Plot changes and Editing

Having very nearly given up on Alex Frost, I decided on one (or two) last hurrah!'s.

#PitchSlam and #NestPitch - two contests that I thought would be a great opportunity to have one last go on getting noticed and before shelving the project. #PitchSlam was the first catalyst, two more were to follow.

The first phase of #PitchSlam is a critique on a 35-word pitch, provided by 6 of the judges of the competition. The feedback was constructive and led me to rethink a few things. This in turn made me realise something, the structure of the book was such that explaining the plot in few words always confused the reader.

I needed change. I liaised with a couple of my Critique Partners who agreed that the changes seemed positive for the manuscript. I was left with a conundrum: do i start improving the script and pull out of the two competitions or leave it as is and try my luck.

I knew the story needed some fixing up, so I decided to press on with changes and pull out of the competitions.

Changes were written and reviewed and, again, feedback was positive. And then catalysts numbered two and three arrived.

I received glowing feedback from a beta-reader in my target audience (9+ year old readers). After all the rejections, critiques, discussions, negative thoughts, the level of response from a reader in my target bracket brought everything in crystal clarity. This is the person whose imagination I am trying to capture. Who i am trying to bring the joy of reading back into their lives - away from computers, iPads, TV and countless other distractions.

And then, moments later, further strong positive feedback from a beta-reader who has just got through my initial revamp - pre-most recent changes.

Spurred on, I decided that I needed to finish the re-write and get some professional help. In steps freelance editor and literary agent Jessica Schmeidler (The Write Shadow).  Jessica will be working with me on an initial manuscript review to help me polish this story until it more than shines. I will post some more info on my experience with the review process and (if I push on) the editing phase too.

Onwards and Upwards!

The Great Publishing Question

Over the past months I have been engaged in querying various agents in the UK and US with my Middle Grade fantasy, Alex Frost and the Dragons of Overearth. Not with much success, I hasten to add. Every author goes through the struggles of finding an agent, some find their match immediately, others can take longer - one fellow I know on twitter took 6 or 7 years. But now he has one!

Unfortunately, I find myself stuck thinking about AFatDoO (great acronym!) whilst it remains unpublished. I have a few queries outstanding, but given the feedback so far I think it unlikely that it will strike a chord with any of them. I am almost set on publishing, even though it's Middle Grade and difficult to crack the market through a publisher, let alone as a self-published author. But I have one last option before the self-publish button gets pushed.

I recently discovered Inkshares.com, a website that crowd funds books through pre-orders. You pitch your novel, readers review it and pre-order of they like it. If you get enough pre-orders, the book gets published.

I read through the terms, wrote out a project. Deleted it. Wrote it out again, procrastinated a bit more and then, eventually, hit the submit button. Then changed my mind. I've still got lots to think about, many options and lots of writing to do before this book is ready for publishing. It just takes time!

Thanks for your support (if you give it) and thanks for reading if you don't!
Argyle

Le Grand Réécrire!

It seems like many, many years ago now, that I first embarked on the marathon task of writing my first full length middle grade novel. In actuality, back then I hadn't really encountered the term 'middle grade'. All I really knew was that I had an interesting concept for a story. So let's back track slightly...

In or around 2006, I decided that I wanted to try my hand at writing a book. I had spent the majority of my youth being creative, either in music or drama. I had played in bands, to varying degrees of success, written songs for my bands, to varying degrees of success, and performed in many plays, to varying... well, I think you get the idea!

I decided it was time to try something different and started on writing. My first idea was a simple premise. I had an initial scene, a hole ridden plot, and a character (loosely based on my younger self) that I thought would be fun to write. 'Argyle' was born. It is a science-fiction adult humour short(ish) story, which was never really completed. Argyle is a space-archaeologist who has a terrible run of luck, goes out on the lash with his best mate and wakes up 1,000 years in the future. He must then use his skills to unearth his own mysterious period of incubation, accompanied by his best mate, who was also frozen in time, and his great²⁶-granddaughter. Suffice to say, it was fun to write, but it was severely lacking in structure.

So effort number two. I dreamt up a great idea in my other favoured genre of fantasy stories. Through some planning and luck, it transpired that the main character would end up being a 10/11 year old girl. I began writing the book and completed it in relatively short order. Then I got busy at work and everything was put on hold.

Years later, I revisited the story, finished things off and tried my hand at self-publishing. It wasn't for me, the market was saturated with slush and it felt that I was just throwing another book into the pile that no one would ever get around to reading. So I back tracked, withdrew the book and began a significant revision (number 3). The revision has now been finished and the word count has been increased from around 27,000 to 50,000+ in just under a month.

And so the real work begins. 50,000 words of 'idea' have been put down in writing and now I have to sort them out into some sort of sense. Improve the dialogue. Make sure that the characters actually develop. Make sure that the world is real, the rules are real. Basically, give the story the best chance I can to being a worthwhile read.

Thankfully I have been helped along the way by some readers on sites such as WriteWords, Scribophile and Twitter (see a review of revision 2 on searchingforharry.com by @breezymarie7). And I have just made contact with a few critique partners to get this edit underway.

The next few blogs will focus on my editing experience as this is the first time I have done this and with no formal training I hope my experiences can help others in my position. Eh bien, mes amis, allez! Wish me luck and I hope to be back soon with an update!