Kelly McClymer's Blog

I was doing great on keeping up the blog, but then my husband’s birthday, my birthday, the flu, and an unexpected deadline took me by surprise. Since my big present for my birthday was the flu my son so thoughtfully gave me after I took care of him for a week, I decided the blog should wait (complaining about aches pains, and a spinning sensation even when I’m lying down is not that interesting…although some of my fever dreams were quite Verne-esque, if I must say so).

One thing that helped me write a few posts ahead was having a topic, so I’ve been thinking about a few topics that I could write on forever. One is about messages from the universe that start out subtle (a vague sense of never being able to relax), grow more insistent (nearly missing a few commitments because time simply runs out), and finally become a head-bonking (you miss a big deadline and have to scramble to regroup).

I got one of these messages when my dad got cancer, but my life was so insanely busy that I didn’t do as much as I should have about it. I still regret that, and in the days after we said goodbye to him I vowed to change.

One thing, though. Change is hard.

Really hard.

Imagine a juggler with five plates that each bring something different to life — which plate goes? Or would it be better to juggle two plates one day and three the next on an alternating basis? Or maybe one plate a day (that sounds a little boring for someone who has been juggling five plates at a time, though).

There are two plates that are my highest priority — writing and family. And writing got moved to first place when my last agent closed her agency and I needed to find a new agent.

When I began my current manuscript, the market was strong, and I anticipated selling on proposal. But once I’d put the proposal together, the simple book I’d imagined had changed completely into something darker, deeper, and more universal (message from the universe #1). I still thought I could write it in a few months, after all I always had written my books fairly quickly. I kept setting deadlines for me to be finished with the complete book, and duly informing my agent. And then realizing that I was rushing it (message from the universe #2) and telling her I needed just a little more time. And then the publishing world (and the financial world in general) crashed, my book grew even more complex, and my agent closed her agency (*BONK!*. Message from the universe #3).

This is where change gets really hard. I promised myself I would take the time to do the book justice, and find absolutely the right agent for it. And I have done that. With periodic flares of panic that I’m not acting fast enough, doing enough, paying attention. I have a book I love, and I’m marketing it with caution and care. But what do I do in the meantime? General wisdom says start something new, but I’m not a new writer, and I don’t want to write a string of books that have no market. For a long while, when I looked at my file of ideas, nothing really struck me as high concept. Okay, truthfully, nothing struck me as high concept and simple enough to draft quickly. I didn’t want to toss two complex projects at a new agent.

I know the universe is telling me to slow down, but I found myself acting like a fractious teen, doing exactly the opposite of what was being asked. I took out a stack of research books from my local library, and plotted out books two and three of my planned trilogy (I wouldn’t write them until the trilogy sold, but I needed the plot points to help define some events in Book one, so that I could be comfortable that it was completed). I tried to pump high concept into some ideas that just weren’t interested.

And then the universe sighed, gave up, and landed a high concept idea in my lap. It is a very simple concept, one that anyone would instantly get. It could work as an adult book, but I’m targeting for YA because I think I’ll enjoy telling the story more that way. I wish I had an agent to bounce the pros and cons with, but right now it feels like the perfect direction. Which doesn’t mean the universe handed me a rose without thorns though. No, the universe, perversely chuckling, also made sure I’d have to do meticulous research to get this right. Simple high concept story, with exacting research required for every scene.

This time, I’m listening…and trying not to whine about change being so darned hard!

Kelly