Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Why Do I Have Spring Fever

Spring is springing in these parts - grass getting green, buds swelling, little shoots sprouting from the soil. The days are getting longer, day in the night, and my WIP has found new life.

I slogged through a rough draft all winter, started over once and took the story in a different direction, but there were weeks when I did not get more than a paragraph put together. The words did not flow because the narrative was refusing to form up into a novel, let alone conform to the shape of a short story. Always, in the back of my mind, I was thinking about the queries and partials out to agents, wondering about the response, when it would come, should I keep going or forget it?

Finally, I've gotten past the 'waiting for the literary agent' stage of the process. Novel #4 is all in my head, the plot running from start to finish, with a bit of middle to fill out enough pages. I don't know why, all of a sudden, this has happened. I cannot say what has changed in my brain, unless it's spring fever. I took the first rough draft of my WIP and reworked twenty five pages down to eleven. That's how much shite was penned when I was stuck on an idea during the dark days of winter.

Can't wait to finish the story, to see where the characters go and how they solve their many difficulties. And then, I can start the query process all over again, with a new and different manuscript. Knowing that I can query when I'm done makes me want to finish that much sooner. I'm getting writer's cramp just thinking about it.

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