Might have been a disappointing day... but why not end off on a high note?
Author: TJ Edwards
Disappointment Eve
As I logged into my laptop on this fine January evening in Australia, my MacBook reminders begin popping up.
“Work – 9 AM – Tomorrow.”
“1 new mail message.”
“You have Facebook notifications.”
And then…
“HarperCollins Wednesday Press – Cut off.”
A part of me knew nothing would happen. But then, somewhere deep inside the darkest corners of my soul, a small light was glowing. This light, the light of optimism, had been beaten back and abused into submission as my pessimistic side took on a Hulk-like form. Still though, somewhere in there… that damn voice whispered, “You can do it!” “Maybe this will be the year?!” “Your manuscript is flawless, and I’m insane!”
Insane indeed.
As my brain tried desperately to grasp the concept and plans for solar panels for our future home, I had almost forgotten about… okay, I’m lying. I checked my email roughly every three hours from the moment I woke up, until the last thing I did before my dance with the sandman. But for the most part, I didn’t stress about it. In fact, on this lovely Disappointment Eve, I can say one thing.
I tried.
And I will try again.
Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not the next day.
But it is coming.
While I consider when to submit again, I will find a writer’s group (somehow) and I will go to the Writing Centre at the Uni (when they get back to me). I need more unbiased people to look at my story. I need people who aren’t afraid to hurt my feelings and tell me it is rubbish and I write like a sixth grader. I will absorb all of that, so long as they explain why and what makes it so. I want to learn, yearn to learn even.
With this trilogy plotted out with book one completed, a prequel in my notes and another trilogy set in the same universe years later with book one at fifty thousand or so words… I’m loving it! To think that this time next year I could possibly have my writing room set up and be completing at the very least book two for Jefferson or book one of Pandemonium is just insane!
For now, I will try to sleep as tomorrow is the official last day for HarperCollins to get back to me. Tomorrow will be a long day (especially being day one after two days off) and I am hoping there’s a lot going on to keep my mind off my emails. Although I do wonder what number they actually select from each bunch or if they select any at all?
Ah well, until tomorrow! Wish me luck! Get me some of that good karma!
Working, Writing, Wishing.
Eat, sleep, work, write, repeat.
Not as catchy for a song title, but it does very much sum up my life these days.
Ten Days… But Who's Counting?
I swore, swore to the old gods and the new…
I wouldn’t get my hopes up.
As the month wears on and my store seems to be doing decently in the things we are tracking, my mind ever so lightly flickers between work and play. Ten days, eight business days; Then it will have been four weeks since I submitted my novel. Strangely enough, I haven’t been freaking out as much now as I was, in fact, I’m pretty sure that I won’t get this one and that feels fine.
Do I still check my email all the time? Yes.
Do I get excited when I see any new email? Of course.
The craziest part of it all is that I’m actually here with a completed novel and that I’ve begun plotting the next two for Jefferson. I’m extremely happy with the direction they head in and the overall character development for both Jefferson and his antagonist.
Another fun thing I’m working on is a mature themed novel that takes place in the distant future of my world. This allows for Jefferson and characters from the novel to become legend and for the magic that began in his novel to have evolved into many different types and merge with society.
Well for now, another week down, another one and a bit to go. Here’s to hoping that I hear something this week! Either way, back to work for now!
Ruh Rohs.
Here I sit, staring at the few files amid the pale, dusty valleys and craters of the moon. The sky is dark around us, and I feel it. A sudden, sinking feeling.
An impending doom hangs over me...
One Week(ish)
So last Wednesday I submitted the first fifty pages of Jefferson & The Magician’s Curse to HarperCollins’ Wednesday Post. I’ve been checking my email roughly one hundred times a day on the off chance I’m something that they’re looking for. That being said, I’m still not even sure if they’re back to work yet but I hope so. It kills me that my iPhone won’t alert me to new emails… some sort of glitch I assume as I’ve centuple checked the settings to the point where I’m starting to wear swipe marks into my screen protector.
That aside, I have definitely enjoyed being back on the blog and it feels really good to get back into writing regularly. Not that video games aren’t fulfilling, but it doesn’t have that same satisfaction of writing something to completion. Although I do have the Jet Pack in Fallout 4 and I am abusing its power to get pretty much everywhere.
My writing as of late has been entirely history, backgrounds and character descriptions. The reason for all of this? I’m trying to cut down on inconsistencies in my writing. Once a person’s eye colour is mentioned, it should always be that colour. Hopefully. Also, I really want to flesh out the main areas for the story so that I can keep them alive. Some of the hardest things for me as an author is describing scenes when that isn’t the most important thing that is going on.
