Third Time Lucky...

I haven't blogged or written anything for a while as I've been working crazy hours, seven days a week for the last couple of weeks. I'm sooo tired. The finger is better though - thanks for your concern about it!

I'll post more detail later, but in the meantime, a bit of news...

...an agent wants to read my kids' book!!

I got an email yesterday. She'd read my first 3 chapters and synopsis and wants me to send the rest! Yay!

Am thrilled. Knackered, but thrilled. Even if it comes to nought I'm hugely encouraged. Third time lucky indeed.

Hurty Finger

I was oiling my step machine (oh yes) and I cut my favourite finger open. It's the one I use for pointing at things and pressing buttons and the like. I think I'll live - presuming I don't get lockjaw - but typing is ridiculously slow. And I keep pressing the wrong keys so that all my sentences tend ti cime iut akk weurd and mussoeketm kuje this and U can;t reakky maje vjur sencse/1

So you'll excuse me if I don't:

1 Get the hell on with finishing my novel
2 Do Nanowrimo-oh-oh-no-no
3 Blog
4 Point at things and press buttons
5 Go on my sodding, viscious, squeaky step machine

I gieuss thjst means U;kk have fat thighs and a gyutky conscuenec anboth nit siudng anight writugj/1!

A time-waster that writers can feel better about!

A good cause and good fun:

Click Here to check your word power.

I'm currently on level 40 and am shocked at how bad my vocab is! Apparently over 48 is extremely rare...let me know how you do!

EDIT: Ok, now I'm on 46! Only 2 levels off Stephen Fry-type genius!

Ask and ye shall receive....Rejection 2

In yesterday's post I merrily wrote that perhaps I'd hear from an agent this morning...guess what arrived in the post?

Rejection no.2. I had to smile.

As soon as I saw my own writing on the envelope, I just knew. I've always thought that if an agent is interested in seeing the rest of my ms they are going to very probably email (or even phone) me, not write. So anything coming through the post is likely to be bad news. I have heard of exceptions to this, but as a general rule I think it's probably true.

So what was this one like? Another personal letter, which is good. The agent basically said that although she liked my chapters she needed to feel absolutely in love with something to want to take it on. Totally fair enough. She also said something along the lines of 'I'm sure you'll be successful anyway,' which was probably one of those throwaway lines of consolation. If not, it does kind of beg the question: why didn't she want to take me on?!! But no, I get it. I don't feel bad about it either, remarkably. If I take her at her word, she liked it but not enough. I want my agent to fall in love with my work, I need them to be as excited by it as I am. It makes total sense.

I'm feeling weirdly confident about my writing at the moment. I don't mean this to sound big-headed, but I feel quietly sure that I will get somewhere eventually. With the confidence comes a realisation of just how far I've still got to go, but I do feel I can do it. My children's book is in great shape - I wouldn't have sent it out if I felt it wasn't - but I appreciate that I'm only a beginner at this and I've got a lot to learn. I think my chick lit novel has got some fab elements to it, but some parts truly, truly SUCK. It's going to take a lot of work and heartache before I start sending that out to anyone!

This is a great journey. I'm impatient as hell and I have times of seriously questioning my ability, but on the whole it all feels exactly what I should be doing. I'm in this for the long haul and Rejection no.2 is not going to change that. Neither will no.22 or no.42 - I'll just keep plugging away!

(Remind me of that occasionally, ok? If I get up to Rejection no.102 I might need to reassess...!)

Ok Universe, I asked for a response from another agent and I got it! Now can I have a positive response please?

No news is...no news.

On Thursday it'll be a month since I sent out my first 3 chapters of my kids' book to a (very) select group of my dream agents. Within 9 days I'd heard from the first one, which made me believe that in spite of everything I'd heard to the contrary the rest would be close behind. But here I am - oooh, DAYS later - still no more word about my words.

I know that a month in this business is a nanosecond. I might have said that already in this blog, once or twice. I know that while many agents say they try their best to respond within a month to six weeks, it must be incredibly difficult to get through all that slush. And I also know that in the US it's even slower, so I should count my blessings I'm in the UK.

