I'm just back from the annual writers’ holiday at Caerleon, where I've spent five concentrated days doing workshops and courses, listening to talks, chatting with writers of all levels… (get this: on Tuesday evening I found myself sitting round a table with three successful authors, a publisher and a top agent… and we were talking about shopping! Graahhhggg!)

One constant I heard from several published writers is – treasure the luxury of writing your first novel. That might seem strange when all your hopes and ambitions are focused on getting a contract – and none of them would wish to revert back to the unpublished state – but it’s worth thinking about. Having a contract means you commit yourself to putting another finished novel on the publisher’s desk on or before a specific date. Usually, they want to publish your second one a year after the first. Think back… how long, in reality, have you been working on what you hope will be your first published novel? I would lay bets it’s more than a year. You sign a contract, open the champagne and, quite rightly, celebrate. Next morning, twelve months seems awfully close.

Not trying to deter anyone -far from it – just wanted to say: cherish your virginity… not having a contract is, in some respects, a luxury you don’t appreciate until you’ve lost it.

Stay cool

Dee

Hi Dee,

Yes it is a luxury but, like you say, none of them would go back to being unpublished!
I can't imagine being given a deadline of one year to write a novel, with my various personal commitments (that we all have.) Having said that, what an incentive to knuckle down and stop procrastinating - i can hear myself now.. "Sorry, no can do, i've a deadline to meet"!
Seriously though, it's a good point. Especially for those who also work full-time and have written their first novel in the evenings and at week-ends. Unless, of course, their advance is enough to give up the 9-5.

Casey

Well I've written mine in evenings and weekends and it took 6 months for a first draft...
if you want it enough, you will do it.

Not trying to deter anyone -far from it – just wanted to say: cherish your virginity… not having a contract is, in some respects, a luxury you don’t appreciate until you’ve lost it.

So, so true. It feels quite different. Even now I wonder if it shows...

I settled for a two-year deadline, and certainly wouldn't want it to be any shorter. TMOL took three, but that included some quite long gaps. It's hard, but I do think it's important for authors to resist pressures that their writer's self knows will be bad for them: you may have a deadline offered to you, but there's always the option of refusing it. Any publisher with any sense would rather have a better book in two years' time than a worse book in one, but writers need to find the confidence to put the case in those terms. If the advance has meant they can give up the day job a year may sound like plenty - it seems like unimaginable luxury to be able to write all day. But being faced with a blank page at nine o'clock every morning brings its own pressures and insecurities.

Emma

Having a deadline does concentrate the mind! And it might (might) mean your family give you a little more leeway than they did before.

I guess it's a grass is always greener situation.
As a journalist I thrive on deadlines- otherwise I would procrastinate to kingdom come.

Book one had to be written before my 30th. I've set a kind of Christmas deadline for book 2.

Hopefully then I'll relax into book three.

That said I feel like a pent up writer..it had taken me so long to finally make the time for this that now that I've started I find it hard to stop.

How usual is it to have a book-a-year contract, I wonder? It might, I suppose, depend on genre, but I think a longer period is more often the working-time. And obviously it's one of the points you negotiate at contract.

Dee, thanks for that, you post up some really useful stuff which is great.

Never thought of it that way but it's true, there is some kind of magic about the elusive first book

Alexandra

Dee,

An original viewpoint - as usual - nicely stated.

However I don't think it will be too long before you lose your literary virginity. If anyone on WW deserves publishing success it is you. Your dedication, sheer hard work and obvious appreciation of what makes writing 'good' is obvious from the many constructive comments you put forward on the works by fellow Members. However all this is put in the shade by the creativity and excellence in your own writing.

So, 'be prepared' to lose that virginity!

Len

Alexandra and Len, thank you so much for your kind words. I’ll keep trying!

Dee

Dee - every day is a blank page, a new challenge, with the same risk of of failure and the same chance of putting it right when it happens. And no guarantees - ever.

Blimey - why do we do it at all?

Awra best!

Jim
(1000+ words today, but so what?)

No guarantees

That’s just it, Jim. As a friend of mine once said – getting a contract is like winning the lottery, until you realise that all you’ve won is a ticket to another lottery.

The only guarantee of getting published and staying published is to do it yourself.

Dee

I think, too, it's probably much easier to place your short stories if you're unagented.