Take this example. I can remember vividly the conversation I had with my Mother when my Father had passed away. Do I remember what I was wearing? Do I remember where I was? Do I remember what was around me in the room?
The answer is no, no and no. I remember the following vague details: I was most likely wearing jeans and a collared shirt, I was at work and I remember I was in the office. I remember pacing back and forth as the conversation went on, but I always do that. The rest of that day is more of a blur. I’m not saying this because I’m looking for sympathy, but I’m saying those details did not matter. So in a scene involving the death of a character, I probably won’t be using all of the senses. I’ll be more importantly using the emotions of the protagonist and supporting characters because that is why the scene is there.
That being said, keeping a busy scene hustling and bustling while the characters are a part of the scene is something I managed to accomplish in this story. There used to be the initial description setting the scene, and then the characters acted around it like everyone stood around like statues. Now, there is a flow where the busy street is experienced through the protagonist’s eyes. Do I have room to improve? Always!
Anyway, as I plot out the next two novels in the Jefferson Trilogy, I can’t help but remember how hard it was to actually write a novel in the first place. The only thing that really got me there in the end was putting one word after the other. NaNoWriMo was a fantastic help for that, and now that I know I can write a novel, the next one is that much easier.
How are you all doing out there? Is your writing going to plan?
Just remember, you’ll never find the time to write… if you don’t make the time.
The Work Week
*Check email* *Be Disappointed* *Check email again*
The funniest part about the above chain of events is that I’ve been repeating this roughly one hundred times a day without considering publishers probably aren’t even returning to work until this week.
Hilarious.
On the other hand, since submitting my story to HarperCollins I’ve been talking a lot more about my story… and carrying a bit more stress. My wonderful work colleagues asked me if everything was okay to which I told them of my submission. A few people understood, but more than a few asked me more questions about it.
What’s it about? How did you come up with that? How many words is it? When did you write it? How long did it take you? Why did you write it? When will they get back to you?
Not that I thought my coworkers were cold, unfeeling monsters, but I’d always just considered the fact that my work life and my personal life were very separate and that I don’t fit the mold that my company unofficially has. It felt good to have people getting excited and interested in my story and as I looked around, I felt a bit better about the team I work with.
Although I also spoke at length with a customer who was having trouble with her eReader about it as well, which was a weird feeling and also pretty exciting. The questions she was asking were actually very deep questions that made me think long and hard.
What sets your novel about magic apart from Harry Potter and other such stories? How does the magic work in your novel? Do you have enough female characters?
Admittedly, I don’t have as many leading ladies as I should, although Jefferson is near ambiguous enough to be either. To be honest, it wouldn’t kill me as a person to think of him either way, even if someone suggested I changed him to a female lead, I’d still love the story. Strange to think the protagonist could be either, but my antagonist must be a male. I have a very strongly defined image of him and could even write a novel about his journey before he met Jefferson. In fact, that’s not a bad idea.
The world of Jefferson’s story has seven novels in my head. Three directly including Jefferson, one prequel about Gabriel and three novels (much more mature) set hundreds of years after the events of Jefferson’s Trilogy explaining the division of the land and how magic has progressed over the course of time. I’ve already begun on the first one of that trilogy and the word count’s just over fifty thousand!
For today, my writing is turning to some background on Jefferson’s world and the characters within it. While I’m waiting for any news (hopefully) from HarperCollins, I’ll be fleshing out the depth of my story. As for you fellow writers out there, how goes your own writing? Did you make a New Year’s Writing Resolution? Let me know, maybe we can help each other!
The Wednesday Post
Today I swallowed the giant lump in my throat and even though my stomach is still doing backflips, I think I’ve made the right call.
Sometimes the stars align and something comes up. An opportunity maybe. I’ve been researching how to submit my story to publishing houses for quite awhile now and today (of all days) I came across HarperCollins’ Wednesday Post website. Apparently every Wednesday, they open the flood gates through this website and unsolicited manuscripts (such as my own) can be submitted. I find this out on a Tuesday night while editing my novel.
Coincidence? Maybe.
They ask for the first fifty pages or three chapters of your novel. After rereading and editing them one last time I just went ahead and did it.
Am I freaking out right now? Yep. It doesn’t help that it’s two in the morning and I work in… oh god, I should sleep. Do I expect anything to come of this?
Hell no.
