Thursday, June 3, 2010

How do you choose your next project?

This week marked a new chapter (both literally and figuratively) in my publishing life. I had a big red circle (because that’s what they tell us to do) around June 1. It was my first actual deadline. My manuscript for Original Sin (Personal Demons, book 2) was due to my editor. I’m happy to say, I made the deadline. Yay! *throws virtual confetti*

Truth is, I actually gave it to her a few weeks ago with the proviso that things might change and I’d have a final draft to her by June 1. Not much changed, just some clean-up, so she’s already read it and didn’t seem to hate it. Another yay!
So, now I’m working madly on Hellbent (Personal Demons, book 3), but I also have a few other projects bouncing around in my head. One of them is in a YA subgenre that’s trending right now, and I don’t really want to write to a trend, but I love the story. Another is a rewrite of an older manuscript. The writing is atrocious, but the plot, once it really gets going, is kickass. The third is a contemporary that popped into my head fully formed. I think it could be really good and it would be a pretty quick write, cuz it’s all right there, plot twists and all.

So, how do you choose what you’ll write when you have more than one idea?

7 comments:

  1. Oooh! I'm dying to know that the appealing YA subgenre book is...

    Congrats on making your deadline - OS is sooooo good!!!

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  2. The novel chooses me. I have no control over it. Certain characters just pop into my head and won't shut up until I write them into silence. :)

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  3. I find the books I need to work on choose me. Wish I could say it was otherwise. Wish I could say that I'm the master of my fate, my career, or of anything other than my pipsqueak dog (actually even that is a bit questionable), but these damned demanding stories shout down other possibilities, clamor for recognition, keep me awake at night, and eventually take over even when I'm determined to wander in a different direction. Eventually I give in and just do their bidding.

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  4. Shoot, I never get chosen for anything. True story: I wrote four project ideas on little slips of paper and, not trusting msyelf to draw one out of a hat, dropped them as a group in front of a window fan. Eventually I hit 3 up and 1 down or vice versa, and elemenated the odd man out. Wehn I got to two, the one facing up, when neither faced the same direction, was the one I went with.

    I used to dream that I could work on more than one book project at a time. But I can't. Dang it.

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  5. P.S. I do wonder if I could possibly work on one book-length fiction and simultaneously collaborate with another author on a wildly different novel. I'd like to try this some time.

    There is so much time between edits and whatnot that we could write three books while one is being produced... if we could free our minds/hearts to go to a new place (writing zone) while keeping the original place intact.

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  6. Interesting ideas. Usually one idea screams at me to be written, but this time, they're all screaming at me. I think I'll seek professional advice. That's why I have my truly fabulous agent (amongst other things).

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  7. I can't, that's why I never can finish anything. Too many ideas, so little discipline. ;)

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