There it is. I admit it. I have no excuse to offer other than this--since typing "The End" on the final page of my novel in mid-June, I basically turned my back on my baby for a while. Truth be told, I turned my back on all things writing for the rest of the summer. My poor, fledgling blog was no exception. So to my thousands and thousands of disappointed readers out there (cough) I apologize.
What can I say. Mommy needed a break.
Writing has taken up so much of my life for such a long time, I'd forgotten what it was like not to have a book to write. And it's been WONDERFUL.
Ok, sometimes it's been hard. I've been used to stepping into the lives of my characters nearly every day.
I think about them all the time, the same way you might think about a dear friend you've lost touch with.
And I miss them. Alot.
Ideas for Book 2 pop into my head nearly every day, but I simply jot them down in my notepad without expanding on them, no matter how sorely I am tempted. The truth of the matter is, I'm just not ready to commit to starting another book--one that, no doubt, will consume me every bit as much as this one has.
For Pete's sake, I still have edits to do and query letters to polish and decisions to make about what the next move is with this one! The thought of starting the entire process over is terrifying.
I envy those writers out there who churn out books in a matter of weeks (Amanda Hocking states on her blog that she wrote her first vampire novel in FIFTEEN DAYS. Switched, the first book in her popular Trylle Trilogy, was written in ONE WEEK.) I admire Amanda enormously for what she has accomplished as a self published author. While some of her books are badly in need of more thorough editing, for the most part they are entertaining and well-written, especially considering the time it took to write them.
So I ask myself, is it smart for me to agonize over every step in this process the way I do? Is there a point where you have to say "to hell with what the experts say--I'm just gonna take a week's vacation from work and write this damn thing and throw it up on Kindle and see what happens!" It goes without saying, there's never been a better time for self-published writers than RIGHT NOW. It is tempting to skip the whole query--wait--get rejected--cry pathetically--query again--cycle that is the story of nearly every writer out there, at least at some point in their career. What are your thoughts? What has your own experience been?
A Writer's Ruminations from Green Thirteen
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6/24/11
The Dang Thing's Finished---NOW WHAT?
OK, I know I posted in my bio that my book was finished already. And I thought it was. Mostly. Kinda. Well, maybe I was always pretty sure the ending was as thin as wet toilet paper, but by golly, I could tell myself it was DONE.
In my rare moments of honest self-appraisal, I knew that ending needed serious work. So here I am, nearly six months later, finally pleased enough with my ending to show my manuscript to a few trusted friends. What I would really like now is to find a beta reader or critique group---a step I realize most writers take at an earlier juncture, but my courage has failed me numerous times. Now that I have a semi-finished product under my belt, I feel I'm mentally ready to be torn to shreds by a room full of my peers. I was scared to death that if I recieved too much criticism too early, it would completely shatter my already fragile ego and I would abandon my project altogether. I'm sure that will sound pretty lame to many of you, but think of how hard it is to devote yourself to the task of writing your first novel, all alone. You're already asking yourself every day if you've lost your damn mind---devoting every spare moment to either working on your novel, preparing to work on your novel, or thinking about working on your novel. It's hard enough to convince yourself on a daily basis that yes, someday, all this will be worth it. I couldn't risk being derailed by a well meaning, enthusiastic would-be editor. But I have to get ready now. Cause the dang thing ain't getting any younger, collecting dust on my hard-drive. Its time to see what its made of. Wish me luck.
And if anyone out there would be interested in beta-reading for me, send me an email. All comments and advice are greatly appreciated!
In my rare moments of honest self-appraisal, I knew that ending needed serious work. So here I am, nearly six months later, finally pleased enough with my ending to show my manuscript to a few trusted friends. What I would really like now is to find a beta reader or critique group---a step I realize most writers take at an earlier juncture, but my courage has failed me numerous times. Now that I have a semi-finished product under my belt, I feel I'm mentally ready to be torn to shreds by a room full of my peers. I was scared to death that if I recieved too much criticism too early, it would completely shatter my already fragile ego and I would abandon my project altogether. I'm sure that will sound pretty lame to many of you, but think of how hard it is to devote yourself to the task of writing your first novel, all alone. You're already asking yourself every day if you've lost your damn mind---devoting every spare moment to either working on your novel, preparing to work on your novel, or thinking about working on your novel. It's hard enough to convince yourself on a daily basis that yes, someday, all this will be worth it. I couldn't risk being derailed by a well meaning, enthusiastic would-be editor. But I have to get ready now. Cause the dang thing ain't getting any younger, collecting dust on my hard-drive. Its time to see what its made of. Wish me luck.
