Beginnings!

Oh, how I love beginnings! As I let draft 2 of Novel 1 sit (I need to do the third draft with a relatively "fresh" set of eyes--I am worn out and sick of it all right now!), I decided to start putting some new stuff down on paper. I've been planning to work on Novel 2 next, a grand ol' space opera with a, hopefully, intriguing protagonist, but all of the sudden I wanted to work on what shall hence be called Novel 4. Novel 4 is an idea I've had banging around in my head for ages. I tried to use it for NaNoWriMo a couple years ago, but it never took off. It just seems right to work on that now. In the past hour I've already sketched out a rough outline and am working on some basic charactering (um, yes, it's a verb!). I may even begin work on draft 1 this week!

The excitement of starting something totally NEW is amazing. It banishes all my fears and trepidations about "oh, well do I really want to be a writer," and somehow makes it much harder to be all doom and gloom about the future of hard-copy publishing and the role of sheer dumb luck in the whole process. I know that as I go on and the writing gets tough and isn't as perfect as I want, all the doubts will return and I will get to wrestle them again. But for now, I am going to enjoy the sweet feeling of creation!

(Also, starting work on a query for Novel 1. I know that the third draft needs to be done and polished before I can start submitting, but it can't hurt to have a letter ready to go, right?)

(Also also, I still don't have a title for Novel 1! I know that it's the least important bit and can be changed once I blow someone away with my amazing writing, but I mean, I'd like to have one, you know? I can't query it as "novel 1," as awesome as that would be. Fuck. I hate titles. Hopefully my beta can come up with one...)

(Oh, and one more thing, I did a manuscript word count for Novel 1, and it clocked in at 84k! Perfect!)