I'm working on a name for the novel, I really am, but it still seems to end up being called '2nd book' or the new novel. I'm working my way through Mslexia's 'Choosing a Title' exercise, mostly because I think a title helps me narrow down what it is I'm writing. I've heard arguments that titles don't matter but actually, when I'm selecting a book, the title is the thing that helps a book stand out for me. Then the blurb has to intrigue, then the first few pages not disappoint...
Talking about the first few pages, the Good Housekeeping competition has simple rules:
- A synopsis of the whole book, of 2 pages or less.
- A single chapter of the novel of under 5000 words OR no more than 10000 if the chapter is more than that.
- A 100 word bio of the author.
- The entry form, accessible here.
My problem is that the first chapter of my book is under 3000 words, and although it does promise the intrigues to come, it is limited since it's less than 3% of the book. So, ideally, I would construct a first chapter of maybe 8-9000 words that really sells the story. It's a chance to show off my writing - so I'm trying to cobble together something that does the job. It has to lead the reader deep into the mystery, into the characters and their conflicts, and show off the actual writing. I can't do that in less than 3000 words (there's no guarantee I can do it in 10000 either!) So I'm looking at the structure of the book to produce the best competition entry, rather than necessarily the best opening to a book, without losing the fact that it does still work as the beginning of a book. Phew.
I still have to have a title for the book... watch this space.
I'm trying not to be stressed out by the Mslexia deadline for judging. I know I'm in the last 12 of 1800 women. That is the level of success I'm up for at the moment. Being placed or commended or whatever would feel a lot like I need to do something about it. To be honest, being in that last 12 means I could at least send out to agents, but I'm holding fire because I want to enter the Good Housekeeping competition, and you can't if you are published or agented. So I'm trying to stay calm.
Life, of course, doesn't understand this at all. The kids have been applying for jobs and my daughter and boyfriend are moving out, I've had a minor medical procedure which freaked me out completely, the cat spent the day at the vet having most of her teeth out, no.1 son is driving home tomorrow through snow and ice, the house is in chaos and we have a house guest coming that I've never met.
Out of nervous tension, and the the need to keep the sedated cat quiet, I've been stuck in the study writing - 2000 words today - and trying to relax. I could do with being put out of my misery. I can't win - Borrowed Time is a commercial genre non-literary novel, and fantasy to boot. But I still can't settle to anything.
For something to do (as I don't spend enough time at the computer) I'm working on familiarising myself with Scrivener for Windows. I totally understand that this is a miracle product and should make holding a large piece of text like a novel in convenient chunks much easier. The problem is, learning the new Word took me months, and Scrivener is like starting again. I can't see me using it for book 2 any time soon. Has anyone else tried it?
It may seem silly, but I've got a terror of this part of my MA. I confessed this to my tutor, who was sympathetic enough, but clearly didn't understand why it should bother me. Other students on my course, apparently, have written spectacular commentaries on their creative work.
While I was talking to her, one thing did occur to me. I really don't read that much modern fantasy. And here I am, writing it. That leaves me at a bit of a disadvantage when I come to write it, so I'm trying (again) to read Kate Mosse's Labyrinth. It's hard going, which doesn't make any sense, because it's well written (I think) and I love historical fiction. I've begun to realise if I can unpack what she's doing, I will have an insight into how I have written my book.
Another thing I realised is the idea that you can do a spell, or conjure a being or magically heal someone is irresistible to someone who has had to watch a loved one die. It was irresistible to me, as a parent, watching my daughter Léonie, at the end of her life. Borrowed Time, the concept of the book, leads to terrible consequences - breaking the natural order is dangerous. Part of me felt like that when Léonie was four years old, and only heroic surgery gave her any chance at all. I felt a huge tug towards letting her go, instead of the horrible surgery they were offering. In the end, my decision with my husband, was to try everything we could, and we lost. Worse, I think, Léonie lost. Now that idea has found itself - couched in fantasy terms - into my fiction.
Maybe that idea is relevant for my rationale - who knows? I still haven't really worked out what a rationale is.
In July 2009, I started this blog. I had just started A215 with the Open University and was finishing a course with the OCA. It was the first step on a journey towards the distant city of 'Published', and it has become a place where I try things out, wrestle with new ideas, rejection, success, my learning, my writing and occasionally my family. While this will still be my main blog, because I still am stumbling along that path, I feel I need to have a second internet presence that actually expresses what I have produced.
This is my wayside stall, put up along that Publication road, as I camp outside the walls.
It's actually got my name on it (which I think is important) and is a reflection of the fact that I am more serious about my writing and (eek!) more serious about getting published.
So feel free to visit at Rebecca Alexander, and please, if you don't mind, follow it. Apparently publishers like to see a bit of internet presence, and it would help me to be able to sell my wares if I can say that people have at least looked at them. Thank you!
