Plotting like crazy

So far so good...er...well...decent. Planning for a novel is a rather exciting experience, much like a roller coaster. One day I'm extatic about my plot and the next I'm frustrated that it's not interesting enough.

I had a bit of inspiration. I went to my first Romance Writers of America meeting (by the way, I finally told someone, outloud, at work, that I read/write and enjoy romance novels - a big step for me) the other night. The group was extremely friendly and I felt like it will be a great group for critiquing and such. The other nice thing is that published author's still go to meetings and provide lots of advice.

An author gave a presentation on outlining a plot at the meeting. She is someone who outlines books like crazy, which was good to hear because I'm doing that too. It seems most people I come across fly by the seat of their pants. Well, she recommended a few books (that I ordered and am looking forward to getting):

• Techniques of a selling writer
• The Plot Doctor Workbook
• The Writer's Journey
• Goal, Motivation and Conflict

She gave some great, realistic suggestions for a manuscript to be interesting and potentially publishable. However, she writes inspirational romance so we didn't get much advice in the love-making plot department :-)

And I found a great book that I LOVED - How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks. It was fantastic. Not what I expected by reading the back of the book, it was much better than it sounded.

Now I started reading Kiss of the Vampire in the 3-short story set Highland Vampire. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's difficult to read an entire story in Scottish dialect. How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire had it, but it was only a couple of the characters. Anyway, I'm not sure how much I like the story so far. We'll see, I'm about half way through it.

I think I'll read a couple of contemporary romances next, I haven't yet veered from paranormals.

Best of luck for the rest of you NaNoers getting ready for the 1st!