That New Novel Feeling 🥰

We’ve had a mild winter in Colorado!  Spring is here already: The crocuses and daffodils in my garden are blooming, the days are getting longer, and I have a new novel growing in Scrivener.

Generally when I write, I try to stay focused on one novel, even when other ideas pop up (and they do — it seems like the more you write, the more ideas you get).  But sometimes there’s an idea that comes along and grabs you so thoroughly that you can’t help but start writing it.

I had that moment about a month ago.  My previous novel project had languished all throughout 2025, and while I had gotten back to work on it in 2026, I had lost some of the excitement for it — I was just doing the minimum on it every day to satisfy my to-do list task.

But this idea — basically a thoroughly steampunk retelling of Oz — grabbed me on February 14th.  I wrote a little of it and decided I needed to read the original book (since all I knew of it was from the original movie and the Wicked movies).  My retelling will be different, of course, but still very much a story for our times.  I’m tentatively calling it The Last Automaton of Oz.

I’ve updated my TrackBear profile to display my current projects — this new one, the novel that I have on hold, and a short story I wrote a while back and need to revise.  I also have (but didn’t include on my profile) the pair of suspense novels I wrote in 2024 that need a second draft, but that will be a big undertaking.  For now I’m going to keep working on Oz since it feels the most timely.

It feels good to be excited about a project again.  I don’t plan to let my unfinished novel project stay unfinished, but with everything going on in the world right now, I needed something that would be a more compelling competitor for my attention.

Writing for me vs. writing for them

I haven't always made a ton of progress on my fiction over the past two and a half years, but I have definitely had more time to work on it after I backed off on freelancing and started working as a nanny part-time, back in November 2011.  Before that, when I was freelancing full-time, it was as though I felt I couldn't work on my own projects while I always had client work waiting in the wings.

Since I took the nanny job, however, I have been freelancing less and less.  I started out intending to freelance part-time, so I kept on a few clients.  I didn't do any marketing, though, and they slowly fizzled out.

Why novelists need to be good copywriters too

Barnes & Noble's self e-publishing service, PubIt!, linked to a very interesting blog post the other day: The No. 1 Overlooked Skill for Every Author.  The blogger makes the argument — and a very strong one, I think — that authors need to also be good at promoting themselves in order to be successful.

The most common place where a background in copywriting is helpful is with writing queries, of course, but there are other areas, too.  Writers typically need to do a lot of marketing and self-promotion (websites, blogs, etc.) in order to sell books, find work, etc.  In addition, self-published authors need to be able to write effective promotional materials — book blurbs, press releases, blog posts, websites, etc. — since they don't have a publisher to handle some or all of those things.

I couldn't agree more.  I think there are a lot of self-published authors and authors published by small presses that really suffer because they don't know how to promote themselves effectively.  A friend of mine has gotten two books published and is working on the third, but he'll be the first to tell you he doesn't do enough promotion.  From what I've seen, I think this is pretty common.

It's one thing that I think will work in my favor if — or should I just say when — I publish something.  Online promotion, especially written materials, are my background, so I feel pretty confident about my ability to do a good job of promoting my work.

I don't know if any novelists follow my blog, but if any do, I'd love to have you weigh in: How do you promote your work?

Finishing my first draft - 855 words shy of the mark

I finished my novel last night — I'd put an ending on it a few nights ago, but last night I finally finished a scene that I had skipped over (not being sure exactly what to write) a few weeks ago.  The first draft is, unfortunately, only 79,145 words — 855 words shy of my original goal — which is a little disappointing.

I'll now be putting the novel aside for a little while — I'm planning on picking it back up and doing the first round of revisions in January.  In the meantime, I've settled on what I want to do next: I realized that the next book was going to require some additional research — I have some historical facts to get right this time, and not just a general setting — so after a short break to get caught up on some other things, I'm going to get started on that.  We'll see how long it takes me, i.e., whether I'll be starting the second book before or after the first round of revisions on the first, but I lean toward getting the first book started before I do revisions (in case the second book brings up anything that needs changing in the first).

As I write this, in fact, I am printing a copy of the first draft, to be set aside until I am ready to start revisions.  I will go through the novel first on paper and mark the revisions I want to make (I know, I know, not very green, but when I'm revising fiction I prefer doing it on paper rather than on a computer screen), and then put the changes into the computer.

