – the only negative is that my projected word count for both WIPs fluctuate often and I just find that annoying. Meh, oh well, I’ll deal with word counts later. Right now, I’m all about the story. So, really, it’s not that much of a negative.

Overall, I truly believe 2010 is going to be a good year for me as I develop more as a writer. I’m going to start and finish strong. Here’s to 2010!

Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Waterson)