Stuart Bone's Blog, page 7

It's finished!

I've just finished final edits of my second novel, Nothing Ventured. There's always a mixture of feelings I have after completing a novel. Relief is definitely the first one but there's also a tinge of sadness mixed in with the happiness. It's almost a sense of loss in a way. The story is done, the characters have completed their journey and, chances are, I won't be seeing them again.

My plan has always been to publish this in November and I'm sticking to that. I'll prepare the formats of the novel for eReaders and a physical copy but I'm also going to send it out to some literary agents next week too, to see if I can get any of them interested in it.

Once that is done it'll be time to return to a bit of employed work. I need to get myself back onto the property ladder again after three and a half years off of it!

Of course a first draft of book 3 is also waiting for me too. I think I hear it calling...

When a minor change becomes major

It's been a while since my last blog but time seems to pass extremely quickly when there's a deadline looming. It's a self-imposed deadline but still one that I want to meet.

My final edit of Nothing Ventured has been taking ages, even though I've only been making minor changes here and there. Unfortunately I reached Chapter 10 and decided this part needed a complete overhaul. Still, it's got to be right. I guess it's better to be a week behind rather than on time but with something you're not happy with.

One of my main characters, Diana, is facing up to a fear in the scene. She hates things flying around her head and so friend, Lou, takes her to a Butterfly House to conquer her fear. The humour was coming from an eight year old, know-it-all boy in the scene who found it highly amusing that a 'big, old thing like Diana' could be scared of a butterfly. There wasn't enough humour so I added in his mother who was taking him off for a dentist's appointment where she hoped she'd be able to get a bit of a filling too from the rather dishy dentist.

I kept reading this chapter over and over but something wasn't right and I didn't know what. Eventually I began adding more conversation in with the young boy, Marcus, but the things he started saying were far too risqué for an eight year old. I really needed an innocent adult instead; and that's when a lightbulb went off in my head. I already had two rather innocent-sounding characters who had enjoyed themselves on a coach trip in Driven to Distraction. Seeing as both books are set in the same fictional county and the events of Nothing Ventured take place a year later; it wasn't hard to bring back Josie and Suze.

They wanted to return to the county for another holiday but as the coach company has now folded they decided to hire themselves a car instead (A Toyota Clitoris, Josie thinks it's called).
I've just written in their scene and although it will need a few tweaks, it already sounds far better than what I had before. What a relief!

It's funny how scenes can sometimes develop. I had to make several minor changes to Chapter 10 before I could see what the major change needed to be. I just hope that I'm still happy with the remaining fourteen chapters. Only time will tell.

September already?

I can't believe we're already in September. It won't be long until the large tins of Christmas chocolates start appearing in the shops. Mind you Christmas starts earlier every year anyway. Soon the stores will start draping tinsel over the beachwear.

My deadline of November for publishing second novel, Nothing Ventured, is fast approaching. This is the current blurb: -

Sometimes you need to take a chance in life to make something happen. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Several residents in sleepy Ryan Harbour find themselves in this exact situation. While a bucket list brings enemies, Diana and Lou, together; landlord Jamie Taylor’s events to attract new customers to his pub don’t quite turn out as planned. Robert and Grace’s sexual experimentation is quite an eye-opener to them and Dr Bryant’s infatuation with his new locum could get dangerously out of hand if his wife finds out. With some unplanned public nudity, sexual roleplay and being responsible for the extinction of an entire species of beetle happening (among other things) the harbour town certainly becomes less sleepy; but with love and friendship blossoming, there’s everything to gain.

I'm still ploughing through a final grammar edit of the novel, which is taking ages to do. Five chapters down, eighteen to go! I used to think paying an editor to check my novel was a luxury I couldn't afford. It's fast starting to sound like a necessity.

Synopsis

I've decided, before publishing Nothing Ventured online in November; to send it out to a few literary agents to see if I can get anyone interested in the novel. That means I've had to start work on the dreaded synopsis. I hate writing these things, trying to summarise a whole novel that you've put your heart and soul into, down into a few short paragraphs.

I wrote so many versions of these when sending my first novel out. You really have to treat it the same way you write your novel - pour everything you've got into it and then keep editing and coming back to it until you're finally happy.

Most agents want a synopsis of one page or less. I found this hard enough to do for the first novel and Nothing Ventured is 35,000 words longer!

Yesterday I managed to get one down to one page but it wasn't easy. It's difficult to get a version that is a summary of the story but that also sells it to the agent.