Watching the novel emerge from my printer, page by page, is very satisfying.  Even though I know it's not really done yet, it gives me a tremendous feeling of completion to see and feel it on paper!

Week on, week off

Despite a busy week last week, I was fairly productive.  This week: not so much.  My mom and I spent part of the week getting ready for a doll show we're selling at this weekend, and on top of that I got loaded up with assignments from clients, so between doll show preparations and client work, my novel has been rather ignored.

I did, however, get somewhere with my search for character images.  I found someone who sells scans of old French postcards, and found quite a few from the 1920s that are perfect for my characters and my book covers.  I also started getting ideas for a blog and website to promote the books.  More on that at a later date though — I don't want to get too far ahead of myself.

I'm not expecting to be too productive this weekend, but hopefully next week will offer some time to work on my novel.

Where did my week go?

It's Friday night, but it doesn't feel like Friday night.  I'm having a hard time convincing myself that tomorrow is Saturday — and yesterday I was unable to shake the feeling that it was Tuesday, rather than Thursday.

Despite this feeling that I don't know where my week went, it was pretty productive — at least as far as my novel went.  After my Monday was hijacked, I made sure to work on it a bit on Tuesday, and ended up adding about 800 words.

Wednesday I wrote about 1,100 words, but then I got distracted by looking for period pictures of flappers to represent my characters as I've been imagining them in my mind.  From there I got excited about the idea of finding some images in the public domain to use on a future blog or on a cover if I self-publish (more on that at a later date).  I spent the entire day looking at old photos and listening to 1920s music, which wasn't exactly progress on my novel, but it was fun and got me excited about it nevertheless, so I can't totally discount it either.

Yesterday I made the most progress — my afternoon plans fell through, so I was able to spend an unplanned amount of time on my novel.  I ended up adding about 2,000 words, for a total of nearly 4,000 for the week.  Today I didn't have time to work on it, but I'm hoping to do a little more this weekend.

I was so busy with my novel all week that I hardly updated any of my blogs, and I completely forgot to update my novel's progress bar, too.  Hopefully next week, when I'm not as distracted, I'll be able to do a better job of keeping you posted!

Reading novels as research

I've read a lot of differing opinions on whether or not a writer should read similar novels to what they want to write.  Some say yes, because it helps you to gather information for your book and to learn about the market, while others say no, because the risk of "borrowing" tone or style from other writers is too high.  Some say only read them before you start writing, and stop once you begin working on your novel.

I've been doing a little of everything.  I read fairly quickly, so I'm constantly reading something else, and something else, and something else.  A few of those novels have been similar in some theme or another to what I'm working on, but not all that many.  When you consider that I also haven't been working on my novel consistently this entire time, I suppose the risk of "borrowing" isn't too high.  But I have found that the similar ones have all contributed something to my understanding of my setting (1920s Chicago).

One book in particular I found helpful, not only because of the book itself but also because of the author's website.  I recently read the second in a series of YA books about the 1920s, and at the end I saw a reference to the website.  I checked it out, and found this little gem: a glossary of 1920s slang.  I'd been compiling a list on my own, but finding this greatly sped up the process.

What about you?  If you write fiction, do you find that reading similar books to what you are writing helps or hurts the creative process?

Fits, starts, and writing out of order

I had a couple of very busy weeks, as you probably guessed from my lack of posts.  The first week of September, Michael was off of work, so I took some time off too — hard not to when he's home, because we end up doing stuff together anyway.  After that I was busy playing catch-up on all the assignments I'd neglected while he was home.  And then when you add in all the horse and family stuff I've been doing lately — well, it's no wonder it's already fall, and I'm left wondering what happened to my summer!

Yesterday, however, I finally felt like I "got it back" — the productivity on my novel that I experienced briefly a few weeks ago, that is.  I worked hard and got all of my client projects done, and found yesterday that I had nothing to do.  Then I remembered my poor, neglected novel — oh, right, I was supposed to be transitioning to working on that more often!

I started out with a little research, and by the time I was done checking on what I wanted to check on, I was excited about my novel again.  I wrote, and wrote, and wrote.  Then hubby came home and we had to meet a friend for dinner, so I had to stop.  (Very reluctantly, I might add.)  So afterward, I came home, and wrote and wrote some more, until it was quite late and I was quite tired (underneath all the excited energy that comes from getting wrapped up in writing a novel).  When all was said and done, I had added a whopping 4,648 words to my novel, all in one day!

