I realized this morning I haven't mentioned my "other" novel, 200 PC, in several days. Maybe I've finally switched over to the new novel in my head, and committed to finishing it.
The characters in 200 PC, the novel I started during last year's NaNoWriMo, are much more fully developed than those in my new novel. Some of the scenes in 200 PC are spectacular (even say I so self-referentially). The idea behind the setting is a winner. I have a vivid picture in my mind of that entire world and of how it works. One thing is missing, though: an ending to the tale.
My new novel (still called Bring Me to Life for now, though I'm increasingly dissatisfied with that title, particularly after it got no "coolness" votes in a contest at a NaNoWriMo write-in last week) is completely different. There are many more characters, some of whom are still little more than sketches. I don't feel I've been completely successful in capturing the adrenaline in the story, the need I sometimes feel to get up and dance when I write the magic/music scenes. Some of the setting is even sketchy; most of the action takes place on board a spaceship that I've really only described as looking like an enormous Fender Telecaster. But the two main characters are strong, fully realized, and compelling, and I've got that ace in my hand—the actual ending, a point where I know the story will end up.
These novels are very different, but I love them both. After 30 November, it will be hard to decide what to do. My first reaction is to work on both of them, to try to get them both up to "submittable" status.
Some people ask me how I can read two or three different novels at a time. I don't know, this is just something I do. I don't find it a chore to "mind-hop" from a Star Wars book to a Zelazny fantasy to an alt-history by Turtledove. But reading is much easier to treat this way than writing.
I think if I tried to finish both books at once, I'd mess them both up. So best to keep my momentum with BMtL through December. I think I'll finish the story arc on this book and write "THE END" within the next couple of weeks, if not by the end of NaNo. Then I can go back and fix the plot holes, the weak characterization, the misplaced maguffins. And then I'll have something to start shopping around. That's my goal, really.
I don't believe 200 PC would make a good first novel, anyway. I don't want its style to be perceived as my default. So you'll have to wait just a bit longer, William MacArthur and Jessie Darling, to consummate that relationship. I promise it'll be worth the wait.