Novel in Production --- Novel in Progress

(What's outside my window this morning. . .The leaves on the sugar maple are turning golden.)




UPDATE ON NOVEL IN PRODUCTION

Yesterday, I emailed my editor with a list of things available from ACFW that will help market Surrender the Wind. She was enthused. I'm a marketing nut. I love it. I love the challenge. I love finding new ideas, new means of marketing and promotion. I bought a three-ringed binder at Wal-mart the other day. I printed out on bright pink paper 'Marketing' and slipped it through the plastic insert on the front. I have it all in a doc. file, but I print out my plans as well and put them in the binder.

I was thrilled yesterday to learn my publisher has hired a publicity firm who will launch a campaign for the first list of novels coming out in 2009, and put trade ads in Publishers Weekly. They are working on other marketing plans as well. I feel I've hit pay dirt. Abingdon is totally committed to the success of their new fiction line.

The quietest time of the day for this writer is. . .

. . .either in the early morning hours or in the middle of the night when everyone else in the house is sound asleep. It happens to me often. I wake in the middle of the night, and grow so restless I have to get up. A scene for my current novel in progress suddenly bursts into my mind like flood waters gushing over a dam. Images of my characters doing something forces me to get up and write it all down, otherwise when I do wake in the morning, I might have forgotten.

About 1 a.m. last night, I woke to seeing a mental image of my hero Ethan riding his lathered horse onto his estate, climbing down from the saddle and handing the reins to a servant. He has exhausted himself and his horse in a hard ride, in an attempt to shake off his raging emotions after an encounter with the woman he loves. He was rejected yet again, and stomps inside the house, met by a concerned housekeeper who informs him that men had come while he was away, men who said they were his father's creditors. They've left him a letter outlining the reasons why they insist on seeing him right away. His deceased father has left the estate deeply in debt due to his insatiable thirst for 'playing the cards'. Payment must be made.

I see Ethan's expression change from painful anger to subtle worry and disappointment. Could his day grow any worse? He takes the letter in hand and walks into a room dimly lit by a genial fire in the hearth. He slumps into a chair and reads the missive, then rakes his fingers through his hair.

I don't think I am alone . . .

1. Do you wake in the middle of the night with impressions for your novel?

2. Why do you think it is that suddenly you wake with a scene running through your mind?

3. Do you get up and jot it down, or do you wait for the morning light hoping you will remember?

4. When this happens, does it help you push through writers block?

5. Does it help project the story forward?

6. Is this the time when new characters pop up?