June 9th, 2010
I’m re-reading the Harry Potter series from start to finish in the name of over-analysis. Spoilers ahoy.
The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters
Harry rides out the remainder of the summer with nervous expectation. On September first, the Dursleys drop him off at King’s Cross station in London. A friendly red-headed family, the Weasleys, help Harry find his way through a magical entrance to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, where he boards the Hogwarts Express. On the way to the school Harry meets Ron Weasley, the youngest brother in a large family of wizards who already feels overshadowed by his siblings; Hermione Granger, a brainy Muggle-born girl who talks at great length; Neville Longbottom, an awkward boy who’s always losing things; and he is reintroduced to Draco Malfoy, the upper-crust bully he met at Diagon Alley earlier. Other side characters make their first appearances. After enjoying some wizard candy for the first time, Harry disembarks and follows the rest of the first-years across a still lake to the massive castle of Hogwarts.
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April 28th, 2010
Yesterday I did it, months before I thought I would: I actually wrote a query letter pitch for Hubris.
Charlie just wanted to reconnect with his adopted sister, Adriana. Adriana just wanted to avenge her birth mother by killing the six Gods and ending their tyrannical reign over the universe. But then things got complicated. Charlie has met the Gods, and though they’re rattled and threatened, they don’t seem much like tyrants. What’s more, they claim that if Adriana succeeds in killing all of them, she’ll wipe out the universe in the process. Adriana thinks they’re bluffing; the godishes, impish immortal beings that are not quite gods but not quite anything else, are in her corner. But even Adriana is starting to suspect that she’s being manipulated.
As Charlie races from New York to the Tian Shan mountains to the bowels of the earth to stop her, Adriana must face the anger that drives her, and decide whether she’s willing to risk everything-literally-to finish what she’s started.
And already I’m finding faults in it. This, folks, is my least favorite kind of writing. I’d rather churn out a dissertation on minor property disputes in 1890s Oklahoma than try to distill a 90,000 word story into a couple of paragraphs. Or less. While maintaining a strong sense of the characters, setting, tone, and emotional stakes. And making it sound irresistible. Which, considering my rejections outnumber my partial requests by about 30 to 1, I’m really not very good at.
But an author’s gotta what an author’s gotta do. Writing a good query is a skill every writer needs, and the only way to get better is with lots of painful, demoralizing practice. I’m glad I got a head start on this one, at least.
April 20th, 2010
Ah, now it’s coming back to me: the feeling of restlessness, the guilty sense that I should have gotten back to work by now instead of pouring hours into blowing stuff up in Just Cause 2. I had forgotten about this part of the novel-writing process. But Hubris is still in the hands of a number of my beta readers, and I don’t feel that I’ve gotten enough feedback yet to mount a proper revision. I think I only need one significant rewrite, primarily to punch up the lackluster first chapter, before I’m ready to start the second big waiting game that is the query process. But for now I’m stuck on the first waiting game. You play this game by trying your hardest to respect the fact that your friends and family actually have other things to do besides reading your novel, and resisting the urge to prod them constantly about their progress.
The problem is, your well-meaning-but-busy acquaintances might actually need a little prodding, because otherwise they’ll simply forget to read your book. Or at least that’s what the devil on my shoulder is saying. I listened to him a bit too much with The Northerners, so this time around I’m trying to err on the side of patience. As of now there are three people who have read Hubris, and four who have a copy they’ve yet to finish. Feedback so far has been helpful (and mostly positive), but I don’t have a very strong sense yet of what I need to change. This is making me a bit antsy.
If worse comes to worst, I can probably pull off a decent revision on my own, but it’s hard to trust my own opinion after a certain point. Writing a novel is all about navigating self-doubt. At this point in the process, those waters get particularly muddy.
January 14th, 2010
Last night I finished my first big revision of Hubris. There were only a couple of major changes: I had to do a complete rewrite of the critical first page, remove the second chapter and place its exposition much later in the story, and cut out about a third of one lengthy middle chapter. I ended up cutting out more than I added, so this draft is about 2500 words shorter than the last. The whole process was slow and sometimes grueling. I don’t like revising, and I never will, but it feels great to have it finished.
The manuscript is now ready (I hope) for the scrutiny of my beta readers: my girlfriend, friends, and family. We’ll see what they have to say. I’m quite proud of the story; it’s a lot more ambitious than my first two novels, and I think the end result is more accessible and compelling. But I’m way too close to the text now. I need a few outside perspectives before I can do any more work on it.
So, now I can relax and spend the next few months on my other projects, or just on reading, watching movies and playing video games. I feel like I’m on vacation.
In related news, I got a rejection letter from the agent who was interested in The Northerners. But! This was a good rejection, because he called it a “near miss” and said he liked my writing, but just wasn’t interested in this particular story. He encouraged me to send him my next novel, and I will.
So The Northerners is not likely to get published anytime soon, but all that querying was still worth it. I went from having no contacts or prospects to having two agents who explicitly asked me to send them my next book. If my beta readers really like it, including my writing-inclined acquaintances who I can count on to be demanding*, I might be querying again as soon as this summer. We shall see.
* Even if you have demanding friends, your best bet for unbiased criticism is to join a writing group. One of these days I’m going to follow that advice.
December 30th, 2009
I’m re-reading the Harry Potter series from start to finish in the name of over-analysis. Spoilers ahoy.
Diagon Alley
Hagrid escorts Harry back to the mainland and into London. There, Harry is introduced to Diagon Alley, a hidden magical thoroughfare where wizards and witches do all their shopping. He visits Gringotts, the heavily guarded wizards’ bank, and buys all his needed equipment for Hogwarts, including his magic wand. He also meets a fellow first-year who comes across as an elitist jerk. After his shopping is done, Hagrid takes Harry to King’s Cross station so he can board a train for home.
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I'm an aspiring author. These, dear Internet, are my ramblings.
Visit my home page at QuinnStephens.com.
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