Hi, Chevalier, and welcome to WriteWords

Great to hear your success story, I'll look out for the book when it's published.

If you need any help navigating the site, then just give us a shout.


- NaomiM

Thanks, Naomi, that's really kind and welcoming.
This is a brilliantly helpful site, and I only wish I'd found it before. Maybe that first book wouldn't have taken three agonizing years...

Louise

Only three agonising years?


- NaomiM

Thanks Chevalier, it was great to read your post.

I have been thinking about all this a lot since writing that first post appealing for help and advice. I definately think that in future a literary consultant may be the way forward, but not just yet. For a start it's quite an expensive way to go. From posts I've read it seems clear that I still have lots to learn when it comes to writing and a way to go with my book.

I think at this point in time I've lost sight of why I started writing my book in the first place, as a bit of fun and to prove to myself I could. Somewhere along the line I started to dream of big bucks contracts, sequels and series. I need to stop dreaming and focus on what I am doing NOW - forgetting all the rest of the stuff.

Mel

I Would recommend you put some work on WW forums for review first of all. I have put two pieces on so far and have learned quite a lot from the comments and suggestions.

I also think the idea of starting a new novel and shelving your other sounds good. Go on, give yourself permission to put your old characters on hold for a while.

Bev

Hi, Mel,

You're wiser than me. Only you know what stage your book's at, and if you feel you need more time with it alone then that's almost certainly right.

One thing that might help is what I did to edit my own book into sense before I sent it off to the consultancy: I did the synopsis first.

We all hate synopses; they're evil, unfeeling things that stupid agents use to judge our masterpieces. But they're never a waste of time since you'll have to do one anyway when you submit, and I personally found it the most useful tool yet in self-editing.

When you write a 1,000 word synopsis to explain the heart of your book, you're forced to find it yourself first. Unless you want to write one of those hideous 'and then, and then' jobs, you're forced to work out cause-and-effect all the way through. All the key self-editing questions (eg 'whose story is this?', 'why does it start were it does?', 'what do I really want to say?', 'what is the hook?', 'what's driving the narrative at this point?' etc etc) need answering right here. You say you're worried about over-plotting and too many characters (yep, this was me too) but writing a synopsis will show you exactly where you need to simplify. In my case I found I had characters who weren't even mentioned in the synopsis because they didn't further the narrative at all - every one of those has since bitten the dust. Yes, of course we need minor characters for humour, texture, to show other sides of the principals, etc etc ad infinitum, but if that is really their whole function then they have to stay minor and not hijack vast swathes of story - which mine did. The same is true of plot. Every novel is different and what works for me may not for you - I can only say that when I couldn't see a clear driving link from paragraph to paragraph of the synopsis then I knew my plot was coyly working itself up its own backside. It was actually truly appalling, and I couldn't read that draft now without blushing with shame.

When it comes to detailed analysis, then I would think the best advice is that already given, ie to ask help from the many talented experts on this site. If I'd done that I might not have needed the consultancy. All I'd say from my vast inexperience is that until you have the Big Picture clear in your head then the delicate editing work won't help much. It has to stay your book - so be sure in your own head what you want it to be before you ask if it's achieving it.

Finally,I think you should be giving yourself a bloody big pat on the back. You know when you're stuck, you know when to ask for help, you know exactly what your main problem is - ie forget serials, contracts etc and go back to what made you write in the first place. Yes, yes, and yes. You may think you're the novice here, but your last post has helped me no end and is getting me through the horrible block I'm experiencing with Book 2. When I'm a tatty pile of yellowing remainders in a crummy shop on the Charing Cross Road then you'll be up there, and I for one will be cheering.

Salute!

Louise

Mel, I used to think that dreaming of publication and the big bucks contract was a waste of time, becaus publiation is difficult enough, and the big bucks contract is as rare as hens teeth, but it is a natural progression of a writer's journey. First you write it because you have a great idea for a novel, then you continue because it's fun, then you complete it just to prove to yourself you can. And then what? You edit and redraft because here's the goal of publication. It is the only thing that will keep one going, because if the first one is rejected, there will need to be the next novel ,and the next - it is those writers who persever, who get publshed in the end.
Hold on to the dream.


- NaomiM


<Added>

I could use your help, Louise, in the Synopsis & Outline Group.

