Nigel 
August 10th,2010
How does a novel ever get written?
Once written what you have is a first draft. After much rewriting comes the second hardest bit:finding a publisher.
If that is successful,which is highly unlikely unless you’re famous or already published,then comes the toughest part of all:promoting the book so that people who don’t know you at least consider buying it.
Right now I’m incredibly low on energy and unable to write much each day. I’m currently focusing what little I have on two books. One is a novel,the other a lunatic maths book. That is why there have been so few posts on this blog recently.
And then I had an idea.
Why not add a fresh strand to the blog,and chat about what I encounter as I try to finish the novel?
So that’s what this is the start of.
The novel is currently titled ‘Sunken Star’,although for computer purposes I’m just calling it ‘Star’. It began as a rather bad short story I wrote about twenty years ago. Several friends read the story. One,Peter Jolly,tried very tactfully to explain why he thought it didn’t work. Good on you Pete. I listened.
I’ve started a number of other novels,but have had plotting problems so put them on one side. For some reason Star kept going. The latest version has reached 135,000 words,which would be about 300-400 pages in paperback. It is incomplete,unfinished,a work in progress. I know the climax in outline,but …
When I found myself unexpectedly retired I ended up with this novel,and decided to try the Joanne Harris method of writing:just write. And write. And write. And when you’ve finished go back and chuck loads away and knock what’s left into shape. This worked for me till I reached about 130,000 words,and then I started to have doubts. Was the plot strong enough? Did I need more characters? Did the opening pages a) grab the reader,b) fit with the rest of the book? Is it too long for a first novel?
So I put it on one side while I worked on other projects like this blog,and now I’m doing a major edit with some online help –tell you about the help later. When I reach the end of what I’ve written I’ll just keep writing,and writing,and writing again,till I reach the planned end,at which point it’s time to go back and start deleting and editing and …
Several friends have read parts of it. Chris Walbank said he found it impossible to put down. Others have said it starts far too slowly. I guess it depends what type of stuff you usually read. Or maybe I do need to tighten things up,make it shorter,get to the key revelation rather earlier than I do. Whatever,that’s what I’ve started doing.
With help.
I have no idea if this novel will ever get published. Maybe I’ll have to write several more before that happens,or maybe I’ll never ever publish a book.
But this blog strand will be the tale of how I try.
If you’re interested then PLEASE COMMENT. Especially about the extracts I’ll be including.
If you’re not interested then,just for you,each post in this series will have a title beginning ‘Rising Star’. That way you can skip it with minimum effort.
