Having spent my evening with eight complete strangers in a basement in central London (which sounds oh so promisingly seedy but in realty so very boring) getting my first chapter dissected, I have come to the conclusion that if I keep getting feedback on every version I write, I will never ever finish this novel.
There must be a time when you say, "alright, it's not perfect and it will need more work here and there" but then you just get on with it.
The points made by the eight strangers were all valid and a few of them where things I have been thinking myself. (Note someone counted the usage of "fuck" and thought 11 "fucks" in 5678 words were just a few too many. Buddy, that's nothing - Eliza swears a lot; what can I do?) And of course there was a lot of amazing critique as well - my descriptions, use of language, the irony, humor, pathos, the way it transports the reader to a place and makes them feel and engage - with both places and the characters, the clever way of weaving my threads so delicately and never losing them. Someone even compared Jack to a Murakami character!
But although I will go back to the seedy basement in the near future to return the favor, I don't think I will submit more until I'm done. Isn't that what you have editors for (editoR in my case as I've sacked two; not told them yet - they are just too unreliable when it comes to follow through - snacka går ju men snacka så det går...) to read the thing as a whole and then pick out all the things that you have to change (usually most of the novel)?
Feedback is always good but when it means you will never get to the end, then I think it might be best to just push through. And in the mean time just show it to the people who think your writing is as beautiful as the aurora borealis. After all, getting your fragile writers ego boosted on a regular basis doesn't hurt, right?
P.S. As I've sacked my American editor I need a new one - should you fancy reading my most fantastic novel in the near future please apply within.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Messier messes of mess
I'm currently outdoing myself in the mess department. I can't find myself in this mess, never mind things I might actually need like my keys and phone. Everything is upside down in my apartment, at work I'm chasing myself for work which I was supposed to have done days or even weeks ago, trying to get to the gym 4-5 times a week so I don't have to have surgery to reduce my breasts is impossible and I think I'm going to have to get a cleaner because, as so astutely said in August: Osage County, washing my underpants is getting in the way of my drinking. And as if that wasn't enough, the mess in my head is worse than ever. Perpetual. Obsessive. So what's new?
Finishing the novel in the midst of this mess - challenging. But I'm trying. And I'm trying hard. After the difficulty with rewriting Chapter 1 completely I've definitely put it to bed. It was particularly hard because nothing in the second half of the chapter was no longer relevant to the story, and I had to cut so much of what I considered to be really good writing and ideas I wanted to explore further. I do love my sentences - they are rather beautiful. But before Chapter 1 is ready for my editors, I'm taking it to a new writing group on Tuesday - it's going to be interesting to hear what people I have never met (I don't even know their names) have to say about it.
On to Chapter 2 and 3. For some reason I started working in parallel on them, which is not a good idea. Yesterday I spent looking through all the comments I've had on the various versions of those two chapters (and changing hyphens to dashes - god damn it Word!) and decide what I thought were valid points. Today I was supposed to finish them both but here I am blogging instead. I will though. Jag ska bara...
But truthfully I'm really quite excited. By the 101st birthday celebration - that's my FINAL deadline - I will have finished my first novel and start my second. I have my three editors lined up - one has no choice, the other two have expressed their wish to read it. All the themes are coming together, and at a workshop on Friday I was told the way I manage to weave the story around the themes is really impressive. To which I had to admit that I'm not even aware of it half the time. I was then told that in that case I have an incredible talent. Which I do. I kid, I kid!
Well, I half kid.
Finishing the novel in the midst of this mess - challenging. But I'm trying. And I'm trying hard. After the difficulty with rewriting Chapter 1 completely I've definitely put it to bed. It was particularly hard because nothing in the second half of the chapter was no longer relevant to the story, and I had to cut so much of what I considered to be really good writing and ideas I wanted to explore further. I do love my sentences - they are rather beautiful. But before Chapter 1 is ready for my editors, I'm taking it to a new writing group on Tuesday - it's going to be interesting to hear what people I have never met (I don't even know their names) have to say about it.
On to Chapter 2 and 3. For some reason I started working in parallel on them, which is not a good idea. Yesterday I spent looking through all the comments I've had on the various versions of those two chapters (and changing hyphens to dashes - god damn it Word!) and decide what I thought were valid points. Today I was supposed to finish them both but here I am blogging instead. I will though. Jag ska bara...
But truthfully I'm really quite excited. By the 101st birthday celebration - that's my FINAL deadline - I will have finished my first novel and start my second. I have my three editors lined up - one has no choice, the other two have expressed their wish to read it. All the themes are coming together, and at a workshop on Friday I was told the way I manage to weave the story around the themes is really impressive. To which I had to admit that I'm not even aware of it half the time. I was then told that in that case I have an incredible talent. Which I do. I kid, I kid!
Well, I half kid.
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