Musings on writing
This time about two years ago I finished the first draft of my first complete novel. I had written maybe a dozen, maybe two dozen short stories before that, all in Dutch, a novella and an enormous amount of fictional non-fiction, rpg write-ups and a book on GUI programming with Python and Qt. The novel was my first bit of fiction in English, and I was pretty proud. So I spent a few month polishing, sent it off to a publisher, and started on the next novel.
That novel is taking rather more time: about two years by now. I have passed the 90.000 word mark, and I may well be close, or already at, the climax. It's a deeper, technically more ambitious novel -- but I'm not sure whether it's as coherent or past-paced as the first novel. Maybe because of the slower writing pace, which in its turn was caused by all kinds of interruptions:
- Developing a tool to help me create a few languages for that extra touch of realistic confusion and culture shock. Probably not necessary, and if I ever sell the novel, I probably will have to take those bits out.
- My employer going broke, and then rebooting -- that kind of thing takes time, and since we rebooted with only half of the people who were still working with the old company, we're kind of busy.
- Starting to study theology in a mild an non-university way. I'm not doing as much about it as I should, but what I do, takes time.
- Going on holiday. Bad move -- another three weeks wasted. Probably to be repeated this year, too. Said he, with a grin on his face.
- Starting this blog. Very bad move... But it helps to vent, now and then.
- Buying a graphics tablet to make it easier to sketch out campaign lines (this is a novel about an army campaigning...), and then finding there's hardly any decent software to use with it, and wouldn't it be nice to start hacking in a new language. Enter Krita.
Ah, well, one gets the idea. So, here I am -- two years older, and the publisher I sent the novel to still hasn't rejected it, after a year and a half. This probably means it went awol, and I should start looking for a new slushpile to clutter up.
But do I want to do that? It costs very real money to submit a manuscript to an American publisher from the Netherlands, with only a very, very slim chance of success. And besides, now I've nearly finished novel II, I see all the flaws, warts and ugly bits of Novel I. There are a number of places, particular in chapter 12, where I show all too clearly that this is my First Novel and that I Needed to get Everything in (I only noticed this after seeing the same in Tipping the Velvet, which is, incidentally, much better than my first novel). Wouldn't it be better to just hide this particular effort, finish No. II and sent that out?
It's a pity that No. II is in a sense a sequel to No. I. Perhaps I ought to self-publish No. I, make a nice PDF file that's well suited to reading on screen, and leave it at that. After all, the life of a real, published author isn't all that relaxed and comfortable -- look at Charlie Stross and his schedule...
Oh, well. I'll find a formula. After Easter, probably. Hopefully Novel II is done by that time, and I can start on a fresh and light Wodehouse-in-Andal bit of fluff:
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