Decisions, Decisions

Every year the writers' group I belong to (Mid-Michigan Romance Writers of America) sponsors a challenge called, I Will Write a Book. The idea is to motivate those who join the challenge to finish a book. Participants pay $5 and submit the title of the book they will work on and then must submit the final page of the ms. by November 30. At our Christmas party we draw a name from all those who completed a book. The winner wins 50% of the money with the other 50% going to the chapter funds. It's a nice little fundraiser as well as a motivator. I've joined the challenge the last few years but alas, I must confess, I have not finished the book. I'm not sure why. I've entered the same book but for some reason have had trouble with completing it. Maybe it's a book that can't be written? Sometimes that happens, but the truth is I have several books in various stages of completion. Maybe that means I have ADD. Maybe it means I grew discouraged when the publisher or particular "line" I'd targeted suddenly disappeared before I'd finished the manuscript. Maybe I grew bored with the story and figured if I was bored, would an editor also be bored? Could be any one of these, but this year I am determined to enter the challenge once again and to finish the damn book! But I think this time I will enter something new, or something that I started writing "way back when" and would still like to finish. Maybe I just need a change of pace.

The problem with that is, I'm having trouble deciding which book I'll finish. I've considered having someone else choose for me, or even putting the titles on pieces of paper,  throwing them into a box, and picking one. I guess that's as good a way as any to decide. The publishing world is in such a state of flux right now that I  think it's probably more important to finish a book than to worry about where to submit it when it's done. Who knows what will happen in publishing by November 30th? I can't control any of that, but what I can control, and what I hope to control in 2012, is to have a completed manuscript by that date. Oh and also a chance to maybe win a little extra cash.