In the Nick of Time - Before the End

Writing is my life saver. It keeps me sane and maybe it keeps me from packing a bag with my camera, sketchpad and pencils and hitting the road too. So, when my writing is not going as planned, it is really nice to find the perfect answer to the current problem.

I have said before, you need to be “open” to ideas to learn from them and for one to strike just the right note. This has been achieved, yet again, in an article by Cheryl Klein, in her blog Brooklyn Arden and in a speech she gave at the Terminus 2008 Potter Conference in Chicago, Illinois. It is also posted on-line at A Few Things Writers Can Learn from Harry Potter and I thank, Ms. Klein, a thousand times over, for all of the help she has, unknowingly, given me over this past two year period.

Unlike other writing sites, which tell you that you MUST do this and you CANNOT do that, Ms. Klein tells you what is so fantastic about a multi-million dollar book and how to do it in your own way.

Then, she gives you approval, where all the other’s will tell what not to do, she tells you to write what you need to write. Do not write to the market. Write to please yourself first. You are a reader after all, or you would not be here.

So, if you want to know what is so good about a book opening, or how to make your reader fall in love with your characters, or why a YA novel can have an adult theme and how to do it, spend a day or, as I have, two years reading her advice.

I just needed a refresher, to remind me where I am going and what step I need to take now to get there. She puts theme and writer’s voice and plotting into perspective for me and so, now, I shall return to my writing.

I will take my first draft, with its multiple edits done already and I will outline the other four books of my proposed series, because how can I know how to end this book (my latest struggle) if I only have a vague idea of where this journey will take me?

If a seer told me I would never succeed---

Nathan Bransford -Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent - asked a question on his blog recently. To paraphrase: He wanted to know, if a seer told you that you would never be published, would you still write?

I always begin to respond to Nathan's blogs, but then notice there are 271 responses and there isn't much point. No matter what I respond, it must have already been said. After reading through a number of responses, however, I think perhaps I do have my answer.

If a seer had told me that my Young Adult Fantasy novel would never, ever, ever be published, would I actually spend twelve hours a day, seven days a week, for two and a half years writing it?

"Heck NO! I gotta earn a living man. "

This is my third book. Well, two novels and a picture book. I have never put the picture book out there. The Mystery was written as I was going stir crazy after flipping a house. Flipping a house can make you stir crazy in and of itself, but waiting for a flipped house to sell is insane. So, after reading a bazzilion Mysteries, I did the logical thing and began research and I wrote a Mystery. And, I loved doing it.

You see, my name is Sheryl Adair VanVleck, and I am a resesarch addict. I really am. Now, with the internet, it's even better. I'm like a kid in a candy store when I type in those Google search terms.

I'm an artist, so I wrote about an artist, but she is weak and I want a strong protagonist; who is funny and likeable, so even though a published author critiqued it highly and gave me the name of her editor, it's not right, and it also needs work on it's plot.

Maybe, what I should have answered to Nathan, was that an artist is never finished, no matter what anyone else thinks. There is always another painting to be created. A sculpture to be sculpted and a novel to be written.

If my current Young Adult Fantasy Novel is never accepted, and I am currently editing line by line to try to ensure that it will be. I will be happy to know that I have completed it. I have learned a lot in the commission of this work. And, yes, Great Seer, I guess I will keep writing.

I can always work in the evening.