Donna Maree Hanson, Author, Phd in Creative Writing

If you have been reading me you know that I had RSI in December and the issue still remains. I haven’t written anything except one short story in 6 months. Today was to be my first serious writing day as I have reverted to part time hours with Wednesdays off-nominally the writing day. Today happened to be a high pain day and as I’d already taken the new fangled pain killers last night, I can’t take any more till this evening. All I’ve managed was one blog post to wrap up the beta reading series, which has been on my mind now for a number of weeks.

You probably wonder what I’ve been doing while I’ve been so idle. Well reading, beta reading, attending a couple of CSFG crit groups and sewing a Victorian/steampunk outfit. The only short story I wrote, received some very positive feedback from the crit group but was rejected from the anthology I wrote it for. However, I do believe it is a good story and I have a bit of tweaking to do and then I’ll send it out.

I’ve also had two novel manuscripts out with editors. I’ve heard back on one and it’s been passed to the young adult editor. This is both nice and also frustrating. I didn’t think that particular MS was YA. However, I can see how it could be. It wasn’t deliberate. I now have two novels that have been considered to be YA. This wouldn’t be too bad but I don’t know much about the YA market or where best to send the work. I’ll have to do some research.
Despite having made myself a promise to submit to 52 agents this year, I have submitted to none. Facing 52 rejections is a bit daunting when one is struggling to get through the day at the day job sort of works as a counter incentive. However, the year is not over and I think things are looking up. If I think positively about this week for example, I did write a proposal and send off five chapters to an editor.

I’ve also geared up on the tech side. I’ve bought a laptop with grunt, had the professional version of the dictation software installed and bought a high-powered wireless microphone set. In theory there is nothing in my way, except me (and the fact that writing fiction by dictation is something that I haven’t quite grasped).

On discussing what manuscript I should work on with my partner, Matthew Farrer, we decided that I should complete the paranormal romance I started a while back. I have dragged it out. I was lucky to get some feedback and edits on the opening, which I’ve taken up. I even added a couple of thousand words to it. I will keep it on the burner. The reason we chose this is because I’m heading to the Romance Writers Conference in the Gold Coast in August and Matthew thought it would be good if I had a complete romance genre manuscript. Also, erotica sort of seems to be the flavour at the moment. While I’m not trying to write erotica per se, it seems that this story is rather hot, steamy and pushes the boundaries of kink. It is fun and I love my hero and heroine a lot. I just wish I spent more time writing the story than fantasing about it.

I finished up my uni subject on English Grammar with a high distinction. That mark was gratifying because I was working so hard with the day job that I didn’t have much left for study. I’m about to enroll in the last subject in the next week or so or decide to convert to a Masters in Creative Writing. In fact, I’m about to head off to see the course convenor right now. I’m not 100 per cent convinced that I want to commit to the Masters as there are a number of issues, such as the cost (I will have to pay back through loans as I have no more cash), the time (yes it will take time over another couple of years) and value (what will I get out of it?). These are the things I have to weigh up. I have enjoyed the study so far so maybe that is enough.

Finally, Conflux 9, the natcon has been consuming my time too. This workload will increase and I guess I have to acknowledge that working on conventions leaves less time for other things like writing and study. If I do the Masters next year, then Conflux will be done by the end of April so it won’t impinge too much.

Right this minute I’d like to find some perk, some enthusiasm, some real commitment to writing. However, I’m not going to kill myself if I don’t.