2005 = The Year of the Book

Last year I focused on developing a solid writing habit and remembering that November was National Novel Writing Month. Both of which went well, and I feel that I did more writing in 2004 than any year prior. Much of it was freewriting, but still, it got the cogs turning and kept them greased. I'm convinced that went a long way to making the November novel writing venture a success.

So after giving some thought as to direction for my writing for 2005, I've learned to set the broader goals first. For 2004 it was: Write more. For 2005 the idea that keeps shoving itself to the fore: Sell a book.

The idea still scares the bejeebees out of me. I'm not sure why. Other than the fact that I really hate the spotlight. I'd have to be an Anne Tyler type writer. Let the books take the spotlight and stay in the background as much as possible. Of course I think you have to be able to write like Anne Tyler to pull that off, and I don't dream of being close to that level at this point in time. So the entire promotion idea gives me a stomach full of butterflies. But that's getting the cart before the horse, isn't it? I think the subtitle of my Year of the Book will have to be "Handling Events as They Arise".

Once I had accepted the insistence of that broad goal, I began to make a list of all the books I have around here that are half-started, close-to-finished and finished. The close-to-finished and finished lists turned out to be longer than I expected them to be.

It always used to worry me--and you'll see again my famous ability to get the cart way, way ahead of the horse here--is that the tendency these days is for publishers to want a multi-book deal, that can-you-do-this-again-next-year thing. And I'm thinking, what if I can't? What if I don't want to? What if my life gets turned on its ear and the last thing I want to do is write? (Which has happened before!) Well, I'm sitting here with my lists and I have at least two books in just about every genre or age group I like to write for. In most of those categories I have one finished, one close to finished, and a raw idea waiting in the wings.

So there--you scaredy-cat internal editor person. Next year is definitely, definitely, definitely going to be:

2005
The Year of the Book
Handling Events as They Arise (no worries, mate!)

:)