Finding the plot again?
As some of you may know, I completed a novel last year.
At 80,000 words, it was quite a project that involved a lot of time and hard work.
The reason the novel never hit the shelves is simple – I submitted all but the last chapter to the publishers, but having completed that last chapter, I decided I didn’t like it. I contacted the publishers and withdrew the work, much to their annoyance.
You would imagine that having done that much work on the project, it would have been preferable to tweak the manuscript rather than scrap it altogether, but I had fallen into a trap of my own making – I concentrated too much on completing the work and lost sight of the plot.
Since then, I have been working on a new project. The story line is more or less complete, the characters are all alive and kicking and there are various sub plots. However, I have not yet put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard, as the case may be).
What I need is an incentive; a bit of impetus.
I have decided that writing a book is like quitting smoking – the more people you tell, the more you are stuck into the process.
Within the next week or two, I really must start typing.
It could be an interesting topic to follow here?
I wish I had some awe inspiring advice to give you but unfortunately my own writing ability seems to have gone out for lunch a couple months ago and has failed to return so in lieu of that…
Just do it. 😉
And you never know…you just might get and idea for that last chapter of the old one while you’re writing the new one.
“Just do it” is probably the best advice for any aspiring scribe!
Actually, the last chapter was complete. I just didn’t send it on. It is one of those little decisions I will for ever be eternally greatful!
The one good thing about the exercise was that most of thecharacters developed properly. The main flaw (apart from a shoddy main storyline) was that the principle characters were all wrong. I have learned from my mistakes. I hope.
Just don’t ever lose that first manuscript. And BTW, do you have a spare copy hanging around. If so and you don’t have particular use for it, how about sending it my way? I love reading pre-first editions that never got published.
Kirk: It’s around somewhere on a CD or DVD or even a hard disk. I have had so many crashes in the last while, and things are backed up all over the place.
I wasn’t that worried about archiving it anyway. Frankly, it’s a waste of disk-space. 😐
Meh, authors are always their worst critic.