<Added>

Also, Beverly is correct, one should leave the manuscript for a few weeks - or even months - before editing it, so you can look at it with a fresh eye.
(At least, that's the usual advice, I find it doesn't work for me. I can never look at my own work objectively and need outsiders to point out the mistakes )

hello.

ive never written here either. only joined last week. hello. ive read what people have to say about your crisis of confidence. it would appear that you dont have any deadlines or pressures that are tying you in to finishing your novel. however, you obviously have the dedication to write it. why not have a break from it for a bit, do something else, try not to think about it, then go back to it in a while. all the knots youve tied yourself in, won't magically unravel themselves, but maybe thy wont seem quite so .... knotted when you return, or you'll view it in a slightly different light. that'd be my suggestion for what it's worth.

byeeee ....

Crisis Over!!

Ooooo Louise I could kiss you!!! I read your post yesterday and was not only really touched by it, but also it inspired me. Today I sat down for a couple of hours and typed out a three page synopsis of my story from start to finish. As you said it helped me sort out my characters and situations and cobble everything together into some form of order so that I now have a clear beginning, middle and an end. It's all fallen into place thanks in no small part to the thinking I have put to the story in the last few weeks of my crisis.

I really can't thank you enough for that bit of advice yesterday, it's made all the difference. I hadn't wrtten a synopsis of my story since before starting draft one. Since then the story had changed so much i really had lost track of it but writing today I have been able to find it again and also make some alterationg which should really give draft three a kick!

I have sorted out the story and cut characters who were serving no use other than adding confusion. It's brilliant. Thank you so much!!! I feel motivtaed again!

I've still got loads of work to do working on all the background material (character breakdowns, history and the like) but I feel 1000 times better. Hopefully with a few more evenings and weekends doing the preliminaries I'll be able to start draft three with confindence in just a few weeks time.

Meanwhile, I might also get a good nights sleep - cos this had been keeping me up let me tell you.

Thanks again Louise - and everyone else who offered advice.

Mel

P.S. for any newbies reading this, if you're wondering if the site is worth joining I have to say yes! It's been worth it for me and I'm not even a week into my free trial!

Hi, guavajuice and welcome to WriteWords.
Don't dissappear now you've started. Get stuck in and have fun.
If you need any help navigating the site just give us a shout.

- NaomiM

That's brilliant news, Mel. You don't waste time, do you?

I'm really glad the synopsis helped. Still, it sounds as if you already had a pretty good idea where the problems were so I don't think I deserve kissing. Unfortunately.

Best of luck with the third draft - this sounds like The One. Please do come back and update us, or yell if you get stuck.

Louise

Hi there, Mel, it sounds like you're over the crisis of confidence, which is good to hear. What I was going to say is that even if you feel that a book is not working, and cannot be made to work, and the only thing you can do with it is put it to one side - even that is not wasted. You will have learned an awful lot merely from the attempt. I think back on my early efforts as apprenticeship pieces. I didn't manage to pull them off for one reason or another, but I learned a lot from them. Of course, I was a slow learner, so it took me many years to 'get there'.

As Chevalier says, it sounds from your posts that you have a very good idea of what you need to do, which is way over half the battle.

Welcome to you both, by the way.

Welcome to all the new people who've piled in here, and I'm so glad you've broken through the wall, Melsheff.

I think Louise's advice about the value of writing a synopsis is absolutely spot on, though it's agony at the time.

And Roger's so right about the fact that nothing you write is ever wasted, even if it doesn't ultimately make the cut. Some people call it process writing: writing you needed to do to get where you are now. How do you know what you think till you see what you've said?

As far as literary consultancies go, I'd always suggest that you take it as far as you can on your own, and with cheaper forms of help, before you do that. Not just because it's a lot of money, but also because the better you know your own work, your own writerly self, what you've got in the book and what you want it to be, the better placed you are to ask for the kind of report you want, and to make use of what you get. And 'make use' includes having the confidence, which comes from that deep knowledge of your own work and self, to decide that some of what they suggest you do you're not going to do...

Emma

And Roger's so right about the fact that nothing you write is ever wasted, even if it doesn't ultimately make the cut. Some people call it process writing: writing you needed to do to get where you are now. How do you know what you think till you see what you've said?

Brilliant advice, Emma - and beautifully put. My last book has a 'dump' file nearly twice as long as the book itself, which I can now proudly call 'process writing', not 'redundant cr*p'.

Louise

writing you needed to do to get where you are now

I think I'll stick that on my wall. Pratchett (interviewed by Mariella Frostrup for the Book Show) says he puts in everything then savagely edits it down.


- NaomiM