Monday, February 26, 2007

The jury's back

A couple of weeks ago I gave the first draft of my new book to three trusted friends to read and comment on and now the jury's back. They liked it. They think it works. Yeah! There were some criticisms, of course, which is what I asked for. Now I have to consider whether or not I agree with them. Sometimes when I ask people to criticise my writing I think OK, you're right, it's a fair cop. Sometimes I think No, I'm not changing that, that's exactly how I want it.

I always knew I needed to rewrite the beginning, but I'm trying to be disciplined, which means putting the book away on the shelf for a while and then I can go back to it with a fresh eye. In the meantime I am thinking about it, and reading about technique, and looking at how other writers handle beginnings.

Sally Howe is supposed to be rewriting her first novel - Fast Work - but is making slow progress, by the sound of it. If you ask me she'd get along much better if she concentrated on that instead of being distracted by her patchwork quilt and her constant blogging.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Time to write

I've just finished the first rough draft of my next book. Yeah! At the moment it's called Zuzu's Petals, but by the time it's published it may well have another title. I've handed it to a couple of trusted friends to read and comment on. In one way, this is very exciting. In another it's bad news. Now I have to catch up on all the dull tasks I have been pushing to one side for so long. I have no excuse now not to do the budget, the accounts, the cleaning, choose new carpet for the stairs and the bathroom, etc, etc.

Sally Howe - the heroine of Plotting for Beginners - seems to have much more time available than I do. If you want something to read, you could check out Sally's blog. She's prolific: from what I've seen, she writes something there most days.