The Great Writing Challenge Update 3

The Great Writing Challenge Update 3

 

 

So here we are again, 4 weeks ago I embarked upon my mission to become a great writer, taking into account like so many of you out there I have a full time job, wife, kids and a multitude of other responsibilities. So how have I done so far, am I a great writer? Erm not yet. Have I made progress? Yes I believe I have.

Every update requires that I make progress and achieve goals of some sort, this way I can truly show that I am endeavouring to improve and I can feedback on what I have achieved. This way I hope to help others build a roadmap of what they can do in order to work towards their goal. Always remember it is no one else job to help you achieve your dreams, so you have to do it yourself, but hopefully I can show you some things that I learn along the way that will help.

Last update goals;

1. Finish reading current creative writing book.2. Finish chapter 3 of current project using new skills.
3. Send my book off to at least one critic/writer to review
4. (If I have had the first response) Update you on feedback from an agent.

So how have I done so far?

1. Creative writing book - No I still haven't finished it, I don't know why, I have no excuse, I need to though and I know this, otherwise where is my growth coming from.

2. Finish Chapter 3 of current book - I have achieved this goal and more, I have completed Chapter 4 and am within a whisker of finishing Chapter 5 and I must say already I feel an improvement in my writing, I feel as though I have firm ideas of the direction that the book is travelling and story has more colour than ever before. In the past I have avoided naming extra characters as I have a habit of forgetting who they are (in fact I once inadvertently changed the name of a main character in a book without realising it), but this time I have worked harder on the story of each character and what they are bringing to the book. This is one of those breakthrough moments for me, also because I am enjoying writing this book so much is possibly the reason I haven't made time for reading.

3. Send my book to a critic/writer - There is such a person in my life who is a dearly close friend and remarkably polite person, but is also a ridiculously honest critic of writing. He is constructive but not cruel and seeks only to get the best out of me. So I have sent him a copy of Retaliation with the instruction to be as cuttingly honest as possible. I know he has made a start on the book but it will be a while before he has finished reading and making notes. So I wait with baited breath.

4. Updates on Feedback - So far I have sent Retaliation to 6 Agents and 4 Publishers (who accept unsolicited manuscripts) and so far these are the responses.

Agents
1. Email - Thank you for your Email. We are taking very little at present and I am afraid this is not for us. Good luck placing it elsewhere.

So although it's what I expected it did not however give me anything to work with other than them not telling me it's no good at all.

2. Email - Thank you for writing to us. Our agents have had a chance to consider your material and unfortunately they have decided that it is not something for them.

We receive a very large number of submissions every day and so sadly we cannot give you a more detailed breakdown of why your material wasn’t suitable for us.

We urge you to continue your search for representation as this is a subjective business and other agents may well feel differently.

We are very sorry to disappoint you and do wish you much success in the future.
So definitely a nice rejection letter, it still has the same message as the one before but makes you feel as though there is hope. But sadly it does not answer the burning question, which is, why do you not want it?

Publishers

1. Letter (I will shorten it to the main points) - you will be pleased to know that our board of editors have reported back favourably regarding your initial submission. Therefore they now wish to view your complete manuscript in it's final form.

Here we are, some unexpected measure of success, although I will not get too excited just yet as it can take up to 6 weeks to get a response and I sent my manuscript in about 1 week ago, so a while to wait yet to see if they want to go further. The other part I have to wait to see is if they do make an offer will it be the haloed traditional deal? Or a Partnership contract? I wait yet again with baited breath.

So there it is, I am not a great writer yet, nor did I expect to be at this point, but what I do need to do is set some new objectives for the next update.

1. FINISH the current creative writing book - this about accountability, I need to do it, I will do it.
2. Finish 1st draft of current novel - This current novel is a teen adventure story so I am not aiming at the longest story ever told here. I am over two thirds of the way to finishing a first draft attempt and then I can get on with the re-draft. It would be nice to have some new material to send out to people.
3. Online Writing Course - I need to move forward with the education side of things behind this challenge so I will endeavour to cough up some money and get started on the learning bit.
4. Hopefully more updates from the agents and publishers.

That will be it now for the next couple of weeks, I will be back with some other subjects on the blog before then, but stay tunes this mission is far from over.

Written by Martin Wallace