Monday 28 September 2009

THE DAILY GRIND

Got to thinking about the whole writing process.

I am amazed and a little awe-struck when I read of authors who firstly know with mechanical precision just how their book is going to proceed and secondly are able to bash out 5,000+ words a day in the process.

With me it's a little more haphazard,

Sure I know vaguely (very vaguely) where the plot of my book is headed but generally I have no idea how characters are going to develop nor do I have any forensic idea of what twists and turn my storyline might take. It just sort of happens. I find characters take on a life of their own - which is probably why they're all so strange - and as for the plot...well, as I write it evolves and interesting ideas occur to me which just beg to be followed.

It's a hugely inefficient way of working and generally means I have to cull 50,000 words from every book to make it sensible and coherent. But it does mean that I come up with some good ideas. ..well i hope they're good, otherwise it's all pretty pointless.

As for my daily quota: I aim to put down 20,000 words a week. Now they might not be particularly good words but they are capable of being polished and revised.

With The Demi-Monde 2 I'm bang on schedule though writing the tract on what ImPuritanism is was a real stretch. But having said that I'm pretty pleased with how my Dark Charismatics fit right in...

Thursday 24 September 2009

IN THE BEGINNING

Okay...

First blog, so let's summarise the situation.

  • I've written a sci-fi/fantasy book called 'The Demi-Monde;
  • My agent (John Jarrold) has pitched the book to various publishers around the world;
  • Quercus (an independent British publisher) has signed the four book Demi-Monde series with the first book 'The Demi-Monde: Winter' hitting the shelves (probably) in January 2011; and
  • Rod Rees (that's me, the me now referred to as a 'British novelist': doesn't that sound cool) finds himself obliged to write three more novels.
So now I am firmly in the world of Blads (no, I didn't know what they were until a week ago: apparently they're promo brochures designed to puff a book to overseas buyers); conventions (I'm to attend the big Horror one in Brighton in March 2010); photographs (Nelli prowling around all morning trying to make me look interesting); and web-sites (www.the demi-monde.com).

My aim is to make this blog a diary of my adventures in publishing. The next big event is meeting my editor (Nick) at Quercus and meeting John Jarrold for the first time (ours has been a strictly digital relationship thus far).

I'll keep you posted.