Writing

Other Things -
Today I am going to write about WRITING.
For some this may drive you crazy to read about how I work on my books, but for me it is only a short putt. Sometimes I have three books being edited, all open on my desk at the same time. How do I keep things straight, you ask? It’s simple, for each story I keep a list of the characters in the footer. Below is an example of a story I am working on. My books always have lots of characters.

SAMPLE FOOTER OF FICTION CHARACTERS: Sarah of Bethany & her serving girl Anna,& manservant, Gaddi. Crippled Rebecca & Jonathan from Cana, her servants Jochebed and Samson, Bleeding Ruth from Bethsaida, The other prostitute Hannah from Korazin, Zipporah from Sychar in Samaria, and friends in Arimathia. Martha, husband Andrew, Son of Alpheus, son of Zebedee, John, Judas Iscariot, Matthew, Bartholomew, Peter, Philip, Simon, Thaddeus, Thomas Tamar & Ephraim of Nain, Joseph of Arimathia, his wife Dara, Galilee, Nathan of Magdala Mary M’s fiancé, Zilpah,her serving maid., Bezai & mom Hephzibah; Jonas MM head serving man. Cuza, MM servant left to watch the house, Jada, MM servant & Tirzah Jada’s true love., Kishi the old man
IT'S A JUMBLED MESS, I KNOW, BUT I CAN KEEP THE CHARACTERS STRAIGHT.

Why you ask, do I like to work on more than one story at a time? It is because after I write, create a portion of the story, I have to let it sit for a day or two before I go back to it. Often there are many, many rewrites. In the meantime, while I let a story sit or maybe I am just bored with it, I work on another story for awhile.
I write historical fiction, and my stories never have sex scenes or foul language in them. Here are four stories I am working on right now; they are on average 75,000 words. One story is about a young woman in 1931 California, another is about a young business woman in 1902 New York City. A third story is about a family in 1839 England, and a 4th is about the women who followed Jesus during his earthly ministry.
I have one book that is with an agent right now; you can read about that one on my website www.priscillamcdaniel.com .
I haven’t heard back from the agent whether or not she is interested. It takes about 60 to 90 days to hear from an agent once you have sent your material to them. All fiction sent out has to be completed with between 70 to 100 thousand words, which makes up a book of about 300 to 400 pages.
How does one get started on a book? Sit down and start writing#$%^^&**. Make an outline if you need to; sometimes it gives you direction and helps you gather your thoughts. However, the important thing is to START. Write that first sentence, don’t worry about research until you need to know something. The outline comes in handy, when after you have written a few pages, you are stuck. You don’t have to follow the outline, remembering that many stories take on a life of their own, so only use the outline as a guideline.
If you have any questions, please email me at priscillasflair@gmail.