Evie Wyld is Booktrust's third online writer in residence.
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Breaking Your back
Posted Wednesday June 17th 2009
by Patrick NessAs part of my duties as Writer In Residence, I’ve been working on an exclusive short story for the site. An opportunity to put my money where my mouth is, I guess, whatever the hell that means. Being willing to actually bet rather than just talking smack? Yeah, okay, makes sense after all.
Moving on. I’ve been working on this story and have, without consciously thinking about it, followed the tips I’ve been putting up (and there’ll be more to come after I finish the story; I’m only one man!). I’ve spilled everything out in a super-messy first draft – and boy, am I not kidding about that one – written to a few key scenes, all towards an ending feeling I wanted to leave the reader with.
Which changed about five times as the story unfolded, so there you go, the tips are tips, not hard and fast rules. Bend them where necessary.
But today I’ve got it on my to-do list to really 'break the back' of the story. That’s my job for the hours of this afternoon. This morning was accounting and correspondence. In the age of email, that takes forever. This afternoon, back-breaking.
(But while…
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Reader responses
Posted Wednesday June 10th 2009
by Patrick NessHaving blogged about meeting the readers, I thought I’d take a few minutes to greet back some of the people who’ve greeted me here. You, for example, yes, you, BibliOdd who wrote kind things:
'Thank you for writing this book! Thank you for writing the sequel and WHEN can I get my hands on the 3rd one.. Have you read Stephen Donaldson's Series – Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever etc? If not – don't read them until you finish writing the finale to your trilogy! Thanks again – my teen readers loved your opening lines too... and the idea of a talking germ infected dog... thanks from a School Librarian'.
I haven’t read the Stephen Donaldson series – though they’re always so nicely designed – and promise not to. Probably ever, I’ve got a heaving to-be-read shelf. But most excellent about the teen readers (and the third one’s out next May, by the way, not that I'm selling myself).
I also appeared yesterday on Australian radio talking about this very Writer In Residency, and that’s sparked some more comments. Like from you, Larksong4:
'Have just finished listening to you on the Book Show with Ramona Koval…
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Meet the readers
Posted Friday May 29th 2009
by Patrick NessWriting books is – in so many, many ways – an odd profession.
By its very nature, it attracts those of us who are perfectly happy spending months, if not years, talking to pretty much no one but the cat. Long days in front of the computer or with the notepad or in the library, happily beavering away, speaking possibly 100 words aloud in an 8-hour-period.
And then when the book comes out, there are suddenly – if you’re lucky – quite a lot of people who suddenly want to talk to you very, very much, at great length, repeatedly.
They’re called your readers, and if you’re afraid of them, you might be in the wrong line of work. True, the literary world has its fair share of difficult recluses (Salinger, of course, Pynchon, Jeffrey Archer whenever he’s banged up), but let’s face it, neither you nor I are JD Salinger or Thomas Pynchon. You might be Jeffrey Archer, but then you’d probably lie about it.
For the rest of us, it’s a necessary part of the gig, and frankly, I – a fairly shy person who’s extremely suited to a self-directed solo job – enjoy it to a surprising…
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We love your books, don't write any more.
Posted Monday May 18th 2009
by Patrick NessYou might have noticed that there’s been a bit longer of a time lag between this entry and last, for which my most effusive apologies. The cause is one of those things that you don’t dare complain about for fear of it never happening again, but is actually an issue for writers: all the wonderful fruits that publishing brings start to take up rather a lot of time.
I have a good friend who’s a very successful author (far more so than me), and he warned me early on with my first published book: 'The second you publish a book, you’ll find you have absolutely no time to write any more.'
I laughed, thinking he was saying it from a point of view of success which I’d never reach.
Well, I haven’t reached it, but it turns out he was right anyway. In a big way.
I want to stress right here, right now that THIS IS NOT A COMPLAINT! Truthfully, if it was, it would be like saying, 'My wallet gets so heavy with all this money ...' and you could rightfully chuck me out a window (or to use the proper vocabulary: defenestrate me – sounds dirty, but…
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The day it comes out.
Posted Tuesday May 5th 2009
by Patrick NessYesterday was the official publication date for my new book, The Ask and the Answer. A big, big day, but an oddly quiet one.
I started writing it almost two years ago, taking a year to get it into shape and then another year through the editing and publishing process. There are, as you might imagine, a couple dozen milestones along the way, each of which feels pretty good: Finishing the first draft, finishing the final draft (many months later), getting a cover designed, finding out the number of pages (which, to me, is an item of unseemly curiosity; I’m always dying to know).
And, the best day for me, holding a final hardcover in my hands. This is the day I really feel like an author. Nothing can beat holding a final, published book in your hands, every word of which has been written by you. There it is, an inarguable, concrete fact, with heft and weight and physical presence.
Books to me are more than just things to read anyway; I love books, as I’ve written about before, for the feeling of the pages, the design of the cover, the fonts, the board under the sleeve. I…
