Paul Whybrow
Full Member
Even accepting that Time is an artificial man-made construct, it's impossible to resist judging one's progress by the pesky calendar.
At the tail end of the year, looking back on your accomplishments, it's easy to beat yourself up for what you didn't do, forgetting how much work you did to make progress. Writing stories means constantly learning, including discovering things about yourself, which is why I find it so stimulating.
When I returned to creative writing in 2013, I knew that it would take a while to get anywhere, for, after all, these days anyone can write and publish a novel, so there's a lot of competition. Noah Lukeman says the same thing in a free download called Ask A Literary Agent (Year One):
'You can attain major credentials on your own, but first you must prepare for a sustained effort. Instead of a three or six-month plan to attain all the credentials you need, why not give yourself a three or six-year plan? With that kind of time, you can attend writing programs, workshops, conferences, colonies; spend extensive time networking and build an endorsement list; get stories published in magazines and online; begin to build a platform; and most importantly, hone your craft extensively.'
Ask a Literary Agent (free e-book) by Noah Lukeman
Every new year starts optimistically, which is as it should be: we all say to ourselves"This will be the year that I...." A writer needs faith in their own abilities, even arrogance, to get anywhere. Such cockiness is absolutely essential to self-promote, be it through querying literary agents or running social media accounts and blogging to support self-publication.
I wasn't feeling that enchanted with publishing as 2017 ended, for I'd made about 50 queries early in the year, to add to 450 I made in 2015, so I decided to return to writing more material. I penned the second novella in a series about an American Civil War cavalry officer travelling from the Appalachians to help his sister rebuild her Atlanta plantation in the post-war Reconstruction era.
The 25,000 words took four months to write, preceded by two months of research, for it's a very complicated period with divided loyalties and laws passed by Congress that weren't enforced on the ground. I re-read Down From The Mountains last night, after not looking at it for six months, and enjoyed it a lot. I did wonder if my frustration was showing through in the graphic violence of the plot, which is the goriest I've written!
As further sublimation of my homicidal impulses,
I next turned to writing another Cornish Detective novel. The Dead Need Nobody is the fifth story in the series and was tricky to write in that it's set in the art world. I like and regularly read about painting and painters, but I learned a lot about collectors' obsessiveness and the murky world of art theft and forgery, which were to feature in my plot.
I've settled into a rhythm of writing novels, which take me 5-6 months, including regular editing pauses, followed by as many nit-picking trawls through the manuscript as I can stand after I type The End. The book was fun to write, partly because I gave my protagonist a love and sex life, only to kick him into a state of limbo, leaving him in a coma on the final page.
Since November, I've been researching ways to improve my querying technique, pondering whether to return to self-publishing by reading articles on blogging, tweeting and posting on social media.
Such studying of advice is useful but boring, so I've started a new short story about a widowed dog walker who sees a naked middle-aged man dancing in a field to recorded music. Her dog's barking alerts him to her presence, and he disappears into a wood. I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm tailoring the story towards submitting it to women's magazines, so it won't be too saucy!
Posting on the Colony helps keep me sane (ish), as well as revealing much about my motivations for writing to me. I've always been a firm believer in the dissemination of information, which is why I trained as a librarian and teacher. Governments may claim that they believe in the value of education, but really they follow the mushroom management approach to educating citizens...Keep them in the dark and feed them bullshit!
Learning how to write, and trying to understand how publishing works, feels a bit like navigating an ocean at night while sailing through fog. Here be monsters, and I'm often appalled at the underhand dealings of literary agents, publishers and charlatans offering training courses.
Shared knowledge on the Colony is like seeing a beam from a lighthouse.
I still don't know where I'm going, and I'm not quite sure of where I've been, but I'm enjoying the journey and looking forward to 2019.
How was your writing year in 2018?
At the tail end of the year, looking back on your accomplishments, it's easy to beat yourself up for what you didn't do, forgetting how much work you did to make progress. Writing stories means constantly learning, including discovering things about yourself, which is why I find it so stimulating.
When I returned to creative writing in 2013, I knew that it would take a while to get anywhere, for, after all, these days anyone can write and publish a novel, so there's a lot of competition. Noah Lukeman says the same thing in a free download called Ask A Literary Agent (Year One):
'You can attain major credentials on your own, but first you must prepare for a sustained effort. Instead of a three or six-month plan to attain all the credentials you need, why not give yourself a three or six-year plan? With that kind of time, you can attend writing programs, workshops, conferences, colonies; spend extensive time networking and build an endorsement list; get stories published in magazines and online; begin to build a platform; and most importantly, hone your craft extensively.'
Ask a Literary Agent (free e-book) by Noah Lukeman
Every new year starts optimistically, which is as it should be: we all say to ourselves"This will be the year that I...." A writer needs faith in their own abilities, even arrogance, to get anywhere. Such cockiness is absolutely essential to self-promote, be it through querying literary agents or running social media accounts and blogging to support self-publication.
I wasn't feeling that enchanted with publishing as 2017 ended, for I'd made about 50 queries early in the year, to add to 450 I made in 2015, so I decided to return to writing more material. I penned the second novella in a series about an American Civil War cavalry officer travelling from the Appalachians to help his sister rebuild her Atlanta plantation in the post-war Reconstruction era.
The 25,000 words took four months to write, preceded by two months of research, for it's a very complicated period with divided loyalties and laws passed by Congress that weren't enforced on the ground. I re-read Down From The Mountains last night, after not looking at it for six months, and enjoyed it a lot. I did wonder if my frustration was showing through in the graphic violence of the plot, which is the goriest I've written!
As further sublimation of my homicidal impulses,
I next turned to writing another Cornish Detective novel. The Dead Need Nobody is the fifth story in the series and was tricky to write in that it's set in the art world. I like and regularly read about painting and painters, but I learned a lot about collectors' obsessiveness and the murky world of art theft and forgery, which were to feature in my plot.I've settled into a rhythm of writing novels, which take me 5-6 months, including regular editing pauses, followed by as many nit-picking trawls through the manuscript as I can stand after I type The End. The book was fun to write, partly because I gave my protagonist a love and sex life, only to kick him into a state of limbo, leaving him in a coma on the final page.
Since November, I've been researching ways to improve my querying technique, pondering whether to return to self-publishing by reading articles on blogging, tweeting and posting on social media.
Such studying of advice is useful but boring, so I've started a new short story about a widowed dog walker who sees a naked middle-aged man dancing in a field to recorded music. Her dog's barking alerts him to her presence, and he disappears into a wood. I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm tailoring the story towards submitting it to women's magazines, so it won't be too saucy!
Posting on the Colony helps keep me sane (ish), as well as revealing much about my motivations for writing to me. I've always been a firm believer in the dissemination of information, which is why I trained as a librarian and teacher. Governments may claim that they believe in the value of education, but really they follow the mushroom management approach to educating citizens...Keep them in the dark and feed them bullshit!
Learning how to write, and trying to understand how publishing works, feels a bit like navigating an ocean at night while sailing through fog. Here be monsters, and I'm often appalled at the underhand dealings of literary agents, publishers and charlatans offering training courses.
Shared knowledge on the Colony is like seeing a beam from a lighthouse.
I still don't know where I'm going, and I'm not quite sure of where I've been, but I'm enjoying the journey and looking forward to 2019.
How was your writing year in 2018?
