2010 round up

It seems to be the time of year for a review of the previous year's ups and downs as a writer. So here's mine.
     2010 was an important year for me - in that it was the year I made that first step towards becoming a professional writer. It's the year I got published. That was the biggy.  My story A Conjunction of Interests  was published in the March 2010 issue of Semaphore,  and then made the cut to be included in the Semaphore Anthology 2010.  So I got to be in a proper book. One which is available to the public to buy, one which they need to use real money for. Now that's what I call being published.
    Other ups of the year include: finishing the first draft of my latest NZ historical romance; getting a "revise and resubmit" response from Carina Press, for which I have just about finished re-editing the first book of a two book series; passing two more papers towards my extramural Massey University Grad Dip Arts in English; making myself get to more of the monthly meetings of the Auckland chapter of RWNZ; joining SpecFicNZ, the new organisation founded by a number of NZ resident spec fic writers, driven by Ripley Patton; and attending the first two monthly Auckland get togethers of that organisation.  The latter were maybe the hardest to do, and also probably the most helpful. I tend to avoid having to meet new people - it's something I find particularly tough to do - but actually talking face to face to other writers in the same genre is hugely helpful.
       Things I need to improve on from 2010:  submit more work. I haven't submitted a story or book to anyone for months. And if you don't submit, you don't get published. That's another thing I have to really push myself to do.  I'm always quite sure that my work is nothing like what they are looking for, and how dare I bother an editor, agent, etc with my amateurish stuff. Plus like most writers, I hate rejections. My ego is quite fragile enough already, without it being added to.  But again, if you really want to be a 'proper' writer, then you have to get your stuff out there. So that's my resolution for 2011. Submit more work.
     And finish editing the two Hathe books so I can submit them again to Carina Press.
 

SpecFicNZ meet up

Today I went to the first Auckland meet up for SpecFicNZ writers. The weather was real Auckland summer weather - pouring with rain and atrocious. The cafe was packed. The coffee was good. But most important -  the people and the meeting were brilliant. Six of us turned up and we talked about so much.  And I didn't once have to stop myself from saying anything for fear that others would think I was weird, not all there or just plain deluded. They got it. They got what I do. That is so special. Roll on the next one and thank you very much, Paul and Grant, for organising it all.

final assignment

I've got my final assignment short story back from Massey - for the Grad dip in English I'm doing. And I got an A. A real, honest to goodness, full A. So I can write literary stories. Which doesn't mean I want to, but it's nice to know I can.

Floating POV

POV issues are a real sticky problem for me at present. Then I read this terrific post about 'floating POV' which made so much sense.
 http://ffnp.blogspot.com/2010/11/its-not-just-point-of-view.html

Omniscient 3rd person POV sneaks into my work all the time, particularly in "Hathe", the book I'm currently editing. And while on the one hand, I have  a distinct mistrust of writing ideologies that set limits on the techniques an author can use - the proverbial insistence on using deep 3rd person that pervades present day genre fiction, in order to make the story a page turner - this idea of a 'floating POV' really made sense to me. Basically it seems to be what happens when the newbie author doesn't really know who is telling the story at any given point in time. And not knowing what you're doing or why you are doing it is shoddy storytelling in anyone's book.

RWNZ Strictly Single contest

I've found out that I've finalled in the RWNZ 2010 Strictly Single contest. Very exciting  - and finalling has the most fantastic reward. For entry you have to send in the first 7500 words plus a synopsis of your book. I finalled for "In Hills of Gold",  a NZ Historical Romance. And the fantastic reward - the 6 final entries are forwarded to Emmanuelle Morgen from Judith Ehrlich Literary Management and Meredith Giordan from Berkley Publishing Group for final judging. How great is that! To get your work in front of a New York agent and a US editor from a major publishing group - wow.

Deep in Editing Country

I'm currently deep in editing country. It's a strange place - sometimes so tortuous and riven with hazards and darkly plunging gullies, you just about give up ( then you have to remember all the sayings about talent being 90% perseverance); other times, it's a skip in the park; and then there are the very rare and truly glorious moments when you re-read a section of your own writing and just fall in love with it. That's supposed to be a bad sign, I have been told. That those are the parts that ought to be cut, as you as author are too in love with the words to be able to judge whether or not they add to the story. But hey - authors are readers too. If I enjoy it, then won't a reader? And part of the judging part of editing is knowing what to leave in, as much as it is knowing what needs cut or re-written. That's my argument, anyway.

Final assignment

I've just finished my last assignment for the extramural paper I've been doing this last 6 months. A big relief. Now I can get back to my own writing again. It's always a major balancing thing. The uni papers help my writing by improving my craft skills - I'm doing a Grad Dip A in English - but they take away my writing time. So what's best  - to do more of the writing I want to do, or extend myself by trying out new ways of writing? I think it's a bit of both.

But right now I have one book (Hathe) I'm editing down to two separate books, another (Gorge Creek) completed first draft waiting for editing, and a third (working title- Planet Wars) with the first couple of chapters only written, waiting for me to find out what happens next. It's definitely time to get back to my own writing, I think.