Sinking My Teeth Into It

Over the past few years, I've learned that writers are each comfortable creating fiction in their own, unique way. Some require complete silence, some noise, some coffee, some a certain area in which they find comfort to get "in the zone". People fascinate me. Personally, I can write in near-dark with music blaring, people chatting away nearby, traffic rushing by outside my window and a lack of anything in particular to drink. (I've given up my beloved Diet Pepsi for health reasons)

But I do require one, tiny, little, quirky detail to channel my muse (who looks very much like an overweight, 40-year-old, hairy tooth fairy, complete with tiara, wand and pink tutu).

I can't write with an outline.

Strike that...I can't write quickly or easily with an outline.

For the first time, due to numerous details and plot twists, I wrote out an outline to the book I'm working on. You know...just to keep track of things I'll need to put in to make Vlad's story work. My word count has been dismal ever since. I normally can break 2,000 words a day easy, but with Eighth Grade Bites, it's been more like 1,000--still nothing to sneeze at, but it's driving me seriously close to the edge of sanity. Why do I struggle with structure like that? Well, maybe I was a hippie flower child in another life or maybe it's the fact that I've never responded well when being told what to do in an authoritative manner--and the outline, to me, is like that. ("Stop flitting around with ideas, Heather, and stick to the damn story. Conform, conform!")

I wouldn't complain (*snicker* Yeah, right...this is me we're talking about here), except here I am a third of the way through the book and teen vampire books are popping up everywhere. And a friend recently alerted me that in Cynthia Sterling's market update she stated: "Pocket also publishes MTV books, a YA line that's been around a while, but they're currently revamping to make it more commercial. They're actively looking to acquire 50,000 to 75,000 word stories for late teens and young twenty-somethings. Lauren McKenna acquires for this line and is open to all sorts of stories. For instance, she mentioned she'd love to see a vampire teen novel." GAAAHHH!!!!! Write faster, write better, get it done already!!!

I never believed in a fear of success until now. Good thing for me my fear of failure is much worse. *g* So it's time to dig deep, sink my teeth into this manuscript and create the

next

big

thing.