A Writer's Notebook, Day Forty-Five
So, first, I apologize for any who might be waiting on the next Wonderbook installment, but I left the book at my mother's house and have not gotten back to pick it up yet. I hope to do so in the morning, though. I hope that the substitute entry today was interesting and worth reading, even if it was a bit different.
I had a rather busy day, to be honest, though I didn't get to working on my writing until fairly late. I wrote a bit for the Bimble story this morning, and then was just busy for the most part. After dinner, I set to work, and after my previous post, I actually wrote an opinion piece that I sent out to see if I could get it published. If so, I will be sure to announce it. I am not going to jinx it by talking about the specifics, though.
After that, while my fiance was editing for me (she was a newspaper editor for most of her adult life), I set to work writing about Captain Carlisle. I was actually tempted to put J. A. Carlisle aside for a bit, as I am thinking that I will start a novel on Monday the first. I have been wanting to do the NaNoWriMo challenge a long time, and I know the official one comes in November, but I figured I can do that one as well, if I feel like it. It will be good for me to have more things that I can submit, and I am writing at a speed that suggests I can probably get several novels written in short order. At least first drafts.
What excites me about today, though, is that I got to 829 words in the twenty minutes. I mean, that is a lot to accomplish in such a short time, I think, and that I have now had two days in a row where I wrote that general volume, well, that suggest it is not a fluke. I'll have to see tomorrow, of course. I hope I have not jinxed it, and I am actually neurotic enough to wonder if saying that is more or less likely to actually make a jinx more likely...
Anyhow, I am feeling very good about my creative flow, even if I am not entirely certain about what I am writing at the moment. The Carlisle story, well, it's not clear to me that it really is a story yet, but that is probably just fine, considering what my goal with it is. The entire idea was it could be a bit of background material, fleshing out something.
I am going to just trust in the process, though, and accept that I know more about what I am doing than I might realize. Realistically, I have a sense of what I can do in a story, and I think I have a sense of the overall outline for the concept of the novel that I want to write starting Monday, but I also trust that I have other ideas in my mind, and it may go in a different direction.
Monday, when I start the novel, I may actually keep doing the Carlisle stuff too. Just twenty minutes of it, if so, as I plan to do longer with the novel. I may not be able to do that, but I tend to find that my energy grows as I work. Today seems to demonstrate that to me. That I also did the article, and am still here working on this piece right now, well, it seems to me to suggest that the more I write, the more energy I have to do more writing.
As well, I have to remember that when I write, I am doing something I love. This is, no doubt, work. It can be very hard to sit at a computer, even if that seems silly, but I know that this is not merely a mental task for me, that I am engaged in actual work. My hands will often ache after a time of writing on the keyboard, and if I were forced to do work by hand, well, it would never be realistic for me. Even just keeping still in your seat and not needing to run about every five minutes is hard work. I do get up regularly, for health and all that, but I mean that after spending an hour at the desk, coming back to sit there again, well, that can be a pain.
Beyond this, though, their is always going to be a desire for me to do the work, as long as I keep it going. I know that stopping, for me, is not an option. After I wrote the novel, I stopped for a bit, and that became a long time, until I pushed myself by taking a class. That was a terrible class, but I wrote a good story, and then I did nothing after. Again, I just stopped. It took me until I started this blog to really make a change. I always needed something external to make me work, and I now see how that was giving away my control, letting circumstance state the value of the work itself. Doing the work is what comes first, and that is not about whether I want the work to be great, because anyone who reads this blog probably recognizes that I have that desire, but because the only way for me to do great work is if I am doing the work.
That's why this blog is so significant to me, at this point, though it is only a few months old now. I recognize that it is the center of whatever I am doing now, and that having this as a resource has changed me in a profound way. I am truly dedicated to working, and doing the things I need to do for my career.
I mean, submitting an op-ed was a part of that. It is certain that publishing can only help a writer, and it would also be money that I earned from my words, which would be a great feeling. Seeing it in print, that, of course, would be incredible. But, as well, I am also taking steps in terms of attempting to make contacts within the publishing world. I know that I am going to need an agent, and so I am focused on that, at present, but it's not an easy process.
Even assuming that you have an amazing book, and I believe that about my novel (and, yes, I am biased, but I have other opinions that have corroborated this), you still need to get the people who could help you publish it read the book. Not only that, but they must believe others will want to read it. I had an agent tell me, essentially, that the work was entertaining and clever, but he didn't believe he could sell it. Now, of course, I only sent to that agent because I actually met him and he asked me too, and I don't believe he represents much in terms of literary fiction. However, I know that if he thought it would be read immediately by millions, even if it was strange, he would think it was an easy sale.
The issue is, as I have a rather experimental novel, it is not typical for it to be a big hit. I have faith that it can be, really, but I am crazy and I wrote it, and I recognize that luck plays a huge part in these things. But, in any case, I know that I need to be able to get my query letter read by agents. They want to know you can describe your book, and that you understand what you have written, and they need an understanding of what they will see, but the real job is to make them want to read your book. Towards that end, I am working on the letter, and I am hoping to get some good advice as well. I believe that someone will read this book and see it has the potential of it, but that person is only one of many, and it is easily possible for a bad query letter to keep them from even requesting the work.
