On Monday, May 1, I will begin my production calendar.
I have made a list of writing projects that is currently 34 items long. The projects include fiction, scifi, non-fiction, YA fantasy, and children’s books.
Choosing one item to work on was hard. Very hard. But I have chosen to write book one of a series that I have planned.
I will release more information about this book and all of the others on my projects as I work.
I have chosen a book for which I do not have the “great American novel” aspiration. I did this for a couple of reasons.
1) I want to finish this book in a timely fashion.
I have two books that I have been working on for five years. Yes. Five whole freaking years. Many of my friends reading this know which two stories I am talking about and are embarrassed on my behalf for taking this long.
The truth is that I am aiming at literature for these books. Great American Novel aspirations. Big time.
After I get a good catalogue of books under my belt, I will most like spend six whole months focused purely on a crappy first draft of one of these stewing stories. Then, I will spend another six months making it ready for the reading world.
2) I want this first book to be less important to me personally.
This certainly doesn’t mean that I don’t care about the story I’ve chosen. I care about it a lot, but in a different way.
The story that I’ve chosen to tell is entertaining. Purely. There are psychics, murder, and cops galore! Definitely, genre fiction. This makes this project a bit more fun and lot less work.
Basically, it is like this: When I am writing this project, I am not worried about Hemingway’s ghost laughing hysterically at me around the Great Dead Writers Water Cooler.