An Update On The End
03/26/09 | My Writings | 7 Comments
For the past week I have been holed up at a friend’s house. There, I have no internet, no bed, no television, and a very poor cell phone signal. All I have is my computer.
In the past four days I have written over 12,000 words, completed the third part of my book, and I am now working on finishing some things for part two. When I finish that later on today, I will start going through the book chapter by chapter and updating old passages for my current voice.
Once this is completed, my book will be finished, and then it is up to three of my closest friends to tell me how it reads. After eight years of working on it, it will be the first time anyone is going to get to read it in its entirety.
If they like it, or after I’ve made any suggested changes, then it’s time to send it out to agents, some of whom have actually asked to see it upon completion.
I’m reading through this post as I’m writing it, and I know it sounds so matter-of-fact, but I’m honestly having a hard time believing what I’m typing. I’ve been working on this project for so long… it’s hard to think that it soon might be over.
Oh, I could edit this thing for the rest of my life, thinking of new and different things to write or have them do, but after eight years and falling in at about 145,000 words (which I think is just perfect for a literary novel), it’s time to let it go.
*deep breaths*
And now, I plunge into the deep end.
Until next…
Kyle W. Kerr
Finishing What I Started
03/9/09 | My Writings, On Writing, The Industry | 7 Comments
I think I’ve lost most of my “readers” by not updating as often as I used to, so I’m here after only two weeks instead of my usual month, which has been the norm for a while now…
I’ve finished writing new chapters for the second part of my book, and I’ve now started on Part 3. It’s going to be a relatively short PART, about 10,000 words, not including the Epilogue, which is already written. Hopefully, I can get it done in the next week. Then I need to go back to Part 2 and rearrange/edit/splice what’s there and write some new scenes. All-in-all, not much more work until it’s finished. I’ve even given myself a deadline of March 31st (which I hope to stick to… this time), and have scheduled a week of vacation at the end of the month so that it can be done. Anyone have any goats we can sacrifice… or better yet, any virgins?
The baby is being kicked out of the nest after this last edit. When I’m done with it (by the end of the month!), I plan on sending it to three of my friends (you already know who you are), so that I can get an even analysis of the book. From that, I’ll make spot edits/changes, and then it’s off to literary agent purgatory to await judgment. Hopefully my book will be able to ascend, rather than going the h-e-double-hockey-sticks route, if you catch my drift.
I know I keep saying it’s time, but ya’ll, it’s time! Other characters for other projects are whispering sweet nothings in my ears, tempting me away. And I am SO temptable at this point. At least if they were real people I might be getting laid right now. But that’s the whole point, isn’t it? If I move on to these other stories, I’ll feel like I’m cheating on the current one. This one will be scorned, bitter and abandoned, and the one I cheated on it with will be the dirty, resentful mistress, because of course I wouldn’t have TOLD either of them what I was doing, but they always find out about one another at some point! See my dilemma?
For my next set of novels, I’ve already decided to go into them as open relationships (sorry to continue with the sex analogy here, it just seemed to work so I’m running with it). I know my writing pace, so know I can work on multiple projects at once and finish two to three per year (if my life goes according to plan and I’m able to write full-time). I can do one a year for each of my YA novels, possibly another random commercial novel, and a literary novel every two years. This is something I KNOW I can do, if only I have the time.
You’ve probably noticed that I have a lot of confidence in my writing and my writing ability. I don’t know where it comes from, but it’s there, so I go with it. Now, the thing is, I have ZERO confidence that what I’m writing will sell, or that it’ll make me any money. We have had it ingrained in us how hard it is to make it in this business. Talent plays a big part (I’m not saying I’m talented, I just have confidence… I could be confident in crap, I don’t know, but I think every writer has confidence in their writing, or else they wouldn’t be doing it! Hear that, D?), but it’s also luck and timing and an amalgamation of other factors that all need to align at the same time as the planets do (meaning, rarely). I also know they say most writers never sell their first books. Well, that’s not really an option for me. I’ve spent FAR too much time on this book to never get it published… Even if I sell the rest of the books I write and make millions doing so, I’ll always be pushing this book, too.
That was a whole bunch of rambling, wasn’t it? Well, have you ever paid attention to what I call my blog on here?
Hopefully I’m doing you proud, Simon, and you’ll be satisfied enough to leave in peace. I love you, but eight years is a long time. We’ll still be friends, okay? And I’ll probably see you again in a few years, if I actually go ahead and decide to write the book from the POV of another character like I’ve been thinking about. DAMN IT! Shouldn’t have said that!
Until next…
(Oh, if you subscribe to my Journal through either an RSS feed or through Email, let me know if you’re having trouble getting it when I publish… The site I use to send out the updates was recently acquired by Google, and I haven’t gone into it since then. Please let me know!)
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