The Books That Took the Fear Away

In my declaring a genre officially this summer "chick lit" my research revealed two books that I thought would help me feel less afraid.  The first of which was Will Write for Shoes by Cathy Yardley.  She revealed an logical outline for how to pace and a structure to follow in noveling.  Being of "project manager" mindset...having a plan to execute or at the very least a template gave me comfort.  I have never been (despite my type A personality) an organized writer or a planner...but one of my writing goals this year was to have more structure heading into National Novel Writing Month.  The other goal was to finish a full first draft...with no plot skips or blank spaces.  I have set up a bit of a plan to assure that this full draft happens in keeping with insane NanoWrimo pace that I seem to be able to handle.  Here is the plan:

* Create an Outline
* Break Outline into Chapters - with rising action noted
* Create an Excel Spreadsheet to track word counts and chapter sections 
* Write 60,000 words in November
* Spend the next two weeks in December plugging away to finish a full draft before Christmas
* Revise in January with a few touch-ups
* Share First Draft with Writing Group by my birthday - January 13

The other book that helped to take the fear away was a flitty, fun book called See Jane Write which had many helpful reminders for cohesive writing and traps to avoid.  It was written by a chick lit author and her editor...and the style and flow of information likened itself to a chick lit novel in some ways.  The great thing about both of these books are the resources noted for further research and writing.  As I read more books on writing, I love to see the cross references of the same books.  One of which is one that I keep putting off writing...yet I attended the author's workshop a few year's ago.  When I saw that title come up in more then one place, it got me to thinking or rather believing that perhaps I really could sit down and finish an entire novel.  It gave me comfort to know that I could still be wildly creative and work within an outline.  It is possible for my type a self to meet the aspiring writer self.  The two of them together could make quite the team!!