I'm doing something very uncharacteristic of my usual style.  I am usually a fairly linear person when it comes to novel writing, starting at the beginning and working my way to the end.  But this novel has been different.  Occasionally scenes have come to my mind and I feel I just have to get them down before I forget what I wanted to write.  Other times, like yesterday, my research triggers some ideas.  In this case, I was doing research for one character's backstory, and decided to write the entire scene (or scenes) where he tells his story, which takes place somewhere in the middle of (my vision of) the novel.  So far it's been wildly successful, and I'm about two-thirds of the way done (it's a long story).  Once I finish, I have to work out the details that will fill in between the beginning and the middle, but that won't be so hard now — since the backstory is so heavily wrapped up in the entire conflict and resolution of the novel, it turns out I actually had to write this part before I figured out the rest of the story.

Luckily, I don't have anything else pressing to do today, so I can make it another novel day!

Prioritizing and the difference it makes

Lately I haven't gotten much done on my novel, not even much research.  I started thinking that perhaps it's because I haven't been putting it first on my to-do list each day — even though my intention has been to shift my focus and work more on fiction, "Work on novel" still ends up being fourth or fifth on the list every day.

Today was different.  Even though my list, as I made it last night, still had my novel down as #4, I woke up wanting to work on it.  I had a scene that I was thinking about as I was waking up, and I was burning to get it onto paper (or into type, techically).  And so as soon as I rolled out of bed and into my office, I started working on my novel — writing, not researching or outlining.

The difference in productivity was amazing.  I hardly checked email, and when I did, it was only to respond quickly and return to my novel as fast as possible.  I stopped writing once for a bit to research something, and again to eat lunch, but otherwise I worked on it fairly steadily for a large chunk of the day, ultimately adding more than 3,500 words.  Moreover, the details that I wasn't sure about before are coming to me quickly as I write.

Now I don't know if this is really how I want most days to go — now that I'm calling it quits for the day (forcibly — I could probably keep going for a while, no problem), I don't really have much time to finish the other tasks I was going to work on today.  But I'm thinking that, if working on something first thing is the best way to make sure it gets done, I ought to plan on starting off with my novel at least a couple of days a week.

Some small progress

I was getting tired of only researching, and feeling like I had nothing to show for it, so yesterday I worked a bit on writing for a change.  I've been reading some books about the time period, but I'm only reading/researching about an hour a day, and I feel like it's not enough.  I also feel like I needed to write a little more, to keep the spark of interest alive as much as to add to my word count.

Once I got started writing, I couldn't stop.  I wrote a bit toward the end of the day, then again at Barnes & Noble, and again after a late-evening ride.  In the end, I added more than 1700 words to my word count, and updated the word count meter in my sidebar.  Eighty thousand words is kind of a rough goal — I actually have no idea yet how long this novel will be, or even what it should be.  Further research is needed in that area, too.

I still have background research to do for the novel's setting and some of the details of the plot, but I'm thinking it would also be a good idea to start writing here and there, sketching out scenes as they come into my head, and fleshing out an outline.  Not all of this requires a lot of research to make it right, and it would be good to feel like I'm making some quantifiable progress on my novel.

Writing vs. research

One of the concepts that I'm struggling with right now regarding my transition to writing fiction part-time is whether research counts.  As I said in my last post, I'm somewhat disappointed with the reality that this will be a slow transition, rather than an abrupt change.  Right now I'm spending roughly an hour every day researching the time period I'll be writing about — I've been reading a nonfiction book on the subject, and have one or two more I want to read, as well as some other research to do.

The logical part of me knows that reading and researching counts toward working on my novel, because it does have to be done.  But at the same time, it's work on my novel that's hard to quantify — I can't update my word count in the sidebar, for instance.  (I do have a small word count, from when I got inspired during my week off, as you can see now in the sidebar; but I feel like most of the writing should be done after I finish my research.)

Being able to quantify my research would be nice not only because it would allow me something to update in my sidebar, but also because it would give me a way to measure my progress, and feel good about what I've accomplished so far.  I could just get a final count on the books I want to read, and measure my progress as the percentage of reading material that I've finished.  Any other ideas?

