I went to a premiere showing of the new movie, Julie & Julia, last nite. What an amazing movie. It inspired me to finally start my own blog, which I've been wrestling with for months now. I kept thinking...what do I have to say that people would be remotely interested in reading about. After seeing this movie I had an "ah-ha" moment and realized that I could blog about my continued angst over my writing career. I know there are lots of frustrated writers out there who may just need to know that someone else is as miserable as they are about fine-tuning their craft.
Last year I completed my first novel...or I thought I did. I'd been working on said novel for about nine years. Seven of those my manuscript was sitting in the bottom drawer of my filing cabinet, half written and I had totally run out of steam and interest in completing it. I was working a full-time job and didn't want to spend my "free" time typing away on my laptop. As my work load got lighter and lighter though I realized that I could actually work on my writing...on the job. I took my manuscript out of that bottom file drawer, blew the dust off it, coughed and choked on the dust particles, then shoved it into my carry bag and took it to my 8-5 office. It was perfect! My cubicle was in the back part of our office suite, very isolated and I was able to spend at least an hour or so each day pounding away on the keys. Five months later...my great American novel was completed. Or so I thought. A good piece of advice. When you think it's done...put it away for a couple of weeks or even a month, then get it back out, re-read it and try not to cringe. Oh there were great parts in my manuscript...parts that made me proud...parts that made me realize that writing was what I was born to do, but there were also parts that made me want to crawl under my bed for a month or two. Instead...I had a friend willing to sit and listen to my written prose read out-loud to her every Monday night for about two months.
I thoroughly recommend reading outloud to anyone who will lend an ear. Just handing your scribbles over to someone to read in the quiet of their own home, doesn't have nearly the same effect as hearing your voice...reading your words...out loud. I learned so much from this process and I was able to come up with a "game plan" for making the changes necessary and completing my debut novel for the second time.
Where is that novel now? Sitting on top of my desk, in a box, covered with dust and a huge knot wells up in the pit of my stomach, whenever I think about tackling this project again.
Today though...I will grab the Pepto, deal with the "knot" and start at the beginning again. After all, I have three other novels banging around in my head wanting to get out, but it would be nice to get at least one completed to the best of my ability before moving on.
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I look forward to your future posts and hope you get that novel knocked out and on the road. You deserve this.
ReplyDeleteHere's an idea, Debe--post a Chapter on your blog and see where it goes from there..
ReplyDeleteDebe, please forgive me for using a rather "sappy" analogy-childbirth. You conceived the idea for your book, and you can feel it stirring deep within. . .no woman would opt to stop in the middle of labor(as much as we would like to) and shelve a half emerged infant. We have the curiosity of women and writers. . .will it have my nose, my eyes, my voice? Bite the leather strap and push...this is how I finished my book, soon to be in publication. All the best. Carolynn
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