Four days of not writing and BOOM! The first page is ready to go when I wake up this morning, and by noon I've written 2500 words and I'm pretty sure that's not all.
"Time In/Time Out."
If I could count on this kind of inspiration every time I wait four days, I might use that as a technique. Heh.
Got the edits from Lara yesterday for "Shadows Over Summer House." I went through all of them yesterday. Took the whole day, but got it done. I've still got some editing of my own to do, but it's more or less ready to go. She found almost no structural problems to the book, which is unusual for me. Partly, I think, because I set aside the first 25,000 words and rewrote them from scratch, thus avoiding my early missteps.
So it's done and it reads well.
Thing is, I just sent a 125 page proposal for "Time In/Time Out" to the publisher I was intending to send Shadows to, so now I need to wait a week or two before I pile on.
This is my last hurrah with mainstream publishers or agents.
If these two books don't catch their attention, then nothing will. I mean, what the hell?
Listening to "Led to the Slaughter." Feeling like it's very solid, even good. Writers are such a strange mix of ego and uncertainty.
After I'm done trying this last time to sell to the mainstream, I'm going to let things fly. Just put the stuff out I've finished, edit what isn't finished and put it out, write new stuff, put it out. No concern over timing or any of that. I've probably been too cute by half with all that. Mostly because I was concerned about stepping on my publishers' toes.
But at this point, Crossroad has told me the more books the better, and the other publishers have books that are already established, so I have a clear field ahead of me.
Get on with the writing.
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3 comments:
Shall I cease my edits of Summer House?
(I'd still like to read it. But I'd rather read the edited - "don't think you need to fix this" edition.)
Finished reading SOSH last night.
As portions of the book:
0-15% - first crime, debacle, escape, establishment in Gosport: engaging
16-60% - lots of time spent cultivating longshoremans job and Katie's attention: slow
61-100% - a week before the thursday's last crime, picks up and moves fast.
A few points:
There's a time, when the pigtail girl and the boy have just got together in the house and I think it's the girl who speaks the name "Katie" -- and she shouldn't.
A few pages after that the MC refers to the maid's room rather than to the butler's room.
In the long setup period, I'd prefer more reference to the fact that Katie is a ghost. Stuart might see oddities more often and rationalize them away. And/or, the diary could include longer interludes: maybe the two Katharines meet?
You've really got the romance, relationship, psychological stuff down.
Your writing continues to get more and more smooth.
SOSH: 70% story 30% plot.
I tend to like my fiction the other way-round. More stuff happening, more movement, more overt conflict.
That said, I think this story has a market with those who like the split like you have it: women mostly.
Thanks for the feedback, Dave.
Interesting that you say: "You've really got the romance, relationship, psychological stuff down."
To me, that is the most difficult thing to do in writing.
A couple of things have surprised me about my latter books. I spend a lot of time on relationships and I have quite a bit of dialogue. I'd have never expected that when I started.
I guess I just have to find the right mix.
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