Just like I didn’t get a date with the first girl I asked out, I expect this will be a lesson in rejection. Worst thing is, I don’t get a nifty rejection notice. Just nothing back after four weeks. This is about to be the longest four weeks in history. Also any email with HarperCollins in it will make me freak out (so Barnes & Noble… keep your publisher call outs to a minimum) but I’m ready.
I want to tell this story.
I want everyone to meet my characters.
I want to be as successful in writing as I am at work.
Maybe if I stare at the photo below, maybe, just maybe, my dream will come true.
Good luck Jefferson and crew. Hopefully everyone will get to meet you soon.
The Submission Process
Some days I find it hard to believe that I’ve written a novel. Then the next minute I imagine myself on the Tonight Show sharing a laugh with Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake. Is that the dream? Who knows…
I have a prepared manuscript but the more I look at submission requirements for different publishers, the more I realise they all want something different:
- First three chapters, letter about the author and a self-addressed envelope.
- Your five best chapters, tears of a virgin and a trained eagle to bring it back to you.
- Full novel, your soul, the still beating heart of a goat and your first born child. (Don’t worry, we send the novel back with them.)
One thing is common, one-inch border around the edge. Nailed it.
I reread some of my favorite moments from Jefferson & The Magician’s Curse and it feels good to say they flow well and I’ve read similar styles in the novels that have influenced me. That makes me feel like I’m not far off, but all it takes is one strange sentence and I freak out until I fix it. Reading a passage aloud really helps it flow better, but then I often worry if I’ve changed the way the character would have said it. Ugh, I really hate second guessing myself.
You see, for those of you out there like me, we have a special bond in those moments with the characters. We aren’t writing them, we are living them. Okay, reading that aloud sounds pretentious but seriously, I have these conversations with myself.
I am the hero.
I am the villain.
I am the shifty woman in the leather trenchcoat selling blunt daggers in the background.
So at the time of writing the novel, I’m there in the action and screaming for someone to help a fallen comrade. Fast forward a year… and I’m a guy sitting at a desk reminiscing about that battle.
“Yeah man… that was rough, wasn’t it? Just dead. Nothing we could do.”
It’s a whole different moment in time and it’s not that the moment is lost, but the time has passed and the passion is different.
Anyway back to the beating heart of a goat, some of these publishers (mainly the big ones that everyone wants to go with) have time frames as well. One wants an exclusive three-month window. Exclusive? That’s fine. Take three months to get back to me? That’s rough. Or better, three to nine months. By that time I could be married AND have a kid (all the better for the first born clause, see earlier in the post for details).
So now I must begin the painful process of choosing a publisher. Oh, and for the record, chooseyourpublisher.com is absolutely a sham site. I did indeed enter fake details but still! At the end of it, they want to call and try to sucker you into self-publishing!
Not today my call center friend!
Not today!
Hello World.
For anyone who has taken an entry level programming course, one of the first programs you write is a simple app to print “Hello World.”
Today, this takes on a new meaning to me. Today, I start again on my writing journey.
It has been quite awhile since I last ranted and raved on this page of mine. Sometimes I have daily posts while other times (such as the past year) my posts are nowhere to be seen. I’d love to tell you all I’ve been writing up a storm, or that my novel has finally taken off (more on that later) but instead I turned into a turnip who has been more obsessed with other people’s stories than my own. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but that’s not how you get published.
First off, Mom, if you’re reading this (of course you are) I’m sure my tone when you talk about psychics tells you my stance on them. Sorry, but I can’t give myself up to their ways nor their messages (despite my love for a good ghost story, I know they’re not real too). But after our Christmas phone call, I spent many hours thinking about my story. Although I’m not doing this because a psychic told you I would make it this year (because I would HATE to prove her right) but I’m doing it because of the other things you said. I try so hard at everything else, why give up now that the hardest part is over? It will never succeed if it doesn’t get out there.
Is it ready? Am I ready?
Will either of us ever be ready?
Reading success stories such as J.K. Rowling or the one of a man who was published after dozens of rejections at the age of forty eight, should be uplifting. I should laugh because my failures will stack up and eventually I too can join their author’s circle, but these stories are double edged. They won after that many rejections. For me,those crushing defeats lay ahead in wait.
What’s my number of rejections? Ten? Fifty? One hundred?
Much like someone who is starting a marathon, I shouldn’t think about the distance.
I shouldn’t think about how many steps to the end.
I shouldn’t think about the hills and turns coming ahead.
What I should do, is focus on putting one foot in front of the other, and realise that even if I trip and fall, I learn from it, dust myself off and keep going.
After all, the finish line has to be out there somewhere.