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!’
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.
