It's only today that I realise that's what was required.
I have the new novel ready to go, yeh see. It has a plot, beginning middle and end, the characters are taking shape nicely(ish), I'm even accepting the mistakes I made during the first book (Me? Admit I made mistakes? That's not a cloud in the sky, it's a pig.)
And yet, for weeks (some would say months), the page has remained blank.
My excuse for the last 12 days, 3 hours and 15 minutes (approximately) is that I'm on my holidays and that I shouldn't feel under any real pressure to write unless the mood strikes me. There's a rookie attitude if there ever was one.
The other justification has been that, before I even think about writing word-one of chapter-one, some foundations need to be dug. A detailed plot-outline, a chapter-breakdown and, above all else, character biogs are required. Except that, yeah you guessed it, I'm not doing those either.
And that aforementioned K-I-T-A? Aptly enough, it was a book. Well a number of books really, but one in particular. No, not the bible.
'Writing To Get Published - Bringing the Dream Alive', the new e-book by Vanessa O'Loughlin (Collca e-Publishing) is what it is. Some of you might know Vanessa from Inkwell Writers Workshops, her company that runs writing courses, classes and workshops, and offers services to writers like proofreading and critiquing. She also set up www.writing.ie, an excellent website for writers. (And those of you who listen to my radio show will know her as my guest on the 11th June.)
Anyway, so Vanessa took from her experience from running Inkwell and the website, and from being a writer herself and this gem of a How-to book was born. I'm not going to review it in detail but suffice to say I read it an hour, it was only about two euro, and it got me back in front of the laptop (poor fella was starting to wonder why it was brought on holidays at all).
Right, back to deciding what is the 'physiology, sociology and psychology' of Justine Locke.
Hi Paul, love her book, I am buying it for sure!
ReplyDeleteGreat blog
Michelle
Hi, just stumbled upon your blog! Honesty is rare these days and it's refreshing to see your journey/plight/freefall with warts(rejections)and all.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid and a little shy about calling myself a writer although I have just completed my first novel with a 103k wordcount(which has already been reduced to 97k by taking the first "what was I thinking?" bits out.
I have become obsesssed with the process of finding a literary agent and compiling the 'query letter'. When confused by all the conflicting advice out there I blame my two boxer dogs for everything in the world, this includes when I read over my draft and become embarassed.
When I'm thinking more clearly I just concentrate on sending positive vibes into the cosmos and ask to win the lottery. Each and every Saturday, when the cosmos lets me down my dogs get the blame for that too. It's a good job their cute.