It's coming together!!

Just done my first print out of my novel.  I know it's only A4 paper but it still feels great to see it printed out.  I feel a real sense of achievement.  I do have some insecurities about my novel - who doesn't? - the main one being that it's not long enough for an adult novel - less than 50,000 words.

But I reckon I can maybe expand it if need be and I think that for me personally it's better to get it finished, to get all my ideas down and then maybe see about tweaking it further at some point in the future.  What do you guys think?  Maybe you could let me know...

In the meantime, I've had an idea for my next novel which I can start planning soon.  Watch this space!

Editing and more editing

I've finally finished the first draft of my novel!  I'm pleased with it, but there's a lot of tweaking to do before I publish it.  I've decided to self publish, need to do some more research into how exactly to go about it, but I really feel that it's the best way for me to go.  I just want as many people as possible to see my work, and as I'm an impatient person, as quickly as possible!

I'm currently reworking my opening chapters; nothing too drastic but using the advice I was given via youwriteon.com, I'm just making improvements which I hope will make reading my novel a better experience for my audience.  I think editing can be really hard.  It's often difficult to know what you're doing wrong as an author and how you can improve.  So using this website and getting feedback from other authors has been invaluable to me.  As I reread their comments and look at my work, I can see a little bit more clearly the direction my editing should take.

I'm actually enjoying the process of rewriting parts of my novel.  It's good to continually question whether what you've written actually reads well and if it will be enjoyable for the reader.  I hope it won't be too much longer before my story is finished and I can get it out there!

Are writers born or made?

You might think there's an obvious answer to that question.  Of course they're not made; you can write or you can't - end of story.  Or is it?  Almost two years ago I decided to apply for an MA course in writing for young people.  At that point I was developing a fantasy story for older children which was going well.  I was inspired that autumn when I went to a talk given by the lecturer and ex students of the course who said it was an invaluable help to them and led to them being published.

So after some thought I applied and was given an interview for the following April.  I went along to the interview and although I was very nervous I enjoyed meeting the lecturers who conducted the interview and hearing more about the course, which sounded fantastic.  I felt it went well and was cautiously optimistic, especially as the interviewers told me I had done well to get to the interview stage as many applicants did not.

I was hugely disappointed when I found out a short while after that I had not been accepted onto the course.  At first I thought about reapplying, but then I realised I didn't really have the funds for it anyway.  The fantasy story I had been writing became less and less enjoyable for me to write.  As I mentioned earlier in this blog, I found that because of the advice I'd been given by the lecturers at the interview and from others, I was confused about what changes to make to what I'd already written - which was a lot - and how to go forward plot-wise.  The story has been abandoned at least for now.  I may resurrect it at some point.

This may all seem a bit irrelevant to the title of this blog entry.  Actually it isn't.  Whilst the course intially sounded wonderful, a chance to review your own and others' work, to hone your craft with the support of other writers (students and teachers) and to be studying in a truly beautiful setting, after a while I began to wonder if actually it's better in some ways as an author to forge your own path.  You have more autonomy over your own work, you're not under pressure to constantly edit your work to suit others' suggestions and you can work at your own pace which can be a lot less stressful.

I feel that writing courses, whilst they can be hugely beneficial, also have drawbacks.  Can you train someone to write well?  Or is it more a case that writers really are born, not made?  Do authors have to be born with the skill of being able to communicate artistically through the medium of literature?  Or can you take anyone of average intelligence and with a lot of training turn them into a writer?  Maybe that's a bit of an extreme proposition, but ultimately how do you teach someone to write?  Perhaps it really is a case that writers are born not made.

Of course writers can improve their talent but most published authors - I'm guessing - haven't been on expensive writing courses.  They've simply honed their craft over the years and found out what works and what doesn't.  A friend told me that they were convinced after reading one novel that it had been written by a someone who'd done a qualification in writing, an MA or suchlike.   This interested me a great deal; the notion that it's possible to differentiate between a writer who has been 'trained' and one who hasn't.

Personally I feel that a true writer is born not made.  They can be encouraged and helped along the way to improve their style, but ultimately the talent comes from them.  So overall maybe it was for the best that I didn't get on to that MA course.  I can forge my own path with my writing and be a free agent!

Word count for a novel

As I've been working away on my novel, I've been thinking a lot about the nitty gritty of writing and one of the things I've been considering is what the word count for my story should be.  I've currently written about 41,000 words.  It's difficult to know exactly how many words my novel should have as different people say different things.

The trouble is I'm getting towards the end of my story now and I want to wait until I've finished it to go back and edit/add stuff.  As I've mentioned before on this blog when working on my previous story I spent so long trying to edit it to include other people's suggestions before I'd actually finished it, that I got bogged down in it and it was no longer any fun writing it.  So I gave up.

Back to my current story.  I realise that 40,000 to 50,000 words may not be long enough for the average novel.  But as I go over it once I've finished, I may be able to expand on that to get the word count up.  As one website says, a novel is as long as it takes to tell the story.  That same website also suggests that electronic publishing favours a shorter novel, although I think it may have been written before the advent of the ebook!!  It may be that once I finish it, I publish it on Kindle with a shorter-than-average novel word count and get people's feedback on it, then maybe adapt and lengthen it at some point.

I wish there was an easier answer to how long a story should be.  And that I found it easier to write longer stories!  Although, having said that, I did complete a novel for teenagers that was nearly 72,000 words long (and also that I hope never sees the light of day!).  So I can do it!

Writing Olympics??

