Schrödinger’s Manuscript: The Uncertain State of a Novel

As we write our first novel, we can’t help thinking about its future.  I day dream about DAW, Roc, and Tor.  I hear stories about indie published works like J.L. Doty’s Gods Within series that I learned at a con sold over 30,000—and who hasn’t heard about the success of Shades of Grey?  As I get closer to finishing my manuscript, I have to do more than daydream: I have to really think about what I want.  If it’s traditional publishing, how do I optimize my manuscript’s chances with the most likely fit for it?  Daydreaming is fun.  This is work…and scary work at that, because every choice I make, every avenue I go down, every street I bypass, could be the difference between finding a publisher…

Or not.

As I near finishing my novel, I have started researching cover letters, query letters, synopses, publishers, and statistics on rejections.  The numbers are downright scary.  Don’t get me wrong, I believe in my manuscript with all my heart…but when I read that Rowlings’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone got rejected 12 times, that Herbert’s Dune got rejected 23 times, that L’engle’s A Wrinkle in Time got rejected 26 times, and that King’s Carrie nearly didn’t see publication because after 30 rejections, Steven King threw it out (his wife rescued the manuscript…thank you Mrs. King.  I like that one!)…well, when I read those numbers, I think, what chance have I?   This is why, in my head, my novel is both publishable and unpublishable all at the same time; it is my Schrödinger’s manuscript.

But I have one task to do before I try to take my novel from Schrödinger’s sealed manuscript box…and that is finish it.  But how?  I’ve been stuck on the Chapter 49 for a very long time.

Enter Clarion West.

Metaphors — Add Color to Your Writing

What the Heck's a Metaphor?

Metaphors are figures of speech that bring drama, color, texture, vision, history, action, or thrill to your work. For example:

But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

~William Shakespeare

Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.

~Mark Twain

Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are. Up above the world to so high, like a diamond in the sky.

~Jane Taylor

Hmmmm...anyone see a theme?

Appropriating Inspiration at BayCon 2014

Confession:  I've let writing lapse lately and that feels BAD.  Maybe that's happened to you, too.  Life gets in the way, and it's hard enough to put one foot in front of the other, let alone put your fingers on the keyboard.

Seeking inspiration and writerly motivation, I spent this past Saturday and Sunday at Baycon 2014, one of the larger science fiction and fantasy conventions held annually in the San Francisco Bay Area. Along with Denise Tanaka and Jennifer Carson, I happily threw myself into the open arms of my fellow fen and found inspiration and motivation aplenty.  Now here I am, writing, my fingers feeling fine as they tap the keys.

I woke at 5:00 in the morning, and the first song of the day on shuffle was Laura Line's "Dreams."  Good omen!  Dreams inspire (several of my short stories have come from dreams that I've remembered upon waking), and the con would be filled with fellow dreamers.  

Characters in Search of a Plot

I got invited to join my first SF/F writer's group after attending a workshop at a Baycon many years ago. I was so excited! I had taken creative writing classes in college, and I had been part of a mixed-genre writer's critique group for a couple of years. This was the first group dedicated to speculative fiction. They would understand me, at last! It had a couple of professionally published authors, along with novices like me. I had high hopes, back then, that with a little spit and polish my manuscript would be rescued from the slush pile, and I'd be the next Marion Zimmer Bradley. 

Leasspell Writers Group—Finding our People

Writing is lonely.   It’s in a room with a closed door. It’s in your head.  It’s in another world.  That world is wonderful, because in it, everything you ever dreamed of happens, but it’s yours and yours alone. When I play games or sports, I have my team or my opponent.  When I make stained glass, I can share the process with others in the studio.  But writing…I close  my door, I put on headphones, and I disappear.