As I type this I’m waiting to hear from the Honda service dept on the status of Jeremy, our car. Yes, we name our cars. Don’t you? Jeremy’s not feeling well. He didn’t want to leave the garage yesterday, so he’s at the car doctor. We don’t know if he needs a new battery, an alternator, or if it’s something worse? [sinister background music] Guess we’ll find out soon.
While pretty scary, that’s not what’s driving me nuts. (Or since the damage has already been done, nuttier.) It’s waiting for responses from potential agents who should obviously want to represent me. The rejections come fast and furious. The requests for a full a manuscript come later, much later, it seems. A number of queries are still out there in the wild. Hopefully a well regarded super cool agent is pondering my query. Hope is alive, until it isn’t. Another batch of queries, maybe with a tweak or two, will go out soon.
MEANWHILE…
The best way to not worry about something is to start something new.
Have you heard about National Novel Writing Month, or NANOWRIMO as it is lovingly called? Every year, authors pledge to attempt to write 50,000 words entirely in the month of November. That averages 1667 words per day for each of 30 days. No editing, just writing, fill the quota, fix it later. A daunting task, none the less.
Many years ago I thought I’d give it a try. A coworker at the time gave me the idea for a Romantic Comedy. I took that idea, embellished and subverted it.
A woman gives up her job in Wisconsin and moves to New Mexico with her husband for his promotion. Once there she quickly discovers he’s been cheating on her, which is why he took the promotion. She is left jobless and friendless in a strange new place. Meanwhile, their daughter drops out of college and moves in, bringing along her new boyfriend. And they want to get married there in a week. Our heroine is now planning a divorce, a wedding, and getting settled in a strange new environment, meeting an interesting cast of local characters, including the local veterinarian (guess his role in this Hallmarkesque story). The final scene at the wedding is hilarious, even if it’s only in outline form at the moment. Working title “Between Heaven and a Big Sky”.
Here’s a “funny” story. Coincidence is a strange beast. I was on a business flight during this particular NANOWRIMO challenge. A long flight is the perfect opportunity to get my required number of words in. Once in the air, I took out my notebook and started to write the requisite daily words. The young woman sitting next to me asked what I was doing. I explained writing the draft for a Rom Com. I could use a good laugh, what’s it was about? I told her much the same as the previous paragraph. Suddenly she began to cry. As the tears flowed, I assured her that it really was a comedy with many funny scenes. She said it was too freaky, but that is exactly what just happened to her. She had flown out to meet her fiance. When she got there, she found out he had been cheating on her the entire time he was away. It was now over between them and she was flying home. I spent the rest of the flight trying to make her smile and laugh. It eventually worked. She thanked me and wished me good luck as we left the plane. I’ll never forget that flight.
If you have ever thought about writing a novel, I encourage you to try the NANOWRIMO challenge. They have resources to help you on this journey. The best part is you won’t be alone. Thousands and thousands attempt this every year. The year I did this, we had meetups to sit together and just write. It’s tough month, but it’s fun. For more info, go to nanowrimo.org.
And if you want to get any work done on a plane trip, keep it to yourself.
UPDATE: it was the Battery All Along. I knew it.
Sign up for my newsletter below! Thanks