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| This is me being being an editor for my mate, Micah. This is an excerpt from his WIP, Klown. Click to enlarge. |
Yes, I said a month or so ago that I would be querying by now, and starting to get serious about my next WIP, Katherine. But the bottom line is that Evergreen is not ready for an agent or a publisher to see. If you read my last blogpost, let me say this now: The Hero's Journey steps are only part of what I need to fix. Aaron is the first person to read Evergreen and bring this much helpful criticism to the table for me, and knowing him the way I do, I respect every word he is saying because I know he reads great fantasy novels and he is good at analyzing things like this. If he sees shortcomings, weak points, potholes and so on, then all he needs to do is point them out and I can see them too.
I'm sorry to be prattling on about Evergreen for so long on this blog. I'd really love to move on with my writing, but Evergreen is my first child, and I need to get it walking and toilet trained before I can send it to preschool... if you'll pardon the analogy.
It took Patrick Rothfuss fourteen years to get his first novel The Name of the Wind published, and he became a bestselling author. He overstepped his deadline for the sequel The Wise Man's Fear by several years in order to make it awesome too.
Edit I must, and edit I shall. How long have you all been working on your current manuscript?
- Bonnee.
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I'd like the record to show my attempt wasto not be racist... :P
ReplyDeleteHI MICAH! :) Sure you weren't. You just wanted to show that Logan was more ninja than the ninjas were.
DeleteActually I just didn't know how to describe Asians... I was originally going to make hima red head but decided it would be cruel to make him THAT LAME!
DeleteIt's funny, because whenever you manage to grow your pathetic excuse for facial hair, it comes out RED! Or so you told me :)
DeleteI finished my first draft of my first novel in 2009 I believe it was, and it still isn't anywhere near query standard. I'm not sure it will ever be. I think it takes a lot of work to make anything ready for query standard, let alone prepare yourself for the possible rejection you'll face during querying, so I would say there isn't any rush, Bonnee! Don't send any work out unless you feel satisfied with it, and feel it truly is at that standard. You'll get there one day hopefully, and whether it's sooner or later, you'll be glad you waited the extra time you did. In the mean time, I wish you the best of luck with the editing!
ReplyDeleteOoh I finished mine in 2009 too :) I'm glad to know I'm not the only one on this boat, so thanks Fiona. Let neither of us send our work before it's ready and we'll both be glad we waited. The best of luck to you as well!
Deletehmmm...I'm actually working on a few different pieces at the moment, about three to be precise! the funny thing is sometimes I have a real bad case of writers block and other times I just write and write and write.......
ReplyDeleteI cant remember when I started them...maybe a year or two ago, I'm not exactly sure. :-)
I don't see anything wrong with working on multiple pieces at once, as long as you feel you have the ability to keep putting your best effort into each of them. I find it easier to concentrate on one thing at a time, but seeing as I've finished the writing component of Evergreen, I guess I could always get serious about writing Katherine while I'm still editing. We'll see how my attention span decides to work. :) Good luck to you!
Deletewell what I find is that whenever I read through one piece, its almost like I'm transported to that world...its pretty awesome!! so whenever I read a piece I can just keep going on with it. :)
DeleteGood luck to you too! I think we'll be seeing this book in stores soon: Evergreen by Bonnee Crawford. And it'll be on the bestsellers list hahhaha :D
I love it when I'm able to enter the world of my stories when I read them... and I get what you mean; once I'm really in that world, I'm really in the zone. It rocks!!! :)
DeleteI hope you're right about the stores and the bestsellers list hahaha :D I have my fingers crossed!
It took me 15 months to get Parallel Lives sent out on its first query. Some of that time was spent NOT working on it (i.e., shut in a drawer for six weeks to let it 'simmer'; working on something else while others read it), and probably a month of that was spent trying to write a decent query and refine my agent list. And, part of it was spent dragging my feet in fear of letting anyone see it in case I was deluding myself and it was really bad.
ReplyDeleteFor the current WiP (and it took a while to stop thinking of PL as 'the WiP'), the seed of the idea was planted in September, but I didn't start writing until January. It's currently a 'full' story, i.e., beginning, middle and satisfying end, but it's still way too rough and, as per today's post, missing something.
And I know exactly how you feel about Evergreen. Even though it's done and gone, PL is still lodged in my brain in a particular way that's hard to get rid of. Good luck with the edits.
Time away from a manuscript and then looking at it with a fresh set of eyes is a great help, though I feel that repeating the process a few times has been especially helpful with Evergreen. Working on Katherine while I let Evergreen simmer might be an option...
DeleteBest of luck with your new WIP and with Parallel Lives. :)
Great post Bonnee! Haha your editing for Micah reminds me of how I tear up books when I'm editing. Sometimes I think I'm far too picky - there's a fine line between editing someone's words and editing someone's style. I have yet to find it. :) But anyway, you'd be happy to know that all your talk of books has truly inspired me to start writing again! I'm going to work on a story this afternoon... BTW I am your newest follower! :D
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's those picky little things that make or break a book in the eyes of a reader. I aim to get things as close to perfect as I can. If I was editing his style, I would have lost the line about the eyebrows...
DeleteI am THRILLED to hear that you've been inspired to write again by reading my blog! I hope I can inspire many others too. Thank you for following, I'll be sure to return the favour :) Have a wonderful day, Sharon!
Aw thanks for following!! You have a wonderful day too!!!
DeleteIt's your novel and your writing career, Bonnee, so it's your call when to query. Something to ponder about with Aaron is how good is Evergreen. If it's very good with a potential to become a best seller, then it's best to spend more time to polish it and wait till you'll get into a university writing program where professors can give you good feedback. But if you feel that Evergreen is just good, then you can query earlier with the goal to have it as your first published book, while anticipating your better novels to be in the future. In any case, time is on your side, so no need to rush. And your editing skills as shown in helping Micha are very good.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Giora. I see Evergreen as having more potential than Katherine at this point, and I'm not sure if it's just my perception of it, or if that's what others will think too. Aaron says he sees it's potential, but he has a very critical eye and that's why I'm trusting him with showing me where I still need to improve. Waiting till I start my university course could be another option, but I'm not sure if I have THAT MUCH patience... we shall see :) Hopefully I can start editing my own work as well as I edit other people's work. Thanks again Giora!
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