The journey begins ...
... or, to be more accurate, the next stage of the journey begins.
A publishing contract has been signed and so the first leg, writing the thing, is over. I now must treat it as though hewn from stone, rather than the waters of creativity. No more tweaking, time to move on. It's been with me so long that it might be hard to let go ... but let go I must!
So what are my hopes and fears for ‘Grosse Fugue’? Should I reveal my innermost thoughts? Perhaps not yet. As any author knows, the greatest hunger is for an audience, preferably one as large as possible. Of course, there's a revenue attraction to that. But for many, it's just the notion of our work being read by many hearts and minds.
A few may love it, many may loathe it. A handful might be moved, others offended. With any luck, no-one will be indifferent, the true mark of failure. But I hope that some may be tempted for the first time to delve into the music that permeates the novel - Bach, Beethoven, Schubert - and then perhaps relish the consolation, inspiration and transportation that I have sought to communicate. And if one or two are stimulated to think about the Holocaust, its meaning and legacy, then I might just begin to think that the journey was worthwhile.
There, the context is set. The purpose of this blog series is to share the experience of writing a novel and seeking a publisher, and to explain the process of getting the work out there in print and digitally. It will be a serial of excitement and frustration, bloody-mindedness and compromise, highs and lows, hopes and fears.
My next post will return to the very beginning.
Ian Phillips is a freelance writer for businesses whose first novel, Grosse Fugue, will be published by Alliance Publishing Press this Spring
Hi Gayle, apologies for missing your post earlier.
I think that we probably work in a similar way. I certainly found that I was constantly getting ideas for parts of the book that I'd already laid down. These had to be captured, even though the discipline of writing really required me to weave them in later. I can't pretend I wasn't frequently seduced into going back, particularly if the idea was haunting me!
Hopefully, we can do more note-comparison later in the series.
Adrian, you seem to be having a bit of a problem with multiple postings. Perhaps it's your many different characters jostling for an answer!
I plan to deal with the criss-cross between business and creative writing in the post after next. I certainly think that whatever works for you is probably right, depending on how you have defined 'success' at the outset of the project. For some, it's enough that we go to our graves having tried to write something. For others, being published is the ultimate stamp of achievement. Still others would be unhappy unless Spielberg himself films it.
To find out how my journey evolved you're just going to have to keep checking in every Thursday morning for the next couple of months or so!
Oops ! By redraft I meant thorough edit of every section of my novel. I understand the process of evolution. My main cast of rounded-characters have taken over my novel. They guided my pen as they gained more depth. Did you find it difficult to switch from business mode to creative writing mode? Earlier in my writing I had this problem. I solved this issue by reading fine novels. I concentrated on things that helped to enhance my natural creativity, rather than te scientific part of my brain.