While the Landlord was playing with the electrics and installing a new shower today, I was forced off the computer.
This isn’t the catastrophe that it used to be – I find that forced time away from the PC can often help me think about my plans for world literary domination and give me a fresh hope that I may actually, one day, be able to put food on the table with the proceeds of my warped imagination.
It’s not warped; just slightly twisty…
Yes, thank you Puff.
Ahem. I was thinking about what I would like to publish next. Obviously, TTATE #5: Nightbringer, is very much on the cards; but there are a few things that I have had in mind for a while…
… so here is a run down of the books I have on the TO BE PUBLISHED list:
The Tower and The Eye: Nightbringer
(TTATE, Book 5)
The Dragon’s Pendant
(The Secret of Arking Down, Book 2)
The Tower and The Eye: Creation of The Lych Mistress
(A ‘Tower and the Eye Tales’ Novella)
The Bog Boy
(A ‘Secret of Arking Down’ Novella)
The Tower and The Eye Omnibus Edition
(TTATE Box Set)
The Tower and The Eye Tales
( Story Collection)
The Secret of Arking Down Chronicles
(Story Collection)
The Mind of Morgana
(Box Set)
Genesis of the Churchyard
(Box Set)
The Song of Albion
(Novel)
Now, there aren’t any dates on these titles deliberately. I’m not the sort of writer that can work on one thing, finish it, edit it and publish it within a definite timespan.
I can do deadlines for small pieces, but the big ones take time, thought and mass amounts of energy. For example, the first drafts for three of these are finished, but I’m not doing any editing on them until I’ve finished the first draft of Nightbringer.
Essentially I follow the 8 Rules of Writing that Neil Gaimen came up with:
1) Write
2) Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.
3) Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.
4) Put it aside. Read it pretending you’ve never read it before. Show it to friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is.
5) Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.
6) Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.
7) Laugh at your own jokes.
8) The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.
I’ve got rules one to five down pat. Six is something I tend to have trouble with – I can never be certain when to let go…
I like “Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.” – it should be on a T-shirt.
All right Puff… actually you have a point there; it should be on a T-shirt…
I also like “Make Good Art” which is another of Neil Gaimen’s sayings.
Ahem… enough of that Puff, can we get on with this post, please?
Of course, all of this is subject to the approval of my overlord (or should that be overlady?) the beauteous Princess Wriggles:
That’s just an excuse to put a picture of her in the blog post…
Shhh, Puff!
PW is the main reason I don’t have any dates for publication of these books; I can never tell from one day to the next if I am going to have any time to write… *grins*
But it is a lovely excuse not to write, or do housework…
“The Baby needs me.” or “I’m playing with the Baby.”
…both go down quite well with everyone!
The World of The Teigr Princess 