New progress bar in the sidebar

I finally got a progress bar up in the sidebar for the novel I'm starting on.  I've only written the prologue and jotted down a few scenes that were burning holes in my brain, so the word count isn't high yet.  I have a title in mind, but didn't put it in the sidebar yet — I think I want to have a more official unveiling once I'm sure it's going to stick.  For now, it'll be a mystery.

I have some thoughts on writing vs. research that I'll blog about in a couple of days — I hate that the word count is not really going to move for a while, until I finish the research I'm working on.

Easier said than done

Even though I made my decision to start splitting my time between freelancing and fiction writing a couple of weeks ago, I'm struggling with the realization that nothing has changed yet.  I'm still doing a lot of freelance work, and I'm still struggling with motivation.  About the only thing that has changed is that I've started doing some research, which basically consists of reading a few chapters here and there of a nonfiction book on the time period I'll be writing about.

What I'm struggling with is giving myself "permission" to take my time with my transition.  I should have known that I wouldn't be able to switch to part-time novel writing overnight, yet somehow that's what I had pictured.  (And of course, in my fantasy, it fixed my motivation problems right away, too.)  I still have some deadlines to meet, and therefore, some work to get out of the way before I start working on fiction in earnest.

The tough thing to get my head around is that, since I will still be freelancing part-time, the presence of client deadlines won't change — I'm going to have to get used to setting aside time to work on fiction, despite the deadlines.  I feel like it is going to take some time to transition to a half-and-half schedule, and to learn how to juggle both freelancing and fiction at the same time, and that frustrates me a little.

Obviously, the first step needs to be to meet all the current deadlines; from there, I need to make sure I consider my workload every time I accept a freelance assignment.  Staying on top of my freelance deadlines will also be important, in order to preserve the balance in my workload.

What I'm realizing is that it's going to be a tougher road than snapping my fingers and saying, "I'm going to write fiction now!"  I'll keep you posted on my progress, and hopefully pretty soon here you'll see some updates on my sidebar.

Back to work on my novel...

After over a month of neglect, I've finally gotten back to work on my NaNoWriMo novel. Fellow freelancer and friend Kathy Kehrli and I are scheduling virtual write-ins together using Facebook chat — by having a predetermined time when we both have committed to sitting down and right, we'll both (theoretically) have the motivation we need to continue working on our novels.

Yesterday's write-in wasn't wildly successful — we spent some time catching up via chat, rather than writing — but it did succeed in breaking the ice, so to speak, and getting me working on my novel again. The night before, I started thinking about where I wanted to pick up and what I wanted to write, so I was ready to go by the time we started writing. And once the juices started flowing, I was able to continue writing sporadically for a couple of hours after we both signed off from Facebook.

All said and done, I added 1,938 words to my rough draft yesterday. Not a huge amount, considering I worked on it for several hours, but the real accomplishment was getting back to work on it again. Not to mention I got to update my word count meter for the first time in over a month!

New word count meter

Unfortunately, I haven't gotten back to work on my novel since the night NaNoWriMo ended. However, I have found a new word count meter to replace the now-defunct NaNoWriMo widget.

Just in case anyone else is interested in putting a word count meter on their blog the other 11 months out of the year, this is the one I used: another little progress meter

The nice thing about this meter is that it isn't dependent on someone else's website remaining in place, like the last non-NaNo word count meter I used. This one is totally code driven, so if they ever take down their page all you have to do is update the percentages and word count in the code yourself.

Stay tuned for future word count updates!

Post-NaNoWriMo writers group meetings

I've been a little hit-or-miss about working on my novel since NaNoWriMo ended, with most of the misses having to do with busy periods of paying work — and, of course, the holidays. Luckily, we've been a little bit more successful about keeping our writers' meetings going.

During NaNoWriMo, we formed our usual weekly meetings for participants in our area. And just like we did two years ago, after NaNoWriMo 2006, we decided to try to continue the meetings after November ended.

This time it looks like we might have a little better luck. Monday night was our third post-NaNo meeting, and all four of us who are really serious about this were able to show up.

Of the four of us, I am the only professional writer, but that's okay with me because we're focusing more on novel writing in this group anyway. I'm in the same boat as the rest of them in that regard: unpublished.

In any case, none of us are really concerned about that. Our idea when we set up the group wasn't to maintain a hard-core critique group, but to create a social environment where we could get to know other writers, provide support when needed, and discuss or share our novels on our own terms. (This is in sharp contrast to another writing group that NaNoWriMo participants in our area tried to form, that required a certain level of participation — i.e., a weekly word count and mandatory sharing — or you would be asked to leave.)

