From First to Final Draft - The New Creative Writing Thread.

[CharCharGabor]

Everybody's welcome, if you want to share ideas, techniques, publishing info or just chat about writing. Come on in!

belledechocolatefluffybunny I don't 'have' an agent, there is an agent reading my MS - I feel like there is a river of crocodiles to cross before I could ever hope to call her 'my' agent!

I really hope she does come back and offer to represent me, but it's difficult when I know she's not keen on the first part and I can't do anything to change the MS she's already got in her hands. I understand why Jane Austin called her novels her children now, you teach them what you can at home but one day you have to take them out in public and trust them to behave themselves (which DD rarely does!).

I am @jessicabull50 on twitter - if you fancy another freaky follower?

ninah Your post did make me laugh To give you hope, the agent did say that when she started to get a bit bored of the novel she had a quick peak at the synopsis to see if anything else was coming up. So I suppose the little bit of the synopsis she did read actually saved me, as she then decided to carry on reading. So don't strip off or butter the bread for that earwig sarnie just yet!

I've found you NotAnotherNewNappy. I'm belledechoc on there

I'm going to try to do some illustrations later. One of my books is with an agent, they've had it for just over 2 weeks so they must be very busy. I do get quite worried, I want it to be good. Jane's right.

Oops, forgot to check this thread for a while! Looks like everyone is still waiting (sorry to say the waiting never ends in publishing, unfortunately -- it's always glacial). And hi to bellede. Have just followed you guys on twitter!

Should be working, but am procrastinating. Have been a Very Good Girl and just finished two sets of revisions, but now have another set to do and am a bit over revising. Have been ebaying heaps of stuff in preparation for our move to the UK, instead.

Notanothernewnappy, if you're having problems with linear plots, have you ever tried three act structure, or any of the screenwriting techniques. The Blake Snyder beat sheet is pretty good for getting rid of linear issues, I think. I'm a mad plotter, though, so if you're a pantser it might not be for you!

I have written a childrens book for 11-13 year olds. I'm busy proof-reading it for errors now. I think its quite good but this is just me. Next job is trying to persuade someone to publish. If anyone works for a publisher and would not mind having a look please let me know .

Hi.

I recieved this today:

Dear Belle,

Many thanks for sending us this. I very much enjoyed reading your work;
however I'm afraid that ultimately I didn't feel sufficiently confident
that it had the necessary edge to find a place in what is an
increasingly competitive market. You may well of course receive a
different response at other agencies, and I would certainly recommend
that you explore other avenues.

This is a bog standard reply right? Should I wait a while and send her something else?

Hi Belle, I'm sorry you didn't get anywhere with that agent [hsad]. Are you going to try anyone else? It does seem that you need to either be an established name/celebrity or know someone in the industry to get anywhere now

Nearly, meant to say thanks for your advice before! I've been keeping notes for stories etc, and now I'm between essays I'm actually getting somewhere with one of them!!

I've signed up for the NaNoMoWri thing in November, is anyone else doing it?

I'm still waiting for one, I sent these something a little different Twitter's going well, there's alot of people on there. I'm being followed by a few publishers which is good. I've set up a blog with bits of my books on there aswell and linked it to twitter. I shall have to wait and see.

Best of luck tilly

dandy i'm really sorry to hear that, how upsetting. It's hard enought to keep getting the pro formas, but to have actual concrete hope and then a let down, I can't imagine.
You have to focus on the fact that something about your writing is extraordinary, otherwise you'd never have got to the point you did. And keep going, I honestly believe rigourous work and perserverence pay off in the end. or they bloody better!

I'm sorry Dandy, that sounds really frustrating.
I wonder what goes through an agents head sometimes.

Hi Dandy, I'm so sorry, I've been waiting to read your update

Can you do anything sneaky like, perhaps, sending it to another agent and saying the first agent has shown interest and is currenlty reading it? It's only a little white lie but I've heard that once you've got one interested then the others all want a bite. It might make them sit up and take notice - and if the first agent gave you so much feedback then no one can say she wasn't 'interested'.

I wouldn't - agents do talk to each other

Hi all,

Am so glad to have found this corner of the forum. I'm yet another would-be writer. I have to admit that in the last few years I've become one of those people who talks about writing more often than they actually write, but I'm trying to change that.

I've completed a couple of fantasy manuscripts in the past but they were both 'learning experiences' to put it politely and are no longer on submission. In fact I also have a mostly written YA fantasy that's not going anywhere either. I spent a few years on it in the end by doing full rewrites but it is very very hard to update old work when your style has moved on, I find.

I'm currently writing an urban fantasy (can you spot a theme here?). I'm about 50k in at the moment - actually it is last year's Nanowrimo and all I've done since last November is cut all the rubbish bits out, write a load of notes, and try to write an outline for the remainder of the book. Of course I've also had a baby in the interim :D.

