no NaNo...

Back in January I made a decision. It wasn't a resolution, just an ordinary sort of decision. I decided that this year I would not be participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNo). NaNo is the challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 day (in November). I've done NaNo for the last seven years or so, I have even been a local leader of the group here in the Springs for six years.

But after last year, I realized that while NaNo had been very helpful to me in my writing, it had reached the point where it was no longer useful. In addition, the writing had become more of a chore, and it drained me from useful writing for at least a month (usually more) after it was over. (Since NaNo rules state you must start a new work, I ended up setting aside my "real" projects for NaNo several years in a row.) For someone who is working towards publication, that just wasn't a good deal. So I decided that 2010 was the last NaNo for the foreseeable future for me.

I'm really thankful for NaNo. It taught me how to focus and how to complete a manuscript. It gave me the opportunity to meet some great writers here in Colorado Springs and around the world.

And yes, I'm a little sad about not doing it. I'm going to miss the camaraderie, the rush, and satisfaction of reaching a goal. But on the other hand, I'm glad that I'm not draining my creative juices. I'm excited about continuing my search for an agent. And hopefully I'll be doing quality writing and editing on my current projects.

And for once, I get to be the cheerleader. I like encouraging people to push themselves, to reach goals, to do things that they have dreamed of doing.

stranger than...

Ever since I was in the third grade (at least that's as far back as I remember in this case) I wanted to be a writer. Mrs. Miller, my third grade teacher, had us write stories that we then put into books complete with wallpaper and tag board covers. I still have that book.

Through the years I've wanted to pursue many things, but the one constant has always been writing. If I had to pick one thing that I was created to do, it's tell stories.

I'm at that point now where I've told a few, both in prose and poetry. I've had some credible figures in the field of writing tell me that I do it well. And I've even finished a few novels. But finishing a novel doesn't get it published. If you took all the finished but unpublished novels in the last five years, I would venture you could cross the good old US of A with them!

Which brings me to now. If this is what I was created to do, if this is the purpose of my life, then I need move forward. It's not enough to tell a story that no one hears--stories must be read, be shared, be told. And to do that, I need to get published.

Getting published is hard. Like hitting a baseball to the moon sort of hard. But there is something that can help make it more like hitting a ball from San Francisco to New York--and that's an agent. So that is my next step: find an agent.

And to be honest, I'd much rather have to find an agent than to have one of my characters show up at my door (like in the wonderful film Stranger Than Fiction). It's not going to be easy to find one, but most easy things aren't worth it in the end.

So, wish me luck! I'm off to find an agent.

Parental Nerves...

I've been writing for a long time. But it's been a long while since I've submitted my work to publishers (with the exception of my haiku poems, written in college, and published last year in an e-journal). But this week, I sent out work.

It's like sending your first-born off to boarding school--it kills you to wave goodbye, let them get on that bus, and wait for school to get out.

I sent three poems to Poetry magazine, and a short-story to Glimmer Train.

And now, I'm sitting on pins and needles, waiting to hear back (which, with luck, will happen in 3-4 months).