What are you Writing? Finding the Right Genre
Two options for when to decide on genre. Many people advise you to consider genre at the very start of your writing process, and that’s good advice if you’re a plotter—one who plots their stories in detail from the start. Then you can be clear on what kind of story you’re writing, and you can write specifically to suit that market. Excellent. Problem solved. All you have to do is make sure that your story has all the elements to satisfy reader expectations. The problem with this approach is that it doesn’t work for those who discover a story somewhere in their creative mind and then write it down. Such stories often don’t fit into clear genres. Nor does it work for those who like to write their first draft without concerning themselves with where it’s going (pansters). In these cases the author may not know exactly what it is…
A change of focus – going hermit for a bit
Sometimes I focus on publicity and sometimes more on writing. It depends where I’m up to with book production. If I’m writing a first draft, that’s all I do, apart from keeping the blog going, but I’ll use posts I’ve written previously. First drafts require all my focus. I write them only when I’m inspired and that puts me on a kind of creative high where I simply can’t do anything else unless I really have to—like make dinner or sleep. Rewriting is another area that takes a lot of focus, but I can also do other aspects of my job, like marketing or formatting, at the same time. It’s actually beneficial to have space between working on the restructuring because ideas and solutions come to me when I’m not thinking about it. Editing is the same in that respect. But, even so, when doing any of these things,…
My guest post on ‘Great (book) Expectations’
A link to my article on finding resources on the web.
Hits and swims
We’re up to 920 hits already. Well done. The first 1000 is in sight! After my clarification on swiming, my agent agreed with “‘Swim’s over. Time to get out,’ Walnut said.”
Moving on – another review
My agent is going to review the ms again to make sure it’s ready for publishers before we move further on it.
An unexploded bomb
When I start, everything else will stop.
The phone call
Cut the clutter