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Boarders Writing a Novel: Take 8


Spockydog

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Francis Buck said:

Yeah, apparently I already had an account there (don't really remember signing up, but nonetheless). Have any of you guys gotten in yet? Could someone that has an approved account there just check my thread to see if the attachment is working? I put my story on as a PDF, but I can't see it. Can you see your own attachments?

No attachment, dude...

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Francis Buck said:

No attachment, dude...

Thanks, I didn't put the actual link/tag/whatever thing into the post. Seems to be working now (for me at least).

EDIT: Nevermind, it says I don't have permission to view it. Are attachments even enabled?

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  • 2 weeks later...

My 2nd draft is almost done. I'll hopefully get chapters 38-40 (plis the epilogie) edited tomorrow. Then it's back to the beginning to go over it all again. After that I hope to get some test readers to offer feedback on the 2nd draft.

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Still having the fun of sending out queries to agents (and in one case, a specialist Sci-Fi publisher in Wellington, which I have yet to hear back from). The overseas ones who demand a stamped self-addressed envelope are a bit annoying: SAEs are awkward to organise when you live on the other side of the planet. Would it kill them to respond via email?

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Still having the fun of sending out queries to agents (and in one case, a specialist Sci-Fi publisher in Wellington, which I have yet to hear back from). The overseas ones who demand a stamped self-addressed envelope are a bit annoying: SAEs are awkward to organise when you live on the other side of the planet. Would it kill them to respond via email?

The last time I submitted on paper was in 2007. Who demands dead tree nowadays? (Genuine question, not rhetorical!)

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*insert facetious comment about Australians here*

In recent years I have submitted to around a dozen agents in the UK and USA, by email each time, using QueryTracker as much as the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook for possibles. Never tried Aus or NZ.

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Still having the fun of sending out queries to agents (and in one case, a specialist Sci-Fi publisher in Wellington, which I have yet to hear back from). The overseas ones who demand a stamped self-addressed envelope are a bit annoying: SAEs are awkward to organise when you live on the other side of the planet. Would it kill them to respond via email?

Yeah, I don't get this either. Seems to me it's way more trouble to type, print, sign, fold and put a letter into an envelope than it is to just write an email. Some of these folks have bold demands, though; I remember one agent whose guidelines stated that inquirers were NOT to attempt to follow up, or even to ask if the original inquiry was received. I don't know what would happen if you tried.

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Yeah, I don't get this either. Seems to me it's way more trouble to type, print, sign, fold and put a letter into an envelope than it is to just write an email. Some of these folks have bold demands, though; I remember one agent whose guidelines stated that inquirers were NOT to attempt to follow up, or even to ask if the original inquiry was received. I don't know what would happen if you tried.

If I were an agent I'd find it physically easier to handle email submissions. They don't take up any room in the office: back in 2007 when my academic publishing company held complete printouts of every item we were about to send to print (shortly afterwards we shifted to just having a pile of non-printed items' first pages), I remember the stacks of paper building up and building up on every flat surface. If you take in physical submissions as a novelists' agent or publisher you haven't a choice but to have a paper pile or twelve. .And I have also experienced the "Don't Folllow Up!" scenario, though I've also seen agents saying that if you have any suspicion that your submission has not been received, it's acceptable to write a follow-up email after a few months. That, though, often means that if you query that agent and you haven't had a response, they wouldn't mind a follow-up. It's so subjective.

ETA:

In case you guys have not read this yet, please read this. And then steer clear. (Sheesh, this is happening more and more lately.)

Thank you. Also if you are writing crime fiction, read this. Same company, same problem.

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My 2nd draft is almost done. I'll hopefully get chapters 38-40 (plis the epilogie) edited tomorrow. Then it's back to the beginning to go over it all again. After that I hope to get some test readers to offer feedback on the 2nd draft.

Sounds like a similar situation that I am in, except it will probably be early summer by the time I have the second draft completed. How long is your novel?

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I've been making huge progress this week. 8,000 words in two days (well, two days and another hour). I know I should pace myself so I don't burn out, but I decided to combine two chapters and the result just clicked. I had such a blast writing it, I couldn't stop. My story has eclipsed 40,000 words and continues to grow.

