Friday, July 17, 2009

I've Birthed a Book!

"I hope that this time I will be able to hold all the threads together, that the characters will evoke a sense of reality, that what I've written will elucidate a theme, that an occasional paragraph will sing, that I can, in a phrase I learned in England, 'bring it off.' This, I believe, is the constant ambition of the writer and his constant prayer."

~ JAMES A. MICHENER


I finished my SFD about 6:30 last night. After pacing (and yeah, flexing a little), I finished printing it out about 9:30.

Now what? My last two attempts are stuck in the proverbial bottomless drawer.

This one is different.

I have about twelve gazillion craft books and workshop notes on editing. Too much data.

The next few days are going to be focused on researching this next giant step. That delay will help with the "settling/stewing" thing I've heard about so often.

Nothing like accomplishing something by doing nothing.



CR: Relentless by Dean Koontz.

Will be crawling through Margie Lawson's Deep Editing system, Chris Roerden's Don't Murder Your Mystery, Browne and King's Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass, with Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird standing by to make me feel better.

It's all better with friends.


10 comments:

  1. Congrats on the birth! Now the second phase begins. You're in great company with that list of friends to help you along the way.

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  2. Congrats on the birth! Now on to the second phase. You're in great company with that list of friends to help you along the way.

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  3. Thanks for the encouragement, Beth.

    Suddenly I feel like the better part of valour would've been to scrap the whole thing before it got this far.

    Sheesh.

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  4. Congratulations a million times over, Peg! I am reading your news from far off (for me anyway) in Oregon, but this just gave me a little lift of home, and I am so happy to hear it!! Don't be silly--better to have scrapped it! Now you have something you can polish into a gem--you have done the hard work of mining your mind and heart and life. If you ever need an extra trusty reader, please don't hesitate to ask little ole me, and in the meantime take some downtime...and smile :)

    Oh--Albert Zuckerman's WRITING THE BLOCKBUSTER NOVEL was a real inspiration upon revising to me! I also like Write Tight...

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  5. You are about as far west as a Jersey girl can get. Wave as you fly over Colorado on your way home.

    You will be on my list as a reader. Thanks. (Should it get that far.)

    And . . . thanks for two more books I absolutely must have.

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  6. Sheesh. Waive. Waive. Waive.

    I always mess that one up. Visually, the word with an "i" in it looks more like a big chunk of water than the other.

    My excuse and it works for me . . . (not).

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  7. Hey, I'm reading from Oregon too! Congratulations, and absolutely not better to have scrapped it. It's your baby, and now it's going to grow. Don't forget to love it as well as "improving" it.

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  8. Thanks for the good thoughts.

    At the moment it's kind of fun. But I feel those teenage years coming on.

    {sigh}

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  9. Congrats, Peg! Hope you will celebrate, even if just a little bit, at every step. Treat yourself!

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  10. I saw it as wave...? But I like the slip, too. Like we all have to waive our control once we let our baby out into the world...but that's also when it becomes something readers can really connect with. For me, that's always the miracle part--even though I moan and groan a lot ("I can't possibly fix that!!") as I try and get there. Well, anyway, hello, Oregon, hello, Colorado--what beautiful states!

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