Where's The Plot?

I’ve started a new project. Before I started writing, I thought I’d do some research first. Read for inspiration. Read for advice. Read agent interviews.

I picked up Susan Page’s, Shortest Distance Between You and a Published Book, recommended by one of the agents. I don’t read every how-to book that comes along (this one was published in 1997!) but I started to wonder if in fact there was some big step I’d completely overlooked. Maybe I hadn’t put the right secret code word in my query letters.

I usually read non-fiction in the order it’s presented. The author had a reason for the order, certainly. But this time I glanced through the table of contents and Part II: Taming the Monsters, jumped out at me. Monster #2 is procrastination. Until now, I’ve never had a problem with this particular monster. But since finishing my last manuscript, I hadn’t been able to pin down my next project. I couldn’t focus. I began to wonder if I had some form of ADD. I couldn’t even focus on what to read. I’ve been in the middle of six books for a few weeks now and each day I pick up a different one depending on my mood.

I’ve been researching, writing snippets of ideas and scenes, but without a clear mission. Finally I wrote the first 20 pages. I even asked Pamela to read it. “Lots at stake,” she said. “But where’s the plot?” I knew she was right. If only I could read a little more, research a little more, it would come to me. I’m procrastinating, no?

No! I’ve got acedia. (Not a disease!) On page 218 of Page’s book, she notes that a friend told her about acedia. “Acedia, my friend explained, is the slow and arduous forward motion required to start a new project or to return to work after a break.” She goes on to explain that it’s a way to allow the creative juices to flow, to prepare for the next writing journey. Procrastination is putting off something you don’t want to do. Acedia is the process of getting ready to start a creative project that you want to do. Wow! Yes! I love to write! There’s nothing I want more. (Aside from a call from the perfect agent, the one who knows one of my books will sell immediately!)

As soon as I accepted this explanation for my lack of direction, I began to focus. I brainstormed. What would happen if… I jotted notes about my characters. What does he want? What’s in his way? Next thing I knew, a plot was forming. Now I’m so excited about it, I can’t wait to write. And I actually know what I’m going to write.

Positive Rejection

Last week I started writing a piece about rejection. I’d received a few query rejections. Two agents had passed on my full manuscript. Don’t get me wrong, I was crushed. But an agent I met at a conference sent one of the nicest letters to date, a hand-written note praising my writing. Letters like hers encourage me, make me determined to do whatever it takes to write the best novel I can and get it published.

No one loves rejection, but when I get an email back from an agent query or hear the slow tires of the mail truck, my pulse quickens. I don’t always run outside right away--mostly because I’m usually still in my pajamas! Sometime in the afternoon, I head to the mailbox. Finding a returned SASE is thrilling. It means I’m putting my work out there. Others are reading my work, even if they’re not convinced it’s “right for this agency.” Once, an agent requested the full via my SASE! “Love to see it,” she wrote. I might never receive another request in the mail. But, then again, I just might.

Fast forward. This week, I received two requests for full manuscripts. Better still: they were for two different books.

I’ve revised The Bodley Boys after receiving valuable feedback from critique partners and a few other trusted readers. I still love it. Maybe this will be the agent to champion it. And, if I’m lucky, an editor will, too.

Pamela and I started querying on our Center Court Seats and a Pair of Jimmy Choos and within two days we had a request. We knew when we read our chapters aloud to a critique group full of non-women’s fiction readers and they all laughed, we had something good. This might not be the one. But even if it isn’t, we know we’re getting close!

Book Recommendations

Lately I've been reading historical fiction. Something about the early 20th century has enthralled me and it seems every book I read and every movie I check out from Netflix is from that period in history.

There are two books I've read recently that I immediately reread. The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield and The House at Riverton, by Kate Morton. Diane Setterfield's tale is a cross between Rebecca and Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle, about an antiquarian bookseller's daughter and biographer who is asked by a reclusive, terminally-ill author to write the author's true life story--something she's lied about until now. If you like eery, family saga/tragedy, this is for you.

The House at Riverton is a cross between Elizabeth Jane Howard's, The Light Years, and Susan Minot's Evening. A convoluted family history, including two sisters, Hannah and Emmaline (curiously, The Thirteenth Tale also has a character named Emmaline), torn by their love of the same man, told from the perspective of Hannah's ladies maid. This book is so well-crafted that when I read it the second time, I gasped at how brilliantly she weaved the story.

Anyone else have any must-reads?

What's Next You Say

Three down: One under the bed, one in query-mode, one in final revisions. I'm pleased with my work. But what's next?

Lately I've been kind of antsy. And until a few days ago, I hadn't been able to figure out why. I haven't been writing anything new. I have a couple of ideas roaming around in my head plus a few things I started writing and put aside. But nothing has jumped out at me as the one. I've been considering a novel set in Highgate Hill Cemetery in Hampstead Heath outside of London. George Eliot's buried there. And so is Karl Marx. They ought to make for an interesting set of ghosts, right? However, if I attempt another novel in a cemetery my family and friends might start wondering about me. Then again, I think they already do.

Celebration

This weekend, a kind relative mentioned that I've been delinquent in my blogging. He's right. But I have a good reason; I've been fiendishly writing novels.

It's not quite time to pop THE bottle of champagne, but last night I celebrated two triumphs. The Bodley Boys is currently being read by an editor and three agents. YEA! And Pamela and I are one chapter away from finishing Center Court Seats and a Pair of Jimmy Choos. Okay, maybe I started celebrating early, but I finished MY last chapter! (no pressure, Pamela!) As soon as I emailed it to her, I called. I was shaking with excitement. It's good. It's really good, I screamed in her ear. (too confident, you say?!) This week, we're going to query an agent who was referred to us by a bestselling author!

What's next? It's time to start planning my fourth novel. Yes, fourth! Maybe someday soon I'll get paid for one of them! But hey, let's not let one minor detail hamper the celebration.

The Hard Part

When I first started writing seriously, I thought completing a book would be the most difficult part of the business. Sitting down every day, writing 1,500 words, not watching a movie on my laptop, not taking daily naps... Turns out, I’m a self-motivated writer. As Kingsley Amis wrote: “The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of one’s trousers to the seat of one’s chair.” I do this really well. Sometimes my family has to pry me away from my laptop or at least tempt me with chocolate or a movie (or both!) to see my face instead of the back of my head.

I completed my second manuscript, The Bodley Boys, in less than a year after deciding to write full time (thanks to my fantastic critique partners!) and my third manuscript, a collaboration with Pamela Hammonds, is past the half-way mark. (Did I mention Center Court Seats and a Pair of Jimmy Choos is really funny?)

Now comes the hard part. Sending my baby out. I’m fortunate to have met an editor at a recent conference who is interested in reading the manuscript. And wouldn’t it be incredible if she’d fall in love with it, snatch it up and offer me the name of a few agents she believes would also love my work? But, realistically, I need to query agents as well.

First I’ll approach the handful of agents who liked my query enough to request the full of The Cemetery Garden. Even though they all passed, they saw something in my writing they liked and hopefully they’ll recognize my name on a new query.

My friends and family have been so encouraging, it would be really nice to answer the question, “Have you sold a book yet?” with “Yeah, that was the easy part.”

Debut Novel

Hello all,

Fellow writer and Writers' Guild of Texas member, Maria Zannini, debuts her futuristic fantasty, Touch of Fire today. Let's all go online to get the e-book (tell your friends!) and pick it up in stores in December just in time for the holidays!

The cover is smoldering, check out the link: http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/touch-of-fire