Thursday - first a worry then onto writing

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am prone to worrying. It seems to be one of the things I am truly good at. Occasionally it is helpful - often actually. I test and retest my work (day job time) more than most and I think this does me good. And I am known to plan things well at times.

But there are times when it threatens (and sometimes succeeds) to get away. Two of them are relating to writing. Firstly I am having one of those days when I feel I'm never going to get a novel published. I need to avoid this as if it gets too bad I will turn it in to a self fulfilling prophecy. I will expect it to fail so I will make it fail. It would stop me writing if I let it.

And the silly thing is, I know that if I did manage to get published and was needing to write more books I KNOW that I could produce them at a good pace. I get the ideas for stories. The notebooks I've been jotting them down in can testify to this. There are dozens and dozens of plots scribbled down in them. I find the writing (tip tap keyboard part) a lot easier because I have everything already decided before I start.

So - let's put that one aside. I am going to continue doing this.

The other worry is this blog. I fret that it's a bit dull. I'm never sure what to put on these things. I've read through published writer's blogs but a lot of their stuff seems to be about the events they are going to in support of their books etc. They have tales of conventions, book signings, fan societies, publisher meetings, book releases - in general all of the stuff I do not.

If I was to tell you all about a typical day for me at my day job it wouldn't make the most entertaining read. Not that my job is boring. I actually enjoy what I do (I view it as a series of puzzles to solve). And I like the company I work for. Bizarre I know.

So I tend to restrict it to random thoughts and updates on the writing - which mostly means detailing a growing word count. but that's not a riveting blog entry. Or to put it another way - hmmh!

Now if I started typing all about the next story I am thinking of writing - a sf space station based tale - it would be equally pointless. I might never read it and you, if there is a you reading this, might never get to read it even if I do. It would have to beat the publishing lottery for that o be a possibility.

So if my blog gets a little dull from time to time I can only apologise.

Now - the writing

Mr. Stinky has had 14 reads in total. Not very high. I'm going to have to look into finding ways of driving some traffic its way.

Mr. Stinky does still have one or two submissions outstanding. But I am not all that hopeful. I have had a couple of agents email me back saying they quite liked the first part and the synopsis sounded good but horror is a next to impossible sell.

Against the Fall of Empire has a few more open submissions, including one where the agent has requested the whole novel. So I am little hopeful. It has had eight rejections though.

The Intersection has only been submitted to one publisher so far - agents don't seem to be all that interested in novellas. As that publisher has an exclusivity requirement I am holding off sending it elsewhere until I hear back.

The Patternmaker's Daughter. Start of the evening was at 15,326. One more section written and count know at 15,948. I am setting myself a goal for the end of the weekend of 25,000.

I'm thinking that the full length of this one will be about 80,000. It would make it the shortest of the novels so far

Adam's Death 100,000*
The Day Before Tomorrow 85,000*
When the Snow Came 92,000* (projected - never revised)
Mr. Stinky 96,000
Against the Fall of Empire 122,000

*will not see the light of day

Hoping to have it finished, revised, read by my friendly test readers and submitted by end of October. If I can just hold out on starting the sf novel that is. I think I will enjoy that one more. I've never tried creating aliens before.

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