Finish a book for love…and see what’s on the other side.

I’m an idiot. Janette. I thought you were referring to another project, not the orbit manuscript. I should pay more attention to things.

 On the manuscript topic, I agree with Jeremy; consider submitting after a bit of a spell. I hated being told ‘no’ but i appreciated the need to do up my MS to a submission status. I twisted and turned but felt much better when it was in the mail.

 After that it was out of my hands – an idea for improvement, little tweaks and such, still popped into my brain but I had already sent it off. And I’m glad I did otherwise i would be tinkering with it forever. Man, the rewriting that the bloody thing went through. At one point I knew if I had to reread the same scene again there would be murder done in my house.

I know a writer is supposed to nourish, cherish, polish and only send off work of the highest calibre. I know that we should always look on the editing process as an opportunity and I felt the guilts (call yourself a writer, you hack! Get out there and edit that draft agin! And you better look damn good while you’re doin’ it)

 But the story I sent was a darn good one and, i believe, well told. I had the impetus from its completion to start the next book using the same characters (‘Valentine and the Revenants’ – more zombies ) and when I came up for air there were 20K words of rough first draft staring back at me.

My point is, and I do have one, is that I would have been confronted with the solid wall of the unfinished MS forever unless i forced it out, got out the bum glue and fixed the bloody thing. I had to get past this wall in order to move on; and on the other side I found a new story. If I hadn’t finished the first one I would have been unable to believe in myself enough to start the next in the series. I could have picked another big project, another totally differnt yarn with other characters -  no trouble.

But, dammit, I liked Valentine. I liked the NightWatch and it was only me stopping myself.

So there you go, fellow Orbiteers, when we write for the critical eye of a publisher we risk all, we work mongrel hours and we bleed a lot.

But on the other side of the wall there sometimes sits a brand new story, all big-eyed and new. Just asking to be told.

How can you resist that face?

 

terry

Brave New World

Keioskie writes:

Hey gang, I’m reading Aldous Huxley, Brave New World.  Well, I’m actually re-reading it, since I remember plumbing the mad depths of utopia/dystopia when I was younger.  I didn’t get it then (like so many things) but I understand now. 

That’s the great thing about ‘classic books’.  Reading them you can see where a lot of new writing has come from, how genres are formed and why, and you begin to understand why these particular authors and works are so revered.

So tell me, Orbiteers – what’s your ‘classic’ work, and why?

To finish or not to finish

Six months on from Joondoburri, I’m at a crossroads. Yes, I’ve managed to get a fair bit done. But I’m still nowhere near ready to submit and if anything, feel like I’m further away!

Part of me is so despondent about my ms I’m thinking of making it into what I heard Jake Arnott (“The Long Firm”) refer to as “ballast”.  His first novel, he says, will never be published as it was basically a practice run – full of all the mistakes he made as he was learning how to do it.

Like a first-born child with whom the parents make all their worst mistakes, I’m beginning to think I should just start afresh with something new.  Though being the eldest child in my tribe, I’m kinda glad my folks didn’t shove me in a bottom drawer, so there goes THAT metaphor…

Trouble is, every time I think seriously about doing that, something comes out of the woodwork and inspires me again and I can’t let it go.  Aaargh!

I’m not sure if I’ve overworked it so it’s lost any appeal it once had; or if there is so much still to do that I’ll still be at it in 10 years (and seriously, it’s not THAT important a novel).  Or possibly both – yikes.

Has anyone else confronted this? What did you do to get through it?

Janette

Facebook for writers

Luke Keioskie writes:

Gang, you’ve got to check out www.authonomy.com.  It’s this fantastic site set up by Harper Collins where you create your own profile (ala Facebook) and can upload part or all of an unpublished novel.  Other members of the site can read your work, leave comments and back your novel.  At the end of each month, the five most popular pieces end up on the ‘Editor’s Desk’ where it’s read by Harper Collins staff regarding possible publication.

Check out my profile if you’re unsure, but it’s really cool and you get to read a lot of other emerging writer’s work – I’ve already commented on two books from England and one from Spain.  It’s a great resource and you can go at your own pace.  But, if you don’t read other people’s work, yours doesn’t get read – it’s the equivalent of a literary ’share and save’.

Christmas Competition

Hi Guys,

I’ve just entered a story in a Christmas short story competition called Spec The Halls. Don’t ask me why, I just thought it would be fun to do the story once I heard about the comp.. Anyway, I thought you might have Christmas stories lying around you might like to submit.

It’s one of those contests (there seem to be so many these days) where you post the story yourself and then tell them where to find it. So, since it is now on the Web (bye bye first electronic publishing rights!) I thought I’d send you the link in case you want to see it. It’s called ‘Last Christmas’ and it’s very short (1700 words). If you read it, let me know what you think.

(In case you’re wondering, I didn’t put it up here in case it drew traffic. I think of this site as private – even though it isn’t – and didn’t want to upset anyone.)

Cheers,

Graham.