I had a rather busy day, to be honest, though I didn't get to working on my writing until fairly late. I wrote a bit for the Bimble story this morning, and then was just busy for the most part. After dinner, I set to work, and after my previous post, I actually wrote an opinion piece that I sent out to see if I could get it published. If so, I will be sure to announce it. I am not going to jinx it by talking about the specifics, though.
After that, while my fiance was editing for me (she was a newspaper editor for most of her adult life), I set to work writing about Captain Carlisle. I was actually tempted to put J. A. Carlisle aside for a bit, as I am thinking that I will start a novel on Monday the first. I have been wanting to do the NaNoWriMo challenge a long time, and I know the official one comes in November, but I figured I can do that one as well, if I feel like it. It will be good for me to have more things that I can submit, and I am writing at a speed that suggests I can probably get several novels written in short order. At least first drafts.
What excites me about today, though, is that I got to 829 words in the twenty minutes. I mean, that is a lot to accomplish in such a short time, I think, and that I have now had two days in a row where I wrote that general volume, well, that suggest it is not a fluke. I'll have to see tomorrow, of course. I hope I have not jinxed it, and I am actually neurotic enough to wonder if saying that is more or less likely to actually make a jinx more likely...
Anyhow, I am feeling very good about my creative flow, even if I am not entirely certain about what I am writing at the moment. The Carlisle story, well, it's not clear to me that it really is a story yet, but that is probably just fine, considering what my goal with it is. The entire idea was it could be a bit of background material, fleshing out something.
I am going to just trust in the process, though, and accept that I know more about what I am doing than I might realize. Realistically, I have a sense of what I can do in a story, and I think I have a sense of the overall outline for the concept of the novel that I want to write starting Monday, but I also trust that I have other ideas in my mind, and it may go in a different direction.
Monday, when I start the novel, I may actually keep doing the Carlisle stuff too. Just twenty minutes of it, if so, as I plan to do longer with the novel. I may not be able to do that, but I tend to find that my energy grows as I work. Today seems to demonstrate that to me. That I also did the article, and am still here working on this piece right now, well, it seems to me to suggest that the more I write, the more energy I have to do more writing.
As well, I have to remember that when I write, I am doing something I love. This is, no doubt, work. It can be very hard to sit at a computer, even if that seems silly, but I know that this is not merely a mental task for me, that I am engaged in actual work. My hands will often ache after a time of writing on the keyboard, and if I were forced to do work by hand, well, it would never be realistic for me. Even just keeping still in your seat and not needing to run about every five minutes is hard work. I do get up regularly, for health and all that, but I mean that after spending an hour at the desk, coming back to sit there again, well, that can be a pain.
Beyond this, though, their is always going to be a desire for me to do the work, as long as I keep it going. I know that stopping, for me, is not an option. After I wrote the novel, I stopped for a bit, and that became a long time, until I pushed myself by taking a class. That was a terrible class, but I wrote a good story, and then I did nothing after. Again, I just stopped. It took me until I started this blog to really make a change. I always needed something external to make me work, and I now see how that was giving away my control, letting circumstance state the value of the work itself. Doing the work is what comes first, and that is not about whether I want the work to be great, because anyone who reads this blog probably recognizes that I have that desire, but because the only way for me to do great work is if I am doing the work.
That's why this blog is so significant to me, at this point, though it is only a few months old now. I recognize that it is the center of whatever I am doing now, and that having this as a resource has changed me in a profound way. I am truly dedicated to working, and doing the things I need to do for my career.
I mean, submitting an op-ed was a part of that. It is certain that publishing can only help a writer, and it would also be money that I earned from my words, which would be a great feeling. Seeing it in print, that, of course, would be incredible. But, as well, I am also taking steps in terms of attempting to make contacts within the publishing world. I know that I am going to need an agent, and so I am focused on that, at present, but it's not an easy process.
Even assuming that you have an amazing book, and I believe that about my novel (and, yes, I am biased, but I have other opinions that have corroborated this), you still need to get the people who could help you publish it read the book. Not only that, but they must believe others will want to read it. I had an agent tell me, essentially, that the work was entertaining and clever, but he didn't believe he could sell it. Now, of course, I only sent to that agent because I actually met him and he asked me too, and I don't believe he represents much in terms of literary fiction. However, I know that if he thought it would be read immediately by millions, even if it was strange, he would think it was an easy sale.
The issue is, as I have a rather experimental novel, it is not typical for it to be a big hit. I have faith that it can be, really, but I am crazy and I wrote it, and I recognize that luck plays a huge part in these things. But, in any case, I know that I need to be able to get my query letter read by agents. They want to know you can describe your book, and that you understand what you have written, and they need an understanding of what they will see, but the real job is to make them want to read your book. Towards that end, I am working on the letter, and I am hoping to get some good advice as well. I believe that someone will read this book and see it has the potential of it, but that person is only one of many, and it is easily possible for a bad query letter to keep them from even requesting the work.
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