Friday, December 15, 2006

Writing dilemmas

Alison Kent has a great blog post up at the moment about writing speeds and producing quality novels. This was particularly well timed reading for me, because I’ve just been taking reality checks from my lovely man, and my treasured CP. I'd found myself about to over commit for next year! Yikes!

I’ve always believed in quality over quantity, and it’s very important for me personally to make sure that each novel I write is rich, well researched and different to the last. Next year’s schedule is pretty well booked up, and yet I found myself unable to say no to an exciting proposition. Part of it, I guess, is that fear of not being asked again, and of appearing ungrateful. A few years ago when I was struggling to get published the concept of say “no” just wasn’t in my mentality! I can’t get past that, and I am very close to over committing and pushing myself too far. I know that if I do, everything will suffer, most importantly the writing.

I work for several publishers, and that complicates things for me. I am getting better at organising this though. For the first time recently I wouldn't allow myself to commit to a call for short stories. I used to write and submit to every one I saw. I will confess that I said no because I was physically unable to do the short. I was about to have an operation. But it was an important lesson for me. I can do it LOL I can say no. I need to be a bit more realistic about what I can get done -- and what I can get done well.

In other news, I heard from my editor at Berkley Heat, that Double Dare continues to be in the Barnes & Noble trade romance bestseller lists. I was totally amazed at this news, and very pleased indeed. Gobsmacked would be a good description (gobsmacked=speechless, for any US readers ;) Thanks to you lovely people who bought the book, and I hope you’re enjoying it!!!

Oh, and over at the Between the Covers blog, we’ve got a roundtable discussion today about the thing we like least about our personal writing process. Click on the banner to read more.