Hey there. Can't say I have a TON to talk about this week, or a pointed topic, but just a couple of things to jot down and move along for this Wednesday (which I am writing on Tuesday - happy 1-11-11 people).
For starters, my outlining work continues, slowly. I can't say I have dedicated the time to it that I need to, and I could most likely knock out the whole outline in a couple of hours if I wanted. We will see if I find that time. If it is important to me to finish, I will finish. Just sometimes the "urgent" gets in the way of the "important."
Anyway, as it is going along, I am realizing I may want a bit more detail to the outline as I start editing, making revisions, thinking about structure, etc., but I can't let that thwart me from at least completing a first scene-by-scene list throughout the story. I have to see what I have before I can know what I want. Regardless, it is an evolving activity that seems to be slowing as I get into it, which is horrible, because it really is entertaining to read (this is a good sign that there are some salvageable chunks there in this blob of words). I think where I am struggling is that as I read, the inner editor is jumping out already with "this scene could be expanded," "what were you doing here," and "this reads like filler." Combine that with "I never understood this character's motivation" and "this dialogue is crap," and you get walls to the process. The good part is that I am generally able to sum up the scenes in a one sentence [POV character] does [something] to achieve [some end] summary, along with occasional notes about mini-scenes that should be expanded to achieve [some other end]. I just have to choose to sit down and continue.
Revision aside, another lovely cloud that has cast its shadow over this process is the "Is this really the book I want out there?" question. This was further compounded by an #askagent conversation over on Twitter, where I got some great information, but it made me think. Thanks to agent/author @DeidreKnight, I confirmed the thought that the first book pitched and/or sold may pigeon-hole me into a particular genre/sub-genre. My question was (in two tweets with bracketed part added for this discussion): "If I norm[ally] write edgier mysteries, but also have a quirky fun myst[ery] that doesn't fit "my mold" - does it hurt to q[uery] that 1 first/just thinking if I'd be pigeonholed in the "wrong" subgenre and have a hard time selling what I am more likely to write later"
The way she put her answer was, "I'd say if you're looking to sell it first, you better be ready to write a lot more in same vein."
This advice, of course, made me think. Could I continue to do this? This specifically, that is.
The current book I am editing is an amateur sleuth mystery set in a fictitious small town in Texas, with occasional drop-backs to Dallas. I like the storyline, I like the characters, but it is not "serializable" (yes, that's probably a made up word) for sure, and it is not something I would necessarily reproduce again and be happy writing that, even though I enjoy this novel.
So what does her advice mean? (Sometimes hard to divine deeper meaning out of a Tweet with her not even having the full context of my question like I am dragging out here). Since I write mysteries, this novel is a mystery. So I am good there. But then I also have police procedurals AND amateur sleuth mysteries. So if I were to be asked to write more in the same vein there, I could produce a few more amateur mysteries and then make a jump to police procedurals, I suppose. But if an agent/editor wanted a sequel, there is no way I could do it with this book. The police procedurals - easy to put them in another murder investigation. The guy who was only in it because of xyz circumstance? Harder.
That said, I am still on the fence whether this book (Seven Doors for those playing along at home) will be the first that I query out on. But, I have decided that this will not stop me from working it through the revision process and getting it query-worthy regardless. Better to have a good solid novel polished and sitting around that I could query later than a pile of excuses preventing me from learning new skills in the writing process.
And there are always excuses.
Thanks for the comments last week - I've got lots of links this Friday, so drop back by.
No comments:
Post a Comment