tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41105498722920696872024-03-05T18:37:20.149+00:00Into the Blank PageWriters blog on writing a first novel, a time-travelling science fiction novel for children (boys and girls) age 9-12. About editing. Topics: steampunk, post-apocalypse, and time-travel themes, a clockwork woman, immortals and monkeys!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-22359658347743375922014-07-06T20:43:00.001+01:002014-07-06T20:43:08.465+01:00What the Agent Said
So this is what the agent said:
"thanks so much for sending this new version. There is a lot of potential here and I am going to pass, albeit reluctantly. Climate change and apocalyptic or dystopian themed novels are difficult to place, although a further narrative layered on top creates interest. I sense that underneath the main narrative, this is a story is of grief? The loss of Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-69944665377588706092014-06-15T12:28:00.000+01:002014-06-15T13:23:06.326+01:00LOVELY AGENT
From what I can tell, literary agents avoid wannabe writers. It's a bit like shouting into the void. Most of my experience is waiting eight to twelve weeks for them to tell me to bugger off (politely). Considering the appalling quality of most of what I've written, I can't say I blame them. In fact, I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise to all those agents I've harassed through the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-36613473865669553912014-06-14T15:26:00.000+01:002014-06-15T13:23:14.140+01:00SO THAT WAS THE END
This morning, I woke up and changed the end again. I've lost count of the number of times I've proudly told my kids that the blasted book is finally finished (again). Maybe now, it is.
Sara didn't like this original (super-brief) ending as she said it left too many questions unanswered - what happens to the mother; what is the fallout from Sally, and more. In truth, I wrote it in a lazy mood,Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-25843032583188866652013-11-28T13:33:00.000+00:002014-06-15T13:23:21.914+01:00FINAL EDIT??
So I started the final edit yesterday. I bribed myself to do this by linking it into my new blog about English GCSE. I've got a new to do list system so I used that to break down the epic task into tiny pieces, like: find document; open document; find editor's remarks, read same. You get the picture. It really helped! I'm doing another fairly big re-write/edit, so I need to pull apart the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-66727655131985929922012-09-24T09:48:00.000+01:002014-06-15T13:23:30.612+01:00THEMES
Maybe I watched Tangled too many times. This is the idea exactly as I wrote it when it came to me:
Dad refuses to let them go more than a certain distance from the house in case 'it' starts and they are too far to get back.
There's frustrations of parental overprotectiveness but also parents fears things which children can't understand.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-65154110414930890012012-09-08T08:12:00.000+01:002014-06-15T13:23:40.242+01:00IT GETS WORSE
So I know already that I tend to have an issue with plots. It's dogged everything I've ever written, bar the category romance and the less said about those the better...
I've just come up with a story (at about 6am this morning) out of the wreckage of one of these conjoined triplet plot monsters, which is less plot than 'jumble of ideas', and I know it's a story because it feels ridiculously Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-67772704424190111622012-09-06T12:15:00.004+01:002014-06-15T13:24:08.379+01:00SLASH AND BURN
I've done a monster edit (still in progress). I cut 30-40,000 words out of a novel that was only 50,000 words long in the first place. If I'd realised this was what I was going to end up doing, I probably never would've got started. I'd still be clutching the old, soggy version, pretending it was 'just fine really'.
I slashed and burned the novel in two chunks. First, I stripped 15,000 words Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-58809223501651886122012-06-04T12:20:00.000+01:002014-06-15T13:24:30.695+01:00NOT WRITING
It's a long time since I did any proper writing. I've been researching. Properly. Not merely dipping into the odd (odd) book, but devouring books, filling actual blank pages with miles of spider scrawl.
Recent reads include: Understanding Jewellery, A ton of Dickens, Ditto George Eliot, How Mind Works, The Stuff of Thought, The Language Instinct, The Industrial Revolution Explained, VictorianUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-83927322864480066222011-12-23T10:46:00.001+00:002014-06-15T13:24:41.066+01:00PARALLEL PLOT LINES
The new job has interfered somewhat with my writing schedule. I find myself getting up at six and trying to put an hour in before work. Or writing for hours after I put the kids to bed. Not often though. One upside of visiting the book infrequently is that I get a clearer perspective on what's wrong with it.
One major problem, I have is that I don't spend enough time researching and planning.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-35230284835189945022011-07-25T18:16:00.000+01:002014-06-15T13:24:51.456+01:00EDITING ON PAPER
I forgot how good it is to edit on paper! I just printed the novel out for the first time in at least six months -got myself a luminous pink biro and covered the novel with pink ink. I've cut out swathes of beautiful description, phrases I loved and it feels great!
Two of the three agents who saw the complete MS of this novel have rejected it, one with detailed comments. TheUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-42388486442898391442011-07-03T13:23:00.000+01:002014-06-15T13:24:59.380+01:00EDITING THE TONE OF THE BOOK
I decided to go back and do another edit on the novel. Yes, I know I already sent it out to agents and two of them are still considering it. But one of the agents who rejected the complete MS said she didn't like the narratorial tone.
I have been super-busy with work, but have been thinking about this. I wondered if the most recent re-write made the book quite grim. When I found time to re-readUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-67722578036417236722011-06-09T21:27:00.000+01:002014-06-15T13:25:15.387+01:00WILFUL (STUPID?) DETERMINATION
I have my first, very polite, rejection from one of the three agents who are currently considering Out of Time. Rejection is never pleasant, though I've definitely gotten used to it by now. So at least if I do have a bruise on my head from repeatedly banging my head against a wall, I've been doing it so long now that it seems normal. Which is probably the most positive thing I can say Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-20844621636995361042011-05-02T08:18:00.000+01:002014-06-15T13:25:25.139+01:00WHAT NOT TO DO
Over the years I’ve written novels with no plot and done no research whatsoever. I’ve mixed romance with thriller with satire with sub-lit-fic with kitchen sink. I’ve planned sequels on top of novels that couldn’t even support their own weight.
