Orts, orts, my queendom for some orts--but only the chocolate-covered kind

[shalanna]

I'm taking an online workshop from fellow Dallasite and chicklit author Candace Havens, and it started Monday! It's going to be cool. We're going to learn how to Fast Draft a novel, according to today's lecture.

Fast Draft . . . y'know . . . writing 20 pages a day for 14 days. You then have 280 pages. (Of pure drivel? We hope not! In fact, you may have gold. Who can say until you try?) That's about right for a first draft, if you work in drafts. (Some authors tell me that they don't draft; they polish as they go. Kipling time again.) At 250 words per page, that's 70,000 words. And typically I will go back and add stuff. Sometimes I'll go back to put in setting; other times, I need to check to see where the five senses are. And often I've got placeholders that need to be filled in once I do the research.

She says that twenty pages will only take you an hour or two. For me, that is true. In fact, when I'm on a roll, I can do even more. Other times, I just hack away and nothing happens. But anyhow, I'll bet that if I set aside the time, I could do that.

Now, one would be tempted to ask: "Why the hell would you want to write another 300 pages of YOUR stuff, the stuff you can't sell?!" And this would seem to be a logical question. But we're not using logic here. Try next door, where they use loads of it every week. And tell 'em I sent you.

I'll keep you posted on just HOW everyone else does this.
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Send letters of support and love letters to Keith Olbermann so that he'll know we appreciate his courage, candor, and frankness. God, he's a hottie . . . of course I still love Ron Reagan. And I have this inexplicable thing for Joe Scarborough (have I mentioned he looks like a young John Wayne? BTW, if you want to see how John Wayne really walks, watch "The Birdcage" next time it comes on AMC or TCM.) *Ahem* As I was saying, we should laud someone who is brave enough to speak his mind in this climate of "if they speak out and say we're mistaken or use any expressions of dissent, zap 'em and crush 'em like an aluminum can against Mongo's forehead."
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Gary Wassner has a forum where they're talking about writing fantasy fiction. It's pretty cool.

And from there, I surfed over to this Samuel R. Delany interview from the Minnesota Review which is also really cool. Thought-provoking. Yet somehow depressing.

“[T]he collapse means not only that there’s no real economic competition, but also that the kinds of things that publishers are looking for have changed. Commercial publishers today are far more distrustful of good writing than they have ever been before, and usually won’t consider it unless it comes with some sort of ready-made reputation or gimmick. In the last half dozen years, writers have shown me rejection letters from publishers such as Harcourt Brace that actually say, under the letterhead, 'We’re sorry. This book is too well written for us.' This means that competition is of an entirely different order than it was, say, thirty years ago, when such a letter simply would not have been written.”

I actually have two older rejections that say pretty much the same thing--that the book is "so well written that it would be difficult for many readers" (!) or that the book is "too smooth, almost as if it's saying 'look how clever I am," (?) but those aren't QUITE the same as what he's saying. They're even weirder.

And from a great new journaler I've only just started reading--an agent and book doctor in the UK who specializes in SF/F--jjarrold:

The truth is that UK genre editors might see twenty novels submitted every week, and only take on two authors in an entire year. And sales and marketing directors will stick their oars in, in some companies, making it more difficult for an editor to acquire a new writer.

I say this so any new writer reading understands that it isn't a matter of an editor reading a novel and saying 'I like this. I shall publish it.' Publishing is big business and decisions are taken commercially, often by a publishing committee.

*sigh*

P.S. In spite of it all, I e-mailed _Dulcinea_ to a new agent today, and on Friday night I e-mailed _Camille_ to an agent I've talked to before--both requested. I said I'd keep at this marketing mess for a year, and I meant it. Hold your applause. . . .

Comments

[horace-hamster.livejournal.com]

She says that twenty pages will only take you an hour or two.

Is this feasible for most participants? Creativity aside, this would require one to be able to type >80 words per minute and to sustain that rate for a full hour. Except for professional secretaries, I don't know very many people who can type that fast.

[coneycat.livejournal.com]

20 pages in two hours would kill me (NOT a good typist!!), but I did NaNo last year (as you did, if I recall) and having those short-term heavy deadlines was really good for the writing. I had no life for a month and my horse thought I was dead, but I wrote about 2500 words every day to make the deadline and having to push myself to just keep writing was surprisingly good for my creativity. Plot points worked theselves out when I immersed myself in the story and just pressed on. So the Fast Draft idea sounds useful. Keep us upadted on the workshop!

[newport2newport.livejournal.com]

Twenty pages in an HOUR? Whew, I don't know if I could manage that in a month. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all works out for you -- and I hope to get some inspiration for myself. :)

Congratulations on subbing your work again. That's it: Get up on the horse and ride again. That's the way to accomplish your dreams.

Another Havens?

[dennis-havens.livejournal.com]

How odd! I seldom run into a Hevens, outside my immediate family. And here's one, a chicklit author, living right there in Dallas.
We're all descended from one, William Havens, who came to America from Wales in 1643 or thereabouts. He had a lot of children, and they had a lot more, so how closely any two Havenses are related depends on which of William's children they were descended from.
There's a DNA project underway at present to help those whose genealogies aren't complete. A little pricey, but I suppose worth it, if you really _must_ know if Ol' Sam or Aunt Millie is your fourth or fifth cousin.
On behalf of one Havens to another, please give Candace a quick hello from yet another cousin of undetermined degree.

As to the topic at hand, I certainly can't type at that pace; I have to rely on a plentiful abundance of time to get my books written.

Re: Another Havens?

[dennis-havens.livejournal.com]

HAVENS, not HEVENS! So, it's come to this: I can no longer spell my own name.