In Principio

So, I have apparently decided to start a blog about my writing.

Why have I decided to do this right now? Well, for several reasons. One is because I've decided to start trying to get serious about writing again. And the second is, of course, because it's NaNoWriMo, which means I really don't have the time for the blog right now, and therefore naturally means I'm going to start one.

I think I'll go into more detail about my NaNoWriMo progress in a separate post; suffice to say for now that I'm more or less on schedule. (That is, I'm on schedule to finish 50,000 words well before the deadline, but perhaps not to finish as many words as I hope to finish.) I've "won" at NaNoWriMo twice before, but with stories that, even with editing and clean-up, weren't publishable, since they were based on copyrighted properties. (Copyrighted by other people, I mean.) I'm not usually interested in writing fanfic, but I figured NaNoWriMo was more a frivolous thing than a time for serious writing. This time, however, I'm working on a story that I think will potentially be publishable when it's through. (And by "when it's through" I mean, of course, after it's gone through several rounds of edits and rewrites; I'm certainly not intending to dash a copy off to an agent on November 30.) We shall see.

Writing isn't new to me. I've loved writing my whole life. As a young child, I would write stories on my parents' typewriter, which had the capability to switch between red and black ink, a capability I used rather more than I should have. I completed two full-length (and in fact rather long) novels as a teenager, though I make no claims that either of them was very good. Another novel later I tried more seriously to shop around to agents, though in retrospect the fact that the damned thing was 170,000 words long was almost certainly rather a turn-off. (Still kind of like it, though, and still think maybe I can do something with it someday... but I'm no longer going to try to sell it as my first novel.)

Those, of course, are just the finished novels. I have any number of other works in progress, and a handful of short stories (which is something I really ought to, and intend to, do more of). As I said, I've always loved to write.

But then for a few years... well, I really didn't do much of it. (I love to write... but there are other things I also love to do.) Oh, I wrote, just not much fiction, and I didn't make any serious efforts to publish anything. It's time to change that. It's time to get back into the game. And this time, I'm really going to take it seriously.

My favorite genres to write are fantasy and science-fiction, though I'm not averse to dabbling in other waters. I've also had some ideas lately for some young adult books I'd like to write, though I'd use a different pseudonym for that. (Not that the pen name is something I really ought to be worrying about until I've got the publishing deal.) But for right now, my immediate writing plans are as follows:

1. For NaNoWriMo, finish the novel I'm working on, a fantasy story called Ichor. (Which I anticipate to be about 90,000 words or so... no more 170,000 word monsters for me just yet.)
2. If I get done with my novel well before the end of NaNoWriMo (which is looking quite possible, though not inevitable), spend the rest of NaNoWriMo working on another novel, a young adult novel I just had the idea for a few days ago which I expect should maybe be 40,000 or 50,000 words (but we'll see).
3. After NaNoWriMo, start with the edits and rewrites. In the meantime, write some short stories (including finishing a number of short stories I've started but haven't completed) and shop them around.
4. When I've gone through enough edits and rewrites to feel comfortable about the condition the novel is in, start querying agents.

So... there's the gameplan. We'll see how it goes...

And now... well, there's another reason I probably shouldn't really have started this blog right now, that being that it's past one in the morning. I thought it was even later than that, actually... did Daylight Saving Time just end? (*Checks the web.*) Huh, so it did. I never remember when that is. Good thing my computer updates automatically. Well, anyway, the point is, it's very late, and I ought to be getting to bed, so I can get up and write a few more thousand words of my novel tomorrow.

Good night.