by Ann Minnett

In November I wrote about my immense gratitude to have found my writer’s voice after a barren year.  I’m riding that lovely wave of productivity into 2017. With three-fourths of novel #4 on the page, it seems to write itself. Yippee!

My new creative flow has impacted novel #3, which remained dormant for months.  The manuscript was completed last spring, but I procrastinated with final edits, query letters, synopses, and pitches, not to mention a marketing plan. I call these components clean-up projects. The work can be drudgery, yet difficult to do well. Try summarizing 350 pages into a three-sentence pitch or a one-page summary.

Novel #3 gave me trouble with the most basic of issues—the title. Sometimes the perfect title appears fully formed. Serita’s Shelf Life stated exactly what I intended about a woman who goes off her medications to find love, but she knows her time and sanity are limited. It took weeks to select a final title for my third novel. I settled on Zane’s Bloodline (1) because it fits the story perfectly and (2) I became mired in hundreds of phrases and clever word combinations as a way of not making a dang decision.  Within days of selecting the title, I had written a query letter, a pitch, and three synopses (2 pages, one page, and 250 words).

Here on the first day of 2017, a new manuscript takes shape, and clean-up writing projects for Zane’s Bloodline have cleared the way for agent queries. Whatever else this new year brings, I’m an optimistic writer, bolstered by words and ideas to share.