And if anyone out there would be interested in beta-reading for me, send me an email. All comments and advice are greatly appreciated!
5/14/11
Newbie Novelists: Keep Fighting the Good Fight
For those of you who've been waiting all week with bated breath for my next blog post, I do apologize. I had decided to submit this post on Friday the Thirteenth, keeping with my belief that, in the spirit of my home-girl Taylor Swift, Thirteen is my new lucky number.
But alas, Friday, May 13th, 2011 will go down in history as The Day of The Epic Blogger Fail.
I trust this does not happen often, though I'm tempted to abandon this blog for the fancy graphics and user-friendliness of Wordpress. But that would be throwing in the towel much too quickly. And as you know, throwing in the towel is not what novelists do.
I began my journey as a novelist more than two years ago. "That seems like an awfully long time to work on one book" you might say, and you'd be right. It is. We won't even discuss the fact that the damn thing still isnt done. Sometimes i wonder if it'll ever be polished enough to satisfy me.
I realize there are novelists out there who are churning out two or three books a year. Stephenie Meyer took Twilight from idea to finished product in around ninety days. Elizabeth Kostova, on the other hand, spent more than ten years writing her magnum opus, The Historian. Both these ladies were Newbie Novelists.
Both went on to sign multi-million dollar contracts with Little/Brown, an imprint of Hachette, one of the 'Big Six' publishing houses. Both became huge bestsellers. Which one did it the right way? As it turned out, both of them did.
Stephenie Meyer practically chained herself to her computer, eschewing sleep and housework and most everything else in order to churn out the now iconic story that was burning a hole in her brain. Granted, it ain't Jane Austen, and it probably could've benefitted from a couple more edits. (Sorry, Twi-hards. It's good, but it's far from perfect.)Meyer herself admits that if she had it to do over again, she would've held on to her ms a bit longer to make sure it was as good as she could possibly make it. But in her excitement, she typed the words "The End" and almost immediately began shopping it out to agents. If you're Stephenie Meyer, apparently this method works. if you're the rest of the world, please don't do this. I think Ms.Meyer would advise the same.
Elizabeth Kostova agonized over her manuscript for years and years. She worked on it in her spare time--nights, holidays, weekends--sound familiar? But she wasn't willing to let it go until she felt it was absolutely perfect. Was it? Well, in my opinion, no. It was a great book, don't get me wrong. It was simply too long by at least three hundred pages. It was a real struggle for me personally, to get through the first hundred. If you can make it past that, the story is riveting. But I'm not sure how it ever held an agent's interest that long. In today's market, I'm not sure it would. From what I've read, the publishers were banking on this story becoming "The next DaVinci Code." So perhaps for Ms. Kostova (and for Stephenie Meyer, for that matter) it was mainly a matter of timing. Truth be told, timing plays as much a part in an individual's success as anything else.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is this---just as no one knows how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop, no one knows how many days it takes to get to the last page of your novel. It's different for each of us. Ninety days is way too much time for some people. Ten years isn't near enough for others. You can't compare your progress or your timeline with anyone else's. I'll leave you with a quote by William Faulkner which I think sums up the theme of this post perfectly:
"Always dream and aim higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Strive to be better than yourself."
But alas, Friday, May 13th, 2011 will go down in history as The Day of The Epic Blogger Fail.
I trust this does not happen often, though I'm tempted to abandon this blog for the fancy graphics and user-friendliness of Wordpress. But that would be throwing in the towel much too quickly. And as you know, throwing in the towel is not what novelists do.
I began my journey as a novelist more than two years ago. "That seems like an awfully long time to work on one book" you might say, and you'd be right. It is. We won't even discuss the fact that the damn thing still isnt done. Sometimes i wonder if it'll ever be polished enough to satisfy me.
