Playing with words
December 25th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
It’s depressing how no matter how much revision you undertake on your writing, there is always something else you see that you can correct, improve or re-write. There is a saying that novels are never completed, instead they are abandoned, and there is some truth in that. I’ve been revising for over a month.
I reduced my overall wordcount from 82,000 words to 70,000 words. Tweaked the structure until I was completely happy with it and was beginning to think I was done. Did my dodgy blurb and even dodgier synopsis so I could send it out, and then I realised it was all wrong. The novel was written in third person and I needed to change it to first. So another lot of revisions have begun. I have until the end of January to complete and finally send it out.
While this has been going on I had a brainwave. I read about a writer who self published her romance novel to good sales and remembered my completed first romance novel, hidden in my metaphorical bottom drawer, or in this case a hidden folder of my hard drive. Perhaps there was money to be made from this overlooked creature, with a few tweaks and revisions. So I printed out my manuscript and began reading, and I realised why I didn’t send it anywhere. It suffers from all those mistakes that beginner writers make, cliched writing, over-wrought prose, plus I tried to hard to squeeze it into the romance genre convention that I killed any life in it.
But I did like the first sentence, the first chapter and the last chapter. So I think I’ll go back to the drawing board and embrace the original idea-which I absolutely loved and came to me in a dream, and give it a chance to come to life without any conventions or expectations.
I’m also really feeling in the mood for writing non fiction. There are a few competitions I’m going to write essays for and see where it takes me. Usually I settle in to working on a novel and put my blinkers on. I get so caught up in trying to complete it that I kill off any other ideas, but I’m determined not to do that anymore. I want to keep my muse alive, dip into various projects here and there. Next year is already shaping up to be busy with lots of possibilities and exciting new challenges. There will be some exciting announcements soon, but for now I’m just enjoying playing with words again.