My advice to you is simple. Do not under any circumstances do any of these things. Certainly do not do all of them in the same novel. It’s a recipe for Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-56246316252345584482011-04-26T17:48:00.001+01:002014-06-15T13:25:34.735+01:00WORK / WRITING
Today was my first day at work. It's a proper job - full time and everything. Before this, I stayed at home to look after my kids, and spent some time writing. Once they were all at school full time, I spent a lot of time writing - but only in the day - almost like a proper job in fact, but with no pay and more biscuits and cake.
So two interesting things happened today. I have a day job to Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-67649760724212373582011-04-15T12:56:00.005+01:002014-06-15T13:25:43.966+01:00STILL EDITING
I can't believe I'm still editing. I could feel my mind going numb half way through so I took a break and created a contents page. After all that editing, putting my chapters into a list felt like the peak of fun. I got even more excited (relatively speaking) when the new material I'd written meant I had to create a new chapter. The new chapter three is now called 'Heaven'. The last chapter, in Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-52790270809339185982011-04-14T21:00:00.001+01:002014-06-15T13:25:55.946+01:00LAST GASP
Today, with the last bit of energy and willpower I could summon up, I tried to write my plot outline. It's only supposed to be a page long - which is where the problems begin.
The book I just wrote is full of alternative future and past civilizations, and shifts between different kinds of reality. Getting all that boiled down into 700 words that make sense is unbelievably difficult. Each Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-82100758199100779172011-04-13T18:40:00.001+01:002014-06-15T13:26:06.053+01:00QUANTUM FLUX
I can't work out whether I'm finished or not. I think I am. Or at least, I've decided to stop writing. I've been hard at work editing for three days solid. This probably doesn't sound like much but editing at this level of detail is one of the hardest parts of writing.
It started when I got comments back from the editor. In essence, this is a list of problems. So far so clear. It's workingUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-49349775845677559362011-04-12T08:00:00.008+01:002014-06-15T13:26:15.965+01:00TOTAL NIGHTMARE!
I've talked a lot in this blog about how I'm 'editing' a novel. Looking back I think it's probably fairer to say I did a re-write. I reckon I must have written 20,000 words of new material and deleted 10,000 of a book that was only 42,000 words long when I started.
I massively expanded ideas that were hinted at in the old version and created a totally new ending. Even the major villain Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-42350380330418485482011-04-08T09:00:00.016+01:002014-06-15T13:26:26.370+01:00OTHER WRITERS
I LOVE meeting other people who write. It's rare to find anyone else who understands what it means to grapple with dialogue, endlessly re-write a first chapter in the first person, third person, present and past tense in every possible combination.
Then I discovered Authonomy. There are ten thousand (unpublished) authors on the site, all with a novel, true-life story or poetry/story Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-82443304906142409402011-04-07T09:00:00.002+01:002014-06-15T13:26:36.651+01:00SECRET SHAME
I've been writing for too long now. Unpublished, alas. For the first few years, I didn't tell too many people I was writing: close friends, but it wouldn't be something I'd shoot out there at random. Or not much.
Partly, I think it was because the thing that I was writing was so embarrassing. (Of which more later...)
As hobbies go, I like to think writing is probably more interesting to most Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-33758448164186703732011-04-04T09:00:00.002+01:002014-06-15T13:26:47.199+01:00LOOSE ENDS
I have run round the house yelling 'I'm finished! Hurrah! I'm finished!' about six times in the last fortnight. It would be embarrassing, except I have an unusually high shame threshold. But this time, I think I really am finished.
I've filled in all the plot holes, sorted out the bits that made my husband angry/confused when he read it. I explained things that made no sense. Though I Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-46298372971655243942011-04-01T09:25:00.002+01:002014-06-15T13:27:01.613+01:00REALLY FINISHED
Yes, I'm really finished (mostly).
I worked all day yesterday and the day before. One day I worked from nine am to midnight (not including biscuit breaks). It's done. Pages 58 to 82 no longer read like a three year old wrote them. Now they're more the level of a five year old (joke). The ending makes sense, and that's a big relief. When I started this book didn't even have an ending.
So I am Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-30796762164026434262011-03-30T08:50:00.001+01:002014-06-15T13:27:10.422+01:00ER, NOT FINISHED AFTER ALL
My last post said I was finished. I'm not. I think I have three more days' work to do. How do I know this when the novel is now safely locked away in a drawer, unread, I hear you cry?
Because I didn't manage to put the novel away in a drawer for a week. I was flipping through it barely twelve hours later. Thank goodness I did, as I discovered three tiny problems with it:
1. Everything between Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-49338046490027163122011-03-28T09:24:00.001+01:002014-06-15T13:27:20.439+01:00FINISHED!
The novel is finished!
I'm not going to look at it again for a week. I'm hoping I closed up all the major plot holes, logical inconsistencies and miscellaneous things that made no sense at all. So next time when I read it, there won't be much to do.
The best way I can explain how I feel now is 'good'. But also like someone squeezed out the inside of my brain.
More on Life as&Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110549872292069687.post-80851067950967970372011-03-25T07:57:00.001+00:002014-06-15T13:27:31.527+01:00FROM BAD TO WORSE
Out of Time is a thriller. It has long action sequences and the characters' situation goes from bad to worse. Just when I think I can't think up any ways to make it any worse, something else occurs to me.
For instance, the main characters discover their father is trying to kill one of them. They escape using a time travel device into a desolate ancient landscape and are captured by Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0