Letters From Home

I’ve gotten the manuscript for my second novel Dutchman’s Puzzle as complete as I can make it. I’ve rewritten it according to the advice I got in some excellent critiques, I’ve had three editors look for typos and bad writing, and today I formatted a copy of the manuscript for e-book publication. Phew.

Tomorrow, I will format the paper-book manuscript and finish the cover design.

Thursday, I send it out for publication. Which means the e-book versions will be available within a week on Smashwords and Amazon, and the print version will likely follow a few days after that on Lulu, with distribution to the major online book retailers about a month later, if my experience with the first novel is any indication.

I never thought I’d be a writer. Oh, I wrote, no doubt about it, most all my life. But I never really seriously tackled fiction. In fact, that first novel lay around in bits and pieces for more than 20 years before I finally got my act together and finished it. But now I’m on a roll.

The first two books are set in the same fictional small town and with many of the same characters in both books. The third novel, which will likely take me more than a year to finish, is based on my family history, starting in Canada in 1902 and ending up… well, I’m not sure where, but sometime around 1980. The 50,000 words I wrote for NaNoWriMo last year weren’t even half of one character’s story, and there are three main characters, a grandmother, mother, and daughter. Yeah, it’s gonna be a long book. And a good one, if my instincts are correct. Hey, there’s gotta be some advantage to being old. 🙂

I’ve added a NaNoWriMo word-count widget on the right, there.  It’ll start showing something tomorrow (Nov. 1).

This will be my second year in National Novel Writing Month, and I did indeed get a good strong backbone for a novel out of last year’s endeavor.  This year, I’ll be starting on the novel I’ve planned to write for decades.  I’ve gotten my two practice novels out of the way (one published in August, one to be published next spring) and I’ve seen a few small royalty checks, enough to encourage me if not make me rich as Croesus.

This new book will be based on my grandmother’s life, my mother’s, and my own.  I think my grandmother would approve, but I’m not so sure about my mother.  The characters will be fact-based fiction, and there are certain aspects of their lives and histories that need to be included for the story to work.  I’ll be doing the same with my life, of course.

I’m once again going to be using Scrivener, which is a writer’s dream.  I’m using it on a vintage Mac Mini and Mac Powerbook G4, but there’s a Windows version due out early next year (beta version available for tryout on the Literature & Latte web site).  To get serious work done, you need serious tools that get the heck outta your way and let you have at it.

I think one of my brothers will like this book, one will hate it and one will be ambivalent.  It will likely take me a long time to get it finished, so I’ll have to revisit that prediction when the time comes.

Want to join me in the fellowship of the novel?

Related articles

• NaNoWriMo – I salute you (tdhurst.com)
• “Lifehacker Takes On The NaNoWriMo Challenge” and related posts (lifehacker.com.au)
• Scrivener writing application now available for Windows, just in time for NaNoWriMo (downloadsquad.com)
• “NaNoWriMo Writing Tools for the iPad” and related posts (gigaom.com)

Last year, I entered the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) competition for the first time.  I think I’ve mentioned this a time or two.  🙂  I’m going to enter again this year and get a start on my third novel.  Is anyone else thinking of entering?  If so, maybe we can encourage each other as we go along.

If you’re worried about not being able to do this, you owe it to yourself to read  No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty, which will get you past the fear of writing and keep you going all month long.  It’s designed specifically for NaNoWriMo participants.  You’re not competing with other writers, only with yourself, and nobody will see the finished work unless you want them to.  What you write doesn’t have to be perfect–you just have to accept the deadline and keep moving toward your goal.

I got two novels for the effort of one, last year, because being able to finish 50,000+ words in less than a month encouraged me to finish my first novel after more than 20 years.  If I can do it, anyone can.  🙂