Meanwhile, I am astonished that I have written 300 posts, had 418 comments and about 600 emails from it. I have had fantastic support, been given great ideas and inspiration, enjoyed loads of other people's blogs and made cyberfriends. I look forward to the next 300 posts here on Witchway!
On the back of my nearly success in a poetry competition, I decided to send off the same three poems to a poetry magazine. This is a reasonable thing to do, I thought, how long can it take to print off three poems, add a query letter and sling them in an envelope?
Two hours and forty-three minutes.
First, each of the poems needed tweaking, and if you mess with one word in a poem, you're going to have to move around, assess the impact of and question every other word. I only changed a couple of words but boy! That took up most of the time. I printed them off, only to find one had a huge smudge of ink down it and one had the word 'teazle' with a capital T. Screw up the wrong ones, print off new pages. Out of paper, filled printer up.
Then I looked at the submissions page of the magazine's website. Every magazine has its own preference: name in header or footer, no name, just title, nothing at all. This one wanted everything - name, address, email etc. in the footer.
Then you find an envelope and address it by hand (easy). Back to the website: they need a stamped addressed envelope. Do I mention the Plough in my query letter? Whoops - back to the letter and print it off. Wrong email address, so print off another one. Sign it. I then debated for some time whether it would all go on a first class stamp? Write out own address on nice light envelope, worrying about weight of stamp.
Fine. That led onto the recommendation on Poems Please website (thank you, Tony) of the RSPB/Rialto competition for a nature poem. Easy. It's only two poems and they don't need tweaking, do they...? Oh, they do. Find the rules on presentation - take off any name or address - fill in form, add entry fee, address envelope, worry about weight, add heavy stamp... Fifty-three minutes. I'm exhausted, and I haven't done any writing today.
I then had a lovely email from a fellow novelist asking about the Good Housekeeping competition and it gave me pause for thought. GH only allows submissions from unagented authors, so I can hold fire on that pesky synopsis/query letter of Borrowed Time for the moment. I can concentrate on the competition submission instead - oh, wait, it's the first chapter of book 2 and the synopsis of the whole book. Crap.
Helpful daughter sat down with me as we looked at literary agents. We thought they would all want similar things - which they generally do. Three chapters, a query letter with information about the book and the author, and a synopsis.
- I don't like synopses. I find them much more difficult to write than books.
- I don't like saying the words synopsis, it sounds like a snake did a somersault.
- Every agent wants something different from the synopsis.
One wants an outline. Another wants a punchy summary that would make them want to read the book. One wants three closely typed pages, one wants no more than 1000 words, one wants no more than 3000, one wants 300 words (eek!) and the worse one wants - wait for it - three sentences. Ninety-three thousand words, two strands, four hundred years and nine important characters in three sentences? Will these be the hundred word sentences Thomas Hardy used to excel at?
It turns out, sending stuff to agents will be way harder than writing another book. Maybe I should write book 2's synopsis first. So, I turned to Nicola Morgan's excellent little book on writing synopses (there he goes again, tumbling serpent) and she warns of this phenomenon. So I sat down and wrote 1, one thousand word synopsis. At a squeeze, and in Times New Roman 11 and single spaced - one closely typed page. Three sentence lady is out the window.
Then I noticed something odd. The book is front heavy, I wrote the final chapters less well and in less detail than the front chapters. So is the synopsis. When I realise how to balance up the synopsis...ideas about how to fit the book just pop into my head. Maybe these synopsisy thingies (look at them go! Cirque du Soleil for reptiles!) have extra uses?
We're British in this house, we don't really do boasting very well. But I've got a lot to boast about at the moment, which is highly unusual, so I've made a boasting folder. I entered three poems into the Plough Prize this year: Ghost Walk and Swimming with my Sister were longlisted and Crime Scene was shortlisted. Better than that, a previous winner, Patricia Ace, was long- and shortlisted alphabetically above me in the lists. As in, Patricia Ace, published by Happenstance. I love her stuff. And CJ Allen also published, also shortlisted (OK, twice). I'm sandwiched between published poets. In fact, loads of people on the lists are published in magazines or chapbooks or even their own collections. Why not me?
When I was doing the MA, one very talented student used to rant on how difficult it is to get a novel published. So I asked them (humbly) how many had they written? How many rejections from agents and publishers had they had? Answer - zero. They weren't even going to bother to write because what's the point? You only get rejected anyway. That's what I'm doing about poetry. I'm so convinced my work will get rejected I don't put it out there. So I'm giving myself the same advice I tried to give this writer - write and you get better. The more work you put out there, the more likely you are to get noticed. I read somewhere, committed writers are most likely to get their fourth book published - that means they had the commitment to write three duds first, all the way through.
So I need to send my poetry out - where's the harm? Most of them are the price of a stamp or an email. I'm declaring Wednesday 'send poetry out' day. Then I can put something new in my boasting book.