But I still wanna know! Mwa!

How long do you leave it before you gently prod? I'm thinking maybe 2 months...but then it will be nearly Christmas and the agents will be all frazzled and rushed off their feet and stressed about buying presents and hung over and depressed at the prospect of spending the holiday season with annoying relatives and have colds and be short staffed and tired and have wet feet and parties to go to and be annoyed at how the rest of the world seems to grind to a halt at this time of year even though they're still trying to get through their work load so they can bunk off too and not feel too guilty about it, goddammit!

...ie, If I leave it too late, they might not be in the mood for reading my offering. How dare they be human.

Then again, I might hear something tomorrow.

Continuity

I've been reading a lot of Chick Lit recently. When I first started my novel it was important not to read other's stuff, as I was frightened I'd be influenced by their voices. Not now; I've found my groove and I'm sticking to it. I find that what I read now only benefits my own work; if it's well written it inspires me and reminds me to aim high and keep striving to be better, if it's bad it makes me check to see if I'm making the same mistakes.

I've read some really, really well written Chick Lit, quite a lot of 'ok' books, and a couple of very badly written ones that I've struggled to get through.

This doesn't shock me. It's partly to do with taste, admittedly. However what does surprise me is that I've read quite a few that are extremely badly edited! How can this happen?

For example, in the last 6 months I have read 2 books where a character's name has changed. No, I'm not kidding. MID SCENE, on one occasion. In the first book, there was a minor character - let's say she was the main character's aunt - who appeared briefly in one notable scene early on in the book. Then towards the end of the book she is mentioned again, except called something different! In the second book, in one of the last chapters of the book the main character has a bit of a showdown with her boyfriend in the bedroom. Her boyfriend's name changes halfway through the bloody scene!! With both these instances, I read back through the book to see if I'd missed something. I'm thinking, 'Who the hell is Aunt Ruby?' or 'How come this bloke John just turned up in bed with the two main characters?'. I swear to you, the names were wrong.

I've also noticed the following inconsistencies in several books: hair/eye colour change, people wearing the wrong clothes for the season, geographical inaccuracies (like driving from London to Leeds via Somerset, that kind of thing). There are many more things I've tutted at and then forgotten.

And then there's the stylistic and technical stuff; UNINTENTIONAL things like repetition or sudden point of view changes. Even, in one book, a spelling mistake!

I know how this makes me sound. Believe me, I am all for artistic licence and I'm open to giving the writer benefit of the doubt in cases where I think it's been some kind of style choice. But what I want to know, is how can this happen?

Granted, I know enough about writing to understand that with the best will in the world you can read and edit and check your ms a thousand times and still not see that you've made a few mistakes. But in most cases, your ms then gets read by your agent, who hopefully will pick up on some of them. Then it gets passed to your editor. She might decide that she thinks that Aunt Ruby should be Aunt Rose, or John should be Jake. So you change it. Then presumably, she reads it again. Quite a few times. Then it goes to a copy editor. I've heard that these people really go to town and quite often suggest a lot of changes from the point of view of grammar and accuracy. Then you get to read the thing again and make more changes.

Ok, I've never been published but I know there is a hell of a lot of back and forth on a novel before it goes off to print. So how come nobody notices?!?

What they need is a continuity girl. And for a generous fee, I'll volunteer.

(Anyone seen any glaring errors in a book they've been reading?)

Just Doing It

I've been a bit quiet this week on the blog, simply because I've been Getting On With It. I've managed to add a couple of thousand words to my novel and I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things after being fully in children's fiction mode!

I've pledged to finish the first draft by 21st December and through Novel Racers have joined a new blog called The Finishers for general encouragement and mutual arse-kicking.

I'm also using NaNoWriMo as a sort of incentive. I know, I know - it's not really supposed to be about finishing something you already have started and actually care about - but sod it, I'm recording word count and visiting those forums because whatever works is fine by me.

Off to get tappy lappying!