My son is four months old and I'm finding it rather difficult to get any writing done, though I appreciate a lot of you have managed it. He's not a good daytime sleeper and goes down at about 8pm at night. I stay up for three hours or so after that but it's usually filled with sorting out dinner, relaxing with my husband or trying to deal with the housework! I can snatch a few minutes here or there but need to work on getting my focus during that time instead of just reading Mumsnet (er...).

I don't just like fantasy, I've also got a few women's fiction/romance ideas for novels but they're in the queue. I'd actually like to write more short stories but I only ever seem to get longer ideas.

I worked in book publishing for a couple of years after uni so feel like I should have some insight into how it all works - but I don't. I suppose the biggest thing I learnt when reading slush was that many, many books are rejected for being competent but boring. To stand out you need that extra spark - that voice. I think I can write competently. Whether I'm capable of anything beyond that, I just don't know yet.

My goal now is to finish my urban fantasy, send it to as many people as possible, then get to work on the next idea - which will either be an epic fantasy that's been brewing for years, or one of the women's fic things I've got up my sleeve.

Hope everyone's writing is going well :)

Did I kill the forum creativity? Have a feeling I might've done as am finding it very hard to get anything written myself this week (more so than normal). DS is teething and either unhappy or just not sleeping. I have, however, managed to get a flash fiction submission sent out - but that's all I've written in a week - a mere 150 words. Gah!

Hi everyone,

I have a question.I have two books that I have written and one I feel is ready to go.I would like to enter into a competition and the prize is you get published.I think the company is only a small one so I was wondering: If a small company publishes you, can another bigger company take over later on if they like it?

Another publisher would only be able to take over if either the rights reverted back to you for whatever reason (eg going out of print) or if the first publisher was willing to sell the rights to them.

Then of course from the second publisher's point of view, your book has already been published - so they have to think what they would gain from republishing it? They would probably have to see quite high sales figures (comparatively) before they'd think they might be able to get good figures themselves. After all, from their POV it's already been on the market once.

I think, if you really believe in your book, you might as well submit it to top agents/publishers first - send it to competitions with smaller publishers when they are exhausted. And if you don't believe in it, don't send it out anywhere.

Of course there is nothing wrong with choosing a smaller/indie publisher if you find one you like, but don't go for one first just because it seems easier.

Also check that they're a legit company. Am sure you've already done this but there are publishers out there (eg Publish America) that use questionable tactics to lure in authors/sell copies.

Have you thought od epublishing to get started??

Great thanks Hamster,you have definately swayed me to wait.I do believe in it and want to give it the best shot I have.I dont think I fully trusted the publisher I was looking at.

Belle; what is od epublishing?

Hi Fortunatehamster! Don't think you killed anything, everyone's probably off Nano-ing! I've seen some amazing word counts around the tracks. Would love to do it one year, but the timing is never right. Am revising right now - 150 pages of a final light edit to go and my next YA is off to my agent. Yay! Have more work on after that, but am choosing not to think about it, lol. Especially as we're now only six months out from moving to the UK. Will have to start to get a tad more organised.

Storygirl, great advice from Fortunatehamster. If a big publisher is what you really want, I'd give that a try first. I'd probably pick out five agents I really wanted, send to them and wait for responses. Then maybe do a second round of another five agents if there was no success there, then reassess.

I've no idea what's happened to my spelling!! It should say 'of'.

I have a twitter follower who's decided she'd like to read one of my books so is trying to get someone on there to publish them for me!

Of course, Nano! I've done it a few times and do think it's brilliant for motivation but I just didn't have the time this year with a newborn. sigh

e-publishing can be pretty good depending on what genre you write. I know it is/was big for erotica. If you've written something mainstream-sized though I think it's always worth aiming high first :)

I write childrens so e-publishing isn't the best way to head I don't think. I may be needing it at some point though.

Thank you Novelist.

I have the Writers book of the year but also have another couple of questions.Should I get someone to read it through first, I am a little nervous about my Editing as I have read it through so many times now.But who?

Also I am now in my own small country having recently left the UK, shall I give it to Publishers here or send it out to the UK where I will be hopefully returning to in a few months?

A few people are also asking what genre Im writing? It is not exactly chick lit,not very humourous at all but definatly for women of all ages.Think Ya ya sisterhood, or Elizebeth Berg?Are they considered chick lit?

I appreciate any advice in advance and love this thread!

I would definitely get someone to read through if you can, but it's difficult to find a good critique partner. Friends/family tend to just tell you it's great! Maybe you could pair up with someone around here who is writing something similar?

I used to write chick-lit back when publishers liked to buy it and would definitely not recommend using the term chick-lit now in any way, shape or form! I'd go with contemporary women's fiction, or simply women's fiction.

If you think the UK would be the biggest market for you, I'd definitely try UK agents/publishers first.

Good luck!