Apr
2007
This will probably doom me
Yes… my grammar sucks. Read any blog entry, you’ll notice.
My sentence structure is abysmal.
However, I have had a dream since I was four years old… to write a novel. I started this week writing the character breakdowns… I have the plot in my head… I’m worried about length, I may need to scale down the overall story. I have no clue how to successful sell a novel, but it’s something I have to do for my own sanity. If I don’t just sit down and do it at some point, I’ll never know if it was even possible.
Sadly I can’t give any hints to what it is about, what the characters are like, nothing, as I have not copyrighted anything, so putting it out for web consumption would be stupid of me. And even talking about it is probably silly, because I am sure a year from now, someone will ask me “How’s that novel going?” and I will cry like a little girl…
Was that too much info?
So… we will see how this goes, and I am crossing my fingers and hope I can actually pull something together worth reading.
Shari | April 11th, 2007 at 6:43 pm #
I’m going to offer some free and unsolicited advice. This advice isn’t directed at you per se but just at anyone who wants to write in general. If you want to write well, there are a few things which are very important.
One is that you have an outline for the story to start with so that you know if the story is too vast or complex. Once you make the outline, decide if anything can go if it’s too long. It helps to decide if components of the story could be saved for a future follow-up book. The Harry Potter books suffer more and more with each new book because J.K. Rowling is throwing in the kitchen sink every time now. With her fame, she doesn’t have to scale back as she once did in the first few books. Often, less is more.
Along a similar line, write exactly the way you want to then re-read what you wrote and take out anything that is not necessary. Trim the sentences to the bone. New authors tend to repeat themselves or get way too detailed. Make sure every sentence is either fleshing out a character, advancing a storyline, or adding relevant detail. If it’s not really necessary, cut it. Too many writers fall in love with their own voice and keep a lot of chaff in their books and go overboard on details or commentary. Treat the reader like he or she can fill in reasonable gaps rather than prioritize making sure the point gets across in a precise fashion. J.M. Stracynski is guilty of beating people over the head (and boring them to tears) with overdoing it in this fashion.
Finally, getting published is really difficult because there are a lot of scam agencies which make you pay to publish and you have to have an agent to submit books to legit publishing places. However, you can always self-publish through Lulu.com.
Good luck!
Sean P Aune | April 12th, 2007 at 1:08 am #
Shari – Any and all advice is welcome:) I’m writing the outline down, I have to, otherwise I would go nuts.
What I’ve done over the course of the fic I’ve written is write… read and revise… repeat… read OUT LOUD… consider it done. And yes, J.M.S. DOES over explain… constantly.
Have not heard of lulu.com, I shall check it out!