Thursday, January 08, 2015

An Avalanche of Words

I haven't experienced the productive writing that I'd anticipated over this Christmas break. Looking at all of the weeks with reduced teaching, and even no teaching, I thought I'd write a ton. (Is there such a thing as a ton of words?)
But I haven't. Maybe it's my indecision.
I have three books in the works. I can't figure out which one to run with.
It would make sense to work on A Charm of Finches, which is already 75,000 words. My novels
This is a mockup
I created for my
in-process novel
generally come in at 80,000-100,000 words. The novel is about Maeve, a 32-year-old agoraphobic who decides to change her life through feng shui. Hopefully, it's humorous women's fiction as this young woman figures out how her life went awry and what she needs to do to get it on track.
But this book is really confusing me. It doesn't have a clear plotline. So I've farmed it out to Angie and Emily who will hopefully read it and give me direction as to which way it should go.
The book I was working on in November, Paris Runaway, has about 50,000
words written. It's the one about Sadie, a divorced mom, whose 17-year-old daughter Scarlett runs away to Paris, chasing the French exchange student. Sadie decides to go after her and discovers something many people learn in Paris. Life is to be lived, not tolerated. I'm kind of stuck on this one because I need some color and scenery from Marseille, and I've never been there. But I will be there in two months!
This is a book cover mockup that I created with
a photo from Virginia's blog Paris Through MyLens.
Thanks for the permission to use the photo, Virginia
Finally, Autumn in Aix has about 35,000 words written. It is a sequel to my first novel The Summer of France. Fia is still in Aix en Provence running a bed and breakfast with her great aunt and uncle and raising her teenage twins in a new culture. She's surprised to find herself lonely for friends; she's helping her twins adjust to a new society, when she meets an American tourist with Iranian heritage who is visiting France for suspicious reasons. Can she protect France's art treasures with the help of Frenchman Christophe, who has given up the family business of black market art dealing to work with the French government and the Louvre at retrieving art.
So those are my three choices and I've been frozen in indecision. I've read through a couple of them. I liked the start, but it didn't inspire me to immediately write more.
I often say that it's too hectic around my house to get anything done with all three kids home, but even when everyone is asleep, I find reasons to get up from the table and do something else other than writing.
Maybe I need a regimented schedule to inspire me.
This week, I started teaching again at one college and the other one begins next week, so between the two, maybe I'll realize how precious writing time is and I'll get to work.
I'd love to hear which, if any of these books catch your attention. I'm hopeful to launch a novel in 2015, maybe two!

2 comments:

Just Me said...

Gosh I'm excited about all of these and love the book markups. That photograph is stunning. Particularly intrigued by Charm of Finches ( great title by the way) but awaiting all three.

Paulita said...

Thanks. I'd like to know how it turns out too! Wish I were joking

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