@madiguana
Active 5 years, 5 months agoForum Replies Created
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I’ve said it elsewhere, but I think it’s OK to congratulate a person more than once, isn’t it?
Congratulations Jane! Over the (edge) (of the) moon for you, if that’s not too tortured an attempted pun (I know it is).
Can’t wait to read your published work.Perfectionism is a curse. But the desire for perfection is necessary, if we’re ever to get to be as good as we can be.
Every time I re-read anything I’ve ever written, I find myself changing a word here, a phrase there. A sentence can be cut completely and rewritten, and in the next rewrite, it comes back again.
I found comfort in the quote from someone who said that a book/story/piece of writing is never finished, only abandoned.
I think you have to do it, you have to make it all as good as it can be, but there comes a point when you have to recognise that the change might not actually be improving anything. It might be a better word HERE, but it might disrupt the rhythm you’ve been establishing THERE.
I wouldn’t worry about simplicity or complexity either – that depends on your style. Make it you, your sentences, your words, and make it the best version of that you can be, and it will be good.
And when you find yourself agonising over this word or that word – if the difference isn’t so big that you know immediately which one works, then maybe it doesn’t matter.Wowee Wowee Wowee @Janette! Well done you!! Absolutely amazing news.
Jeez that’s some incident. I did not know about this at all – thanks for telling the story so vividly, Richard!
It just shows that human nature – our inability to foresee and avert disaster until something truly catastrophic has happened – is unchanged over the years/decades/centuries.Jeez that’s shocking behaviour. Both from your agent @Hilary and @janette.
I’ve never got that close – I mean, I’ve had full requests but no more than that – but I’d have thought you could at least rely on agents to be honest.
We’ve all been blanked on a submission – which is par for the course, even if I don’t particularly like it. But to bring someone down to London for a meeting only to insult them, to ask for changes with no indication of whether they’re for no reason or not…
I had an agent make suggestions to me on a partial submission, but it was absolutely clear that those were based on her opinion and they were offered in the spirit of helpfulness, and if I made the changes, she still didn’t want to see the submission again. It was actually nice to get that kind of feedback. And at least I knew where I stood.
Anything else is just teasing! And that’s never a good look, in any game.
On the bright side, you have to take the whole process as a sign that you’re on the right path.I’m late to this debate, but it’s a very interesting one, so I hope no-one minds me resurrecting it.
My view on this is very utilitarian (I think), in that I always – consciously or unconsciously – try to work out whether the value of the book/music/art/movie/whatever is greater to me than the cost of reading/listening/watching it.
And the problem with that, of course, is that there are a ton of ways of measuring the value and the cost (both measures including a large moral component as well as any artistic and/or financial component), and neither one is necessarily independent of the other.
It’s easier when the prejudices/views are explicit in the work – such as Lovecraft – which means that they both immediately (artistically) devalue the work and increase the (moral) cost.
In other cases, the fact that the artist is still alive can increase the cost without increasing the value; out of copyright work can decrease the cost without decreasing the value.
I’m someone who listened to lostprophets way back when, but I couldn’t listen to another song by the band once the accusations against Ian Watkins came out, and I haven’t since, even though I own the albums and there would be no financial benefit to the band if I did. The associations with something so vile are too strong, so there is still a moral cost to me. And, to be blunt, they’re not that good that it’s worth it anyway.
On the other hand, I’ve bought Roald Dahl books for my kids, full in the knowledge that his beliefs were questionable. At the end of the day, I think that the enjoyment the kids get from the books are worthwhile. After all, I don’t believe that anyone sees the purchase or the reading as inherently endorsing those views.
But I’ve not watched a Woody Allen movie in years, even though I’m not 100% sure if the accusations against him are true or not. And I’ve no intention of doing it. I’ll turn the radio off if Michael Jackson comes on.
It’s an arbitrary approach, unfortunately, but I think it’s the only one there is (unless you rule out nothing, or rule out everything by people even slightly controversial).
Super stuff Jules!! Haven’t read the first one yet – bought it, but haven’t read it. I’ll get the 2nd anyway, so it’s ready for when I am.
I’ve entered the Bath Novel Award four times and been longlisted twice, but no further than that. It’s a good award, and well worth entering – there’s an excellent community around it if you have the time to engage.
Alan, it is judged completely blind, so there’s no favouritism going on, but it’s unavoidable that the judges of any award will favour a particular “style” over another. For example, I’ve never expected that my Fantasy novels would win anything there, or in any “literary”-type awards, but it’s still a buzz to enter.
As for criticism, I’m normally reasonably Ok with it. I think in this case it was just particularly to the point – it hit exactly what my weaknesses were/are (which is what is supposed to happen), I just wasn’t sure how I could address it without becoming a totally different writer, and I didn’t think I had the energy to do that.
On the other hand, perhaps the break was what I needed to recalibrate myself!To be honest, Alan, that the very act of having written something complete enough to be able to send it out to comps is a success, so I’d start off by saying Congratulations on that massive success before worrying about the relatively small “failures” that followed.
That said… It’s far easier to say these things than do them/feel them. My failure this year, like Bella, is in not writing enough. And it all stems from a similar feeling of failure from last year in getting some criticism that led me to question whether there was any point in keeping writing when I’ve got plenty of other stuff on my plate (work, family, etc.) that’s far more immediately rewarding, visibly at least.
But then, thinking like that is a sort of failure too, isn’t it?
And so the circle continues to spin.Well done Skylark. So delighted for you! Like everyone else, I wish I’d been there for your speech. But it’s great to see lovely people and wonderful writers getting the good stuff that they deserve, regardless of how long it takes.
Congratulations!!This is great, Squidge. Way more immediate and intense – can really feel Tilda’s relationship with the magic and her power. I’d agree with Philippa’s points, but I think it’s great and tight and engaging. I guess from here the question is around how much more exposition you want in this passage and how much should come later.
No worries, @Squidge. Great to see people finding the site from wherever they come.
And Hi Alan!OK. Would you mind if an Admin made a small edit to the warning (have a look at your DMs if you want)?
It would be helpful to add a little more detail in the warning, Tony, just so people can be prepared for what they are about to read.
This is not an issue with the story itself; but I think it might serve as a courtesy to others to let them know what they are about to read.You mean this one?
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Excellent. Will use these. If you have a twitter handle, I’ll credit ye – otherwise anonymity will have to suffice.
Yep, that was the thinking. The rest of it is quite close 3rd person, so it’s sort of cheating to know that she’s going to succeed this time. But, that presupposes something (on my part) about the rest of the book and the audience, I think.
That’s very true, Squidge. TBH, I’d say I’d re-write it about fifty times before I got anywhere and then probably end up with the first version in the end.
I think, given your focus, your approach is accurate. What I was trying to do was remove the certainty of her having succeeded on the 27th go.It’s great, Squidge! My personal taste would have been to start with:
“By Tilda’s twenty-sixth attempt to produce an illuminorb, Silviu’s patience…”
But I can’t say that would be better (in fact, it’s grammatically very awkward… so probably worse); it’s just how I would have done it. Otherwise, a cracking piece with a ton of world-building and backstory in there already.Just noticed that people may not realise that by “I” in the post above, I mean the “@denofwriters” twitter account, which I’m currently curating.
I don’t mean my own personal twitter account, which tends to be less polite and helpful.I’m doing the moonwalk here for you, Kaz. Slippin’ and a slidin’ all over the place in celebration.
Well done!! Delighted for you and Ava and the agent and PRH who have a great book that’ll sell bucketloads. -
This reply was modified 7 years, 9 months ago by