As I mentioned, I was inspired by some of the opportunities in publishing right now that I learned about at SXSW. But one of the reasons I was at those panels was because I’ve decided to really work on writing and publishing my work this year.
I came to this decision for a couple reasons.
The first: I love writing. Getting back into it reminds me of how much I’ve missed it.
The second: I’ve written eight novels, and I’m working on a ninth. That’s a lot of writing for having never done anything with it. What if one of them could be a best seller but I’ve just been sitting on it?
Two Novels
1) I started a literary novel in 2002 and finished it in 2003. I loved it then. I got a lot of good feedback and then edited it again. Then edited it again. Then again. Then finally a lightbulb switched on; I’d been tinkering at the margins. What I loved was the story. The writing itself was lacking.
So I decided to dive right in. “Omit needless words” became my mantra. I cut 1/5 of the book, or 22,000 words, and the plot didn’t change. That’s a bad sign. It’s a much better piece of writing now. Good enough to get published? I hope so. I’m going to start querying the book out to agents sometime soon. For now, the plan is to take this through the traditional publishing route.
2) In 2007, I participated in National Novel Writing Month. In that month I wrote about 30,000 words of a murder mystery called The Saints Go Dying, and finished the novel a few months later. I gave it out to the writers group I was in and the critique was unanimous. There was one key element that needed to be fixed. But fixing it seemed like a lot of work. How to write it? I wasn’t sure, so I took a break from it and began working on its sequel (presumptuous, I know). I started to like the sequel so much I just decided, why not make this the first book? And maybe some day I’ll get back to The Saints Go Dying and publish it as a prequel. But then SXSW inspired me, and I decided I had a book that was 95% of the way there, why not just finish the thing?
Whenever I had some free time in Austin, I wrote and wrote. I wrote at crowded tables and leaning against walls next to power outlets. I’ve never written in such a crowded place, but with my headphones on I could take advantage of the buzz and get a lot of work done. I’m happy to say that the new draft is done.
This one I’m going to experiment with some self-publishing options. More on that later, but suffice to say I hope to have The Saints Go Dying ready to go in the very near future.