So... It's been nearly a year since I even looked at the book. I have thought about it quite a bit, but my thoughts never seemed to turn into actions. I move to Perth just after i sent the manuscript the first time and about 6 weeks later I recieved my first rejection letter. In all fairness the agency said they didn't publish Science Fantasy (which makes me wonder why they said to send it anyway...maybe they only publish the superstar novels and mine didnt fit that category) and they said it was just to niche for them, that they focused on biographies and travel books. They said I should definitely send it on and that it was an enjoyable read...which I really didnt know how to interpret. It was thouroughly depressing... but in the back of my mind I kept think of the Orson Scott Card book I read where he said that he sent Ender's Game to 17 different publishers before someone picked it up - and I really shouldnt have expected it to be picked up first try - especially by a tiny agency in Sydney. Still a bit of a knock to the ego though! After a lot of thought and discussion with the other people I had given the book too I made the decision to re-write the first chapter... I made the decision about March 2010. It is now February 2011 and I havent touched it. Some of this can perhaps be attributed to the fact that I got my teaching degree in that time, settled in in Perth, and then uprooted myself again and moved to Korea!
I have been in Korea for four months now - teaching English - and I have been dedicated to my blog... "Experiences Teaching Abroad" which is all the amazing experiences I have been having since I got here, as well as my bucket list and an entry for every time that I cross something off the list. So dedicated that I write nearly every day...and yet that time could have been dedicated to my book and hasnt been. Whatever my reasons have been for putting it off I have decided to look at the last year as an extended break - a sabbatical - from my writing and now it is time to get stuck in again. I am going to re-write the first chapter...and then start sending it off with mad abandon - and if that doesnt work then the second book is halfway there so I'll finish that and start sending that one out! I think I have found my passion again - and it's still pretty close to being a new year so it's a good time to start fresh!
Enough procrastinating now... here I go!
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Writing the first book
It began as writing a story. The idea of my main character had been in my head for a while and I had written the first few pages of the story a number of times, and then lost the copies along the way, it varied a little each time but the main idea stayed the same. Once I got through those first few pages I began to realise that I needed to come up with a rough plot – so that I knew where the story was going. I did a bit of research and found a few really good websites that gave me a lot of great ideas for creating my world. The world creation aspect was a lot of fun, working out a history of the people in my story, the climate, what they used in place of money, the types of buildings they lived in, and what sort of animals roamed the world with them.
I also began to read “How to write Science Fiction and Fantasy” by Orson Scott Card, one of my favourite authors, and during the world creation side of my journey I kept his words in mind. He said; if it looks like a rabbit, moves like a rabbit, and tastes like a rabbit then you should call it a rabbit. A lot of the animals in my story are similar, or the same, as what we have here. It didn’t make sense in the story to create things that were completely different and give them different names, although on one or two occasions I have varied the spelling just a wee bit to fit in with the culture of the people using the words.
Once the world was created my characters, or character at this point, then had a set of rules they had to operate within. It’s a science fantasy novel so the ‘magic’ they use also has rules. The characters within the story could then be developed further by the world, we are all a product of our upbringing and the circumstances and manner in which we live, and it had to be the same for the characters if I wanted to make them feel real.
I worked our roughly where the story was headed and began to weave the other characters into the world, trying to give them each an individuality that would make them easy to remember, and make them their own people. They each had ups and downs, and lessons to learn along the way which changed them, and I was right there with them experiencing everything they felt. In a lot of ways I didn’t feel like I was writing the characters but more like I was meeting them and getting to know these people that already existed in a world I was just discovering.
The more I put down the more comfortable I became with the characters emotions, and with writing how I felt, or perhaps it’s better to say that I was becoming better at identifying how each emotion made me feel and putting it into words. When I was writing about fear I would begin to feel my stomach clench in knots and that moment where everything suddenly zooms into sharp focus as the adrenaline pumps around your body. It was the same with each emotion, I’m not sure whether it was writing about it that made me feel it, or if I was making myself feel it in order to better write about it. I remember sitting on the train writing a particularly hard bit, and working really hard not to cry as I did it, the other people on the train would have thought I was completely crazy!
