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What Does the (Writing) Future Hold?
By CarolynCHolland(9,534)
| What does the future hold? What surprises are in store for me in 2007? In lieu of a holistic view of the New Year, I’ll restrict my comments to the writing side of my life. But first, a review of 2006. For years I’ve pondered, sketched scenes and characters and researched a historic romance novel. It began as a simple, but multiple, romance plot gleaned from two 100 year histories written in the mid-1890s by a professor, the Rev. Winterbotham. The setting was Lamoine, Maine, a small community on Frenchmen Bay (the land-side of Frenchman Bay---facing Mount Desert Isle). January, 2003, I was scheduled to begin. However, I made the mistake of surfing the Internet. I discovered an article about my subject and ordered it, paused in my actual writing of the novel to reflect on the characters during the three-month wait for its delivery. This article documented facts very differently than the Rev. Winterbotham had presented them. Thus I spent three years doing research that involved George Washington, Henry Knox, Arthur St. Clair, the Northwest Territory---well, you get the idea. I was immersed in history---and I’ve never liked the subject! I admit I’ve had some very good people doing research along with me, especially another New Englander, Fran. I felt competent to do the novel last spring, And I began, slowly. Then stopped. I had too many newspaper deadlines. Not much has been written yet, but the complex material in the first part of the book has been organized to the point of writing not only the novel, but an article for a historic journal in Maine. The main character in the first part of the novel is unique, intriguing and not well documented. Then my writing “career” took other turns in 2006. I stepped out of my comfort zone to begin the Beanery Writers Group---with the help and push of a friend, Debbie. Surprisingly, it’s going well. I’ve discovered much of what writers need is encouragement and motivation, not someone who is well versed in English literature. We became an eclectic group and we have fun while we write. The big jump for me was setting up this blog, something REALLY out of my skill area. However, I’d read that all writers should have a blog, and I wanted to share something new with the group. I also wanted to test the waters, because I hoped to set up a web site or blog to support my novel writing. The blog is doing so well (7600 hits since late August) that I’ve decided to use it for my novel. My first writing project for 2007 will be setting up a new category, Carolyn’s Novel. In July the local section of the newspaper I wrote for was discontinued. I decided NOT to write for the other sections for numerous reasons for the decision, which I won’t expound on here. I will say I’d been considering cutting way back on the photo-journalism in order to query magazines with several stories and to concentrate on the novel. My first magazine query was successful, though not well paying. It is an article on a holocaust survivor, and I am posting segments of his story on this blog, category “Holocaust Survivor.” My second task for 2007 is to query other magazines successfully. As if these two things weren’t enough changes in my writing career, two others seem to be looming on the horizon. Just before Christmas I took a break from the necessary activities of the season. I decided to browse the shops in Ligonier. In one shop I asked the man behind the counter how business was doing. His was a summer business that did less well during the Christmas season, he noted. I said I was glad his business and the others in town were doing well, because, as a new resident, I appreciated the shops. He asked me where I lived and I told him about my small community tucked in the mountain foothills. “It has a unique dynamic,” I said. “You’re educated,” he responded. I looked at him, puzzled. “Well, yes,” I replied. “But what makes you say that?” “Your vocabulary,” he said. It was the word “dynamic!” Not that unusual, I thought. Especially in this community of educated persons. We continued talking. I told him about my local writing. He was familiar with some of the articles I mentioned. “You wrote those?” he asked. Then he asked me if I had a card. His businesses (he had another business in Pittsburgh, I saw on the card he gave me) required a lot of Internet, catalog and pamphlet work. He was competent to do the technical writing, but felt he needed an editor. “I’ll call you after the first of the year,” he promised. I realized I’d just had an impromptu mini-interview while looking my grungiest and wearing clothes that were very unprofessional appearing. I checked out his business when I arrived home, and it was legit. I discovered what I hadn’t told him: I have science background, and can even pronounce some of the technical terms on the site. The second event was also strange. I’d written an article on a woman artist last March. Two people saw it on the Internet and advised a New England Antique Magazine writer to follow up. He called the artist, and set up an interview. The upshot of it is that my photography will probably be used. So where is 2007 leading me? Behind opening doors holding surprises and directions I have a hard time imagining. That’s the excitement a New Year, a new start. | |
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Posted to ProBlogs.com on Monday, January 01, 2007
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