Looking for a place to feel inspired and challenged? Like to share a smile or a laugh? Interested in becoming more familiar with Canadian writers who have a Christian worldview? We are writers who live in different parts of Canada, see life from a variety of perspectives, and write in a number of genres. We share the goal of wanting to entertain and inspire you to be all you can be with God's help.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Every Novelist Starts Somewhere - den Boer
While thinking about what to post, I had a brilliant idea—entertaining, great marketing strategy—totally brilliant.
I would post a scene from my first novel. This would endear me to future readers and create a worldwide desire for my novel before its completion.
With bated breath, I read what I had written—the first tenth of the first draft of my novel-to-be. My brilliant idea dimmed to zero watts. But, hope persists.
Buried beneath mundane dialogue, poor word choice, awkward sentence structure and shallow characters, I detect a hint of genius.
I have a question for the novel writers out there. (I’m sure some of you are reading this if only to postpone tackling your manuscript.) How many drafts do you do before your novel is presentable? A ball-park figure will do.
Marian den Boer is the author of Blooming and a novelist wannabe.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts
-
Write Canada is more than a professional networking conference. It’s a safe place where beginning and intermediate writers can learn ...
-
I've been writing professionally for most of my adult life. My first novel, THE JOSIAH FILES was published twenty years ago by Thom...
-
Our coordinator suggested that in our April posts on this blog site we might “write a post about who we are and what we write. . . . [and w...
-
No one has to tell writers that they're up against some pretty big obstacles these days. The latest Tsunami to hit the writing/publishi...
-
A young man and his obviously pregnant wife arrived at Toronto’s Pearson Airport. Between them they toted hand-baggage and lugged a couple ...
-
A phrase I do not remember hearing frequently, has surpized me in the last three days, at least twice, in totally unrelated con...
-
by Linda Hall If you haven't seen the “Which Downton Abbey Character Are You?” quiz, you soon will. It’s all over Facebook. Being a...
-
In our new reality of feedback on newspaper articles and comments on blogs, we all welcome interaction — or do we? I have, in the last while...
-
Monday began like any other day. My husband and I started out at slightly different times. I had a meeting to attend over the noon hour...
-
When I was in the seventh grade, our class was required to read a book called Jean Val Jean. As I got int...
2 comments:
Marian,a billiant, and - if I might venture to suggest - goofy idea! I smile still. :)
Hah! I've not written a novel, but the short stories in my book had multiple revisions.I can't say for sure. Some would have been reviewed and tweaked maybe seven or eight times. I am quite certain the whole would benefit from critiquing and reediting by others.
My first novel (still unpublished) probably had 40 complete rewrites. I was learning fast, but also totally envolved in the story, so every new skill I gained took me back to the beginning. "Muninn's Keep" published in March 2010, had about 7 drafts before a professional critique, and one more after if I remember correctly.
Post a Comment