Articles will tell you that the synopsis should just tell the agent what happens in the story following the first three chapters that you've sent them but some agents may look at the synopsis first before reading the chapters. If you've sent a mediocre sounding synopsis then they may not even read the chapters no matter how brilliant they are. These are busy people with hundreds of other submissions to get through as well as working for the clients they already represent. You've got to capture their interest in the manuscript, cover letter AND the synopsis.

Rejection letters are never a pleasant experience so why try again when my first novel failed to find an agent? No, I'm not a sadist; I just truly believe that an agent is the best way forward for a writing career.
That's why I'm facing up to this synopsis again with a smile on my face and a song in my heart...Yeah that bit's not true. It's probably best if I'm not around people right now.

That final edit

I've just finished all of the main editing on my second novel, Nothing Ventured. The last thing will be a final read through, word by word, to check for grammatical errors. It's probably my least favourite thing to do but necessary.

My accounting career was actually pretty useful for this task as I've always had to pay close attention to detail in my different jobs, especially in the role of regulatory accountant where getting reports to the financial authorities accurately and on time was essential to avoid the company being fined.

Being picky is also useful. I didn't think I was a particularly picky person until last Friday when I was out for a meal. The waitress asked me what I wanted with my chicken dish, skinny fries or thick-cut chips. I wanted to ask, "Don't you have something in between?" as I'm not a great lover of either of those options. In case you're wondering, I went for a jacket potato instead.

Anyway, back to that final edit; is it a comma or a semi-colon; hmmm...

The Olympics

Well I've been enjoying the Olympic coverage and very proud to be British right now. I'm not someone who watches much sport normally but the range of events being televised means I'm never bored. It's a shame the BBC keeps switching from channel to channel but it's the commentators that are really getting on my nerves. It's like they've been told not to leave any gaps and they witter on randomly; contradicting themselves as they go because they don't listen to what they are saying themselves. The golf and tennis yesterday were particularly bad. I reckon some of them have taken a college course in 'Talking Bollocks' and passed with flying colours.

It's not all bad though and the innuendos during yesterday's men's pommel horse finals has given me ideas for scenes in future novels. It was terrible to hear that one of the guys was having trouble getting up while another couldn't close his legs, which affected his dismount. Mind you I was a bit worried when the commentator said they were going to show us what our gold medal winner had done on the floor earlier! We all get nervous but that doesn't mean we want to see it!

There's advice; and then there's advice.

I was just reading an online article giving advice about what makes a financially successful author. Some of it made sense, such as having more than one book out and paying for a professionally designed cover, but I have to admit I didn't really find, "Write in a popular genre" very useful.

In one way, it's too obvious a statement and not really advice. It's a bit like saying, "If you like living, my advice is; don't step out onto the road in front of a bus."

Secondly, I'd say most novelists write what they want to. We'd all like to be a financial success and be able to earn enough money to do what we love full time, but not at the expense of our writing. If we started writing in a genre we have no interest in just because it was popular, the quality of the writing would suffer...and there'd be too much crime fiction out there to go around.

When I was trawling through the Writers' & Artists' Yearbook looking for agents for my first novel; desperately trying to find as many as I could that stated they looked at humorous fiction, I couldn't help thinking that I'd have been better off writing crime/mystery/thriller, as that seemed to always be on the list of what most of them were looking for; but I didn't go back and try and amend my first novel or write a new one. I knew humorous fiction was the right genre for me and perhaps I'd have to take a different path to get the novel published.

Of course I think I've mentioned before that humorous fiction can dip its toe into other genres and plans for my fourth novel does involve crime but it certainly wouldn't come under the heading of, "Crime fiction." I do have a detective as a secondary character but any references he makes to police procedure will be few and far between as I have no real knowledge of what those procedures are (apart from what I've learnt watching crime series on TV and I don't think I can rely on them for true accuracy). My plan is to shove a, "This is against the rules but..." before my detective reveals any information to the main character. Anyway, book 4 is a long way off yet.

So advice - there's loads out there; some useful, some not so useful; but in the end you just have to get down and get writing and you'll probably end up learning more through your own experiences. And then you can pass what you've learned onto the next generation of writers.

Laughing at own humour

As I'm editing second novel, Nothing Ventured, I'm laughing at the scenes. Hopefully that's a good sign and doesn't scream Narcissism. Humour is an odd thing really. Who knows why someone laughs at one thing while another doesn't find it funny at all.

I've decided to follow the notion that if I'm laughing then those that share my sense of humour will too. Wouldn't it be terrible if it was only me that found the book funny!

