Ramblings of a YA writer

For those of you who were unaware, my darling son brought me a present from school. He wrapped it up in hugs and presented it to me in kisses. And I’ve been battling enjoying this damn lovely virus ever since. On a high note, I think I’m almost better. And really, other than the fact that being sick sucks, there isn’t a low note. I got some extra sleep, got work done, got reading done…

In fact, I’m looking at having everything off to beta readers before October 1, which leaves me the whole month to do beta-induced revisions when they come in and read and prep for NaNo. Hell, that’s like a month off from working. Except…

I’m not taking it.

You see, I have this sickness. It’s called Too-many-stories-not-enough-time. I know, it’s a much longer name than “common cold” which I’m pretty sure is what my son gave me. The symptoms of Too-many-stories-not-enough-time involve panic attacks, cold sweats, overactive imagination, auditory and visual hallucinations, twitchiness, headaches, insomnia, emotional distress… ultimately leading to writerly paralysis.

You get the idea. Sometimes I can pretend I don’t have Too-many-stories-not-enough-time. But not for an entire month. It’ll never happen. Probably about a week in, the twitching and hallucinations will start. By two weeks in, I’ll have no choice but to treat it or have it take over my life. And with NaNo on the horizon, I can’t fall victim to writerly paralysis or I’ll never finish my 50k in November. Nope. The only treatment for Too-many-stories-not-enough-time is to write one of those brilliant ideas I’d shoved to the back of my mind to stew until I “have time”. Because, that’s what a break is…time.

So, rather than taking October off, I’m tempting this little seed of a story idea I had while traveling in Europe this summer to blossom into something bigger (but not too big–I want to get it done before NaNo LOL). It involves statues and caves and castles and legends that will span from Scotland to Poland and back again (hence the slight concern about it being too big). I’m sure there are some people who will want to beat me with steel pipes for this decision, but I’m not even done with the pre-beta revisions on the novel I have in front of me, and I’m already nervous about taking a month off. It’s just too long for me.

I guess what that means is if you’re looking for me, you’ll find me in my writing cave until at least December. Fortunately it’s a nice cave. Now that you know what I’m doing, what are your plans for October?