Yep…the image is all blurry. But it doesn’t have to be in focus…it’s that way to give me inspiration. I’m almost finished with the first draft of my first novel. Ooooooooooooohh…exciting times.
I like the image because you can see that they’re real people, but they’re not easy to see…you have to stare at the image and decide for yourself just what it is you’re looking at. I’m not going to keep you hanging and you’ve probably already figured it out, but the woman in white is a bride. A bride on the bow of a boat…the imagination takes flight! This is my round about way of getting to the subject of this post. Not too long after I started writing, someone asked me if the characters in the book felt real to me. They didn’t. They were like the people in the image. There, but somehow, not there.
My heroine was a mystery who took me by the hand and waded into the unknown with me. I was watching her, judging her, wondering about her. The question of whether she seemed real to me kept surfacing. When would she seem real? Should she start to feel real? Would I suddenly start to miss her when I wasn’t writing? Would I wish that she would ring the doorbell and ask me to go to Starbucks with her? (I’d have to pass on that one..coffee gives me palpitations…) Would we show up at a party wearing the same outfit?
I gave up wondering about the reality of it all. I wrote about my heroine and since I didn’t want this to be a book with just one character, I added more. The funny thing is, I started to like all of these people. I looked forward to what they would do next and I started to SEE them. They weren’t blurry like the bride on the bow of the boat and they had personality…the bride just kind of stood around and looked “bridal”.
So why am I writing this? Just because I’m so close to the end of the first draft that I can smell it and the people in the book?…Well it’s like some kind of magic happened, because…….THEY SEEM REAL TO ME!
I wish you luck with your novel. It would be so awesome to have it chosen by a professional publisher. If you have a good editor, it could be the chance of a lifetime. Who knows?
Thank you so much…I can’t decide whether to submit this to a publishing house or self publish…”the chance of a lifetime”….impossible to resist!
Exactly. Even if it would be rejected, at least you will have known. But some keep sending and if you think it is good enough in the end, do it. Otherwise, you’ll always wonder. What if?
Very good advice…Thanks so much.
I’m intrigued. Good luck with working towards the end of it 🙂
Thank you Inga 🙂
First draft … good for you. I am passing this along to my wife. She will appreciate your efforts.
🙂 Thanks! Is she a big book fan?
A couple of years ago she felt the urge to write a novel about some characters that made frequent appearances in her thoughts. She’s never done that before. Shortly after, she had it written. Never did publish. That seems to be a hurdle of what to do with it.
Aha…..she should check out “createspace.com”
There’s cost involved of course, but you can get access to having your book available on Amazon.com.
She is looking there. Thanks. I hope she gets to publish. It was a lot of work.
I’m finding out how much is involved..my hat is off to her!
Very interesting!
BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!
Well, that’s quite the tease. I want to meet your characters now.
🙂 Well thank you!! I can tell you this…there’s a woman, and another woman, and of course there’s another woman and at least three men!
Exciting, indeed. What form does the novel take? Is she a nature-loving lass like yourself? Is it adventure, romance, fantasy, history … ?
Let’s see, what all do we have. We’ve got mystery, romance and mayhem. She definitely has a lot of my characteristics…so you can imagine…it gets a little crazy.
Seems fabulous!
Fingers-crossed!
OMG!!!!! You’re writing a novel?!?! How did I not know about this? This was an awesome post, and I’m really excited for you. I actually do book reviews on the side, so if you need a beta reader or a review after it’s published, let me know :).
Phascinating photo.
I’ve been keeping it very, very quiet…but Bulldog,http://visitstothepark.wordpress.com , told me quite a while back that I should
let you folks know what I’m up to. I’m glad you liked the post, lol…I will need all kinds of help as I get past this stage…One of
the reasons I’ve kept it so quiet is that I cringe when I think about book lovers like you reading it. It’s going to be embarrassing
I’m afraid. My first novel and I have people who REALLY know what they’re doing keeping an eye on me…YIKES!
I’m a very good copy-editor. Seriously. Email me if you like.
I believe you! I’m probably going to take you up on that offer..
Thanks. Talk to you later.
🙂
I love this… having finished my draft and now onto the edit, I am finding all kinds of controversial feelings… I read and decide it could be better, so I rewrite portions and feel happy… the problem the following day I reread it and rewrite all over again, is this normal, or is it just me???.. I’m never going to reach the end of the book if I keep rewriting the beginning… I’m finding it frustrating and cannot get to a final “I’m happy with this piece now” position… but you are probably going to hit the nail on the head first time round… good luck and keep us posted…
I posted this because of you. Awhile back you encouraged me to be more of an open book..pun intended. I’m nervous about the editing
and you stated the reason why, perfectly. I’m afraid I’ll start going in circles. I doubt that I’ll hit the nail on the head first
time round….sigh….good luck to us both…I’m going to be thrilled to own a copy of your first book!
The agro of it all is Linda will ask “but what was wrong with it?” and I have no answer…
LOL,,,you’re too close to it….time to let someone else have a read!
Novel??? Woohoo!!!!
I bet they’ll seem real to me as soon as I start reading.
(when’s it out?)
I’m going to self publish I think, so for sure this year and hopefully sooner than later…I’m very Type A sometimes.