GATD Week 4 Narrator?

Today I have been working on the first 4 chs. of GATD - ironing out the inconsistencies, working up one or two more scenes and trying to make the tone a bit more consistent.

I have done very little, firstly because of being ill, secondly going back to work.  I find writing harder when I'm working, I miss the early morning woozy, stream on consciousness that one can just set down.  And I miss the sense of freedom to write all day if I want to.  Also, Finn's GCSEs are occupying my mind.  Nevertheless I am learning to say "I have 90 minutes, let's see what I can do."

The problem I am addressing is the "narrator" - there is a bit of narrator going on - I like this, an editor at John Murray said it was a good device and allowed for more humour.  It does!  but there is potential to get it tangled with the characters' POVs... however, I was suggested out of a narrator in TRF by the lost agent - it may be better for that, but it definitely lost some of its humour.  Comments that are obviously wry in the mouth of the narrator can be less effective in a character's mouth - or even seem plain wrong.  A great deal of the Jane Austen/Barbara Pym type of humour does come from the narrator... bring her back now!

If I can get it right, I can probably tough it out, when I'm asked for a re-write.  But this is a long way off.  At the moment, the idea that I might finish by the end of June looks ludicrous - I'm still on about 15,000 words... 2 more school weeks, then about 5 non-school (I hope) weeks.  That said, I am pretty happy with chs 1-4 now.

Competitions

I am doing this now - entering competitions - I don't like it, and I was gutted when my beloved book was not even long-listed for the Bath Competition.   I tell myself that there is nothing different about a competition, as with submitting to an agent, it is just a matter of the reader's taste.

Today I submitted a 5,000 word entry to Nibfest - first prize: lunch with an agent I've just submitted TRF to.  Well, let's see. I submitted Islanders - I have about 12,000 words of this - because I felt it had the zippiness that they seem to want - the characters are, some of them, young.  I know that YA dystopia is an over-subscribed market - but it isn't going to be a YA novel - I don't think anyway.  We'll see.  I didn't want to submit GATD because I don't think the first 5,000 words, although engaging in some ways, don't quite get going in the same way.  I may be wrong, but if I'm right they will need an awful lot more work done on them  before they go anywhere.

In the garret

I've been struggling away in the garret for years now...this blog provides me with a useful record of submissions (slightly blighted by my annoying coyness about exactly whom I have submitted to), and my various states of mind about various works.  Perhaps, to continue my archaeological fantasy, some future generation might find it a useful historical document... if we still have the technology to read this sort of thing.



But what do I do it for?  The other blog, Quotidiana, gets readers, not many, but a few regulars with occasional spikes when I write about someone famous.  I'm happy with that.  But this blog is meant to be my calling card, my self-publicising blog - my wonderful writer's blog that everyone wants to read.   Really?  I've never had any illusions that this would become an earth-shattering blog that is cherished, a blogosphere must-read.  It's too solipsistic - even people who know me, don't really want to read even more about me, and really, it is extremely dull in places.   While I often enjoy looking back over the Quotidiana blog (ooh, what a misnomer, haven't done an entry for 9 days) and seeing what I was thinking about, I don't think I've ever browsed the archive on this one, unless I actually want to find out something.

It may be that this sort of unread blog is the equivalent of the solitary writer in her garret, just scribbling away, unregarded.  If I were a Grub Street writer I would be Tweeting as I soared like a skylark...I would be like all those slightly dubious hacks sent up in Victorian novel.   I've always liked the mother in Trollope's The Way We Live Now Lady Carbury is always writing sensational novels and trying to adapt to the market and squeeze money out of her publishers... but I'm not even at that stage, and may never be.  As for the image above, it's not what I'd call a garret, but most of the images were of well-appointed writers' studies - not a shred of garret about them, so I've decided that's Lady Carbury.

As long as I have new, decent ideas, I am not unhappy about not being published, but at the same time there is definitely a "How long, oh Lord! How long?" element - one has no idea, the email or phone call could come tomorrow.  But an agent is no guarantee, although I am comforted by the idea that it is harder to find an agent than a publisher.  However, a couple of weeks ago I met a very nice poet called Michael - I didn't get his surname, but he was very interesting and I liked him and his wife a lot - he lives off journalism, and he said he'd had an agent, and the agent hadn't managed to sell either of his books.   How must that feel?  To see other people getting taken on and just not quite getting there.  I think he said a couple of publishers were interested and then changed their minds.  That must have been even worse.  I wonder how many people that happens to to?   I never asked whether he would consider a selfie - but I would guess not.

I understand that there is no guarantee that finding an agent will lead to a publisher will lead to sales, will lead to income.  This is not a "as night follows day" scenario.  A new set of problems will arise.  I think the annoyance I feel is about other people's attitudes: they think it is that scenario.  If you've been writing for 5 years solidly, WTF are you not yet published?  The idea that it might be a learning process, an apprenticeship, whatever, does not seem to occur.  One either writes or one does not - there comes a point when you could not give it up even if you wanted to. I am not sure if I've reached that point yet, but the fact that I have two fairly decent novels on the laptop suggests that I'm reaching tipping point - I will go on trying to get them published...and write more, if I can't get them out there.  

