Sometimes having a whole day in front of me to write is intimidating. I wonder what I could possibly have to write that will fill the hours. My trick is to give myself a deadline for some other errand. Say, by eleven I need to buy groceries. What usually happens is I feel pressure from the deadline, and I don’t want to stop writing when the times arrives. I’m always surprised by the scenes that appear and develop into a novel. I try to reminded myself to have faith in the process. If it doesn’t work, at least I can distract myself with an errand and try again later. Buying something delicious for lunch always helps.
Mystery Writing
When to ask for feedback
After having two novels reviewed by friends, I’ve discovered it’s better not to give the manuscript out too early. It makes the reviewers work too hard. Once I found my friends that excel at proofreading, I didn’t want to waste their time be making them read an early copy. I think even my first readers deserve the best I can write. Sounds obvious, but I wanted to share it anyway.
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Where I write from
After Submiting
Getting advice from experts. One of my favorite things. I heard Antanas Sileikas speak last year and one tip he gave was what to do after you submit your work to an agent or publisher. Star writing your next novel that same day. This worked for me and jump started me on my second novel. It stopped me from obsessing about the submitted novel and got me focussing on writing instead. It only took four months to hear back from Margaret Hart and get the first positive news. By that time I had 60,000 words written.
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Feedback from Friends
Convincing friends to critique my writing was harder than I expected. Lots were willing to help, but none wanted to hurt my feelings. First I had to explain how it helped me write better, then demonstrate I was able to accept the comments without getting upset, and then I showed my early readers the results of their work. Joan Barfoot was the first to critique my writing when I attended the HSW Correspondence program. I’ve kept all her notes and sometimes use them as examples to show my friends what I’m looking for. One of the greatest surprises about writing was how much time and effort my friends were willing to spend on my novel. I have friends who critiqued Fracture Line and The Final Gate and are now offering to do the same for Burnt (my third novel). Amazing.
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Kindle for Proofreading
I’ve discovered that having my novel read to me out loud helps me find typos. I’ve been reading on my kindle for a while and decided to send my novels to the kindle. It’s amazing how many little typos I found when I heard the words versus read the words.
Words that are easy to miss; such as, ‘if’ instead of ‘of” ring out loud and clear. I set the reading speed to slow and then watch the words as they are read to me. Best thing I’ve found for typo finding so far. If you have a trick you use for proofreading, let me know. Please note I am not a spokesperson for kindle. This is only my opinion on its usefulness.
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Between Agent and Publisher
It’s an interesting time after signing with a literary agent. The contract is in my hands. So now what?
I’ll continue to write my third novel and work on my platform. Twitter has turned out to be a fun surprise. Writing this blog gives me a break when I need it. There is an unbelievable amount of information out there on how to build a platform and after reading a ton of it, I’ve decided to figure it out as I go along. I had to start somewhere, or I would keep on researching it and not doing it. The first post was the hardest. Making it public-even harder. My network is slowly growing beyond the set of “friends” I’ve had for a while.
Any suggestions on how to improve my platform? Let me know.
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Firefighting Research
My good friend, who is a Calgary Firefighter, wrote a long email about the details of working in a burning building. Thanks, Billy. I’m using this info for my third novel. Great to have the thoughts and feelings of a firefighter to add to the technical details of a burning building.
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HSW Summer Workshop For Writers
It was around this time last year that I attended the HSW Summer Workshop. I had the great experience of having Mary Gaitskill review 15 pages of my first novel. Talk about helpful insight. I can’t believe a year has gone by and now I have finished that manuscript, one other and am working on my third. Time flies when you’re having fun writing.
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How many words make a novel?
I’ve read somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000 words is the typical size of a novel. I’ve written just over 30,000 words of my third novel, so I consider myself one third complete. It’s at this stage I feel like I have something. The characters are taking shape, the story is filling in. Now to see what happens…
