Thursday, November 09, 2006

Playing the Patience Game

I'm currently slugging it out with my novel and finally have it on the ropes... 212 pages finished, polished gold, ready to go, leaving another 82 to pick through and make sure the dots are connected and no loose ends remain. This is the last edit...

It's pretty exciting but quite spooky as well. It's hard enough to send a short story out into the world, let alone a full length novel. Writing for me is very personal, and only when I'm absolutely sure of a story will I send it out into the world, knowing it is going to have to undergo intense scrutiny even before it gets published. Criticism abounds out there, but that's all part of the game. And besides, you can't please everybody so there is no point in trying. So long as you're happy with it, that's all that matters.

The novel is going to take me to new levels of anxiety. Already, I have back up copies and copies of back up copies, one of which is always with me no matter where I go. Dr Paranoid Freak at your service. But then again, this is the result of a year's worth of work, and I'm pretty proud of it.

I've been trying to fit in writing short stories around the novel but they seem to be piling up in my head faster than I can finish them. I put aside Friday's for writing short stories, which is why I only have 5 submissions out there with editors at the moment. I'd really like to increase that to about 15 or 20, but that's not likely until I finish the novel.

Two of those short stories were submitted in January 2006, nearly a year ago now. One magazine has at least been in touch to say the story is slowly making its way through the slushpile, but I've not heard from them for over 2 months now. The other one, well, I'm sure that magazine has gone belly up as there has been no replies to any of my emails. So I think it's time to cut and run, time to take that story elsewhere. Time to find a new home for it.

Okay, intermission is over. Get back to it.

2 comments:

Brian G Ross said...

Well, I don't know about an extra $800, but, isn't havin' the novel finished and sent out there enough?

Sheesh!

;o)

Marty Young said...
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