27 January 2012 @ 07:17 pm
Choosing between epic and urban fantasy  
Angry Robot publishers has announced an Open Door reading period between April 16-30 this year. It's for unagented debut novelists, and they are only accepting YA or classic fantasy.

My classic fantasy, which is still, arguably, my favorite novel, is languishing in overhaul purgatory. I believe with all my heart in the story, but I feel it's gotten a bit muddled. Can I do an overhaul in a bit less than three months? And if so, do I want to?

They're not accepting urban fantasy, and it's my urban fantasy novel that I was revising last year before NaNoWriMo took over my life, followed quickly by the holidays and my trip with Mom to Trinidad and Tobago. But as much as I love my urban fantasy novel, I love my epic fantasy novel better. I've lived with it in my head much longer. I know these characters.

The open door reading period would give me a hard and fast deadline, which is a very good thing for me. Self-imposed deadlines don't work as well as externally imposed ones. One of the reasons NaNoWriMo has been a winning strategy for my writing life.

Argh. I just don't know what to do!
 
 
 
 
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experiendo discimus: caprica ~amanda squint[personal profile] slightlyjillian on January 28th, 2012 03:17 pm (UTC)
It actually kind of sounds like you already know what to do.

Picking up your epic fantasy and thrashing it into shape during a dedicated framework is a good use of your time. Even if you just use it to level-up that story and then go work on something else again.
stephaniecain: notebooks[personal profile] stephaniecain on January 29th, 2012 12:13 am (UTC)
Yes, I suppose I already knew what I wanted to do. I had already bought a yellow Moleskine notebook (yellow being the color for TLF) before I decided consciously to do it.

Now I'm trying to figure out where I want the story to start this time around, and what parts of the plot I'm going to keep.