WEEK IN REVIEW
Time for another 'Week in Review' post....
Past Writing
I spent last week mostly taking time off from my novella WIP, Pink Knight, because I figured the distance from it would do me good. I think it did. By the end of the week, I began to reread and edit it, realizing that the book really doesn't have an existing audience. I suppose I didn't think much about that when I was writing it because it was so much fun, I just didn't want to kill my joy.
But, it is what it is and it's just not like other books out there. I suppose most writers set out to write as original of novels as they can. Usually, originality is a good thing. But, people don't like what they don't recognize--it's just the way our brains are wired. I'm all for getting away from using tired old tropes, but popular tropes are popular for a reason. Because people recognize them and can make sense of them.
But, still I want to publish this book because it was so fun to write. Why not? I'm so eager to write the next novella in the series, I've already started the first chapter.
It's safer to write what you know will sell, but I want to write what's fun for me. I can't see myself just writing something like YA paranormal romance when I usually can barely shove that down my own throat. I guess this means I'll fail, but I'll be having fun while I go down on my sinking ship....*waves*
Past Reading
I finished reading Velveteen by Daniel Marks and it really was a bit disappointing. A lot of books do this to me nowadays. But, this one was too long, too wordy, and too lost for me to enjoy it very much. Whatever.
After that, I read a 50-page novelette called Guardian by Rachel Morgan, which is the first of a series of prequel novelettes to a novel called The Faerie Guardian. This little story was so good and funny! I loved the writing and the pacing. It was perfect for a quick, absorbing, exhilarating YA read. By the way, Guardian is free in both the Kindle and Nook stores!
Once finished with that, I moved onto The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia and oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh...my gosh! This book is BEAUTIFUL and GORGEOUS! Wow. I'm only just starting it, but it's blowing me away with its incredible world building and the luscious prose that's making me feel like mine is a fat plumber in a tutu trying to dance around in a ballet. It's so freaking stunning.
From the POV of a human-like robot woman, it's about what it's like to be a freaking robot. How brilliant is that? One blurb said it's about "what it means to not be human." The automatons are the minorities in their society and get treated like dirt, so, Mattie, the protagonist, is a liberated automaton, but is still ignored and mistreated by everyone except her creator, a man named Loharri. Read this if you want to read genuine steampunk that means something. Like, what do all the cogs and gears mean? What is their significance to the story and its theme? You'll get that and more in this book.
Beyond that, I won three book giveaways last week, which is so bizarre, but awesome. One of them was even a Goodreads giveway, which I hardly ever win. The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett, which comes highly recommended by Kevin Hearne, author of the Iron Druid Chronicles. I look forward to reading that one.
This Week
I will continue to edit and revise Pink Knight, likely adding to its length a bit. I want to add so many little things to it, so it'll be a bit of a longer novella, which is good. It needs more wiggle room and more fleshing out.
Reading-wise, I'm going to keep on reading the magic that is The Alchemy of Stone--slowly savoring the delicious read about Mattie and her life as a robot whose maker refuses to let her have the key to her own clockwork heart because he's afraid she'll stop going over to his house to visit him. Parents....
Sorry for the extra long post, but I'm finally finished now. Doing any editing on your WIP, lately? Discovered any amazing reads?
Don't give up on Pink Knight just because you're not sure it has an audience. You never know.
ReplyDeleteHope to start final edits on my third book in the next week or so when it returns from my critique partners.
@Alex: Thanks! I'm not planning on giving up on it, but my expectations are much lower now. I'll still throw it out there, anyway, just because. I want to publish a book, so I will.
DeleteHope your final edits go really well on your third novel. Good luck! :D
As Alex said, you never know. Those books that are clearly written with a certain market in mind are usually not the ones with the best reputation (even if some of them do seem to sell in droves). I think it's best to write the story that wants to be told, then worry about finding a market for it. And if it ends up not having one, at least you know you didn't try to cheat the muse. Not to mention that trends and habits are always changing, and something you wrote today might find an audience ten years from now--maybe because one the books down the road becomes a bestseller. ;)
ReplyDelete@James: I hope you're right. I do feel like I wouldn't want to waste my time writing for a specific market when my heart isn't in it. I just feel like writing the stories that come to my mind, and they aren't usually so typical of what's out there selling right now.
DeleteAnd, I guess you never know what can happen. Thanks! ;)
Personally, I love to read stuff that's fresh and original and isn't bogged down with boring tropes. You never know with books. I say, write what you love and put it out there. It's got to be better than trying to write something your heart isn't in. Sometimes I think about writing a Paranormal Romance just because it's so big right now, but then I don't even like to read it, which probably means anything I wrote in that genre would suck. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm very intrigued by the new book you're reading. Sounds like another one I need to add to my TBR list. I think the last few books I've read have all been off your list! :)
@Camille: I do, too! Give me fresh and original stories over overused tropes any day, but that doesn't seem to be a popular sentiment. I want to earn a living as a writer, but it's not likely to happen if I write what so few people want to read.
DeleteAnyway, The Alchemy of Stone is really good! If you like steampunk, it's excellent, so far.
Good luck with writing! I actually wrote several hours today. I was doing a Harry Potter fanfic. I want to branch into writing my own YA fic and figured this was a good writing exercise. Keep your fingers crossed that I can actually write original fic that doesn't suck. I was quite pleased with my fanfic.
ReplyDelete@Alison: Thanks, Alison! Glad to hear you're getting some writing done, even if it is fan fiction. You could eventually end up writing your own original stories and writing any fiction is good practice. Good luck with it!
DeleteSince I am new to your blog, I'll just ask. What is the Pink Knight about? I have read Ekaterina Sedia's The Secret History of Moscow. There was a lot about her writing that I loved. I met Peter V. Brett and got to hang out with him and his writer friends at a couple of WFCs, his books: The Warded Man and The Desert Spear are good stories. I think the third one is coming out next year. I will probably have to read it!
ReplyDelete@Heidi: I actually have a blog post all about what Pink Knight is about. It's in the recent post I made called, "The Next Big Thing."
DeleteI wonder if Sedia's Secret History of Moscow is good. I need to look into that. And, I ended up not getting the Peter Brett book because the publisher sent me the wrong book. Ugh. Oh well. Glad you got to meet him, though!
Thanks for mentioning Guardian :-)
ReplyDeleteSo glad you enjoyed it!
@Rachel: You're welcome! I'm reading the second novella right now and loving that, too! :)
DeleteI checked out your Pink Knight post, thanks for sending me! I really loved a lot of the images, especially at the beginning of the book, and the writing in the The Secret History of Moscow, but the story wasn't my fave:( Do you like the wrong book they sent you? LOL! Yeah, conferences are fun, but expensive. When I get a chance to go to them, they are awesome;)
ReplyDelete@Heidi: I think Sedia's writing is exquisite! She's incredible with words and I hope I'm learning from her prose.
DeleteThe publishers sent me a mystery/thriller, which I don't read, and it's the 17th installment in an ongoing series, so, no, I don't like the book they sent me by accident. I can still buy the right book for myself, so I suppose it'll be all right.