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Writing Update
Feb. 25th, 2009 09:29 amFor those keeping track of whether I'm still writing or not . . . I am. I'm working on the new project while I wait to hear from my editor about Well of Sorrows. The new project is the first book in a new series. I wrote the first four chapters in January, got critiques of those, revised the first 3 chapters and wrote the plot synopsis . . . and then I set it aside for a few weeks.
Now I'm on break from school, so I've been writing the last few days and chapter 4 has now been revised to fit the changes to chatpers 1-3 and the plot synopsis. Much stronger chapter now. I'm hoping to start work on chapter 5 today and finish that before school resumes on Monday. We'll see. It's all from scratch now, and that usually goes slower.
But during all of this, Geogre R.R. Martin did a post about receiving "fan" mail wondering where the next book in the Song of Ice and Fire series was and why it wasn't on the shelf yet. I thought I'd comment on that as a writer.
I have, so far, managed to get all of my novels written and turned in by deadline. And I think they've been good books. Maybe not great, but that's what editors are for: helping turn good books into great books. However, I totally expect that at some point in the future (assuming I continue to get published of course), there will be a time when I won't make deadline. I'm hoping there will be perfectly good reasons, such as:
1. Life. I mean, seriously, who hasn't had something unexpected happen that derails everything and puts you behind schedule?
2. Respect. By this I mean that I'd hope I'd force myself to write something late but good, rather than something on-time that sucks, out of pure respect for the reader. I personally hate reading a book by an author I love that sucks or that sounds like it was just dashed off. I never want to hand in a "dashed-off" book.
3. Struggle. I experienced this with The Vacant Throne. Sometimes, you have a nice idea of what the book will be about, the plot, the character arc, etc, and then when you sit down and start writing the book wants to do something else. At first you struggle with the book, because you DO have a deadline and going off in a completely unknown direction takes time. But eventually you cave and do what the book wants (I hope) and it turns out to be a better version than you'd originally imagined. Unfortunately, this takes time in two ways: you waste time while struggling with the book in the first place, and then once you cave, it takes time to recover and find out what the book is really about.
I had a few other reasons, but now that I look at them, I think they (and the point of this entire post) all boils down to Number 2: respect. I know I constantly worry while writing about whether what I'm producing is good enough, and all of this stems from the fact that I don't want to disappoint the readers, because I respect them. (They do, after all, completely control whether or not I sell another book by whether they buy my books.)
I don't know George R.R. Martin personally, and I have no insight into why it might be taking him longer to finish the new novel than expected . . . but I have a strong suspicion that it has to do with the "respect" option. He must be thinking he has to please his fans (and he's got A LOT more fans that I do), that he has to write the best book possible so as not to disappoint them. And unlike me he has created a much wider story and world, so I can only imagine the horrors of trying to keep all of those plot threads straight and pull off the best story possible at the same time.
I've read elsewhere that it's not really the fact that the book hasn't materialized yet that is upsetting the fans (although they would like to see it sometime soon), but that there was a misinterpretation of what happened with Feast of Crows. Supposedly, he had a much larger book that was too large to print, so they split the book in two, with Feast of Crows as book 1 and with some tweaking Dance of Dragons would be released shortly afterwards as book 2. I don't know if this is true, but as a writer I know that "tweaking" sometimes means ripping the entire book apart and rewriting it from the ground up. If this did happen, I still think it comes back to the respect thing. You only do something that drastic as a "tweak" if you think the end result is going to be much better than the original.
I also haven't read the series so don't know if he ended on a cliffhanger or what. (I read book 1, realized it was a series, and have bought all of the books in the series since then since book 1 was good, and intend to read them all once the last book is out.) But again, if the new book hasn't materialized, I would think it comes back to the respect thing again.
In the end, I'd hope that my fans would be understanding in the future if I missed a deadline in order to produce a better book, for whatever reason.
Now I'm on break from school, so I've been writing the last few days and chapter 4 has now been revised to fit the changes to chatpers 1-3 and the plot synopsis. Much stronger chapter now. I'm hoping to start work on chapter 5 today and finish that before school resumes on Monday. We'll see. It's all from scratch now, and that usually goes slower.
But during all of this, Geogre R.R. Martin did a post about receiving "fan" mail wondering where the next book in the Song of Ice and Fire series was and why it wasn't on the shelf yet. I thought I'd comment on that as a writer.
I have, so far, managed to get all of my novels written and turned in by deadline. And I think they've been good books. Maybe not great, but that's what editors are for: helping turn good books into great books. However, I totally expect that at some point in the future (assuming I continue to get published of course), there will be a time when I won't make deadline. I'm hoping there will be perfectly good reasons, such as:
1. Life. I mean, seriously, who hasn't had something unexpected happen that derails everything and puts you behind schedule?
2. Respect. By this I mean that I'd hope I'd force myself to write something late but good, rather than something on-time that sucks, out of pure respect for the reader. I personally hate reading a book by an author I love that sucks or that sounds like it was just dashed off. I never want to hand in a "dashed-off" book.
3. Struggle. I experienced this with The Vacant Throne. Sometimes, you have a nice idea of what the book will be about, the plot, the character arc, etc, and then when you sit down and start writing the book wants to do something else. At first you struggle with the book, because you DO have a deadline and going off in a completely unknown direction takes time. But eventually you cave and do what the book wants (I hope) and it turns out to be a better version than you'd originally imagined. Unfortunately, this takes time in two ways: you waste time while struggling with the book in the first place, and then once you cave, it takes time to recover and find out what the book is really about.
I had a few other reasons, but now that I look at them, I think they (and the point of this entire post) all boils down to Number 2: respect. I know I constantly worry while writing about whether what I'm producing is good enough, and all of this stems from the fact that I don't want to disappoint the readers, because I respect them. (They do, after all, completely control whether or not I sell another book by whether they buy my books.)
I don't know George R.R. Martin personally, and I have no insight into why it might be taking him longer to finish the new novel than expected . . . but I have a strong suspicion that it has to do with the "respect" option. He must be thinking he has to please his fans (and he's got A LOT more fans that I do), that he has to write the best book possible so as not to disappoint them. And unlike me he has created a much wider story and world, so I can only imagine the horrors of trying to keep all of those plot threads straight and pull off the best story possible at the same time.
I've read elsewhere that it's not really the fact that the book hasn't materialized yet that is upsetting the fans (although they would like to see it sometime soon), but that there was a misinterpretation of what happened with Feast of Crows. Supposedly, he had a much larger book that was too large to print, so they split the book in two, with Feast of Crows as book 1 and with some tweaking Dance of Dragons would be released shortly afterwards as book 2. I don't know if this is true, but as a writer I know that "tweaking" sometimes means ripping the entire book apart and rewriting it from the ground up. If this did happen, I still think it comes back to the respect thing. You only do something that drastic as a "tweak" if you think the end result is going to be much better than the original.
I also haven't read the series so don't know if he ended on a cliffhanger or what. (I read book 1, realized it was a series, and have bought all of the books in the series since then since book 1 was good, and intend to read them all once the last book is out.) But again, if the new book hasn't materialized, I would think it comes back to the respect thing again.
In the end, I'd hope that my fans would be understanding in the future if I missed a deadline in order to produce a better book, for whatever reason.