I learned a lot, about myself, and about the craft of writing, and I am certain that it is a learning journey that will never end. I am now putting into practice all the things I learned from writing the first book into writing a second – and I am sure the things I learn from the first to will be put into practice when I start the third! Now I just need to get it published!
I also began to read “How to write Science Fiction and Fantasy” by Orson Scott Card, one of my favourite authors, and during the world creation side of my journey I kept his words in mind. He said; if it looks like a rabbit, moves like a rabbit, and tastes like a rabbit then you should call it a rabbit. A lot of the animals in my story are similar, or the same, as what we have here. It didn’t make sense in the story to create things that were completely different and give them different names, although on one or two occasions I have varied the spelling just a wee bit to fit in with the culture of the people using the words.
Once the world was created my characters, or character at this point, then had a set of rules they had to operate within. It’s a science fantasy novel so the ‘magic’ they use also has rules. The characters within the story could then be developed further by the world, we are all a product of our upbringing and the circumstances and manner in which we live, and it had to be the same for the characters if I wanted to make them feel real.
I worked our roughly where the story was headed and began to weave the other characters into the world, trying to give them each an individuality that would make them easy to remember, and make them their own people. They each had ups and downs, and lessons to learn along the way which changed them, and I was right there with them experiencing everything they felt. In a lot of ways I didn’t feel like I was writing the characters but more like I was meeting them and getting to know these people that already existed in a world I was just discovering.
The more I put down the more comfortable I became with the characters emotions, and with writing how I felt, or perhaps it’s better to say that I was becoming better at identifying how each emotion made me feel and putting it into words. When I was writing about fear I would begin to feel my stomach clench in knots and that moment where everything suddenly zooms into sharp focus as the adrenaline pumps around your body. It was the same with each emotion, I’m not sure whether it was writing about it that made me feel it, or if I was making myself feel it in order to better write about it. I remember sitting on the train writing a particularly hard bit, and working really hard not to cry as I did it, the other people on the train would have thought I was completely crazy!
I learned a lot, about myself, and about the craft of writing, and I am certain that it is a learning journey that will never end. I am now putting into practice all the things I learned from writing the first book into writing a second – and I am sure the things I learn from the first to will be put into practice when I start the third! Now I just need to get it published!
Monday, January 25, 2010
Sending the novel to the first agent
Well, I have submitted a cover letter, synopsis, and excerpt from the book to the first agent! I haven’t yet decided if I am excited or terrified about having done this. It turns out that writing the novel was actually the easy part. It took about 8 months or so to get the story on paper, then about 3 or 4 months to get through the first and second edit, then about 3 months of procrastination and freaking out about how I condense my 300 page masterpiece (in my mind…) into a 1 to 2 page synopsis. I definitely think the synopsis was harder to write than the novel, but handy to have now completed, now all I have to do is memorize it so that when people ask me “what’s it about?” I might actually have an answer!
The cover letter was a difficult step as well, I read everything I could get my hands on about how to write a cover letter, and the things agents do and don’t want to hear. I found an excellent little book called …. By …. , and after reading it I realised that the draft of the cover letter I had put together was complete and utter rubbish and I had to start again from scratch. So once I finally had all the paperwork together, and had scoured the website of the first agent (I have a few lined up…though I intend to go through them one at a time.) it was time to call them. I wanted to be able to address it to someone, and I had to check whether or not they were currently accepting unsolicited manuscripts (because at this point I am still a no-body who has never been published). The phone call was a little nerve wracking but had nothing on actually putting the stuff in an envelope and the envelope in the post-box. For some reason the physical act of sending it out there into the world to be reviewed and criticized made me feel a little weak at the knees.
Now, I am definitely feeling positive, in the sense that I feel I have produced a good section of my work, and I am happy with the synopsis and cover letter etc. But, I am also trying really hard not to hold my breath, most of my favourite writers were rejected at least once, if not half a dozen times! So I have a list of agents to look at, and I will slowly work down the list in order of preference (eg. I like the writers they represent etc), and if I don’t have any luck there I will try some publishers, and if I still don’t have any luck it will get placed on the bookshelf to be re-written at a later date while I write something else!
So wish me luck – it’s out there in the world now and I just have to be patient!
