I am not sure what to do with my mess of a novel. Open to suggestions

Discussion in 'Traditional Publishing' started by Cave Troll, Apr 17, 2016.

  1. Cat Cherry

    Cat Cherry Member

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    @Cave Troll, here are some exercises that I heartily recommend. Most of them will probably be suggestions you've seen before.

    1) Stop thinking about your writing in terms of "I really suck at this," "I am not good at this," and "I am bad at this;" instead, substitute, "I am relatively untrained at this, so it's a good thing that I enjoy practicing it and reading up on how to do it better."

    2) Be okay with the idea of writing six or ten unpublishable novels before you come up with one that's awesome. Be okay with not being able to tell which is which at the beginning. Be okay with writing for the joy of writing. If you aren't, you will never keep pushing yourself through the painful times when you are actually learning the most about your craft, which are precisely the moments that you most need to experience if you want to get good.

    3) Go on YouTube and search for Brandon Sanderson's 2013 creative writing lecture series at Brigham Young University. All of the lectures he did for an entire semester-long creative writing course are up on YouTube, albeit in annoying 15-minute increments. I am an avowed atheist, so please do not think I am pushing you toward Mormonism. I was skeptical of the BYU/LDS evangelical factor at first. There will not be a lecture on writing sex scenes, because it's BYU, but the dude knows his shit cold when it comes to choosing tense and viewpoint, plotting, character development, how to approach agents and negotiate contracts, etc., because he actually is a bestselling author. Also, it's entertaining to watch him throw candy at students to encourage participation, aim poorly, and accidentally bean them (or, in one case, the camera lens).

    4) Go take creative writing courses, join in-person writing groups, haul in your friends and relatives (and their friends and relatives) as beta-readers, and keep getting feedback here. Make sure that at least some of the feedback you get is from people who are recognized by others in the field as knowledgeable about the craft. The key is not just to get feedback, but to get at least a bit of quality feedback. (You've gotten some from people on this forum already!) Don't get me wrong--all feedback is awesome. All people who agree to read one's work are awesome. The usefulness and concreteness of their advice will vary widely, though. Look at the quality of their own writing, as well as their level of experience in the industry. Getting the opinions of 20 people who read for fun is an amazing thing that can tell you a lot about how your audience will respond to your work, but in some cases, it may be much more helpful for your revision process to get the opinion of one person who is a working professional in the industry, a literature/writing professor, or a multi-published author in your genre.

    5) Remember that most of the highly successful writers on the market now think that their work sucks when they're in the middle of editing it. This includes people who have already published 17 books and are pulling six-figure royalty checks. If you doubt yourself, you're in good company. If you keep working on the book anyway, you're in better company.
     
    BayView and Shadowfax like this.

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