The Romantic Feminist - episode 97

A fantastic cover design by Tara Moore. Occasionally I have queried the wisdom about having a cover design for an unpublished book - but after 5 years (since I started it) I think I might indulge myself.  I like the heart charm bracelet - but I don't see Lucy wearing it. However it gets the point across perfectly.  Tara designed it for my putative website - which I really must get together and do!  Perhaps I could also include those useful crits I've had like "dangerously well written".

The current progress report now follows:  while The Ash Grove is on a tour of US slush piles, TRF is wandering the highways and byways of UK agents (well, two).  I've got into a bit of a routine now - arround about the time of the New Moon (I'm using the Steiner system here!) I send a few submissions - they usually return at the Full moon if the agents are quick, or the following Full Moon if they are a bit slower.

As I adjust the TRF text once more (I wanted to say more about how romantic literature and indeed literature in general was not always a helpful guide to life!) I am slightly angry - because really, this is a well-written, perceptive book with much to say about life and love... I don't want to keep adjusting it, but I can't help tinkering with it whenever I read over the first 10,000 words/50pp.  I am still convinced that it will be published, but I had a horrible thought - maybe not in my lifetime?

Then I indulged in an archaeological fantasy - in the post-apocalyptic world, humans who speak a debased form of English come across it - it is virtually the only book they have access to. Painstakingly copied it becomes the Bible, the Pilgrim's Progress of their era....  God, as self-aggrandising author fantasies go, this is a doozy.

GATD week 3

340 measly words, but a very good session of research with DL - a probation officer who confirmed that the plot was feasible in terms of the conditions of probation - he wouldn't be tagged, or released home - so another green light.   I had been a bit cast down by E's estimate of Darren's likely restrictions, but DL was able to explain it in detail and what the implications of different sentences etc. were.

So - tomorrow - I hope - I will have a nice quiet day of writing - since M is going to Winchester to a conference - and our intriguing Swiss visitor will presumably be tracking down his grandfather.... but that is a whole nother story!

And the next book....

Well, for a while it was going to be Islanders, but then GATD got going - so although I still want to write Islanders it may be I will revert to the Musgrave idea.  I think it has a lot of potential - and I could even apply the "block buster" lessons to it.  Lots of jeopardy - moral conflict (Musgrave is a priest!) and so on.

I still have a very strong feeling that TRF will be published... but I need to put it about a bit more. 

GATD week 2

This post is not really about writing... it's about all the things I have to do which prevent me writing.  Arguably I could have written in some of the interstices between these bits.  I still find it hard to write unless I think I can have a good run at it.  If I only have 90 minutes before something has to happen I tend not to write... because I don't want to have to stop.  But this isn't a good approach.  At the very least I could use that time for a submission.   However, this is what I did last week, instead of writing.

We went to my father's on Sunday afternoon - and had a nice day out on Monday - sunny day, a walk around Eton and then to the Palmers Arms in Dorney, followed by a visit to the Garden centre, where I bought nothing (the garden is too full).
On Tuesday I did some shopping, and various bits and pieces and then we came home.  We all went out in the evening to celebrate Mother's Day, Easter hols and being together for once.  On Wednesday I attempted to deal with various things, but merely fiddled with stuff.   I also did an editorial review (critique) of my cousin R's YA novel which has some structural problems.  On Thursday I shopped for the weekend, for the Looping the Loop festival and began to prepare the house for BnB visitors.  On Friday we had 3 visitors, and I cooked and prepared for the great meal on Saturday (60 people allegedly - but it never is!)... when the visitors left on Saturday morning there was a brief opportunity to change the sheets for the next lot before I went out to cook.

There was cooking, a bit of relaxing chatting and drinking, then clearing up and going home.   On Easter Sunday we talked to the new visitors - a really nice Spanish couple.  I was pretty knackered and rested - until about 6 when suddenly it was time to cook supper - which was non-negotiable as Alex was coming.  He came about 8 - we sat in the garden, then had a very delicious supper and fortunately he went relatively early - c. 10.15 - as I was, again, knackered.


Today was mostly devoted to gardening, tomorrow will be devoted to domestic fiscal matters - on Wednesday there's school, then coffee with chum, then cooking for research supper with Probabtion Officer.  It's possible that on Thursday - after school - I may be able to write a bit.  Or do submissions.  Friday we have another visitor for the weekend - so lots of cleaning - he's Swiss!


I have written about 400 words of GATD during this maelstrom - and conducted an interview with E, who was recently in prison - which is really helpful background research for the book.  This week it will be the PO... and then I trust I can progress fairly confidently.  I may need to speak to a social worker.... it occurs to me I could speak to Helen A - must sort something out.  Anyway - there is progress, but not on the page.