(Warning: This blog post is about me.)
It was perhaps a bit ambitious.
I write like this: I capture an ‘idea-butterfly’ as it comes fluttering past, and I study it in detail. I study it by writing it; allowing it to go wherever it wants and then scrambling after to tie up the loose ends.
Not very academic, but hey – it makes for some fun, exciting stories.
So the first book, only around 61000 words, is done, dusted, polished, cover designed and ready for epublication. You will not see it in P’kaboo but in our e-publish-only site that launches 5th December.
So with more than 17 days left, I tackled a second novel.
I can probably fill it with 50 000 words (I put in about 24000 in the last 3 days), but – it’s, sorry, a crappy, limited little story that isn’t worthy. It has no story line. The idea butterfly of this one was tiny; it’s just enough for a short-story, really. The first 5 chapters are good and after that it flatlines.
Writer’s Block is when an author doesn’t know when to drop a bad story like a hot potato and try something new.
Maybe my daughter was right: I can’t write a vampire novel. It’s not my first attempt. But I find the genre so completely fished out and clicheed, I can’t get excited about it. So: Dropping it and leaving it to those who have better ideas – Marie: over to you!
the red ant 
I really don’t think I could write one of those, either. Pity the ones I CAN write don’t have the same appeal!
Hey! Who says? Your books have immense appeal – got to target the right market! Meggie is currently devouring my proof copy of Forest Circle Quest and is begging for an own copy for Christmas. (FCQ has an amazing depth that sets it head and shoulders above the other four VYAs.)
If you’d allow me to line-edit the “music” of your Darx Circle once it’s finished, I’d be very interested (in a trades deal… 😉 how do you know gipsika…)
Delighted to learn that!
Meanwhile, I have been very remiss with 5. I have somehow lost an edited section and will have to redo it.
What! Not even a teaser?
Not a taste or lick of the lolly like?
Come on, you old misery…we all publish for the same company, you know?
hehe you are so right! I’ll post a teaser tonight. Yes we’re in the same web shop. What’s so “non-YA” that it can’t go in P’kaboo? You’ll see 😉
Remember: Honeymead skims a bit close to the edge. The following are no-no’s in P’kaboo:
Too “graphic” scenes
Overly violent scenes or concepts (think “Ghost Girl” by Tory Hayden)
Religion and politics – controversialism
Anything else that “bites” a little (though I think Marie’s vampires will be in P’kaboo as they are probably not such messy eaters) 😉
Language that would be deemed “objectionable” by a school board or on Hello Peter
… in short, the stuff we love to write, people love to read but we don’t want to contaminate our children’s minds.
I have never known you to write anything near the knuckle. I remember a little friendly wager about writing such stuff that sent me spiralling down the path that started Click while SOMEONE wimped out.
And how is “Click” doing? 😉 Now there would be an ideal sub for “Honeymead”.
I do… I write that stuff… but nobody gets to read it! I lock it behind a passwords and encryption wall. My, the people who hack my computer after I’m dead will be sooo surprised… 😀
Click is just simmering at the moment.
The discipline to write has been somewhat lacking.
And I got entangled in weird plotlines and found I was just filling pages with words and no content.
I need to find that creative sweet spot again.
I sometimes read my completed stuff and wonder how the hell I was able to compose like that?
The characters, the antics…nutz, but loads of fun.
Lack of performance has a disheartening effect for me and that creative je ne sais quoi is just quoi? — er…performance in reference to books moving off shelves etc.
I sometimes wonder what I have to write that will be considered a ‘hit’?
Congratulations on the first book! I’ll be waiting for the 5th. I really should stop procrastinating and chase after that idea butterfly. You are the perfect inspiration for it!
Yess Djoo!! Please please please, catch that butterfly.
Julia Cameron in “Letters to a Young Artist” (which advice applies to writers too) gives the fabulous idea of getting up an hour early and mining that time when everyone’s asleep (and the ideas butterflies are swirling – you’re really harvesting their dreams 😉 ) I’ve tried it and it works beautifully during times when too much else is happening the rest of the day.
Okay! Already writing the sequel. 😉
That’s great news! 🙂