A little celebration
I am going to continue with my Oxford posts tomorrow, but just now I am celebrating. Since I've been back from Oxford I have been entrenched again in the novel. Yet another revision had been suggested by my agent which I have now completed and I hope and pray that that is it - the manuscript is finally ready for submitting to publishers. Here is the wall above my desk which has inspired me through this final version which I started last November...
and here are some of the books...
and my notes...
Each novel generates a similar amount of material which eventually is consigned to the loft. There are now small bulges in the plaster of the ceiling of our bedroom where the boxes are gradually sinking through the joists.
Tomorrow I shall send the manuscript off to my agent and then I am going to have a day indulging myself looking at other people's blogs. Since I haven't looked at bloglines for well over a week this may take some time.
and here are some of the books...
and my notes...
Each novel generates a similar amount of material which eventually is consigned to the loft. There are now small bulges in the plaster of the ceiling of our bedroom where the boxes are gradually sinking through the joists.
Tomorrow I shall send the manuscript off to my agent and then I am going to have a day indulging myself looking at other people's blogs. Since I haven't looked at bloglines for well over a week this may take some time.
posted by Clare Dudman at 9:12 pm
14 Comments:
My attic is like yours, with all the many boxes and bags of books up there, plus all the many childhood toys and clothes of my daughters' that I can't bear to throw away.
Three weeks I predict it will take you to get to grips with your bloglines. I "marked as read" three times in trying to catch up since my holiday, and have now just about done it in the knowledge that I've missed a lot but anything really crucial will either have been sent to me by Dave Lull or have been posted on Books Inq (or both!).
Looking forward to hearing more about the novel, altough all that Spanish is a bit intimidating. A non-sequitur (almost) -- Jenny has just started secondary school and is learing Latin -- it is her favourite subject. Today in "classics club" she made roman coins out of clay. She also bought "Harry Potter" in latin and spent most of a day reading the first page, with a Latin dictionary open in front of her.
The boxes, the joists, the sinking: a metaphor? Of what? How rainbowy you are in your notetaking... Rainbows sinking through the ceiling.
Do you mean that an agent still suggests revisions for a published and well-reviewed author? How naive I seem to be.
Congratulations on finishing your manuscript!
If you need some colourful relief check out 'thebutterflyuniverse,, an extraordinary website and a lovely, cheerful one!
Congratulations and good luck with the revision submission Clare!
I am fearful of your joist situation however, papers can be so heavy...
I've not even looked in my attic since I moved into this house. But one day I know, it will simply have to start storing things for me!
Good luck
Thanks for those photos. I thought I was off kilter with the amount of paperwork I manage to end up surrounded by whenever I try writing something remotely resembling a novel but feel much better now that I've seen your notes.
Fingers crossed the ceiling doesn't land on your bed.
Wow - what a great accomplishment! Although, don't you also feel a little sad when the work is done? I think I would...
Looks interesting... a tale of exiled druids in Patagonia? What do they do without they're mistletoe? ;-)
Maxine: sometimes I look into our attic and feel something like despair. Nothing more is going up there until something comes down and is thrown out, I say, then fail at the first hurdle. I open the nearest box and there is the day gone - leafing through, remembering, then decide it can't be chucked away after all and so it stays...uselessly.
That is such a goiod idea to have HP in Latin - first because no doubt Jenny knows it already and so the translation is in her head somewhere - and enjoyable too...wonderful.
Marly: Sadly no, it isn't a metaphor. There really are bulges in the plaster - maybe not because of the notes - probably because someone has put their foot in the wrong place. I do love my coloured folders though. This lot were the dry colours of the desert. For Wegener they were blues, whites and purples, and for 98 reasons reds for revolutions and black for madness and depression.
Lee: Yes, I suppose I would have not thought it either until I got published - and maybe a few years ago it would have been through discussion with an editor rather than an agent. But today the novel is filtered so much - by the agent, and then, if accepted, by the editor. Even writers such as Ian McEwan have their novels sent back to them for revisions by their agent. It is a long process sometimes. Of course some novels come right straight away and don't need so much. There are no rules in this business, I've found.
Hello Mog C Lively - you've been here before, I think. Thank you for your return. I visited that website - it is quite an extraordinary uplifting story - but would only work in sunny California I feel. Over here such colours would grow grey with mould or look quite drab in the poorer light.
CFR: Thank you. Luckily the bulges are not over our heads. My advice to you is get the place insulated and get the boards put down before putting anything up there. I wish we'd done that - it seems too late now.
Thanks Jeremy.
Sharon J: Thanks for calling. I've had a look at your website too - good luck with your writing. Yes, those files are only a part of course - there's lots more - and lots more on just my computer too. I find I need to have so much stuff in my head - just to use a small part of it in my writing.
Twitches: yes, when a book finally goes off to the printers I do feel a little sad - it's as though I've lost something because I've worked on it so intensively - and also feel a little worried in case I find anything I've got wrong (I usually do).
Jonathan: Heh heh. Yes, I'm sure they took plenty of mistletoe and plenty of woad with them just in case.
I'll stick to the internet.
'Mistletoe and woad', wasn't that a Cliff Richard chart topper?
And isn't my spelling atrocious these days...
Good luck! Lots of activity - let's hope for lots of positive results ...
Lee: You may have a point, there.
Jonathan: Ha - very good. You should see my spelling some days. It is as if my brain has decided to go on an economy drive and switched half the lights out.
Thanks Debi!
Post a Comment
Comments are subject to moderation.
<< Home