The cover letter was a difficult step as well, I read everything I could get my hands on about how to write a cover letter, and the things agents do and don’t want to hear. I found an excellent little book called …. By …. , and after reading it I realised that the draft of the cover letter I had put together was complete and utter rubbish and I had to start again from scratch. So once I finally had all the paperwork together, and had scoured the website of the first agent (I have a few lined up…though I intend to go through them one at a time.) it was time to call them. I wanted to be able to address it to someone, and I had to check whether or not they were currently accepting unsolicited manuscripts (because at this point I am still a no-body who has never been published). The phone call was a little nerve wracking but had nothing on actually putting the stuff in an envelope and the envelope in the post-box. For some reason the physical act of sending it out there into the world to be reviewed and criticized made me feel a little weak at the knees.
Now, I am definitely feeling positive, in the sense that I feel I have produced a good section of my work, and I am happy with the synopsis and cover letter etc. But, I am also trying really hard not to hold my breath, most of my favourite writers were rejected at least once, if not half a dozen times! So I have a list of agents to look at, and I will slowly work down the list in order of preference (eg. I like the writers they represent etc), and if I don’t have any luck there I will try some publishers, and if I still don’t have any luck it will get placed on the bookshelf to be re-written at a later date while I write something else!
So wish me luck – it’s out there in the world now and I just have to be patient!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
The impact of music.
When I was about 9 I was attending a private catholic girls school in the South Island of New Zealand – we had a music teacher there who I remember quite clearly; for two reasons. The first reason was the band-aid he always had behind his right ear due to the acupuncture he had had to quit smoking, and the second was an exercise he asked us to do which was to teach us an appreciation of classical music. He sat on his desk and played ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ composed by Edvard Grieg for Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, all the while reading a story to us about an ogre chasing a princess and a prince who would eventually slay the ogre. Every time I hear the piece, the story, and the feelings I experienced while hearing the music, come floating back to me. After listening to the music and story combination we were asked to write our own story to a piece of classical music that we liked. From memory I wrote a story to match a piece by Vivaldi – but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was about – the only reason I remember the music is because it has been one of my favourites for as long as I can remember.
My writing has always been influenced by what I am feeling, and music has a big impact on what I am feeling, so I guess it is natural that music would have an impact on what I am writing. Sometimes the music itself suggests a story, or rather, images and emotions that can be woven into a story. I have noticed that when I am working on my book I tend to use classical or instrumental music and I think this has more to do with the fact that I don’t want to be distracted by the words of the song. However, when I am doing my ‘imagining’, or trying to put myself into a characters mind, I will often use a song with words. “Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley is one of the songs which have always had a particularly big impact on me, it is such a haunting song, with a beautiful refrain, and yet it feels so filled with pain and yearning. I’m not sure if it is the lyrics or the music that makes me feel all that, but it evokes such strong emotion in me – and allows me to write in a more honest way. There are a few others I use to deliberately create a feeling, but often the music I listen to just heightens what I am already feeling.
I’m working on the second book at the moment and I have a couple of current favourites, the Irish Celtic group Lunasa has an album called “the merry sisters of fate”, it’s all instrumental and it creates positively delicious pictures for me. I listened to the CD all the way around Ireland – in fact I have now bought it three times – the first was in Dublin but the copy got pinched somewhere along my travels - the second copy I bought here in Melbourne, I had to order it and then wait 6 weeks for it to arrive, after paying almost double what I paid the first time, and unfortunately that copy was in my car when that got stolen and when I got the car back it was gone. The third copy I bought off I-tunes, so it’s on my laptop and my i-phone and I am hopeful I might be able to hang on to it! The other artist I have been really into for this novel is Yo-yo Ma. Particularly the Bach suite for solo Cello in G, No.1, though anything he plays is pretty spectacular. I also just discovered he had a big impact on the music for the film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, which doesn’t surprise me as the music in that was painfully beautiful.
Often I find that music sparks my imagination, or suggests pictures that I want to somehow incorporate into my worlds, and whenever I listen to a certain piece again it always tends to bring back the same pictures. That being said pretty much everything sparks my imagination now – it’s like I have opened the door to the ideas and they are all fighting to get out. The notepad beside my bed get’s a thrashing most nights now, generally something I have heard or seen during the day will start to circle my mind when I try and relax, and I know that if I don’t write it down it will be gone by the morning. I am terrified that one-day the ideas will dry up so I write them all down frantically, though I don’t honestly see how the ideas could stop flowing…especially when all I have to do is turn on the radio!
