March Madness

Some writing friends have decided to do a March version of NaNoWriMo. (Which is the National Novel Writing Month, in November, just in case you didn't know. There. Don't you feel educated?) So this month we are picking our own word count goal and are going to try to do it all in one month. A few are finishing up manuscripts. Some are going to try to write from beginning to end.

This can be partially blamed on the NaNoWriMo thing, and the fact that many of us are too busy in November to concentrate on cranking out 50k words. But mostly we can blame Susan May Warren. The Writing Maniac. Seriously. She sat us down at dinner during a My Book Therapy Retreat and proceeded to tell us how to write a 60k (the equivalent of a Steeple Hill) book not in a month, but in 10 days. Write and edit, no less. Ready for submission. And it wasn't just a theory. She actually did it at least once. Think about that. That's Double Take and a few thousand extra words. In ten days. I won't tell you how long it took me to write it...

Anyway, so that's one reason we're doing this. We're going to try out her 10 day model...and stretch it into 30 days because we're wussies who like to get on Facebook every once in a while. :-) But I am taking steps to get ready for this. I'm blogging ahead of time so that I have something to post, since I am still trying to be a better blogger. (Hey! I saw you snicker. Take it back!)

So, my own version of March Madness is...well, I have two different goals. Some of you may be aware I sent in another submission to my editor a while back. Well, it got lost in the mail, so I still haven't heard back. I've decided that was a good thing, because I got a horrible cold which crashed my brain for about a week. Plus I attended a writing retreat. So if the novel had been accepted and I was on a tight deadline for revisions, well, that would have been a bad thing. So that's my way at looking at the bright side of things. If you have a dissenting opinion, keep it to yourself. :-)

Anyway, back to the goals. If my editor accepts the story, my goal will be 30k words on Brogan's story, plus whatever revisions I have to do on the submitted manuscript. If I don't hear back in March, or if they aren't interested in publishing it, then my goal on Brogan's story is 50k words. Which should be ALMOST enough to type The End.

Don't hold your breath.

But don't be offended if I don't call or email you, either. :-)