Writing Like The Wind

There is no escaping it.  I have created a pressure cooker challenge for myself which I never expected to happen.  Most of you know I was lucky enough to win a pitch contest recently where an agent wants to look at the first 50 pages of my YA fantasy novel Lunadar: Homeward Bound.  The only problem? The novel isn't finished yet.  Ooops...my bad! One of the problems of being a newer writer is that you might THINK you understand all the rules and terminology of writing, but you could be just as wrong!  Bottom line is I need to actually COMPLETE my novel and I thank my lucky stars this wonderful agent is willing to wait.  I just don't think she will wait forever.  So I have to write like the wind as one of my friends so aptly put it!

The advantages of pressure cooker writing for me is that I have a lot of material with which to work.  I have ONE main character,  about SIX supporting characters, TWO minor characters, FOUR different "kingdoms", a murder, and a handful of secrets mixed in with a healthy dose of mystical magic.  THAT should be enough fodder to fill 50,000 words, right?   The disadvantages of pressure cooker writing is that despite the fact that I am a organized kind of gal in other parts of my life, my WRITING does not come to me in an organized fashion.  

I'm not one of those people who plot, outline, character develop, and index their way from beginning to end of each story.  My characters talk to me...all the time.  I daydream what the characters are doing and saying.  I sit down at my computer with only the slightest inkling of what I am going to write and then I listen to the voices...carried in on the wind...and I simply write them down and see where it leads me.  I don't know if this is how other writers do it, but it seems to work for me.  So for this latest test of my writing ability I will just have to strap on the chaps and write like the wind.  Wish me luck...I think I'm gonna need it!