Monday 9 February 2015

How's the Novel Going?


Okay, okay, I can't dodge the question any longer.
What question? I hear you ask.
The one referring to the thing that starts with N and ends with L.

I blame Tracy Fells of course. To be honest, I thought I'd got away with it as we had been sitting in the cafe talking for nearly two hours about the usual writerly things and she hadn't brought the subject up. Then just as we were about to pay for our teacakes (yes it's that time of the month again) and leave the cafĂ©, she did.
,
"How's the novel going?"

At first I pretended not to have heard, but Tracy knows me too well and was not going to let me get away with it that easily. My target was to write at least 2,000 words of the novel a week, so the question she wanted to know was had I managed it?

"Well..." I said. "It's like this..."

Tracy cut in. "Don't tell me. You haven't had time because of your dancing, zumba, dog walking... oh, wait a minute that's it, Bonnie ate it!"

Very funny.

In actual fact my excuses for not having reached my target that month, and having only reached 12,000 words in total, were rather better than that and perfectly true: I'd had a serial to finish and a new collection of short stories to prepare for publication (watch out for it early March), I'd got stuck when I realised I hadn't planned the novel out properly and I'd changed the tense and viewpoint about ten times. You see, I'd been very busy!

The look on Tracy's face, though, told me all I needed to know - she was having none of it. I bowed my head. "I promise to do better next month Tracy."

"You'd better, or there will be no teacakes."

Now that is a threat (and one I think I've heard before) so this last week I've been setting aside more time for the novel. I wrote another chapter and managed to get a better idea in my head of where my characters were heading. I thought I was doing well then, out of the blue, I had a crisis of confidence - how could I be sure that what I had already written would have the makings of a readable novel?

The breakthrough came when someone gave me the following piece of advice (if I could remember who, I could thank them). They suggested I send what I had written to my kindle and read it as a reader would, rather than as a writer. That's what I did this morning and, because I haven't written a great deal, I was able to read it all the way through and the result was very exciting. I found I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next. It was the push I needed.

At last I can believe that what I am writing has the potential to be a story that I will enjoy writing and that someone will hopefully enjoy reading ... and I can't wait to carry on!

In other news, I have a story in this week's People's Friend (out Wednesday) and The current People's Friend Special and Woman's Weekly Fiction Special.

26 comments:

  1. What a hard task-master Tracy is. Talk about tough love! But what a terrific idea - sending your WIP to your Kindle. I think going back and reading your own work is important. For me, it helps when things aren't going so well. It gives me a boost and gets me started again. I'm glad it has been successful for you too. Get those tea-cakes ordered!

    Delighted to hear you have another short story anthology in the pipeline. Best of luck with the novel.

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  2. I didn't realise just how different it would be reading it on the kindle. It suddenly became a real novel!

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  3. Personally I'd have let you off with just the serial, short stories etc - but Tracy obviously knows better! Well done you for getting so much done - and well done her for 'encouraging' you.

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    1. You are obviously a softer touch, Patsy.

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    2. You have a perfect excuse, Wendy. I am also trying to focus on my novel. Yet a grandchild is due, a bathroom being fitted, and I'm rearranging my writing space. That's my excuse:)

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    3. ...and what good excuses they are too!

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  4. Ooh hope that was me, cos that's what I do!! I use it to proof read as well as I find the errors jump out much more readily than they do when reading print or on a PC

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    1. It might well have been, Emma. We'll pretend it was anyway!

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  5. I send WIPs to my kindle as part of the editing process too - great idea. Glad you are spurred to get on with it. Fancy a race? I am at 13,500 on my latest...

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    1. Now what sort of a response is that, Wendy? Pick up Kath's baton and run with it. With her on one side and Tracy on the other...well who knows quickly the job will be done.

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  6. The Kindle idea ism brilliant. But how do you do it??

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    1. My husband did it through KDP (don't ask me how though). If I find out I can email you, Frances.

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    2. Oooo! Thanks very much. Btw well done on all those stories.

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  7. Er thanks, Wendy, now everyone thinks I'm the wicked witch of West Sussex! But to be honest you do need a good nagging some times. Can't wait to read the novel & I'm looking forward to my invitation to the swanky launch :)

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    1. Sorry Tracy - I just can't help myself!

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    2. Tough love is the best kind, Tracy. Saying 'ah well, I'm sure you'll do better next month' wouldn't help at all

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  8. Well done on your short story successes, that is great news!
    Regarding your 'crisis of confidence' I can identify with this, and I also tried the Kindle thing, although I've got 55k so I did see lots of things I'm unhappy with...
    What helped me was reading each chapter into my phone's voice recorder, then playing it back.

    Often we just need to do something different to regain our confidence, and even stepping away from it for a while can help. As long as you can get going again...
    Have a good week Wendy.

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  9. I sympathise, Wendy! My word target has stuttered a tad, too. I set off OK only to grind to a halt at a crossroads of potential plot directions... and I seem to have lost the ability to make decisions! I'll have to pick one at random and get going again. It's more than likely I'll suddenly realise that wasn't the right one and have to re-write but that seems to be the way my writing brain works, unfortunately!

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    1. I find that talking to someone else about the plot often does the trick when I'm stuck. I had a two hour watsap conversation with my daughter in Hamburg about it and that really helped.

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  10. Hi Wendy, well done for keeping going when you were having a crisis of confidence. Sometimes its best to just keep on writing, you can always go back and fix it at the end. I love sending my writing to kindle, I can see so much more that is wrong with it on a different screen, and it does make it feel more real. I also send half finished stories to my kindle so I can become inspired to finish them wherever I might be.

    Linda

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    1. I agree that as well as making it seem more real, the kindle showed up a lot of errors and typos too.

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  11. I think you're doing very well, considering how much else you write! I've never sent mine to the kindle while it's in progress but I think one of my friends has tried that.

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  12. I think you deserve a pat on the back for all the things you are doing. The Kindle idea sounds really good though.

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