It’s been a busy busy past few weeks… always goes crazy like this in the lead up to Crimbo. There’s been lots of birthdays to enjoy; work to be done and exciting writing news to celebrate (more info in future posts, ha ha what a tease).
I’ve also been working on Bliss (working title of book two). I wrote that first draft in a few weeks and have been mega excited about this one. I really hope Bliss is different from what’s out there right now, a YA mystery / thriller with a fantasy element. Anyway, I left that draft for four weeks and looked at it again, and boy, first drafts really do suck! I’m still excited about it but it isn’t till you leave a draft for a few weeks then go back to it that you see the holes; the cliches; the mistakes and the weaknesses. But I’m working on this now and even when I get this draft down, my writer / editor friends still need to read it before it goes to my agent so yikes, it never ends!
Anyway, this leads me onto the whole ‘we all have a novel inside us’ malarky. Yeah, sure, I bet a fair few of us do. But actually writing that novel is the bit many people fall down on. And even when you do write that first draft, it’s very very rare that a first draft is good enough to get you an agent / get you published so it’s a case of revising and perfecting.
In other words, writing a publishable novel is hard work. Writing a novel as a hobby is FUN!
Fellow writer Kiersten White, whose wonderful-sounding YA book Paranormalcy will be out next September (with HarperTeen), wrote a great blog post of this so I recommend you toodle along to her blog right now and have a read if you’re one of those people who thinks they have a novel inside them… I retweeted her post, saying writing’s all about bloods, guts and tears and she quite rightly tweeted back saying ‘But GOOD blood, guts, and tears, right?’ and yes, yes, yes it’s allll good ‘cos nothing makes me more happy then working on a new novel. But it’s hard work (did I say that already?)
But have a read and lemme know what you think.
In reading news, am reading the follow up to The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire and will report back when I can. So far, a lot slower going but the pace is picking up so imagine I’ll be rolling around in all the blood and gore and gritty action that Suzanne Collins is just so great at depicting very soon!
Right, I’m off to walk the dog and buy the Sunday papers… Auf Wiedersehen!
x
1 response so far ↓
Robyn Slingsby // November 16, 2009 at 11:55 am |
I second that – writing is bloody hard work and not nearly as fun or as easy as it sounds. Keep up the good work though dude!