Writing: Backtracking
March 29th, 2006 § 5 Comments
A few developments over the past week. Since the 15 February I’ve been pushing myself to finish my draft by May to enter The Vogel novel competition (http://www.allenandunwin.com)which closes on the 30 May 2006. I’ve been faltering in the past two weeks for a few reasons:
1. Writing at such a breakneck pace (from the 15 February I’ve written 55,500 words-from 13,500 words to 69,000 words) is really, really tiring. I feel like I’ve been completely consumed by my novel and the real world almost ceased to exist.
2. My projected draft total was 80,000 words but when I reached the 69,000 word mark I realised it was going to be closer to 100,000 words, which meant I had a lot more work to do.
3. The quality of the draft would be embarrassing to enter into the competition.
4. We’re moving interstate in July and I need to incorporate the move plans into my life.
Ergo, I’ve made the decision to not enter this year. I still want to complete my draft before the move to Melbourne as I expect my life will be in upheaval for a few months and I won’t be writing so this would be time to reflect on my draft and gain some perspective to revise.
As a result of making this decision the urgency has faded and my motivation has faltered. Yesterday I was moaning about how I felt stale and was trying to come up with solutions to this. Since then I’ve realised that I just have to keep going with the novel. The mark of a true writer is to write even when you don’t feel like it until you feel like it again. So on Friday I’ll be getting back on that horsey.
I’ve also updated my blog formatting. I have been inspired by Stacy Holmes (http://stacyholmes.blogspot.com) who listed her publishing credits on her blog so I have ripped off-I mean incorporated her ideas. Thanks Stacy.
This has also fixed up this annoying formatting problem I had where the sidebar kept disappearing to the bottom of the page. I haven’t done this up until now because I kept thinking that I would list these on my website. But for now I’ll use this to promote myself in my own lame-arse fashion and hopefully by the end of the year I’ll knock up a website.
I started this blog with the primary aim of self-promotion and yet have had great difficulty putting myself and my achievements out there. It took me a year to put up my photo (I deleted six months worth of entries by accident a few months ago), then it took a while to write up a proper profile that lists my achievements, and now finally I’ve breached the last bastion and listed all my publication credits.
When I wrote an email to JA Konrath (http://jakonrath.blogspot.com) commenting on his blog and website I said that I think girls have greater difficulty promoting themselves. We’re so conditioned by society to be nice girls and wait for praise, that it’s difficult to put ourselves forward and this is my thing.
While I’m not a shy or retiring person somehow when it comes to promoting myself as a writer it’s almost like I feel that I have no right to that claim. I kept thinking that the more publishing credits I collected the easier it would become, but at the end of the day nothing was good enough. Sometimes you just have to make the decision and push yourself out of the comfort zone.
I keep writing emails to my friend and critiquing partner Jodi about the changes in my blog with the heading “Promoter or Wanker.” I guess that’s what I find the most off-putting. The whole thing of what’s bragging and what’s being matter of fact about your achievements. Hopefully I’m toeing the line and hitting the matter of fact tone. Anyone else had this problem?
You hit the nail on the head! I never could figure out exactly what the problem was until you mentioned how we are conditioned to be nice girls waiting for praise. You are sooo right!
*g* thanks for the blog mention.
No, I think you’ve done just fine–why SHOULDN’T you promote yourself? I’ve been thinking the last few days about doing more of that on my blog, including a link to your “review”
So partay on, Promo Slut, and save a dance for me!
Stacy-no worries. That was a great idea listing the achievements in the sidebar. I just kept thinking I have to wait until I have a website and so didn’t think laterally.
Hey Gabrielle-You know how there’s the chick lit circuit where they promote each other’s writing on their blogs. When we get published we’ll establish a Promo Slut circuit. You and I’ll be the founding members!!!!
There’s a book! There’s a book! Look!!
http://www.klausact.com/bragbook.html
I haven’t read it, but I’m going to.
K x
Looks like an interesting book that clarifies the whole debate. I’ll check it out too.