Musings

So, I’ve just been over reading Gabriele’s wonderful web site, and looking at cool pictures and wishing I could go to Europe again, and she was running through all of her various projects, and the ones she had decided to set aside so she could focus on all the other books, and it had me thinking about working on mulitiple projects and how you do it.

I used to always write on two projects at a time. I would devote the morning to one and the afternoon to the other. But now I’m faced with writing three things and I seem to be going into a brain lock. I’ve got the Wild Card interstitial story I’m writing. I figured out the opening prologue for the third Edge book (which desperately needs a title), and now my Hollywood manager wants me to write a spec pilot.

He’s nixed my quirky show set in a thinly disguised Taos because he says it’s not something for which I am known, and that it would be very tough to get anyone to read it. Remember, I’m the chick who writes action. He said he hoped for two things to happen for a writer — first, that you have a subject or an area that you feel passionately about, and second that, hopefully, that area is “in your wheelhouse”. I told him I feel pretty passionate about horses and the whole world cup competition thing, and that Nina Tassler over at CBS has felt that a show about horses would really appeal to women viewers. So he’s going to make a few inquiries to see if there is any interest in that area. He also wants me to have “a couple of more pilot ideas”. They always throw this out so casually as if creating a television franchise was something you can do in between plucking your eyebrows and strolling off to the market.

I haven’t actually started writing on the third EDGE book. I’ve got the first three chapters pretty well set in my mind, and some of the dialogue in place, so now it’s time to put butt in chair and fingers on the keyboard. But it’s hard to actually start putting ant tracks on the glowing white screen because there is no contract for this book. I’m just trying to have it ready if the first two books should take off and do well. If they don’t do well there is no way I will sell this book. After all these years a professional writer it’s very hard to keep writing for no money. The contract really does focus the mind wonderfully. But you have to prime the pump if you’re going to survive in this business so I’ll just have to find a way to keep splitting my focus.

Of course I also have to run Western Minerals, and I have an upper level dressage horse, and it takes two hours to effectively work him. A half hour of prep on either side of an hour ride. I want that sleep helmet they’ve invented that gives you the equivalent of eight hours of sleep in three hours.

Melinda

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 at 8:04 am and is filed under writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.