Its been a month since I handed in my novel and you'd think I'd be chilling out, enjoying the freedom of all this spare time.
To be honest, the plans to have no plans never really came to anything. The moment I put away my laptop I zoomed off to Portugal and France with work. And now we're moving house - with three travel sick pets in tow - not exactly taking it easy.
But still, I find myself itching to start the next novel. Life without a my 'imaginary friends' feels directionless. One dimensional.
Maybe its because I know that, career wise, I don't want to be doing what I'm doing now for the rest of my life - I want to be sitting at my kitchen table in my pajamas, writing novels with my dog at my feet. It's as if I can't sit still until I get there!
Meanwhile, the feedback from my agent on novel 1 has been positive and out of the 5 top flight editors he sent 3 sample chapters too - 3 have now requested the full manuscript! Whoopeeee! Another reason to have ants in my pants.
Friday, 7 March 2008
Sunday, 17 February 2008
Going going gone
Phew! I finally handed my novel in to my agent on Friday! Hurray!
God knows if its good enough - I suspect there may be more work to be done - but after 5 (count 'em) redrafts, I was starting to see double and finding it hard to care anymore... I was just so desperate to get rid of the thing!
The rewrite was the hardest thing I've ever done. It was actually painful. For my brain. For my stressed-out body and for my poor husband, who started to think he was married to a laptop.
The hardest thing? When to stop. It was never going to perfect - but when would it be good enough? My teacher said keep going till you're happy with it. But I felt like I might go on fiddling forever.
By Friday, I reached a point when I felt like I was doing more harm than good - there's only so much you can cut and tweak something before it gets painful.
Who knows what my agent will make of it. He signed me up on basis of 15 chapters out of 7o! But even if it's crap at least I've done it. Stuck at it. A lot of people want to write a book. Few start. Even fewer finish, and fewer still get up pre-dawn and sit up past midnight polishing the thing into oblivion.
Keep telling yourself that, Jude.
God knows if its good enough - I suspect there may be more work to be done - but after 5 (count 'em) redrafts, I was starting to see double and finding it hard to care anymore... I was just so desperate to get rid of the thing!
The rewrite was the hardest thing I've ever done. It was actually painful. For my brain. For my stressed-out body and for my poor husband, who started to think he was married to a laptop.
The hardest thing? When to stop. It was never going to perfect - but when would it be good enough? My teacher said keep going till you're happy with it. But I felt like I might go on fiddling forever.
By Friday, I reached a point when I felt like I was doing more harm than good - there's only so much you can cut and tweak something before it gets painful.
Who knows what my agent will make of it. He signed me up on basis of 15 chapters out of 7o! But even if it's crap at least I've done it. Stuck at it. A lot of people want to write a book. Few start. Even fewer finish, and fewer still get up pre-dawn and sit up past midnight polishing the thing into oblivion.
Keep telling yourself that, Jude.
Tuesday, 1 January 2008
The End
Hello all!
Just a quick one to say I hope you all had a jolly Christmas and champagne-filled new year. As 2007 comes to a close, I'm celebrating not just the end of a wonderful year for me - 'I do', a step on the property ladder and a new dog! - but also the end of my first novel. I finally wrote the last full stop at four o' clock on New Years Eve! Hurray!
January will see me frantically tweaking, polishing and honing all 70 chapters in time to hand it in to my agent ASAP. Where to start? Its a daunting prospect but I'm starting with a chapter-by-chapter review of the plot and an emotional life line of my characters, just to make sure it all hangs together. Err... right. Only then will I start obsessing over adjectives and tackling the nitty gritty.
2007 has been a great writing year for me. Here's hope 2008 is a great one for all!
PS the new dog is a Collie-Corgi cross from a nearby rescue home, who arrived with us on Christmas Eve. His name is Lucky and HIS end wags like a charm.
Just a quick one to say I hope you all had a jolly Christmas and champagne-filled new year. As 2007 comes to a close, I'm celebrating not just the end of a wonderful year for me - 'I do', a step on the property ladder and a new dog! - but also the end of my first novel. I finally wrote the last full stop at four o' clock on New Years Eve! Hurray!
January will see me frantically tweaking, polishing and honing all 70 chapters in time to hand it in to my agent ASAP. Where to start? Its a daunting prospect but I'm starting with a chapter-by-chapter review of the plot and an emotional life line of my characters, just to make sure it all hangs together. Err... right. Only then will I start obsessing over adjectives and tackling the nitty gritty.
2007 has been a great writing year for me. Here's hope 2008 is a great one for all!
PS the new dog is a Collie-Corgi cross from a nearby rescue home, who arrived with us on Christmas Eve. His name is Lucky and HIS end wags like a charm.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
