indigotwilight
Member
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2008
- Messages
- 12
Do you think I’ve been a little premature in introducing a literary agent to my novel? With my story characters tearing at the fabric of space and time to come out and meet the world, I got so excited about completing book one of an eight novel series; that I packaged it up and send off a bunch of chapters without sitting on it for at least another week or so.
Initially, and after the first couple of weeks, I was so happy with it… Every page burst with showers of rainbows, certain characters leapt from wormholes in the manuscript to tap the unsuspecting reader on the shoulder.
But then, today, I glanced upon the first page of the first chapter, and thought I could write those initial two paragraphs better. I am not sure if I am being overly critical or not, but for some reason, those two paragraphs felt a lot more ‘telly’ than ‘showy’ if you know what I mean – a poor contrast to the rest of the novel, which still sparkles like fresh dew-drops catching those first rays of sunlight upon a tree.
This novel, and indeed the entire series, is something extremely special to me. I practically live in that world with all those characters, and find myself ‘talking’ to them everyday… They’re real people to me; the story world a real place. I want the whole world to meet them and explore this new realm. I want people to enter the local town during a festival and challenge Ishy to a tequila race, for them to go to the battle of the bands and use those seemingly magical glow-sticks with Layla...
To be honest with you, those characters and the world had been alive in me long before K.T. came. I’d been writing about them before; dreaming, exploring, thinking what so-and-so would do if they were in the same situation as me. The little stories evolved, and before I knew it, a couple of years ago when I was still an undergraduate at the University of Leicester, I wrote my first novel.
This novel about a vampire who falls in love with a medieval princess was really just to help win the heart of a girl… It worked, of course, and now after two years, we are still going out and talking about living together when I finish my PhD.
Just one novel was not enough for me though… I was hooked! I wanted to write more. All of a sudden I had so many ideas for stories, plots, and other goings on, that the characters found themselves in several places at once. I wanted to become an author. I loved writing, I loved reading… And, I loved the buzz of seeing characters leap from the pages to meet the reader.
Someone suggested I try and get that vampire novel I’d written for my girlfriend published.
The following week, an established author came to the university. I was in my final year. I managed to arrange a meeting with her to discuss the industry as a whole.
She asked, “How long is your novel?”
“One hundred and twenty-five thousand words”
She promptly told me this was too long… cut it by at least twenty thousand. Most first novels are around the eighty mark.
I took that to heart, thanked her for all the advise, and continued on my merry way reading whatever I could lay my hands on, writing all that came to mind. Mostly about those story characters though; those who still had yet to feature in the written word.
I edited through that old vampire novel of mine, cutting scenes, rewriting entire chapters, and in the end trimmed it to just under eighty-seven thousand. Then, I had a new idea for a novel: A kiddie one with talking squirrels and a fox with a custard pie obsession.
Fingers went to keyboard, and I bore a second.
I’d sent the first to a couple of agents and publishers to see what sort of response I’d get.
Someone at Christopher Little returned the sample chapters and had actually edited the first few pages for me. Not sure if they meant to do that or not, but the rejection letter I received seemed to be personally typed. One other sent a card, and another a letter which was so obviously printed from a template, I thought a slip would have done just the same. The fourth send what looked like a personal letter saying just how much they loved the story, and the well-written verse, only it just wasn’t quite the genre they were looking for.
My housemate at the time said, “Now you have rejection letters, you are a proper writer…”
It turns out her mother was an author too.
The vampire novel was put aside. I had new projects in mind.
I finished the story about the talking squirrels, and had a lot of laughs in the process.
I wrote a third, and then a forth… The characters were swimming in that ocean of words. I couldn’t help it. They just flowed, like a tsunami from my fingertips.
By this point I realised I had a series in the making. All the stories connected, they were all from the same world.
Number five followed…. I had set it as a prequel to the second.
Now it was time for the rewrite.
I picked up that old vampire novel I’d written for my beloved, then gathered the printed manuscript of “Show and Tell” (The original title of the fifth) and at once the two seemed to turn to liquid gold. They flowed into each other. And, where the liquids touched, a blazing light came.
