Return and Sacrifice

That's right, you can believe your eyes; I have started to draft Sacrifice. There's not much to it, and I'm not on any kind of schedule for the present time, but I am hoping to get back into my writing groove. I tried to enter something in for NaNoWriMo but couldn't find the energy to do it. For those who don't know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. You have the entire month of November to write a 50,000 word first draft for an original story and submit it for judging. Some manuscripts are offered publishing opportunities. It might be something for developing writers to consider for next year.

What else has been going on? Well, I've been doing a lot of brainstorming for Sacrifice, which means that half my wall is covered with Post-It Notes. So far, I have used a difference strategy for every novel. Promise was written with no direction or planning whatsoever, Treason was written with my cue card system, and now Sacrifice is being written on Post-It Notes. I like the idea because it allows me to see every single idea and move around certain things so that I can change the order of my ideas without having to rewrite new cards. I might go back to cue cards once I have firmer deadlines in mind, but I'm not too sure yet. I am going to take this one nice and slow while I continue to cope with my medical problems - which are getting better, by the way.

It has now been seven months since I finished writing Promise and I didn't look at my manuscript before today. As I explained before, I wanted to put it away for at least half a year to make it easier to find mistakes and identify parts that I didn't like as much. I started to look it over this afternoon and didn't get very far - mostly because my puppy would steal my pens and highlighters when he wanted attention - but I already have a lot of pen marks and entire sections that I want to throw out completely.

As I've said before, I have certain time frames in mind for sending out query letters for my manuscripts but I want to keep those to myself until I have some news to share with you. If I don't tell you when I send off the letter, then you'll never get to know if I get rejected. It's bound to happen, but won't be as bad as if everyone knows about it. I love you all, but some things I need to do on my own before I share it with the cyber world.

Once again, I'd like to thank you all, and all of my Twitter followers for being so supportive during this hiatus. I am sorry for dropping off the map so suddenly, but I promise that I will make it up to you with a book that you'll be able to pick up in your local book store soon enough. Thank you for your loyalty; I'd never have to confidence to do any of this if it wasn't for you.

I love you all,

Diana

This week's song is Good To You by Marianas Trench simply because I love it. Enjoy!