I realize there are novelists out there who are churning out two or three books a year. Stephenie Meyer took Twilight from idea to finished product in around ninety days. Elizabeth Kostova, on the other hand, spent more than ten years writing her magnum opus, The Historian. Both these ladies were Newbie Novelists.
Both went on to sign multi-million dollar contracts with Little/Brown, an imprint of Hachette, one of the 'Big Six' publishing houses. Both became huge bestsellers. Which one did it the right way? As it turned out, both of them did.
Stephenie Meyer practically chained herself to her computer, eschewing sleep and housework and most everything else in order to churn out the now iconic story that was burning a hole in her brain. Granted, it ain't Jane Austen, and it probably could've benefitted from a couple more edits. (Sorry, Twi-hards. It's good, but it's far from perfect.)Meyer herself admits that if she had it to do over again, she would've held on to her ms a bit longer to make sure it was as good as she could possibly make it. But in her excitement, she typed the words "The End" and almost immediately began shopping it out to agents. If you're Stephenie Meyer, apparently this method works. if you're the rest of the world, please don't do this. I think Ms.Meyer would advise the same.
Elizabeth Kostova agonized over her manuscript for years and years. She worked on it in her spare time--nights, holidays, weekends--sound familiar? But she wasn't willing to let it go until she felt it was absolutely perfect. Was it? Well, in my opinion, no. It was a great book, don't get me wrong. It was simply too long by at least three hundred pages. It was a real struggle for me personally, to get through the first hundred. If you can make it past that, the story is riveting. But I'm not sure how it ever held an agent's interest that long. In today's market, I'm not sure it would. From what I've read, the publishers were banking on this story becoming "The next DaVinci Code." So perhaps for Ms. Kostova (and for Stephenie Meyer, for that matter) it was mainly a matter of timing. Truth be told, timing plays as much a part in an individual's success as anything else.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is this---just as no one knows how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop, no one knows how many days it takes to get to the last page of your novel. It's different for each of us. Ninety days is way too much time for some people. Ten years isn't near enough for others. You can't compare your progress or your timeline with anyone else's. I'll leave you with a quote by William Faulkner which I think sums up the theme of this post perfectly:
"Always dream and aim higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Strive to be better than yourself."
5/7/11
To Blog or not to Blog, that is the Question
I've toyed with the idea of starting a blog for quite some time. Seems like everyone who's anyone has a blog these days. Having never been one of those jump-on-the-bandwagon kinda gals, I've always come up with valid excuses reasons to support my belief that a blog (in my case, anyway) might just be a more ridiculous idea than the Barack Obama Chia Pet Head.
Therefore, my very first blog post will be devoted to all those reasons why I feel blogging is probably a terrible idea, and why I'm determined to do it anyway.
1.) If you have time to blog, you have time to work on your novel/clean out the garage/organize your closet/catch up on the laundry/etc.etc. fill in the blank.
You have a valid point, housework-angel-on-my-shoulder. But aside from working on my novel, all those activities listed above are time-sucking chores that I LOATHE. Even without the added daily commitment of a blog, I'd still avoid them like the plague. And now that the first draft of my novel is FINISHED AT LAST (A Labor of Love, but a labor, nonetheless) my hope is that this blog might enable me to connect with other writers. What a blessing that would be since, besides myself, I have only one friend who has ever written anything.
2.) Why in the world would you waste your time on a blog? Who's gonna read the darn thing anyway?(NO, your mother DOES NOT COUNT!)
This one's tough to argue. Why would I waste my time on something that no one is ever likely to read? (Not even my mother, truth be told.) The answer is, I don't really know. I've asked myself this same question time and time again, as I pecked away on my novel at four in the morning for the tenth night in a row, or skipped out on a date night with my husband or lunch with my girlfriends or a rainy-Saturday-marathon-viewing of Napoleon Dynamite with my son. I guess its because I know in my heart I have something to say that might be useful to someone out there in Internet-Land. Maybe there's some struggling writer in Iceland or Madagascar or Timbuktu who'll read my words and think Hey, this chick's goin through the same crap as I am, but she's stickin it out and finishing what she started. If she can do it, I can do it, too.