I noticed I've had some 5 star ratings for the first novel here on Goodreads from people that aren't friends and who don't know me at all, so hopefully I'm doing something right! Thank you to those people. I hope the winners of the giveaway like it too.

Anyway back to Nothing Ventured and a scene involving pain in the arse, Chris, who thinks all women and gay men fancy him. ("It's going commando in tight jeans that does it.")

A Day Off

Tomorrow I am taking the day off from writing. So what, I hear you ask. Who the hell wants to know about that? Don't worry, I'm with you on that one. I remember when I first ventured onto Facebook many years ago, wondering what all the fuss was about. When I began seeing postings like, "I've just popped round to mum's" and "I've just eaten a Mars Bar" I was still left wondering what all the fuss was about. Who wants to know about that crap?
As the years have passed and I've defriended people who write comments like that, I've come to enjoy Facebook.

Anyway, back to the day off. I only reference that because I've been looking forward to it all week. I've mentioned before that, while I'm fortunate enough to write full time, I try and treat it like my previous office job and work a five day week. Even though I absolutely love writing, just like everyone else in their chosen profession; it's nice to have a day off once in a while to recharge the batteries.

That reminds me of a conversation I had a number of years ago (in the pub, where all problems are solved and every topic discussed). A guy asked how I could say I was tired after a long day in the office when I was sat down all day! I resisted the temptation to say, 'If you think office jobs are relaxing and easy why isn't everyone doing it' and tried to explain that, even if you're sitting down at a desk working, you're still using up energy, but instead of it being physical, it's emotional. I don't think I convinced him but it's true. Having to concentrate on the tasks you're doing, dealing with other people, meeting deadlines, all these things use up your emotional energy and a particularly stressful day can leave you drained.

I use the same energy in writing (which is why I often didn't get much done while working my other jobs at the same time). Sometimes, when I'm writing a scene or editing a chapter and I'm concentrating solidly on that for half an hour or an hour; once it's completed and I sit back; I do feel tired.

I've just read that last sentence back and it sounds wimpy, I know, but it is right. Using up your physical or your emotional energy leaves you drained. And that's why I'm looking forward to my day off tomorrow.

Advice

I'm quite looking forward to this week, workwise, as all I've got planned is editing of the second novel. Last week, what with the giveaway for Driven to Distraction finishing and getting the books signed and sent off to the winners; and also answering a number of questions for an author interview on a review website; I didn't get as much editing time as I wanted.

I didn't quite realise how high postage costs are. Nine of the ten giveaway winners live overseas from the UK and the postage was more than it cost me to buy the ten copies from my supplier. Still, the one UK winner actually lives in my home town and as my parents are driving past the end of her road today, they're popping it through the letterbox for me so that's saved a few quid.

The review website that I mentioned above should be printing a review of my first novel in the next couple of weeks. When it does I will supply details/links to it here. They have a vast number of questions for author's to answer for an interview and suggest answering a minimum of twenty.

It was answering these questions that got me thinking about advice. Similar to a question I answered here on Goodreads, there was one asking if I could give any advice to aspiring writers. I was almost reluctant to answer as I feel I still come under the heading of 'aspiring writer' myself; but perhaps advice coming from someone going through the process of publication and trying to get a book noticed is better than from a successful author who has just had their tenth book hit the top of the bestseller list.

The last thing a writer like myself wants to hear, just after receiving their thirtieth rejection letter, is to hear a successful author say, "Yes an agent is key to getting published. Of course I was lucky that the first agent I approached wanted to take me on..."
I'd rather hear from the writer turned down by every agent in town to find out what they did next to try and find success. It's like being told, "Beauty is only skin deep" by a person so gorgeous that people faint after one look at them.

I read about one author's experience of obtaining an agent in an article a while ago. I can't remember who it was but he'd gone to a book fair of some kind and was standing in an aisle, looking confused when someone came up and asked if they could help. It turned out it was an agent who had stepped off of her stand to provide assistance and she ended up taking the guy's piece of A4 paper with his jottings on it about his book (she even had to ask him to add his contact details) and the agency eventually took him on as a client.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm happy for the guy. If anyone is able to attract the attention of an agent then all power to them, but really; it's difficult reading that someone else stood in a crowded room looking forlorn and found a literary agent when you've just received your latest rejection letter.

I hope when my author interview appears it does prove useful to people. I think the best advice I can give to aspiring writers is not to give up, keep at it and, thinking about the guy I mentioned above; hope for a big dollop of good luck.