Wednesday, August 10, 2005
On Writing
After reading over thirty novels over the summer thus far, yeah I know us overpaid teachers have too much time on our hands, I have come to a realization about my novel that I wrote a few years ago. I sucks.
Friends like it, my mother, while she was alive read it and liked it. (no not because she ws my mother she was the most hyper critical person I have ever known) So it had to be good right? Or so I thought.
First of all it is too short, at just over 62 thousand words it is about 20 thousand shy of the average and well, it is a bit corny on the whole.
I had sent it out before and been rejected, this summer I was going to make a concerted effort to sent it out to a lot of places and well it was rejected again. Somewhere between the 25th novel and the thirtieth I had an epiphany. My novel wasn't good. While there were no plot holes, there wasn't enough characterization, or description and the dramatic construct of the birth of the serial character was contrived at best.
I decided I needed to rewrite it. That realization did not come without some concerns. Could it be fixed, should I spend even more time on it? I decided the only thing to do was try.
After all writing is rewriting, and one famous writer once said you never truly finish a piece of writing, you merely abandon it and hope it makes its way in the world. My piece was but a foundling and it needed to be nurtured some more before I set it loose.
Friends like it, my mother, while she was alive read it and liked it. (no not because she ws my mother she was the most hyper critical person I have ever known) So it had to be good right? Or so I thought.
First of all it is too short, at just over 62 thousand words it is about 20 thousand shy of the average and well, it is a bit corny on the whole.
I had sent it out before and been rejected, this summer I was going to make a concerted effort to sent it out to a lot of places and well it was rejected again. Somewhere between the 25th novel and the thirtieth I had an epiphany. My novel wasn't good. While there were no plot holes, there wasn't enough characterization, or description and the dramatic construct of the birth of the serial character was contrived at best.
I decided I needed to rewrite it. That realization did not come without some concerns. Could it be fixed, should I spend even more time on it? I decided the only thing to do was try.
After all writing is rewriting, and one famous writer once said you never truly finish a piece of writing, you merely abandon it and hope it makes its way in the world. My piece was but a foundling and it needed to be nurtured some more before I set it loose.
