Heather Dougherty

Hello.

I'll tell ya, this business of writing is funny.  Not so much ha ha funny as strange funny, but ya get my point.  Once I wrapped up Normal and started querying (and I'm doing a terrible job at that... I haven't even sent out 12 queries in 9 months.  LAME!), I've been bitten by the Shiny New Idea bug (SNI) over and over and over.  I have noted, fleshed out and even gotten 10-20K in on some of these ideas (I think I've had at least a dozen since October?), but none of them have really tempted me to write.

 Partly the problem is these inspirations come to me in a flash, a character or of a scene, but not the stuff of a full out novel.  

So, although the inspiration well was dry, I've been forcing myself to write.  I've also been doing a lot of reading.

Ghosties is close to my heart, but I'm torn because I have two roads in front of me, two separate paths I really like for it - but once I decide on one and start writing that way, I'm suddenly convinced the other path is THE path.  I think I'm going to write both and see which one I end up loving.  I admit it's also hard to write because I'm a giant scaredy-cat, and once I get into some of these scenes, they stay with me and freak me out.  That's good though, right?

Then, my hockey chick novel, which originally was 3 SNI's that combined into one, took a crazy turn and has finally captured my full attention.  The characters are rounding themselves out and speaking to me, sometimes even shouting.  Mac (the MC) had a huge secret she finally revealed to me, and now I have hope for her - and her story.  There is a playlist, there is a cast... and it's moving along.  I just hit 12K on it, and have very, very loosely outlined the rest of the novel - so there is somewhere to go.

So, here I am finally settled into a manuscript.  Enjoying writing it.  Getting wordage in.

Low and behold it hit me this morning after a crazy dream, a new SNI.  An epic story - with an actual plot attached.  The characters are so real to me that I instantly was able to search out actors that fit the physical descriptions.  It's full of action and romance so I'm loving it.  I wrote a four page outline (I'm still a pantser, I promise, but I had to get it out of my head and on paper while I had it!!) and then about 2K! 

So.... I crank up The Clash and force myself to decide... "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"