Wow. Have I really not blogged in two and a half weeks? Apparently not…LJ doesn’t lie about things like that.
I’ve been outlining like crazy this month. It is important to me that I produce a new manuscript that my agent can shop around. I’ve been saying this for two or three (three, I think!) years, but then I get busy with contracted manuscripts and don’t ever come back to this other manuscript (which I actually have a draft of…I just need to revise!).
Albert Whitman wants to publish all three chapter books in this new series of mine next spring…which means I need to have them all done this summer…which means it would be pretty easy to not make more progress on this other book.
But they’re CHAPTER BOOKS. When I have a solid outline of a Boxcar book, I can write the actual book in two weeks. These chapter books will be even shorter than the Boxcar books. Even with school visits, IRA, my older son’s college graduation etc. I should be able to write each of these books in a month…and still have time to write 10 pages per week on the other manuscript. Which should translate to forward progress on the other manuscript.
So…I’ve been outlining these last couple of weeks…and training my dog (he’s finishing up the Canine Good Citizen class this weekend)…and playing my mandolin…that’s about it.