Nora 1.0 and beyond

I am happy to report that I completed the final draft of my manuscript on September 2nd, 2009. This draft stands at 64,457 words and spans 208 pages. The actual story word count is a little lower, since the TOC and the chapter headings take up some of that total (I would guess around 100 words). This is more than 3,000 words longer than the first draft, which I completed on June 2nd (61,107 words, 194 pages). I began writing my manuscript on April 9th, 2009.

I noted in an early post that I struggled to come up with a proper title for my story. I wanted something simple. Despite my mixed feelings about the series, I liked the one or two word titles of Twilight, New Moon, etc. I essentially played a bit of word association to find something that I thought symbolized my story. Since the presence of a mysterious disease plays a major part in my world, and the major conflict centres around a con man who claims to have a cure, I thought: The Cure, was a logical choice. Also, it lends itself to an easy second book title: The Cause and possibly The Prevention for the third.

I am relatively happy with my manuscript. I think I've kept my writing tight and I tried to keep my character's reactions as realistic as possible. I also really like my characters and I hope Nora would be a good influence on young girls who might one day read about her adventures. Andrew enjoyed reading the story as well--granted he has a somewhat biased opinion--but he also thought this is the best writing I've done to date. I hope the other readers I've sent it to feel the same. And most importantly, I hope one of the eventual agents I send it, think so too.

Of course, like many amateur writers, I have publishing aspirations. I've submitted other works before (also previously blogged about), although I've always attempted to submit directly to the publisher. This time I plan to solicit literary agents. My reasoning is twofold. One, I've written a young adult manuscript, which is a harder sell, and two, many of the publishing houses I checked explicitly stated on their websites that they do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. Of course, finding a good agent may be as tricky as finding a publishing house, but right now I feel it's the best way to go.

While I wait for my readers to get back to me I plan to work on Nora's second story, The Cause. Actually, I've already begun writing it. With the fall term underway, my free time is of the essence and will soon be of the past. Things are going well for the writing, but not so well for Nora. Poor girl, not only is she deaf, but she never gets a break.

Ciao,

Andrea

No time to be hatching a plot

A few weeks ago I had a dream where I lived in a giant airplane hanger-like building that was divided into cubicles. In the cubicles lived people. At the time, it reminded me a little of the part in The Muppets Take Manhattan where they live in lockers at the bus station. Every muppet had decorated their locker to suit their personality. This is what happened in the cubicles in my dream. I recall that I had a hammock in mine and some beaded curtains. I also had a corner cubical so I could see everyone as they passed by. This was also one of my figure skating dreams (Canadian figure skaters were also living in cubicles) but that's not terribly important to this post.

Since I had the dream I've thought the notion of communal living in cubicles could make for an interesting story. Last night before going to bed and this afternoon (while at work) I started to mull over the possibilities for plot ideas. I'm thinking about making this into a speculative YA story with a fifteen year-old deaf girl as my protagonist. I actually managed to work out a number of details around the world and the community, but I still haven't figured out what the crisis will be. I'll keep pondering and see what ideas niggle their way into my brain. I might have to jot them down since at the present I have no idea when I might actually work on this MS. After all, I've still got UFO under construction and like my knitting, I don't like to have more than one project on the go at a time.

Ciao,

Andrea