The low-down on the down-low

Reader, I confess, I haven't meant to stray away from the blog for so long, or be so 'DL', as it were. Just time gets away with one but I can report that I have not been idle - not I!

Goals have been achieved and it's a good reminder for me to actually write it out here because it's a little perturbing how the brain tricks one into thinking one hasn't achieved anything!

Last I left you reader, I had finished the first draft of 'The Novel'. Since then, I revised it several times before getting an editor to read it so I had fresh eyes as I was beginning to suspect my nearest and dearest were not about to unleash their maximum criticism guns and shoot at me - even though I wanted them to! Getting a professional editor/writer who also writes in your genre to have a looksie is tres invaluable and if you have even the slightest of means, I would recommend it to anyone else. Count it as a investment in yourself and your writing.

How did I fare with the feedback? I honestly welcomed and relished in it, reader. I cringed where valid weaknesses were brought up - not because I was embarrassed in myself but because I knew it was a weakness and was acknowledging it sheepishly. I was keen to then ingest the notes and work on making the ms better. I also tried to keep the first note the editor wrote ('Great idea for a story') in a easy-to-see place as a reminder :)

Anyhow, I'm actually in the trenches of 'querying agents', reader. So again, apologies if updates are a little slim as one is focussed on that goal entirely. But the good news, my posts will now be living up the name of the blog itself, eh, eh?

Stumbled on...Demotivation for Publishing and Evil Editor

Well I said I'd be updating the blog more on a weekly basis and I'm kind of cheating because I'm referencing another's blog post. Though it is on topic - namely, publishing -  but a rather bleak out look on the prospect of getting your book out to the masses en print but hey ho! It's still a good laugh.

I stumbled across this when perusing 'Evil Editor (why you don't get published)' - a blog I have lost many hours to. Ideal for procrastinating. Have a click through and enjoy. Particular favourite posts are the 'Guess the Plot' - Evil Editor posts up five summaries based on what the book title might pertain to and then we are treated to the original query letter/synopsis which a budding author has submitted. The perk? You get to read EE's inline comments - witty to the point of being illegal. Oh and also sound advice on how to rewrite a query/synopsis for max. impact.

Below are two of my fave images posted by EE. To see the full post, visit here.

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