2, down 78 to go

So I'm slowly getting into Wolf 2. Still trying to re-orient myself in the heroine's head and the world and see what the plot holds in store. Looking at the progress bar is always kind of depressing at the start of a book.

One hundred thousand words is a lot. Most people freak at the idea of writing a couple of thousand. I tell myself write 5 pages, repeat 80 times and you have a book. But it's not quite that simple. During those repetitions you've gotta somehow hold a world in your head and make a plot hang together and world build and establish characters and keep the story interesting. Simple? Not always. Not when you know there are interested parties at the other end of the process. But I've written for interested parties before and writing for interested parties is part of the biz. And what I've learned is, you still have to write for yourself, love the story yourself. Or one hundred thousand words could feel very long indeed.

But none of this is stuff to worry about in a first draft. First drafts are for discovery. For playing. This is the first time I'm deliberately writing a sequel rather than just having the story maybe have some familiar characters but focusing on different protagonists. So it's new territory. And the first one was a gift book, one that flowed easily and fast for the vast part. Even the revisions have been relatively straightforward. I'm not expecting this one to be the same. Those books only come along once in a while.

So I have to focus on the little steps. Having fun and knocking over five pages at a time. 2 down. 78 to go.

The sound of a book

Given that I've finished the revisions that my agent (!!) wants on Wolf, I'm now turning attention to the second book. I have the opening scene which I wrote a few weeks ago. Now I have to launch myself back into the story world. Which I'm quite looking forward to, I like my heroine, it's fun to be in her head.

One of the first things I do when I start a book is put together a soundtrack. Sometimes it's one cd, but usually, especially since I got my iPod, it's a mix. Songs for mood, songs for particular characters or scenes, songs that just trigger something. The first batch of songs is pure instinct. I troll through my iTunes libary, letting the girls pick stuff. I know one song in particular has something to do with the central story line but some of the other choices are surprising. Different to book one. Which makes sense. They're in a different place now. I'll see how it writes, then add or subtract, move the order around if I need to. Then I'll listen to it over and over. Till it becomes almost background noise but still gives me the feel I need.

Then I'll have an instant way of plugging myself into the world whenever I need to. All I need is headphones and a little white gadget (we love Apple!). How cool is that?

More changes

And now, this is more like it.

The Psycho one was good and using it was a lesson in quick and dirty editing but I decided two columns was more what I wanted. So back to a blogger template and apply the lessons learned from Psycho. Voila.

This one can stay awhile.

A change is as good...

As you can see I've had a bit of an template change. I was inspired by the VT (who has a blog now and also cunningly found Psycho which makes the template thing easy!).

It's still a work in progress so stay tuned....I'd like to make the middle column wider for a start.

But now, there's revising to be done.

Woohoo!!

I alluded to some very good stuff in my last post.

So here's a bit of an update. I have an AGENT! A fantastic, fabulous agent.

In fact, pretty much my dream agent!!!

I've been walking around for a week now, pinching myself and re-reading the emails from her to know it's not a dream but given we've just had our second phone conversation (at the moment our email seems to be playing a not so fun little game called 'every now and then we'll just mysteriously disappear into the ether' - stern words will be had with my ISP shortly) and she didn't seem to have forgotten who I am : 0, it is apparently all true.

For now, I'll call her Agent X, there's still the legal stuff to be done, but I'm pretty excited (and have now crowned myself queen of the understatement). She's smart, she's good, she likes my stuff! And she'll be championing the wolf book into the wide world of publishing.

Let the games begin!