Thursday 15 September 2011

A Small Piece of Advice a.k.a Something I May Have Done Right

I knew that when I started writing fiction that involved history that it would be time consuming. Because of the amount of research involved I knew that I would take some time for the book to develop and turn into something substantial. And, because of personal issues I was in the position where planning and organizing was keeping me sane.
So, I made the decision that I would not try to do anything in regards to finding a publisher until I had written enough material to fill two books. Mind you, in terms of historical fiction its not uncommon for the books to be quite large so I didn't give myself any restraints to the length, but it had to be something I was comfortable and happy with.

It was something I did, as I had stated earlier, to keep myself sane during a rough patch, and now I'm looking at it thinking, this is something I may have done right. So, I say to you, dear readers, if you're writing something don't start to pitch it unless you're comfortable with the amount of material you have, because if you don't have enough you won't get to enjoy the process. Getting published is supposed to be a joyous occasion for a new writer, why not make that all a bit easier?

Thursday 8 September 2011

Additions, Rewrites, and the Fun Part of Putting a Book Together

So, I'm working on polishing my book up for it to be presentable for others.
I think its fun, and I'm lucky enough to have found someone who's in synch with what I am trying to do so what she's suggested I do to make the book better are things that were needed but I couldn't step far enough away to see it, things that the book needed to be that much better.
An elevation of sorts.

I'm finding the process quite freeing, the chaos of my personal life falling on the back burner for my work for once. But, to take myself seriously as a writer this is something that I have to do. People who work from home have to set boundaries, thankfully I have (for the most part) supportive friends and family who respect my personal space. Its taken a lot of time to get to that point, and now that I'm in the situation where I will have a deadline and responsibilites in regards to my writing I think that will help them back off. Many people don't get it, especially people who are not artistically inclined.

Also, I know I've been hard to deal with over the years in many ways. This is all that I've wanted to do my whole life, and I have not deviated from that goal, people who don't have that kind of ambition can find it intimidating. I've spent a lot of my life not being taken seriously. And because I've had the liberty to only go after my dreams, that bothers other people. I've had people try to stomp on my dreams just solely because they felt like they couldn't go after there's. Its not my fault you're stuck, dude.

So as I sit and work on the rewrites, the additions, the polish, I'm reflecting a bit on the past and all the naysayers I've had to deal with and I can't help but be relieved that now that the time has come for it all to come together that the people who are around are the ones that truly believed in me and I can be grateful to them, and not have to worry about anything else other than putting out the best product I can. The fun part of making a book come to life, I think.