round 2, but I’m still only 7,500 words into my second book, same as a month ago. My real-job is taking up all my working time and the children have insisted on a majority share of the remainder, leaving a little time in the evenings to unwind, sleep and do it all again the following day. On my current workload, I’ll be very busy up until the end of Sept, so for now the book will have to wait I’m afraid.
I’m determined to make some time in my next schedule to do at least three or four thousand words a week, hopefully even more.
This week I’ve been thinking on how to get a book started. So far I haven’t had too many issues in getting my story and plots together (I’ve already outlined the story for my first three books to my agents) I also haven’t had a problem in keeping it going once the story has begun; one plot event leads to the next and so on, until the dénouement.
It’s the getting started I’m struggling with. The first chapter has to be good or people will stop reading. I’ve ignored this issue with book two by just starting to write, getting into the story through some mediocre event, which got me into the flow. It’s like going swimming in a fast flowing river, the initial wading from the edge isn’t pretty but it gets you to where you need to be for the flow to take over.
Book 2’s opening chapter will definitely be revisited on completion of the first draft and is unlikely to survive a swingeing first edit.
Maybe this is why so many books start with a prologue. In this way we can write something exciting, which could almost be plucked from the body of the main text, without any real reference to the plot or time line or a long introduction of the characters. But also, maybe then the first ‘real chapter’ doesn’t need to shine quite so brightly. Or am I underselling the merits of the prologue?
TF.80
Current Reading: Harlan Coben – Caught
Malcom Gladwell – The Tipping Point
Current Listening: Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
The Gaslight Anthem – American Slang
20.8.10
6.8.10
First rejection…
…cuts the deepest, I hope. After only two weeks out there I haven’t had one yet, or at least I haven’t been told about it by my agents, PK.
The other night though I got an email from PK at 11.55pm on my way to bed (bloody blinking Blackberry.) They have distributed my MS to just five editors for consideration. The editors in question are trusted by PK and one is a close personal friend.
The email was sent from my agent’s iPhone and contained brief comments from this editor/friend on some issues throughout the ms and especially the opening chapter.
Now on the surface the comments could be considered innocuous, if it wasn’t your work that they were talking about, but at almost midnight with no chance to have a clarifying discussion, they kept me tossing and turning for the night. I kept wondering how I could make the opening better and re-writing it in my head, or should I completely re-write large sections of the whole ms?
A further 36 hours passed before I could get my agent on the phone, as she was out of the country (although she did respond to my neurotic email, to say not to worry about it.)
When I finally got to talk to PK last night, it turned out that the discussion with the Editor was in reality very positive and their input was more about advising minor ways to improve the MS; rather than the cutting it to pieces, which I’d convinced myself of.
As well as that, PK pointed out, the editor/friend actually read the ms all the way through to the end, which they wouldn’t have done if they thought it was rubbish; even for a friend. This message somehow got lost while PK was trying to be brief with the typing into a phone.
We’ve agreed now, for the good of our relationship, that fewer iPhone emails should be sent in future and never at Midnight.
So my first rejection is still not here and I’ve gone through some early phantom pains already, so now I’m thinking how bad could the real thing be?
... I’ll let you know
Current Listening: Villagers: Becoming a Jackal
The other night though I got an email from PK at 11.55pm on my way to bed (bloody blinking Blackberry.) They have distributed my MS to just five editors for consideration. The editors in question are trusted by PK and one is a close personal friend.
The email was sent from my agent’s iPhone and contained brief comments from this editor/friend on some issues throughout the ms and especially the opening chapter.
Now on the surface the comments could be considered innocuous, if it wasn’t your work that they were talking about, but at almost midnight with no chance to have a clarifying discussion, they kept me tossing and turning for the night. I kept wondering how I could make the opening better and re-writing it in my head, or should I completely re-write large sections of the whole ms?
A further 36 hours passed before I could get my agent on the phone, as she was out of the country (although she did respond to my neurotic email, to say not to worry about it.)
When I finally got to talk to PK last night, it turned out that the discussion with the Editor was in reality very positive and their input was more about advising minor ways to improve the MS; rather than the cutting it to pieces, which I’d convinced myself of.
As well as that, PK pointed out, the editor/friend actually read the ms all the way through to the end, which they wouldn’t have done if they thought it was rubbish; even for a friend. This message somehow got lost while PK was trying to be brief with the typing into a phone.
We’ve agreed now, for the good of our relationship, that fewer iPhone emails should be sent in future and never at Midnight.
So my first rejection is still not here and I’ve gone through some early phantom pains already, so now I’m thinking how bad could the real thing be?
... I’ll let you know
Current Listening: Villagers: Becoming a Jackal
2.8.10
Music
…matters. To me anyway and I’d like to think my music taste is pretty eclectic.
Putting my iPod on random now as I started writing this, the first five artists that came up are: Sigur Ros, Dixie Chicks, Ryan Adams, the Foo Fighters and Beriut.
Since I was a young boy I’ve been a music obsessive. I’ve gone through the full gamut of musical interest phases. From general interest in the charts and what’s on the radio, to obsessively listening to lyrics over and over again; to finding bands that no-one else had even heard of and championing them until they became popular, then dropping them for selling out.
Putting my iPod on random now as I started writing this, the first five artists that came up are: Sigur Ros, Dixie Chicks, Ryan Adams, the Foo Fighters and Beriut.
Since I was a young boy I’ve been a music obsessive. I’ve gone through the full gamut of musical interest phases. From general interest in the charts and what’s on the radio, to obsessively listening to lyrics over and over again; to finding bands that no-one else had even heard of and championing them until they became popular, then dropping them for selling out.
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