Having shifted the sequence of a small number of episodes in ‘Z’, drafting resumed with some vigour yesterday. I’ve now reached over 26k words (for those of you who like to measure such things), and the projection for the whole is now 100k. If finished, it will be a rambling portmanteau kind of novel with multiple plot threads all of which interconnect in one way or another.
Perhaps a bit like a snapshot from a fictional ‘soap opera’.
In terms of New Contexts: 5 submission reviewing, I’ve made it through to the poems starting with the letter ‘L’. At this rate I will have finished my first run-through of both poems and prose by the end of next week; then we’re into Round Two…
I’m expecting a similar level of activity today – the Tour de France and Wimbledon not withstanding!
I had my third rejection back yesterday for 17 Alma Road. There are still a few rounds left in the barrel at this stage however.
After all these years, rejection has become a somewhat unemotional thing. I know many people can find it very difficult to deal with, especially if you’re a new writer; it seems hard and intensely personal. I know I used to struggle. In sorting stuff out for our house move I came across a raft of old rejection letters for really awful things I sent to agents many years ago – the kind of material I’d be ashamed to put my name to now! That whole scenario now makes me laugh out loud.
Given that history, I now treat rejection as an inevitability; the trigger for putting another cross on a spreadsheet. I can’t imagine what landing a new contract might feel like (I had three about 20 years ago). I get excited enough when I sell a book (early June was very exciting!), and I imagine it to be like that only multiplied many fold.
Hopefully I’ll get to find out..!
~
Links: (books for sale on Waterstones.com, Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble etc. Some e-books also available direct from Coverstory books.
#Writing #AmWriting #fiction #poetry #WritingCommunity #books #novels #readingcommunity
Ian Gouge - Writer 