I can’t help but believe that 2009 has to be awesome and with this fever burning within me, I spurred my writing group to make a pact. We’re going to finish our books, find agents and get the books sold inside of 2009. (Did I mention I have a thing about 9s?)

Here’s a run down of my plan:

November-December 2008 – Pre-Writing: Do any plotting and research I’d like before the real writing starts, and basically get excited about the book. I may edit Part 1 (Relentless) which I wrote last year during this time (Remember hellish NaNo? Yeah. Not doing that this year).

January-March – First Draft: Write the first draft of Vampire Planet (new title for the whole book). I’m going to add some POVs (different points of view than the main character) to part one and then write parts 2 and 3.

April-May – Second Draft: Clean up the draft (technical writing plus filling in description, other notes and holes I left the first time through).

June-July – Fallow Time: Let the sucker sit. Forget about it. Do some plotting on other ideas and decide on the next book I want to write. Get my book out to 3-6 beta readers for feedback.

August-September – Final Draft: Edit the book based on feedback (including my new perspective coming back to it after putting some distance between us), and then make sure the new material is clean (of typos and such).

October – Agent Hunt: Query for and get an agent. If my stuff is good enough, I think I can do this in a month. While waiting for responses, I’ll fully plot the next book.

November-December – The Big Sell: Agent sells the book to a publisher. While I’m waiting for the most exciting news of my life since my daughter’s conception, I’ll be working on the first draft of the next book.

So far four of us have agreed to the pact. I think we’ll lean on and inspire each other to make our shared dream come true. I’ll keep you updated.

Delilah Rehm

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