I finally did it. I finally finished my latest manuscript. Let’s call it project #2. (We don’t talk about the category romances I did before Project #1. I guess they’re projects -1 and -2.) I have no idea what made project #2 take so freakin’ long. Okay, I have some ideas, but still. I’m shocked when I realize it’s been a year since I signed with my agent and I had yet to send her anything beyond that first project.

What really, really freaked me out recently was realizing that it’s been TWO YEARS since I got my first request for the full on project #1. TWO YEARS. Okay, the book wasn’t finished yet when I got my first request (I’m a bad girl) but I did have a first draft done and managed to do my revisions in about 6 weeks. So, although I did more revisions after that first request, (that agent had it for 10 months before I got offered representation from someone else), it’s been a long time since I finished a book.

It’s not like I haven’t been writing… I just had a few false starts with projects I wasn’t confident enough in. And the project I just finished got temporarily stalled when an editor who almost bought project #1 told me she didn’t think project #2 would be a good second book for me — that I needed to follow project #1 up with something more similar. (See why I thought I’d sold it?)

But I should realize by now, that questioning my projects is part of my process. I hate just about everything I write at some point, so I need to remember to just keep going instead of floundering, stopping, floundering again and starting work on a whole new idea.

If I want a career in mainstream fiction — which I do. Then I need to be able to produce books more quickly. Funny thing is I feel like I do write fast — all evidence to the contrary.

This time I promise not to get too caught up in the various and sundry things that made this one take so long.