I have to confess that this past week I've been rather distracted from my writing (and the rest of my life!!) by a certain tournament happening in my country.  No I don't mean between two knights jousting on a field in front of fair damsels - though that sounds fun too - but the Olympics.

When I first found out that the Olympics was coming to London, I have to say that I was less than bothered about it.  It seemed a lot of money that we as a country had to pay for an event that not many people in the country really cared about.  My indifference (and that, I suspect of the rest of the country) lasted until the opening ceremony which I thought was wonderful and so British!  Since then I've watched everything from judo to gymnastics, athlectics to archery and I've been carried away!  It helps too that the British team has been doing so well.

All this doesn't necessarily have much to do with writing and working on my novel.  Or does it?  Athletes have to practice for years to get to the point at which they are able to represent their country at an international level such as the Olympics.  They train week in week out, year in year out and even if they do get to compete in the Olympics or other top sporting events, they may well of course lose out to someone who was just that bit better than them on the day.

Writers too have to hone their craft.  They have to write for years to get to the point where they feel ready to submit their work to an agent or to self publish.  To improve their chances of being published, to get exposure and to improve as a writer, many enter writing competitions where there are awards for first, second and third - just like the Olympics.  I have entered a few in my time but didn't get anywhere.  I suppose I was put off entering competitions partly because I got nowhere, but also because I often had to pay to enter and I suppose I just baulked at having to pay any more for a competition which I was unlikely to win.

It strikes me that if there were greater opportunities for aspiring authors to win, more chances to really excel in competitions for writers, then there would be more exposure for amateur writers like myself to show what they can do.  It seems to me that there are so few windows of opportunity to win a prize in a competition that it puts people like myself off trying.  Perhaps it could be a case of having different and many more categories for story entries in writing  competitions; for example romance, thriller, sci fi, horror, women's fiction, historical fiction.  The list goes on.

I think maybe we as a writing community need to think outside the box when it comes to promoting amateur authors.  The Olympics has many different categories of sport in it and so many opportunities to suceed.  Maybe if there was a 'Writing Olympics' , more writers would get a chance to shine.

The secret of a bestseller

So what is the secret of a bestseller, or rather how does your book become a bestseller?  I'm currently reading 'Fifty Shades of Grey' by E.L. James.  I'm really enjoying it too!   Although it's not exactly up there with the literary classics, I'm surprised that it's not as badly written as I'd expected, having heard lots of people deride it in the media. Yes parts of it are cliched and sometimes I wish the author wouldn't repeat certain phrases, but it has engaging characters and an intriguing plot.

And of course it's almost impossible to talk of bestsellers without mentioning JK Rowling, whose books I really enjoy.  Again, many of the Harry Potter books, especially the early ones, are not that well written.  But to me, what's special about them is that Rowling has created her own world, a world not entirely different from our own - there are plenty of Muggles in the world outside of Hogwarts - but one that has its own set of rules: what is possible, what is not, what is allowed magically and what is unacceptable.  I could go on.  But I think this whole magical world Rowling has created has a lot to do with the popularity of the Harry Potter books.  Then there's also the fact that the characters are very human (most of the time!) and normal (a lot of the time!).  Other authors like Stephenie Meyer and Suzanne Collins have also successfully created their own worlds, in and outside ours.

The characters in both James and Rowling's books, whilst differing greatly from each other, are similar in that each author has kept them consistent.  What I mean by this is that the characters, although they may change a little over the course of the stories, stay true to their fundamental personality.  They never do anything that is completely against type, or at least if they do a reason is given, we see inside their heads and we're with them every step of the way whilst they try to solve what may seem like insurmountable problems.  This is another reason that they're bestsellers.

Another aspect to bestsellers is word of mouth.  James' novels began life as ebooks, but quickly made the leap to paperback as well after word of mouth recommendation.  The Harry Potter books began life a little differently, but as many people know JK Rowling was rejected by twelve publishers before the first Harry Potter was accepted by Bloomsbury.  The young daughter of the Bloomsbury chairman helped when, after being given the first chapter of the first Harry Potter novel to review by her father, demanded to read the second.  And of course, as with 'Fifty Shades of Grey', the Harry Potter novels too owe a great deal to word of mouth.  In a way though, which book doesn't? 

Plot is very important in a successful novel.  It has to grab us from the beginning.  If it doesn't we may not bother reading on.  It's only occasionally that I won't finish reading a novel I've begun, but when I don't it's generally because it's too slow.  I think all the authors I've mentioned above - and of course there are many, many more - all create plots and storylines that we want to follow, we want to find out what happens next.  I think, too, that passion is very important.  You've got to believe in what you're writing and in your characters for other people to want to read your novel and believe in your characters too.

In conclusion, I think that all of the above are important aspects to a bestselling novel.  But also I think that for a novel to be successful - even if it's not on the scale of the authors mentioned - it's important to get it out there in the public domain, to promote it as much as possible for it to be a success.  As authors we mustn't be afraid to hear from the critics, both professional and amateur as to how we can improve our work.

And of course the most important thing we can do is keep writing!

Up days, down days

Yesterday I got so much done on my story - I wrote loads.  The words just kept coming.  Today however it was a different story.  I still know (more or less) what I want to say, it's just getting the words in the right order and the right meaning across.  Sometimes I find that so hard to do!

The last couple of sentences I wrote yesterday I've now deleted because they don't seem right.  However, the rest of what I wrote yesterday seems pretty much OK.  So overall I'm pleased I did a lot yesterday, because in a way it means it doesn't matter if I do less today - I can maybe focus on research today, getting the background of my story right.

I'd love to know how other people get on with the ups and downs of writing!