Last time we tried this, the meetings only lasted until February or March of 2007, and they were much less frequent. This time, things look to be going pretty good, and I'm hoping that at least the four of us will be able to keep it going, even if a couple of others drop off.

17,551 words

Tonight saw some more difficult writing: Although I spent two hours working on my novel, I added less than 1,500 words. I'm not sure I liked where tonight's writing was going, but it's nothing that can't be cleared up easily with revisions later on, so I forced myself to keep going. Sometimes pushing on is the best thing to do, I've found; it's almost like you have to experiment with the plot before you can make a decision on what you really want to do with it.

As an added challenge, it seems I may have my noveling time interrupted sooner than I thought: My biggest client contacted me with a new project this afternoon, one that needs to be completed in just under a week. Although I am definitely glad to be getting a jump start on the month's billable work, I'm also a bit anxious to see how I am able to maintain my novel-writing time as the client work picks up again.

We'll see, I guess. Wish me luck!

16,060 words: First post-NaNoWriMo installment

Tonight I worked on my novel for the first time in over two weeks. I'm happy to say that I got really into it, and added more than 2,000 words. See? I totally could have finished NaNoWriMo this year. I don't know why I didn't.

Oh yeah... Because of paying work. Gotta pay those bills...

Whenever I come back to writing fiction after some time away, I'm always surprised at how easily it comes to me. I do like writing for a living, regardless of whether it is fiction or nonfiction, but working on a short story or a novel always reminds me that fiction was my first love.

Since it's the beginning of the month, and my biggest client keeps me busiest in the middle and end of the month, I have the flexibility right now to continue working on my novel. I am going to try to get into the habit of working on it every day, and hopefully when I do get busier later in the month, I will be able to continue setting aside an hour or so to work on it every day.

My new favorite opening lines of a novel

The things you find when you look through your drafted posts! Evidently I wrote this post back in February but never published it:

A while back I read The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean. Although I blogged about it on Livre du Jour, I wanted to bring it up here because its opening lines are now my favorite of any novel I've ever read.

This is how the book begins:

I have been in love with Titus Oates for quite a while now — which is ridiculous, since he's been dead for ninety years. But look at it this way. In ninety years I'll be dead, too, and then the age difference won't matter.

Who wouldn't want to keep reading, after an opening paragraph like that??

I've never been one of those writers who pays close attention to the opening lines of every novel I read, though I certainly know how important they are. I recently read and reviewed BAM: First Pages, which is about this very subject: How to write an opening to your novel that will grab the reader's — and, more importantly, the editor's — attention.

All I can say is that Geraldine McCaughrean is my new hero, as far as opening lines go.

Vacation inspiration

I've noticed a trend: Every time I go on vacation and get away from my regular freelance work for a little while, I come up with at least one (and usually two or three) good story or novel ideas. It's like taking a break from the less interesting work I do — and the stress that comes with it — opens my mind to more creative thought processes. As a result, I am returning from this vacation with as strong a desire to concentrate more on fiction as I've ever had.

This particular visit, I came up with three good novel ideas. All of them were triggered by something we saw or talked about while driving, and each blossomed into a full-fledged novel idea within a moments of the thought entering my mind. Being a good little writer, of course I jotted all of them down (I keep a notepad and pen in my purse for that purpose, among others). However, I can't help but think that I would really like to actually write the novels, rather than a few notes about my idea.

Inspired partly by my creative inclinations during this trip, and partly by my failure to even start my NaNo novel this year, I have decided to shift my focus somewhat. Although I can't afford to give up my freelance work entirely (and, anyway, I have several clients I wouldn't want to give up), I am going to change up my schedule a little to allow for an hour a day of writing fiction.

I've long thought that "whenever I have time" I'll work on some fiction at the end of the day. Something about that plan doesn't work, though, because I haven't written fiction since NaNoWriMo ended last year. So instead of placing my fiction hour at the end of the day, I'm going to do it first thing (well, after I get back from the stables). That schedule will ensure that I am forced to squeeze a little fiction into every day — not to mention it'll be a good way to warm up for my freelance work, since I'll start my workday with a little more enthusiasm.

At any rate, that's how I envision it working out. I'll let you know if it really works out that way.