The spaces in between

Currently Reading: Interview with the Vampire

Reader,
Has it been two weeks already?  I'm sorry.  Time goes by so much faster when you're employed.

Today I'd  love to talk about the spaces in between writing.  Slate had an interesting article a few weeks ago about the quiet hell of 10 years of novel writing which struck a chord with me.  I also have berated myself every day I don't write, worrying that I may never get published.  It's been nearly two months and I've only written a few pages worth of material.  I don't want to give up hope, but my spirits sink low every day that I don't write.

Sufficed to say- this article gave me hope.  I don't wish 10 years of hell on anyone, but it did let me know I am not alone, and it is possible to get the ideas I have out on paper.

Speaking of which, I am participating in this contest, which I encourage any writers out there to also try.  I'm currently behind my own schedule for it, I was supposed to be finished with a first draft today while I'm just starting, but I'm hopeful that I will make it before the contest closes.

How do you deal with disappointment in yourself when you don't accomplish a goal?
Feel free to share experiences similar to  Susanna Daniel's or my own.
Are there any other fun contests you want to suggest? 

Until next time,
Rose 

Novels

Reader,

I hate to admit it, but novels terrify me.  I understand how to write scenes, and even short stories, but a novel length work still sends me quivering away.  The more I struggle with my varying projects that look to be novel length, the more I worry they'll never be good enough, and I'll never be good enough.

Don't get me wrong, I've participated in National Novel Writing Month twice thus far, and even won it once.  I feel my novel from last year had amazing premise, but I am at a loss for where to go from there.  The novel as it stands now is only a third done, and has been sitting on my net-book for months untouched.  I hope to participate in NaNoWriMo again this year, if only for the fun of it, but novels still terrify me.

So why tell you this?  I have a project that I'm planning out.  It's a project I was hoping would make a powerful short story, one I could send to the magazines in a few months once I polish it out a few times.  So imagine my horror when the story starts to grow bigger than a short story.  The themes and issues are too large, I fear, to condense into even a twenty-four page short story (Glimmer Train's maximum word count is 12,000 words).  Only time will tell how big this story will get, and how far I can revise it down.

Are you scared of novel length works?  Why or why not?
Also, when do you know when a project is a short story, and when it's destined for something more?

Until next time,
Rose