Anyone have that "writing fever" grip them hard? How do you deal with it? Do you ride it as far as it will take you or slow down and ration it?

-Edited for typo

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I've been making huge progress this week. 8,000 words in two days (well, two days and another hour). I know I should pace myself so I don't burn myself out, but I decided to combine two chapters and the result just clicked. I had such a blast writing it, I couldn't stop. My story has eclipsed 40,000 words and continues to grow.

Anyone have that "writing fever" grip them hard? How do you deal with it? Do you ride it as far as it will take you or slow down and ration it?

Congratulations. :) I ride it as far as it'll go because I know that for me, it won't last, and while it's there I can get a lot more word count out of it than otherwise.

I officially have half a chapter left to write before I have a complete first draft of New Book. It's too short and the rhythm's wrong because not enough goes wrong for the characters at the psychologically right times for what is in effect a thriller: two birds, one stone.

The characters get split up partway through the book. Extending character group A's problems (and word count) will be a simple matter of adding one more lengthy-ish chapter. Worsening character group B's position is going to require reworking two chapters from this draft, including the one I'm tying up now, and adding a brand new one. I should point out that character group B's storyline didn't make 100% sense because I had to artificially build in a delay to it: with the extra stuff going wrong, I suspect I won't need to do that any more because they'll be so busy that the busy becomes its own delay.

By the time I've done that, and also mentioned the secondary antagonist before he walked in during the denouement (the main antagonist was there all along, but I didn't realise till that point that secondary antagonist would ever need to appear on page. Sue me), I might have something like 80,000 words. Short and sweet, and for me, drastically more linear than anything I've ever done. This is a good thing.

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I've been following that atrocity of a contract on Scalzi's blog and it is frightening. Glad to hear the SFWA kicked them in the teeth about this bullshit and wouldn't accept Random House's load of excuses. It has to be nipped in the bud right away before other big houses think this is a good idea.

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Anyone have that "writing fever" grip them hard? How do you deal with it? Do you ride it as far as it will take you or slow down and ration it?

8,000 words in two days is very good going. You should be pleased with that :-)

I ride very hard. I finished the first draft of this novel in three weeks. It came in at just under 100,000. I then started Book 2 and wrote over 50,000 words in around two months, since my pace was slowing. I am now going back over Book 1 and doing all the editing.

I've always worked this way, though. My first drafts come out in very short, sharp spurts and then I use the rest of the time to mould it.

@Eloisa - Well done! Sorry to hear of your pacing issues. I would hate to write a thriller for that reason, but I wouldn't worry about having to rewrite the odd chapter to get it right :-)

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Been awhile since i've been here. Been procrastinating sending out In Scars. All i really need to do is write the one page synopsis.

So instead i wrote the sequal, In Sorrows, which is 191,000 words before any revisions, and now i'm 55,000 words into a stand alone set in the same world.

I really need to man up and get the synopsis written.

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I ride very hard. I finished the first draft of this novel in three weeks. It came in at just under 100,000. I then started Book 2 and wrote over 50,000 words in around two months, since my pace was slowing. I am now going back over Book 1 and doing all the editing.

:stunned: That's wonderful speed. Congratulations.

@Eloisa - Well done! Sorry to hear of your pacing issues. I would hate to write a thriller for that reason, but I wouldn't worry about having to rewrite the odd chapter to get it right :-)

I'm not worrying. :) It's about learning the pacing from inside, IMO. I've always written epic before - either epic fantasy or epic space opera.

Been awhile since i've been here. Been procrastinating sending out In Scars. All i really need to do is write the one page synopsis.

So instead i wrote the sequal, In Sorrows, which is 191,000 words before any revisions, and now i'm 55,000 words into a stand alone set in the same world.

I really need to man up and get the synopsis written.

Yes, yes, you do. Think about it like this - agents/publishers will typically take a few months to get back to you. It's more efficient in terms of time management to send out book 1 and work on book 2 and subsequent projects while waiting.

I've said before now that I find starting with a one-sentence summary, expanding to one paragraph and then one page, to be easier than trying to condense to one page from the outset. But writing synopses is difficult and is a skill separate from writing books. Good luck.

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