My writing has always been influenced by what I am feeling, and music has a big impact on what I am feeling, so I guess it is natural that music would have an impact on what I am writing. Sometimes the music itself suggests a story, or rather, images and emotions that can be woven into a story. I have noticed that when I am working on my book I tend to use classical or instrumental music and I think this has more to do with the fact that I don’t want to be distracted by the words of the song. However, when I am doing my ‘imagining’, or trying to put myself into a characters mind, I will often use a song with words. “Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley is one of the songs which have always had a particularly big impact on me, it is such a haunting song, with a beautiful refrain, and yet it feels so filled with pain and yearning. I’m not sure if it is the lyrics or the music that makes me feel all that, but it evokes such strong emotion in me – and allows me to write in a more honest way. There are a few others I use to deliberately create a feeling, but often the music I listen to just heightens what I am already feeling.
I’m working on the second book at the moment and I have a couple of current favourites, the Irish Celtic group Lunasa has an album called “the merry sisters of fate”, it’s all instrumental and it creates positively delicious pictures for me. I listened to the CD all the way around Ireland – in fact I have now bought it three times – the first was in Dublin but the copy got pinched somewhere along my travels - the second copy I bought here in Melbourne, I had to order it and then wait 6 weeks for it to arrive, after paying almost double what I paid the first time, and unfortunately that copy was in my car when that got stolen and when I got the car back it was gone. The third copy I bought off I-tunes, so it’s on my laptop and my i-phone and I am hopeful I might be able to hang on to it! The other artist I have been really into for this novel is Yo-yo Ma. Particularly the Bach suite for solo Cello in G, No.1, though anything he plays is pretty spectacular. I also just discovered he had a big impact on the music for the film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, which doesn’t surprise me as the music in that was painfully beautiful.
Often I find that music sparks my imagination, or suggests pictures that I want to somehow incorporate into my worlds, and whenever I listen to a certain piece again it always tends to bring back the same pictures. That being said pretty much everything sparks my imagination now – it’s like I have opened the door to the ideas and they are all fighting to get out. The notepad beside my bed get’s a thrashing most nights now, generally something I have heard or seen during the day will start to circle my mind when I try and relax, and I know that if I don’t write it down it will be gone by the morning. I am terrified that one-day the ideas will dry up so I write them all down frantically, though I don’t honestly see how the ideas could stop flowing…especially when all I have to do is turn on the radio!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
The beginning of my journey
Where it all began...
I have always been an avid reader. When I was little my mum used to read a chapter of a story to me each night, I clearly remember getting lost in the words of the stories, letting my imagination fly and I remember a few of the stories with pictures as clear as if I had been watching a movie. While the early books were such classics as "the BFG" and "Fantastic Mr Fox" by Roald Dahl (books which every kid should read), when I began to be able to read the books for myself mum continued to read the more challenging books to me. A few of the books we read together were a little out of my reach for a while and I'm not sure that I really understood the depth behind a lot of what was written, but I learned to form amazing pictures in my mind from the descriptive passages. I think I was about 8 when we tackled Lord of the Rings for the first time.
By the time I was 10 or 11 I was reading everything I could get my hands on, from the Goosebump's series, to Clan of the Cave Bear. It was at about this age that I was given my first Science Fantasy novel to read - a novel that will have a special place in my heart and on my bookshelf for the rest of my life - Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey. I remember finding the first few pages a little slow when I first picked it up but I pushed on and when I began to read about Lessa my mind was whisked away to fantasy worlds that could be anything that you could imagine.
From then on I was a lot more adventurous in my choice of books, and I was lucky enough to have two parents that read extensively, and encouraged my reading every step of the way. In fact I remember knowing as a child that a book was the one thing I could ask for that Mum would never say no to, though I'm sure I almost sent her broke a few times!
