Secret Notes
How funny to be writing this in semi-secret. I don't know how many of you have found this. I guess I should check my stats, and then I'd know.
Anyway, I am very-very fatigued, and as usual am convinced I'm pregnant. Never mind that I've had a hectic week with unusual and inconsistent sleep patterns, oh no, it can't be that. I must be pregnant.
I'll find out at the beginning of next week anyway, and if I am I won't be able to resist broadcasting it to the world, so we'll all know pretty soon.
I'm looking forward to next week. Felix goes back to school on Tuesday, so from then onwards I'll be setting up a proper new routine and making a serious go of this Full Time Writer lark. I have a few things in the pipeline - I've written a piece for the Guardian and swapped a couple of emails with an editor there. It's not definite, but will be wonderful if it happens. Also I've got some paid work running a creative writing workshop in November, and various other bits and bobs. I'm going to a storytelling meeting next Fri which I'm very much looking forward to, I'm going to put some concerted effort into getting some IT-related writing work, I'm going to start work on Novel III, but of course the other Big Thing is my book.
There are still agents I'm waiting to hear back from, and I've set a deadline of this Friday to make a decision. So one way or another, I will have an agent as from next Monday. If it's the one who is currently my favourite, he'll start work straight away. The idea that publishers may be looking at my book very soon indeed is both exciting and terrifying. Crunch time approaches.
In the meantime I've been having a bit of a dilemma. The question is how much the book needs editing before it's shown to publishers. It has flaws, of course it does. And I'm never 100% happy with anything I do, so I'm vulnerable to criticism, particularly when it chimes with my own doubts. The thing about this book is that it has two aspects: On the one hand it's about psychological magic, of the kind that Derren Brown does. That's quite straightforward and everyone, I think without exception, loves that aspect of it. But it's also about people, because I'm endlessly fascinated by people and how they behave towards one another. And that aspect of it is quite complex. A lot of relationships crossing and looping back on top of one another.
I've been wondering whether I should try and streamline that aspect of it - try and make it a bit clearer. But a weakness for one is a strength for another, and there are people who really like that about the book. The risk is that by making major changes at this late stage, I just end up breaking the whole book.
And although I sometimes have my doubts about the tangled relationship stuff, I also like it. I love complexity, and perhaps I should work on that enthusiasm and enhance it as a strength, rather than trying to edit it out.
And seeing as there are people who have experience and appear to know what they're talking about who say the book is fine and needs little editing... maybe I should let well alone. There's no such thing as a perfect book, and I've had a hell of a lot of positive feedback so far.
So, here we go. I'll know more in a week's time. Ooh!
And eek.
And ooh!
___
Anyway, I am very-very fatigued, and as usual am convinced I'm pregnant. Never mind that I've had a hectic week with unusual and inconsistent sleep patterns, oh no, it can't be that. I must be pregnant.
I'll find out at the beginning of next week anyway, and if I am I won't be able to resist broadcasting it to the world, so we'll all know pretty soon.
I'm looking forward to next week. Felix goes back to school on Tuesday, so from then onwards I'll be setting up a proper new routine and making a serious go of this Full Time Writer lark. I have a few things in the pipeline - I've written a piece for the Guardian and swapped a couple of emails with an editor there. It's not definite, but will be wonderful if it happens. Also I've got some paid work running a creative writing workshop in November, and various other bits and bobs. I'm going to a storytelling meeting next Fri which I'm very much looking forward to, I'm going to put some concerted effort into getting some IT-related writing work, I'm going to start work on Novel III, but of course the other Big Thing is my book.
There are still agents I'm waiting to hear back from, and I've set a deadline of this Friday to make a decision. So one way or another, I will have an agent as from next Monday. If it's the one who is currently my favourite, he'll start work straight away. The idea that publishers may be looking at my book very soon indeed is both exciting and terrifying. Crunch time approaches.
In the meantime I've been having a bit of a dilemma. The question is how much the book needs editing before it's shown to publishers. It has flaws, of course it does. And I'm never 100% happy with anything I do, so I'm vulnerable to criticism, particularly when it chimes with my own doubts. The thing about this book is that it has two aspects: On the one hand it's about psychological magic, of the kind that Derren Brown does. That's quite straightforward and everyone, I think without exception, loves that aspect of it. But it's also about people, because I'm endlessly fascinated by people and how they behave towards one another. And that aspect of it is quite complex. A lot of relationships crossing and looping back on top of one another.
I've been wondering whether I should try and streamline that aspect of it - try and make it a bit clearer. But a weakness for one is a strength for another, and there are people who really like that about the book. The risk is that by making major changes at this late stage, I just end up breaking the whole book.
And although I sometimes have my doubts about the tangled relationship stuff, I also like it. I love complexity, and perhaps I should work on that enthusiasm and enhance it as a strength, rather than trying to edit it out.
And seeing as there are people who have experience and appear to know what they're talking about who say the book is fine and needs little editing... maybe I should let well alone. There's no such thing as a perfect book, and I've had a hell of a lot of positive feedback so far.
So, here we go. I'll know more in a week's time. Ooh!
And eek.
And ooh!
___
Labels: Writing About Writing
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