Back on Track!

I got off to a slow start on Marketing Weekend this month -- I assigned myself 5 agents to query on the 4th and only now got out those queries. I spent $7.99 on postage and it feels a futile, but I'm doing it anyway.

Only now I have to figure out what to do about my 5th query, which is to a Canadian agent. U.S. stamps can't be used in other countries, but none of the post offices near me have any International Reply Coupons in stock. I also can't buy those online! It's driving me crazy!

Stuck

I am a recent convert to plotting. Once upon a time I liked to jump into my novels with nothing but my own excitement and momentum. Every day was like a sprint -- I had to build myself up before I sat down to write and then let everything out in a frenzy. This was a lot of fun, but it resulted in fragmented novels that were really difficult to edit and relied on inspiration.

Now I try to figure out all angles before I start writing. I make stepsheets, character journals, character lists, event lists, theme progressions, etc. In fact, I'm doing even more of this with my current work in progress than I did with my last one. That way I can avoid other problems -- like deciding that my murderer was way too obvious and switching it about halfway through the novel.

The blessing in all this is also the curse -- planning in advance doesn't mean you don't get stuck. You just get stuck earlier -- well before you've written hundreds of pages.

So right now I'm trying to figure out what happens next. I'm writing my stepsheet and my protagonist has to be tested and fail. Um ... how? Gonna have to think about this one.