On New Years resolutions, contests and writer's block

Reading fifty-two novels in fifty-two weeks requires a lot more commitment than I imagined. I've had to give up some TV shows. That's a good thing, right? Anyway, I'm midway through novel #5, and the year isn't four weeks old yet, so yay!

Books read: The Lay of the Land, One Second After, The Financial Lives of the Poets, and The Zero.

Now reading: Then We Came to the End (This is a wonderful book. Anyone who enjoys watching The Office will love it)

I've been posting reviews on Amazon.com and Goodreads.com after finishing each book.

My own little novel, The Vagrant has been picked as a finalist in the Silicon Valley RWA chapter's Gotcha contest. This contest is a bit unusual in that none of the four finalists from each category (I entered paranormal) will be selected as a winner. Each of us has already won by being picked, and we'll each receive a critique from the final judge. In the past, about half of the finalists have received manuscript requests as well. I sure hope to be a lucky one. The final judge is the editor for an independent publishing house about an hour down the road from me.

Ever since completing The Vagrant, I've been plagued by writer's block. A couple of my online friends have explained this to be a form of grieving. After spending so much time with the wonderful characters in my novel, it's hard for me to let them go. I did start a new YA paranormal and get three chapters into it, but I couldn't go any farther. I became fixated with the misguided belief that I'm too old to write a sixteen-year-old's point of view, and YA is no longer the right genre for me.

I tried restarting my new story using adults as protagonists. However, I stalled again when I realized my voice isn't anywhere as good as those of the contemporary adult writers whose novels I've been reading lately.

Finally, I decided to stop worrying about the strength of my voice and just write my own unique novel in my own unique way. I'm going to blend the two story openings by using multiple points of view - two adults and two teenagers.

And today I wrote 300 words.

Besides reading all of those novels and writing one of my own, I made a New Year's resolution to ride 1,000 miles on my bicycle this year. Sadly, the weather has been too cold and icy to get started. When does spring start? I'm ready!