Let's have it Both Ways

by Charlotte Bennardo

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood (Pexels)

This month's prompts are optimism/forward thinking or if snowed in, what would we like to achieve? I'm combining the two. If snowed in (or rained in or 'too cold to go outside' in) I want to finish the first rough draft of my MFA thesis, a novel of approximately 70,000 words which must be written, critiqued, and refined before I graduate in July 2023. By thinking about it now and getting an early start, that's forward thinking. Getting it done makes me optimistic because I believe I will have a novel that's ready to go out on sub even before I take the walk for my diploma. I tend to think like this for all my writing. I get an idea I'm optimistic about, I start thinking and planning even in the midst of working on other projects or situations, and then when I put one project aside to 'rest' before serious editing, I metaphorically go into a cave and get the next story draft done. In today's publishing community, a serious author must be optimistic to keep on writing, forward thinking to create stories with fresh appeal, and realistic about confining ourselves to the writing chair to actually do the writing. For me, it's a routine that works. Talk to almost any author and they can tell you about numerous ideas they have for other works, about the two or three ideas they're working on simultaneously, and how hopeful they are about the stories. 

Whether it's writing, planning a garden, or completing an MFA, optimism, forward thinking, and 'locking' oneself down to do the work is a successful routine.

Charlotte writes MG, YA, NA, and adult novels in sci fi, fantasy, contemporary, and paranormal genres. She is the author of the middle grade Evolution Revolution trilogy, Simple Machines, Simple Plans, and Simple Lessons. She co-authored the YA novels Blonde OPS, Sirenz, and Sirenz Back in Fashion. She has two short stories in the Beware the Little White Rabbit (Alice through the Wormhole) and Scare Me to Sleep (Faces in the Wood) anthologies. Currently she is working on several novels for both children and adults. She lives in NJ with her family, two demanding cats, and a crazy squirrel couple who just moved into her backyard oak tree.