Plotting to stay on course

I've had to add another update to my now even lengthier "About Me" page. The first update was in December when I finished my revisions of The Day We Are Born (my 55,000-word contemporary Young Adult novel, if there are any agents out there reading this *punt punt*). I was feeling well pleased with myself because all the advice out there says that while you're pitching to agents, start your next book. And I had already!

But my January update was to confess that my brilliant idea for a companion novel wasn't so brilliant. My protagonist is still awesome, the 20 scenes I have written are witty and clever *toot toot*, and my plot is... my plot is... really, really bad. I kept waiting for it to simply fall into place, the way that it did when I was writing The Day We Are Born (agents? anyone? anyone?). But nothing happened.

So I've been following Ellen Hopkin's great advice for writers, such as trying to write every day but not beating myself up if I don't."Writing should be something you love to do, not something you have to do," she says. And study your craft, she advises. I've been reading, reading, reading every YA book I can lay my hands on and reading, reading, reading books and websites on crafting and writing stories.

And the end result? Since the beginning of March, I've plotted out my next stand-alone YA, and I'm 10,000 words into it already, and I am so happy. Like really, truly happy. Writing makes me happy. Getting an agent would also make happy. But for now, I'm content to stick with writing.