I knew, from that point, what I had to do; rewrite both novels as one. It turned out to be the best thing I’d written so far. I had put the full-stop on the last page just a couple of weeks ago.
Now, book two wants to emerge from the ocean.
Twilight
Initially, and after the first couple of weeks, I was so happy with it… Every page burst with showers of rainbows, certain characters leapt from wormholes in the manuscript to tap the unsuspecting reader on the shoulder.
But then, today, I glanced upon the first page of the first chapter, and thought I could write those initial two paragraphs better. I am not sure if I am being overly critical or not, but for some reason, those two paragraphs felt a lot more ‘telly’ than ‘showy’ if you know what I mean – a poor contrast to the rest of the novel, which still sparkles like fresh dew-drops catching those first rays of sunlight upon a tree.
This novel, and indeed the entire series, is something extremely special to me. I practically live in that world with all those characters, and find myself ‘talking’ to them everyday… They’re real people to me; the story world a real place. I want the whole world to meet them and explore this new realm. I want people to enter the local town during a festival and challenge Ishy to a tequila race, for them to go to the battle of the bands and use those seemingly magical glow-sticks with Layla...
To be honest with you, those characters and the world had been alive in me long before K.T. came. I’d been writing about them before; dreaming, exploring, thinking what so-and-so would do if they were in the same situation as me. The little stories evolved, and before I knew it, a couple of years ago when I was still an undergraduate at the University of Leicester, I wrote my first novel.
This novel about a vampire who falls in love with a medieval princess was really just to help win the heart of a girl… It worked, of course, and now after two years, we are still going out and talking about living together when I finish my PhD.
Just one novel was not enough for me though… I was hooked! I wanted to write more. All of a sudden I had so many ideas for stories, plots, and other goings on, that the characters found themselves in several places at once. I wanted to become an author. I loved writing, I loved reading… And, I loved the buzz of seeing characters leap from the pages to meet the reader.
Someone suggested I try and get that vampire novel I’d written for my girlfriend published.
The following week, an established author came to the university. I was in my final year. I managed to arrange a meeting with her to discuss the industry as a whole.
She asked, “How long is your novel?”
“One hundred and twenty-five thousand words”
She promptly told me this was too long… cut it by at least twenty thousand. Most first novels are around the eighty mark.
I took that to heart, thanked her for all the advise, and continued on my merry way reading whatever I could lay my hands on, writing all that came to mind. Mostly about those story characters though; those who still had yet to feature in the written word.
I edited through that old vampire novel of mine, cutting scenes, rewriting entire chapters, and in the end trimmed it to just under eighty-seven thousand. Then, I had a new idea for a novel: A kiddie one with talking squirrels and a fox with a custard pie obsession.
Fingers went to keyboard, and I bore a second.
I’d sent the first to a couple of agents and publishers to see what sort of response I’d get.
Someone at Christopher Little returned the sample chapters and had actually edited the first few pages for me. Not sure if they meant to do that or not, but the rejection letter I received seemed to be personally typed. One other sent a card, and another a letter which was so obviously printed from a template, I thought a slip would have done just the same. The fourth send what looked like a personal letter saying just how much they loved the story, and the well-written verse, only it just wasn’t quite the genre they were looking for.
My housemate at the time said, “Now you have rejection letters, you are a proper writer…”
It turns out her mother was an author too.
The vampire novel was put aside. I had new projects in mind.
I finished the story about the talking squirrels, and had a lot of laughs in the process.
I wrote a third, and then a forth… The characters were swimming in that ocean of words. I couldn’t help it. They just flowed, like a tsunami from my fingertips.
By this point I realised I had a series in the making. All the stories connected, they were all from the same world.
Number five followed…. I had set it as a prequel to the second.
Now it was time for the rewrite.
I picked up that old vampire novel I’d written for my beloved, then gathered the printed manuscript of “Show and Tell” (The original title of the fifth) and at once the two seemed to turn to liquid gold. They flowed into each other. And, where the liquids touched, a blazing light came.
I knew, from that point, what I had to do; rewrite both novels as one. It turned out to be the best thing I’d written so far. I had put the full-stop on the last page just a couple of weeks ago.
Now, book two wants to emerge from the ocean.
Twilight
