 I know, I know, the blog has kind of tailed off in the past few weeks but I am right on top of fixing that. First I was ill and then I was totally focused on getting my book finished. I am writing a childrens story which has so far taken 8 months of my life and I only have 20,500 words to show for it. I figure that, with a really big push, I can get the first draft of 90,000 words finished by the end of October (at a rate of around 2000 words a day). I will then spend November and December editing it and getting some concept art prepared. Finally in January, I will start looking for a British agent and hopefully somebody will like the work enough to sign me up. As usual though, I have doubts about the work but doesn't every beginning author? I was reading Philip Pullman's website the other day in which he summed it up perfectly :
"Don't listen to any advice, that's what I'd say. Write only what you want to write. Please yourself. YOU are the genius, they're not. Especially don't listen to people (such as publishers) who think that you need to write what readers say they want. Readers don't always know what they want. I don't know what I want to read until I go into a bookshop and look around at the books other people have written, and the books I enjoy reading most are books I would never in a million years have thought of myself. So the only thing you need to do is forget about pleasing other people, and aim to please yourself alone. That way, you'll have a chance of writing something that other people WILL want to read, because it'll take them by surprise. It's also much more fun writing to please yourself".
I am also busy doing other kinds of writing. For example, starting from today, I am a guest blogger on MakeUseOf.com . Check it out.Labels: makeuseof.com, pullman |
