More novel thoughts

I had been feeling disgruntled and discouraged in the process of writing this book. I treated it like another copywriting job. Big mistake. Because of that, I wasn't as emotionally invested as I should have been. So I chugged along and got it down, but I wasn't enthralled. Enthrallment is a great motivator.

Then came deadline week. And then the word was that I needed to turn this baby in...today. So I came home from a day of tennis, lunch with the ladies and half-a-dozen shopping errands, sat down at my computer and took a look. That's when I discovered that by just changing one thing...in the middle, I was able to heighten and energise the whole thing, and consequently, that inspired a more natural ending, I think. That was kind of neat - that I could just go in and tweak it, goddess-like - and have the whole thing change and get revitalised somehow.

It is by no means perfect. But I feel much better about it than I did. What's more, I know how to go about this process better next time. And there will be a next time, for sure.

For now...at least, I'm happy to say I'm 2000 words short, but I see more clearly what it is I have to make happen. Once that's done...well then, I can go and do the next one.

With a hell of a lot more emotional investment.

I used to think

as a writer, I could write anything.
I was wrong.

Ending Epiphany

I ought to have finished the book three days ago. But it is more difficult than I thought it would be. And the writing goes more slowly the fewer words I have left to spend, if that makes any sense. Am on page 158 and keep backtracking and rewriting and going round and round the same paragraphs, trying to determine the best way to end this. I am now realising why so many of the promising contemporary novels I have read go pretty much to pot from the climax onward, all the way to the end. And that's because it's very hard to pull off a convincing ending. But it has to end...and soon...
People are beginning to breathe down my neck...

Another novel thought

I am at pages 138. I figure I have to start wrapping things up. Perhaps about 60 to 70 pages to go. No more than that.

I also feel that things ought to be coming to a crescendo. And it's a little dismaying that they don't seem to be. Yes, circumstances are playing themselves out. Characters are moving, seem to be growing and they're talking a whole lot. But I am not sensing the kind of urgency that the later pages of a novel ought to be invested with. Am I stuck in a long novel? Qualm qualm qualm.

At Border's yesterday, I looked at the books in my "sector"...and came across only one that was something close to three inches thick ala War & Peace. The others were at a comfortable inch or inch and a half.

But it struck me as self-indulgent. I recall RS from 100 years ago saying to me, thin books don't sell. But still.Unless you're talking about an epic with a cast of thousands like, say War & Peace, I really have difficulty reconciling that kind of length in this kind of sector.

Call me a cynic. But one of the genuine charms of this genre resides in its brevity.

I think.

One more idle Idol thought

Neil Diamond was a fun night and all. But it occurs to me that there are other songwriters that deserve Idol nights. Off the top of my head, what about Kenny Rogers, Billy Joel, Abba, The Carpenters, Michael Jackson, Diane Reeves, Patti Austin. A Patti Austin night would be cool.