Sunday, August 24, 2008

I Love Routine

Sounds awfully boring, doesn't it? But my kids have gone back to school and the days have again taken on a regular routine. The good news is, with them out of the house each day, I've gotten back to my writing schedule. In the past few days, I've completed more than 7k words on my new novella, a steamy contemporary with a little mystery set in Savannah, where I recently vacationed.
I was barely chugging along on my previous WIP when I realized it wasn't going where I wanted it to. So, I abandoned it - maybe for a while, maybe for good, who knows. What it came down to was my lack of enthusiasm. And heaven knows if I have no enthusiasm for a story, neither will an editor!
Have you ever just walked away from a manuscript in progress? Or a book you were reading, for that matter? My take on it is - why should I waste my time?
On another note, a NYT bestselling author who purchased The Kitten Club several months ago at a book signing, dropped me a note last night. She said she found the book poignant, a lovely story and even gave me a quote to use on brag pages for future books. I was honored to have such high praise from an author of her caliber.

2 comments:

Katie Reus said...

Lol, I'm with you. I like a schedule. Don't get me wrong, i love packing up and going somewhere spontaneously, but as far as writing goes, I love a schedule.

And yes, I'm not one of those people who will read a book to the bitter end. If I don't like it, I pass it on :)

Terry Odell said...

I rarely don't finish a book, but if I don't like it a lot, I read really, really fast! This just happened; I'd picked up a book at the library without glancing at the blurb because the author was a Big Name, and I love her writing. I still love her writing, but she lost me in the middle of the book because there were paranormal elements in it, and I prefer my reading to be reality based. As I read, I kept thinking of all the other ways she could have written that story with the same basic plot points so that I'd believe it.

And now that I'm writing, sometimes analyzing WHY it fell apart for me helps me avoid making the same 'mistake'. But no two readers have exactly the same taste, so I have to write something I like, with characters I love.

As for routine -- no kids getting back to school, but after a month that was almost all travel, I'm glad to be settling into the familiar.