Not an Easy Week

But there needs to be an update as things changed

They say tough weeks come and go, although I’m unsure who they are.

I’ve only been to work once this week, and I have to say, things did get to me a bit. I eventually left work with a blinding headache, and I haven’t been back since—the circumstances are really not for me to write about here. I’ll be back. It is Arnold’s famous line, and I will be. But for now, I’m on a train with my darling wife Kathy for a few days away to celebrate her birthday.

Enough of that rubbish. I have been progressing my novel. It is now ready to go to my Editor, Jenny. It is all very exciting but nerve-wracking at the same time.

A lot of people have been asking what is happening next, and to be honest, I’m not too sure.  Jenny will have quite a few edits for me to go through. I fully expect that. She may also suggest some developmental ideas too. I can feel that my style of writing changes as the novel goes on. 

During the line edit, I completed this week, I was amazed at how many superfluous words there were, and there I wrote. The word count changed by just over a thousand words during this edit. It now stands at just about 77.5k.

As I’ve previously reported, I have been to a couple of events where published crime writers and authors talk about how they publish their books. At the Tiverton Literary Festival, I met a lady who had submitted her novel to eighteen publishers with no success. I’m afraid that is par for the course these days, and as this lady found out, you don’t always get an answer back from them.

Of course, I would love to engage the services of an agent if I could. When I changed my LinkedIn occupation, I had several connections with ‘Agents’ and ‘Editors’. I will need to be aware of scammers; they are present in the writing world as much as anywhere else.

While all of the above goes on, I will, of course, be looking around for publishers to pitch the book to. Several things need to go off with the pitch that need to be written and checked over. One of those is the synopsis of the whole book. It is like applying for a job, which is what you are doing.

As I sit on the train writing this blog for you, I have also been writing for my next novel, which I hope to have the first edit complete before the end of the year. I had better get the project set up in OmniFocus; I’ve already been planning and plotting in OmniOutliner.

Until next time. Have a great week, and keep writing.