So if my rambling helps one writer finish a project, well, that's good enough for me.
Just send me a cut of the royalties. And name your beautiful, brilliant, headstrong protagonist after me.
3. Do you really need something else in your life to commit to? I mean, you can't even update your Facebook status/Twitter page on a regular basis! What makes you think you can maintain a BLOG?
NO, I don't really need something else in my life to commit to. Most days I'm stretched too thin already, the same as most women I know (and even a man or two out there, I'm sure.) But commiting myself to writing something, at least on a semi-regular basis, has to be a good habit for me to get into.
Besides, I'm tryin my darndest to give up smoking. So I need a new habit, anyway.
And NO, I don't update my Facebook status/Twitter page as often as some people do. But really, does anyone want to read a tweet like "Thinkin bout makin spaghetti for supper tonight..." or a Facebook status update like "Just saved thirty cents on canned peaches at Kroger!" I confess that I have, on occasion, Facebooked or Tweeted some similar mundane nonsense. But I try not to make a habit of it. A good rule of thumb--if you're updating your facebook status or tweeting more than, say, twenty times a day, your friends and/or followers might appreciate your words more if you save those opportunities for when you really have something to say. "I like grape Kool-Aid" might be what's on your mind, but is that really worth sharing? Depends on your audience, I guess.
Therefore, my very first blog post will be devoted to all those reasons why I feel blogging is probably a terrible idea, and why I'm determined to do it anyway.
1.) If you have time to blog, you have time to work on your novel/clean out the garage/organize your closet/catch up on the laundry/etc.etc. fill in the blank.
You have a valid point, housework-angel-on-my-shoulder. But aside from working on my novel, all those activities listed above are time-sucking chores that I LOATHE. Even without the added daily commitment of a blog, I'd still avoid them like the plague. And now that the first draft of my novel is FINISHED AT LAST (A Labor of Love, but a labor, nonetheless) my hope is that this blog might enable me to connect with other writers. What a blessing that would be since, besides myself, I have only one friend who has ever written anything.
2.) Why in the world would you waste your time on a blog? Who's gonna read the darn thing anyway?(NO, your mother DOES NOT COUNT!)
This one's tough to argue. Why would I waste my time on something that no one is ever likely to read? (Not even my mother, truth be told.) The answer is, I don't really know. I've asked myself this same question time and time again, as I pecked away on my novel at four in the morning for the tenth night in a row, or skipped out on a date night with my husband or lunch with my girlfriends or a rainy-Saturday-marathon-viewing of Napoleon Dynamite with my son. I guess its because I know in my heart I have something to say that might be useful to someone out there in Internet-Land. Maybe there's some struggling writer in Iceland or Madagascar or Timbuktu who'll read my words and think Hey, this chick's goin through the same crap as I am, but she's stickin it out and finishing what she started. If she can do it, I can do it, too.
So if my rambling helps one writer finish a project, well, that's good enough for me.
Just send me a cut of the royalties. And name your beautiful, brilliant, headstrong protagonist after me.
3. Do you really need something else in your life to commit to? I mean, you can't even update your Facebook status/Twitter page on a regular basis! What makes you think you can maintain a BLOG?
NO, I don't really need something else in my life to commit to. Most days I'm stretched too thin already, the same as most women I know (and even a man or two out there, I'm sure.) But commiting myself to writing something, at least on a semi-regular basis, has to be a good habit for me to get into.
Besides, I'm tryin my darndest to give up smoking. So I need a new habit, anyway.
And NO, I don't update my Facebook status/Twitter page as often as some people do. But really, does anyone want to read a tweet like "Thinkin bout makin spaghetti for supper tonight..." or a Facebook status update like "Just saved thirty cents on canned peaches at Kroger!" I confess that I have, on occasion, Facebooked or Tweeted some similar mundane nonsense. But I try not to make a habit of it. A good rule of thumb--if you're updating your facebook status or tweeting more than, say, twenty times a day, your friends and/or followers might appreciate your words more if you save those opportunities for when you really have something to say. "I like grape Kool-Aid" might be what's on your mind, but is that really worth sharing? Depends on your audience, I guess.
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