Monday Morning Freak-Out

I'm having a bit of a freak-out at the moment. Nothing new for me I guess but a 'thing' has happened and it's left me feeling all weirded out.

I've had this idea for a series in my head for at least a year now and I always thought I'd write it as category length. However, since I've written my Dirty Virgin Hero, I've been wondering if I couldn't take it longer. The DVH was 63k and I have to say I enjoyed writing long, so I kind of thought this idea could maybe stretch to Single Title length.  I've always had it in my head that I'd like to give ST a go but I've never had a really good enough idea that would make me want to write it. Until it occurred to me that this series idea could be an ST.

I've kind of been put off ST till now because over the various conferences I've been to, agents and publishers were saying that ST Contemporary was a hard sell and that readers wanted sweet, small-town stories. Which annoyed me cos I don't write sweet, small-town stories.  So I steered clear of it, wrote what I wanted to write which was angsty urban contemporaries.

And then 50 Shades hit. And angsty urban alphas were suddenly in again. And the CPs were telling me to run the idea past the agent to see what she said. I kind of thought the agent would probably say no and I prevaricated a lot - mainly because I liked my idea and didn't want it to be rejected before I'd even got a chance to write a word. But in the end I sent her the idea and dammit, she liked it! And so now I have to write a series outline, a synopsis and a partial of the first book!

This is geat news - I'm thrilled about it honestly - but I'm also freaking out because I've never written an ST (we will not speak of my 320k opus) and the idea I have is complicated, dark and extremely angsty, and I'm really, really hoping I can pull it off. I'm going to be majorly writing out of my comfort zone and that's kind of scary.

But I guess challenging yourself is all part of growing as a writer isn't it?

Who else is writing out of their comfort zone at the moment? Anyone want to join me in the freak-out??

What To Think About When You're Not Thinking About It

Okay, so the NTAI ain't going so well. Ridiculous since it's only been five weeks since I submitted the thing but there you go. So, what does one do when one is trying to Not Think About It?
I usually write. I write like the dickens. There is something about totally losing yourself in a new story and when I do, I forget all about my sub and everything else (including the little things like feeding the kids and making sure they haven't killed each other).

This is not a problem but I have been thinking about whether I should branch out and try something else. Try writing for a different category. That way I can have more subs out there (and true, more to NTAI!). There are downsides to this, mainly if you do get something accepted, the eds will want to establish you in one line rather than have your name associated with a couple and perhaps getting readers confused. Also, the requirements for the different lines are quite different and it's as well to concentrate on mastering one line first.

However, my problem is that I write really fast. If everything is worked out beforehand, I can write a first draft in two weeks. This is a good thing because while waiting, I can churn out a couple of mss to have at the ready in case of rejection. However, if I've done that and it turns out I have six month wait before hearing back, maybe I should be using the time to try writing and querying something else?

I'm still undecided. Modern Heat is where I want to be first and foremost, and my main focus is on that. But it would be nice to be waiting on more than one sub...

Whaddya reckon?