Reading About Writing

Since I'm taking another break from the poor, neglected Violet's Monster: Volume I that is in its 8th revision, I'm soaking up any information I can get my hands on about writing. I've borrowed "Wild Ink: Writing Young Adult Fiction", "The Pocket Muse", and "How to Grow A Novel", among others, from the library. Going back tomorrow to pick up more.

I'm slowly learning where I'm going wrong, and I'm starting to consider letting Violet's Monster take a back seat (AGAIN) while I try to puzzle out what the real story is...not that I'm going to throw everything out (the second book outline is still good), but...I really, really need to re-think how I'm approaching the story.

That being said, there are three manuscripts that are consistently hitting me over the head in order to get me to start working on them, and there's a possibility that one of them could end up as the first book I send out in hopes of getting some of my work published.

I also need to be working writing short stories, poems, and other things I can send out to be published while I work on my books. I'm going to be looking for that today.

I've been writing seriously since my senior year in high school - that's 7 years of short stories, poems, novellas, novels, a graphic novel, TV episodes, ideas, and dreams. Someone in "The Pocket Muse" said it usually takes a writer 10 years to get ready for publishing.

I know, it's not always true, and I know that there's exceptions, but I think what they're trying to get at is that we need so much practice before we're ready to showcase our stuff. I think there's a lot of truth to that, and honestly, I have been feeling that way for a while. Maybe I need time to let myself write poorly so I can be better and have stronger books when I do eventually get published (hopefully).

So...here's to three more years.