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A novel is finished when an agent calls it in…
…at least until that agent either rejects the novel or insists that I add more words. I added some more episodes and de-summarised a bit more, got it to 66,000 words (thanks to all who gave me advice on length!) and finally ‘queried’ a few agents. Now one of them has the whole thing and ... Read MoreToo short for a novel. Too long for a novella. Shall I send my protagonist to a godless assembly? and other questions.
Someone who knows what she is talking about told me that I’d be wasting my time approaching agents with a novel of only 60,000 words. Unless I’m Julian Barnes or Heinrich von Kleist. Perhaps it isn’t ‘fully realised’ ? That’s the posh way of saying skimpy and trivial. What’s to be done? I hate long ... Read MoreThird time lucky? I have twice written a new blog today and twice it has vanished after I pressed ‘Publish’ so I am just doing this as a test. If it works I will continue and try to reproduce what I wrote before – about the godless asembly and about my novle that is too short.
What do you do when you think you’ve finished, but it’s really only a draft?
Now I look at it again…I’ve found infelicities: sentences that go on and on and cliches and ‘-ngs’ and ‘-isations’ that I somehow failed to see before. And inconsistencies that have demanded a lot of working out on bits of paper: dates of events, ages of people, things happening in the wrong order, wrong flowers ... Read MoreWhat have I learned from a first class creative writing course?
Mourning the end of University of East Anglia/Guardian six months course on the novel, I want to record what I think I have learned. Please send me comments or additions from your own experience. Have had to unlearn some bad habits – I think attributable to my academic background and my forays into short story ... Read MoreRemember Macbeth?
I can’t be the only one who has Macbeth memories and I’m sure they’ve played a part in developing me and my writing. If any of them ring bells with you, do let me know. (It may, as they say, be a generational thing.) 1. Dressed as a witch on our school’s carnival float. Did ... Read MoreToo much to tell
You’ll probably recognise the problem: if you delay writing to your friends with your news, the news builds up and the challenge of producing a catch-up becomes very daunting. In January I began a University of East Anglia/Guardian part-time course at UEA’s London campus. Two things drew me: the tutor is Adam Foulds whose novel ... Read More
a pre-lunch smile
