MY WAY

For several years now, I've been selling books by writing three chapters and a synopsis which I then send off to New York. Then I wait two or three months until I hear if the book sells. Once it's sold, I look at it again, sometimes for the first time since it left the house months before, and start writing Chapter Four.

The wisdom of this is, of course, that I don't spend time writing a book that doesn't sell or compound a wrong turn. The down side is just as obvious. Getting back into a book you haven't paid much attention to for months is very difficult, especially if you've been a busy little writer and actually started developing additional ideas. By the time you have a contract and a deadline, it's likely you're invested in a whole other project which must then be put on hold while you go through the painful getting to know you again phase with the first book.

But this book … this book is different.

This book had a 11 week deadline and that was from page one to page 280. Not only that, there was no plot, just a wild hook from the senior editor. All suggestions about what to do with that hook turned out to be dead ends, at least to me. Plotting was filled with issues that required a lot of research (plotting alone can take me two months), some of which had to be ditched. Finally, I came up with a plot and then started writing the three chapters and the synopsis. Making it come together was like pulling teeth. Some books are gimmes, this book WAS NOT.

Finally, finally it seemed to work. Oh, happy days. But the original plan was to take it to S.F. and hand it over to my editor and when that didn't work out, I had to email it and life being what it was, ye old editor didn't get it read before she left town. And then she had the unmitigated gall to take a vacation. Finally she got back to work but immediately came down with some horrible bug and had to go home.

Meanwhile, I just kept writing as per our plan. The book was due in just weeks -- I had to keep going, no choice. But I was also getting nervous. If they hated the direction I'd taken the story (a very real possibility), I wouldn't have time to rethink and rewrite the whole thing. When the contract came, I sat on it for a week and then thought, what the hell, and signed it. As I realized the art forms were due -- on a book no where near half done -- the unreality of the situation just kept growing.

But in the last few days, something neat has happened. Without any feedback, it's totally my book and for the first time in many, many years I am writing a book from start to finish with absolutely no breaks. And because I am so worried about the deadline, I am writing it fast for me, setting daily page goals and not quitting until I meet them. Wheee! It's fun!

Is it perfect? Uh, no. Is it full of holes, dangling plot points, confusing mysteries and a character whose name changed halfway through and which I just noticed? It sure is and if I think about it too carefully, I get jumpy, but that's what the editing phase is for and if I get this done in a timely manner I'll actually have the time to do a decent job of it.

So, probably today or tomorrow, my editor will finally read the proposal and I'm almost sorry. If she doesn't like it, well, I'll fight for it. My heart goes out to this heroine and I have a feeling the tension is building just fine. In the end, I may have to contemplate changes, but meanwhile I have rediscovered the fun of writing a book all in one piece, everyday, building momentum. I would love to do the next book from start to finish as well -- it has a much longer deadline -- yet realize it may not be practical, I may revert.

And yes, I realize there are writers out there who always write their books like this. There are writers who call their own shots from beginning to end. There are writers who refuse to write a synopsis and swear their editors buy without one. In fact, many of us go to contract without a synopsis all the time -- this book and the next are cases in point -- but there has to be an acceptable proposal package somewhere along the acquiring line and that's a basic truth for just about everyone I know.

I guess that's why I have a nervous knot in my stomach and have for twenty-four hours.. At the stage where you have three chapters and a synopsis, it's easier to accept changes that need to be made. Characters haven't fully developed yet, you're not totally engaged. By the time you've passed the half way mark, the situation has changed. The characters are as committed to their paths as are you to yours.

The other day when Wavy asked opinions about whether to launch into major rewrites with an established book or start a new one, I thought of this aspect. To those of you who have gutted a book and rebuilt it from the ground up, kudos. I just hope you had ample time to do it. If push comes to shove and I can see that changes must be made and agree that I have taken wrong turns, I'll do it, too.

But for now, until the phone rings, I'm going to keep doing it, yep, you guessed it, just like Frankie up there. My way.