After wrapping up the first draft of The Last God, I've been busy editing...and then edits came in on Trust. So yes, lots of editing going on right now. Now to take a quick break, because it's the first Wednesday of the month...which means it's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post.
This month's question is: Have you ever pulled out a really old story and reworked it? Did it work out?
Yes! Trust began as a short story when I was in middle school. It graduated to a novella in high school. Then it got buried in a folder on a shelf for years while I got married, worked, and did the normal life thing.
The normal life thing didn't work out. I went back to writing, pulling out this story I still really liked, and turning it into a horrible novel. That horrible novel got shoved aside while I got divorced, married again, had kids, and wrote better novels until I finally had the hang of things.
On about draft fifty-six I was happy with the entire transformation. The project spent two years in queryland before finding a home with a small press, while I wrote two more books in the series.
Thirty-some years after the idea was born...
Trust: Book one of The Narvan will soon be published by Caffeinated Press.
Good luck Jean ... and well done for bring Trust - book one to publishing life .. cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteThanks, Hillary. I'm really looking forward to holding that on in my hands.
DeleteI guess there are some ideas that stick with you. Glad this one worked out in the end!
ReplyDeleteWow! That's so great. Congratulations. FWIW, your post really resonated with me. I've had a similar experience. It took me about five years to write my first novel. It began as one idea and over time, transformed into something different. This caused the two story lines to become disjointed. After about fifty rejections with two maybes, I set it aside for about a year and a half. Recently I've decided to make the changes suggested by an editor. It took a while to get my objectivity back. After working on the book for five years, I just didn't have anything left to make more changes. Now I'm in a better place. I've since started another novel and am in the throws of completing a short story, so my writing has drastically improved.
ReplyDeleteYour post renewed my hope that maybe someday my book/story will also be published. After all, you never fail till you stop trying, right?
Again, congrats on your success. It sounds like you earned it in spades.
Wow! Middle and high school? You are a very brave soul, revisiting that era of your writing life. That portion of my writing life scares me.
ReplyDelete