Beginning a new book always feels to me like learning to write all over again. It’s not like I’ve never done it before either. I’ve recently finished up VENUS GUY TRAP (out February 2010, but you can preorder it on the Canadian Amazon.com right now! LOL ), which was my 7th completed novel. I’m not a newbie at this process.
Today I started working on a new YA project I’m really excited about! Code Name: IFDP. I got my agent’s approval on the synopsis, which was really important to me. The market’s so tight these days, I didn’t want to write a book only to find out she didn’t think she could sell it. So we went back and forth a few times until we were both happy with the outcome. Now it’s time to write.
But I’ve forgotten how.
I haven’t. I know I haven’t. I know that every book starts like this. Maybe it’s because I’m coming off writing the lastest Venus book, where Venus is such a larger than life character in her own right that other characters seem small in comparison. Maybe it’s just the newness of it. I don’t know Rami (my protagonist) well enough to hear her voice inside my head. I’m not sure how she dresses, what she likes to do in her spare time. I’m unsure who she is.
Or maybe, deep down, I do. See Rami’s a little lost and unsure of herself, too. She’s been sent to live with a father she hasn’t seen (and barely heard from) in ten years. She’s in a strange town, with no friends, and she doesn’t know what to expect.
I’m in a strange new town with her. I don’t know what to expect (even though I know how the story goes). I don’t know how Rami’s going to find her way any more than she does.
Maybe instead of fighting the anxiety of starting a new book, I should use the anxiety to make Rami’s experience become real on the page. We can find our way on this new adventure together. 
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