Hello,

I've mainly joined for more info about agents, having seen how useful the free parts of this site are.

Been writing for around 9 years. Finished working on a novel late last year - second one completed. First effort got shelved after sending to approx. 20 agents – realised it was a bit of a mess, frankly. As for the current effort, had a very positive report back from The Literary Consultancy. So, chances are it’s not a complete dud. The usual procession of rejection letters are piling up, of course. Only tried five agents so far, though, so still a long way to go.

I'm stuck in limbo at the moment, having trouble finding any kind of inspiration. Maybe the batteries have run completely flat. Wondering if I might be better spending the time in the pub instead; it’d remind my old drinking buddies I still exist. They suspect I've been abducted by aliens and/or joined the French Foreign Legion. Either of which, come to think of it, might increase my chances of getting published.

Andy

Welcome to the site, Andy...

I can't tell you anything about agents, since I haven't got to that point yet. I've been writing seriously for about 10 years but mainly short stories. Am writing my first novel atm.

However, there are plenty here who will be able to give you tips! Check out the Getting Published forum and the Private Members area.

Deb

Welcome to the site, Andy.

Maybe the batteries have run completely flat.

That is a very common experience. Some authors recommend starting the next novel the day after finishing the last, but that pre-supposes one has a storyline waiting in the wings, and the energy and inspiration to carry on.
Some downtime is only natural while the manuscript is in limbo, doing the rounds of the agents.
Getting drunk sounds good to me - I'm trying to accomplish that with a box of rum truffles

- NaomiM

Welcome Andy.
Nik.

Thanks for the advice and the welcome. I've looked round some of the Member-only sections so far.

Oddly, since I first posted about being short of ideas, the grey matter seems to have got itself a bit more into gear.

Hi Andy and welcome to WW.

I think the way you're feeling is very familiar to most writers at certain stages. Reading other people's work can get the juices going again - published, or on WW - but you may just need a break from the drive of writing to a goal for a while. Messing around, free writing, trying a form or a subject and seeing what happens can all help too.

Emma

Welcome, Andy - as you've been through the process before, guess there's not much we can tell you about targeting agents properly and really polishing your first 3 chaps and synopsis - did you have to rewrite much following your report from the Literary Consultancy? I rewrote mine (my second, too) following a report from Cornerstones, which got the full requested (i'm now rewriting it again, informally, for that agent).

As for lack of inspiration, it's a funny place to be, having finished a novel and started to send it out. Don't be too hard on yourself, maybe you need to chill for a short while and just let some ideas bubble around in your head for a while or do something completely different for a while.

Let us know how you get one (have you seen the rejection thread in the private members lounge?)



<Added>

Jeez, 'for a while' 'for a while';)

Hi Andy,
This is a great site, welcome. I have yet to have any 'bum' information give me here. Everyone is so helpful.
I would suggest heading for the pub or the garden or whatever if you are devoid of ideas. They strike at the strangest moments, so you never know what you might start with an outing!
Take care
Tracy

did you have to rewrite much following your report from the Literary Consultancy?

The report from The Literary Consultancy was very useful and interesting, but I didn’t do much rewriting as a result of it. The main observations were about the novel as a whole, rather than details I could edit. I’d made a conscious decision to give the story a very narrow focus and the TLC comment was that setting the story in a wider context could dramatise it more effectively. However, the reviewer recognised that I’d deliberately aimed for a claustrophobic effect. All in all, the report is a very good reference for writing the next novel.

I’m working on a radio play at the moment, to see if a change is as good as a rest. I know someone who used to be a high-flying City lawyer, but she got badly burned up by the stress. I’ve got plenty of background material from her and it seems a shame not to do something with it.

I’m putting together ideas for another novel as well – a noirish thriller about a low-level drugs dealer in Amsterdam who’s unwittingly caught up in a nuclear smuggling conspiracy. I did work for a time there (not as a drugs dealer, I should add) so it’s a setting I feel like I know well.

Progress is v. slow, though, but at least I feel I’ve got ideas I’m gnawing away at. It’s not like there’s a complete vacuum. I just miss the energy I could feel when I was really motoring with the last work.

All in all, the report is a very good reference for writing the next novel.

I think this can often be the case, and when people are wondering whether to cough up for a report, it's worth knowing that often its value is as much for the next novel as the current one.

Andy, yes, it's lovely when you're cooking on gas with a piece, and it's such a painful contrast when you have a patch where it's more like pulling teeth.

It can be to do with the stage you're at - I find the second half of anything is easier than the first, because there's so much you don't have to spin from nothing about the basics of places and character, the voice (you hope) has settled, the pace is only a matter of making it fit with the first half, and so on. You may find it picks up.

It may also be the form you're working in: drama is so dense, there's much less room for the kind of breathing spaces and 'easy' bits you can legitimately have (even want) in a novel. It may just be that your instinct is rightly telling you that every word has to count twice as much, in which case logic dictates () that every word will take twice as long.

Good luck with it all, anyway.

Emma

Hi Andy,
I've just joined myself (trial period at the moment) for myself I have been writing for about two years seriously. However I've been writing pieces and putting them away most of my life. I find the best inspiration I can get is from life, just watching and listening.
All the best
Joe