For me reading has always been a wonderful escape, no matter what was happening in my life I always looked forward to loosing myself completely in the worlds the authors painted so skilfully on the pages. I don't think its ever something I will tire of, sometimes purely because I am nosy or interested in what is said, sometimes because I like or need a distraction, and sometimes because it gives me comfort to disappear back into a world where I am completely comfortable and the characters feel like old friends.
And now...
About 12 months ago now I decided to write a little story, which has turned into a novel, quite a chunky novel too, which I realised when I attempted to print it and ran out of ink. I have given it to a couple of test readers, one or two of whom are my closest and most trusted friends, and one or two who I don't know as well, and the feedback has been pretty positive so I am going to attempt to have it published as soon as I can figure out what the next step is!
While I am working on getting the first one published, I am also working on writing the second, planning the third and fourth, researching for a completely different series and trying not to get overwhelmed by all the ideas that seem to come floating out of the darkness in the middle of the night and at other completely inopportune moments - I mean, really, who comes up with a really great story idea in the middle of a job interview? And where am I supposed to jot down an idea when I am driving, or walking from the train station to the car? I am almost certain that most people who see me frantically scrabbling for a pen and a scrap of paper to jot down the latest thought, think I am completely insane, but as I have the memory of a goldfish (better than you think but still not great) I really have no other option!
So this blog will be a little about the books I read and the books I love, a little about the writing of my own novels and the creation of my own worlds, and a little completely random information garnered from research in the course of my journey - I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it!
I have always been an avid reader. When I was little my mum used to read a chapter of a story to me each night, I clearly remember getting lost in the words of the stories, letting my imagination fly and I remember a few of the stories with pictures as clear as if I had been watching a movie. While the early books were such classics as "the BFG" and "Fantastic Mr Fox" by Roald Dahl (books which every kid should read), when I began to be able to read the books for myself mum continued to read the more challenging books to me. A few of the books we read together were a little out of my reach for a while and I'm not sure that I really understood the depth behind a lot of what was written, but I learned to form amazing pictures in my mind from the descriptive passages. I think I was about 8 when we tackled Lord of the Rings for the first time.
By the time I was 10 or 11 I was reading everything I could get my hands on, from the Goosebump's series, to Clan of the Cave Bear. It was at about this age that I was given my first Science Fantasy novel to read - a novel that will have a special place in my heart and on my bookshelf for the rest of my life - Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey. I remember finding the first few pages a little slow when I first picked it up but I pushed on and when I began to read about Lessa my mind was whisked away to fantasy worlds that could be anything that you could imagine.
From then on I was a lot more adventurous in my choice of books, and I was lucky enough to have two parents that read extensively, and encouraged my reading every step of the way. In fact I remember knowing as a child that a book was the one thing I could ask for that Mum would never say no to, though I'm sure I almost sent her broke a few times!
For me reading has always been a wonderful escape, no matter what was happening in my life I always looked forward to loosing myself completely in the worlds the authors painted so skilfully on the pages. I don't think its ever something I will tire of, sometimes purely because I am nosy or interested in what is said, sometimes because I like or need a distraction, and sometimes because it gives me comfort to disappear back into a world where I am completely comfortable and the characters feel like old friends.
And now...
About 12 months ago now I decided to write a little story, which has turned into a novel, quite a chunky novel too, which I realised when I attempted to print it and ran out of ink. I have given it to a couple of test readers, one or two of whom are my closest and most trusted friends, and one or two who I don't know as well, and the feedback has been pretty positive so I am going to attempt to have it published as soon as I can figure out what the next step is!
While I am working on getting the first one published, I am also working on writing the second, planning the third and fourth, researching for a completely different series and trying not to get overwhelmed by all the ideas that seem to come floating out of the darkness in the middle of the night and at other completely inopportune moments - I mean, really, who comes up with a really great story idea in the middle of a job interview? And where am I supposed to jot down an idea when I am driving, or walking from the train station to the car? I am almost certain that most people who see me frantically scrabbling for a pen and a scrap of paper to jot down the latest thought, think I am completely insane, but as I have the memory of a goldfish (better than you think but still not great) I really have no other option!
So this blog will be a little about the books I read and the books I love, a little about the writing of my own novels and the creation of my own worlds, and a little completely random information garnered from research in the course of my journey - I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it!
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