#16 – Novel Update – The Long Haul
You know how some people have those Cinderella stories where they write a novel in a month with no prior experience whatsoever and they get signed by the first agent who reads it and it hits the NY Times Best Seller List and a friend-of-a-friend is a movie star who options your novel to make a movie?
That ain’t my fairy tale.
I’m more like the Little Engine That Could, which is to say it looks like a long haul on the way to getting traditionally published. In the mean time I’m researching the Scottish Rebellion of 1745-46 and sketching out scenes for the next book.
My writer friends tell me its good to start on the next book during the agent query process to
- keep your sanity
- have the second book ready to go once the first one is published
Since January I’ve finished the graphic novel Freedom Bound, history books The Jacobites, Damned Rebel Bitches, and Bare-Arsed Banditti and a few chapters of Bonnie Prince Charlie and the novel Rob Roy. I’ve been listening to The Highland Witch on Audible, but I have to admit I don’t like listening to stories – I prefer reading them. I still have four hours to go on that one. 
Books I’m reading
My goal is to continue reading Scottish histories, novels and witch books throughout April, as well as some more writing craft books to give my next book a strong foundation. Then, come May, I’m going to do NaNoWriMo (a technique where you write your entire first draft manuscript in one month). By the way – the writing an entire book in a month doesn’t mean it’s ready to show to anyone. Far from it. First drafts are notoriously awful, but it gives you the basic story you will then edit into something worth reading. I’m looking forward to it!
That’s it for me. Hope you are doing well with your own creative pursuits 🙂
Lisa
Here’s my story. (Get your copy HERE).
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