After returning from the writers conference, I took a short break from Finding Cadence to work on the next novel, Oaks and Acorns. Cadence was full of angst and suffering, which is probably why it took me two years to write, and O&A is completely different. It’s going to be chick-lit all the way — fun, sassy and sexy.
One of my online friends from across the state, Jessie, is helping me with the “pre-edit” — that is, my rewrite before I send the book on for more serious editing. Both of us have “real” lives, so she’s sending me a couple of chapters at a time. Heck, do I mind? I’m getting input and advice for free. Thank you, Jessie. 🙂
This week, I’m going to deconstruct Cadence. I can’t let it wait any longer. At 175K words, it’s a monster. I learned at the conference that no one is going to publish a book of that size, unless the author’s name happens to be Joyce Carol Oates or Pat Conroy. Unfortunately, I’m saddled with my own name.
I somehow got into a great groove writing Cadence. It took me almost two years to find that groove, one where I will sit down and write at least a thousand words a day. I credit NaNoWriMo, because during November I managed to write 50K words in thirty days. Before that, I would maybe work on it a couple times a month.
The last month has been a vacation of sorts. I played with my new characters, and played on the computer far too much. I have fallen back into my past bad habits of laziness and procrastination. But, I promise to snap out of it, starting today, and to post regular updates.
In the meantime, I’ve made out a list of the technical problems. I have some things happening in the beginning that don’t appear later. These should be thrown out. Then I have some things later that should really be mentioned in the beginning. And Chapter Two has to go. Well, for now. I’m saving it for possible use later.
