Some of you may have noticed that I haven’t blogged for quite awhile! The reason for that isn’t because nothing’s been happening or I haven’t had anything to say (as if!), but because I’ve been questioning the point of this blog.
When I first started blogging 3 years ago here on my old blog, the plan was to share my writing/publishing journey with family, friends and anyone else who was interested. It was a personal blog with some tips, insights and advice as well, for others who might also want to pursue a creative/writing dream.
After my second placing last year in the Winchester Writers’ Festival Feature Article competition I decided to make the blog more article-like, sharing the discoveries on this journey with more of a professional rather than personal slant. However, as I’ve become more immersed in the writerly world I’ve found that there’s already a LOT of blogs out there full of great articles about writing. With all that blogging “noise” you have to work hard to network and get yourself heard. Did I want to compete in that arena? No, I decided I didn’t. I wanted to prioritise working on my stories. So where did that leave my blog?
Cue an old friend (as in I met them over 20 years ago, rather than them being particularly “old”, although we’re all getting that way!) tweeting me over the summer to ask how my writing was going and had he missed a blog instalment? That one action helped me realise that I should keep blogging, if only for distant friends who were still interested in knowing how this writing adventure is going!
The upshot is that this blog is going to get more personal again. That won’t attract the audience I’d planned to build at one point, but that’s fine. I want to be known as a writer of great YA, not as a writer of great writing advice. Naturally I’m hoping some of that might be found in my musings as well though!
Let me sink my flag into the ground and declare where I’m at right now then (will include backstory you’ve missed in future posts!)! I’ve continued to work on my WIP and after two or three editorial surgeries, my Golden Egg editor asked to read my full manuscript in order to see how up together the whole thing was. I wanted to do another full edit before sending it to her, so we agreed I’d submit it at the end of August. Over the summer, I studied some Chuck Palahniuk writing essays, read a great blog post about writing Deep Point-Of-View and worked as hard as I could to incorporate all my recent learning into my new edit.
Almost miraculously – especially with everything else going on over the summer – I met that deadline with an edit that I’m absolutely and totally chuffed by!! The book has a wonderful new name (top secret for now!), a rewritten first chapter (that’s a story for another time!) and has been pared down by about 5,000 words (no mean feat).
Now begins the waiting game (again)! My editor’s going to read the manuscript during September – although frustratingly she has two others to look at first – and then let me know where it’s at. Of course I’m hoping she’ll say it’s wonderful and practically finished, but she may say it needs loads more editing. Whichever it is, the dream still shines brightly and the journey continues full speed ahead. While I wait I’ll be blogging, reading, cleaning my neglected house, learning how to wait (a vital skill in the publishing industry!)…and working on book 2!! I have to keep on writing, not least because I turn into Kafka’s monster if I don’t:
“A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.” Kafka
More soon – I have lots of thoughts to catch up with 🙂
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Hi, I'm Mel (you figured that out already though, right?!) and this is where I chat about things that relate to and inspire my writing, as well as share some of it.