Writing a novel is lonely business.
After a year of balancing out working on building my writing street credibility in 2012 by writing and getting a lot of short work published, I’ve decided that 2013 is the year of the novel.
By the way, it was a banner year for me in terms of getting short stories published as I had stories published at seven different sites and two of stories accepted for two print anthologies. I also worked on and finished a novella -- which is sort of like a novel.
Don’t get me wrong, I have some short pieces either done or in the works, but I know to keep my eye on the prize -- readers. Readers do like short pieces, but they really love novels.
So, my goal is to get out two novels by the end of the year. My first book is in the hands of an editor and should be done by late July or early August. I’m plugging away at the 2nd book in the series now.
What I liked about the short stories was the quicker turnaround in terms of completion, submission, and acceptance. (Or rejection.) My days consisted of checking my email inbox and eagerly awaiting a response from an editor to see if they had accepted my story or not. It was a lot of fun and I had a good run at the end of the year, getting six out of seven stories submitted accepted.
With a novel, it’s a lot more grueling. You write and you write and you write. I can pump out a flash story in a day, a medium sized short story in two days, and a longer short story in three days. I write pretty quickly, but a novel just takes time.
My novella (31000 words) Forget the Alamo took three months to write. I started the 2nd Book in my Sanctuary from the Dead series in January of this year and I’m about 2/3s the way through. I don’t expect to have the book’s first draft done until July. Now, I did fit in the editing of my novella and five short stories in there along with editing/revisions of the first book in the series in there.
I’m hoping all the work and investment pays off. I’ll let you know.
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