I found time this busy week to write every day. Mostly, I've been working on the new still-not-titled novel. I wrote most of chapter two, though chapter one is barely started. I always do better to start in the middle and then see how far back in time I really need to go. This week, I also cleaned out my desk, a formidable task! I found a couple of starts to stories I'd long forgotten about. Now I want to work on all of them, too. I don't really know what to do next. I suppose I'll keep on with what I'm doing. Maybe I'll give it a working title this week!
If you read this last week, you know that I spent last Sunday and Monday reading instead of writing. However, I’ve managed to write every day since then. I completely reworked The Song of Life, adding about 600 words to tailor it to the first magazine on my submission list. I also wrote a rough outline for my still untitled adventure novel. This coming week, I plan to rewrite Not Too Cool, but I also want to do quite a bit of research for the novel. I need to get to the library. That might not be easy with two kids in tow!
I’m two days behind this week because I spent two days reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Couldn’t put that one down either, and I wept like a baby at the end! But, if I didn’t write much this week, I did do a lot of research. I’ve found four magazines that might be interested in Song of Life, and I wrote a cover letter for the first one on my list, but I’m not going to send it out until after Kristie publishes that article for me on Webmomz so that I can claim it on my résumé. I also read an article in the paper this week about the declining interest boys and young men have in reading (Thank you, Ginger, for clipping it for me). This prompted me to do two things: First, I’ve picked my story, Not Too Cool, as my next prospect for submission. It’s written for boys 10-14, and it was the favorite of my instructor at the Institute for Children’s Literature. Second, I’m working up the outline for a new adventure novel aimed at even younger boys, age 8-10. Chip and I have talked for years about writing a book together, and this could be the one!
Good news! Kristy loved my article, Saving My Sanity: Why Writing Makes Me a Better Mom. It’s going to be published next month! The not so good news is that I didn’t write much this week. Only four days. I was reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, and I couldn’t put it down. Awesome read! This week, I plan to write a cover letter for Song of Life and pick out my next re-writable story. I need to let Wilson’s Garage settle awhile before making any more revisions.