A New Experience

I'm in the middle of a project which involves several things I've never done before, so it's been quite the learning process.

I'm writing a shorter-length Christmas story (novella) to submit to The Wild Rose Press for consideration for this year's holiday releases. First off, I've never written a novella before. I thought I'd be good at it, as in the past I've had to add details and plot to my books in order for them to fit the required word length for publication. It's harder than I thought. I'm afraid I'm 'over-writing' and the story isn't moving along quickly enough.

Second of all, I've set my story at a ski resort. I've never been to a ski resort before. I've never been skiing before. So I'm doing a lot of research. Which has been a lot of fun. Trouble is, I think I'm adding too many details from my research, and again, they're getting in the way of moving the story forward. In a longer length book, it's these specific details that help to enhance the story and give it depth, but for a shorter read, are they just getting in the way?

Thirdly, I've never written on such a tight deadline before. Deadlines for submitting stories have always been rather open ended in my past experience, with definitive timelines coming during the editing process, not the actual creation of the story. But holiday stories need to be submitted by the middle of March...which is creeping closer everyday.

So this has been an interesting experience all around. I guess we'll see how it all turns out in the end and what the editors have to say about it.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com