NaNoWriMo Made Me

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Perry






The thing is, ‘Twenty Seven Seventy’ was written during NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month that the Office of Letters And Light puts on every November. You have 30 days to write a 50,000 novel. There are hundreds of thousands of writers the world over who take part every year and in 2011 I decided to give it a go with a novel idea I had been mulling over for some time. The book here is the end result. If I learned one thing it is don’t write the book in 30 days then publish it and enter it into the 2012 Miles-Franklin Award that closes for entries just two week later on the 15th of December. I made it but I know the book would have been better if I had left it festering in a drawer (or on a hard drive) for a couple of weeks, then done the major edit.

As it was, the time restraints in place to enter into the 2012 Miles-Franklin meant I had three friends proof chapters as I wrote them and I edited and rewrote as I went along. I wrote it in 28 days, then rested on the 29th and on the 30th I was up at 4am to begin the big edit. By noon it was done and I published it with Lulu.com that afternoon, then ordered the seven copies needed for entry into the Prize. They came the following week and were sent off along with the entry fee of $75, the entry form had been submitted online as directed. Fingers crossed.

It was important to me to write this as a NaNoWriMo work, under a time deadline and to a specific word count. That allowed me to plan the writing and chapter size, make the plot sequences fit the word count and so on. It was all a part of the technical challenges. I decided to enter it into the 2012 Miles-Franklin because that is the most prestigious literary prize we have in Australia. This is intrinsically a very Australian story and I felt it met all the criteria for the Prize. Whether it is considered worthy of even long listing in the top dozen or so is up to the judges but even if it isn’t, I can’t lose. It is all part of the rich tapestry of the writing experience.

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2012 Miles-Franklin Longlist Out

Posted on March 28, 2012 by perry






The Longlist of those novels entered in the 2012 Miles-Franklin Award has been announced and sadly, ‘Twenty Seven Seventy’ wasn’t one of them. While some of my peers and friends have commiserated and pointed out all the longlisted novels are from major publishers who invest big money to promote their books, I prefer to think that my novel wasn’t what the judges this year were looking for. I disagree with allegations that all competitions are rigged, that the big trade publishers influence the judge’s decisions; that is too easy to claim instead of admitting to yourself your writing may not have been what they were after.

It doesn’t mean it wasn’t good, just not good enough for this contest. Even that isn’t a pejorative remark, merely acknowledging that writing, and reading, is subjective. Take away truly woeful ‘What I Did On My Summer Vacation’ efforts and if we accept the basics of grammar, punctuation and spelling as well as sentence construction are all there, it really is a matter of taste. Taste is subjective and so you can’t be wrong, or right either.

I have received many very kind reviews of the novel and I treasure those, but I also treasure the reviews that offer some indication of where that reader found something they didn’t totally like about the book. I do think there is a bias in the publishing world against thinner volumes, mine was just 50,246 words or 117 pages long and it is hard to make a profit from books like that today. That is why so many books are at least 300 pages and they make them in those larger paperback sizes that seem to be all the rage this century. The reality is it costs $X to publish a book, so a few hundred more pages is the smallest part of the costing equation, yet people seem to perceive they are getting better value if the book is thick, especially given the huge prices asked. Some novels in paperback are rrp’d at $39.99. I can’t afford that and never buy them but ask my library to get it in, or wait and buy it for $2 from the Salvo’s.

I believe in value and affordability because I am influenced by my income and what I can afford. I also write the story to suit, not to length, although that isn’t totally true in this case. The novel was written as my entry to NaNoWriMo and that has a target of 50,000 words in 30 days. It was coincidental I guess. My next novel, already in the works, will have half as many words again. My first novel, ‘The Cool Side Of The Pillow’ was around 65,000 words. Perhaps I am an anachronism, stuck in a literary past with thinner books? Yet I think in this day and age we will return to shorter stories and several volumes rather than mega blockbusters.

Twenty Seven Seventy is still in with a chance with the Prime Minister’s Literary Award and hopefully that panel will give more bias to a shorter novel, published by a small local imprint. While I don’t wish to join the cabal of trendy authors who seem to write specifically to win all the prizes and get all the grants and perks like time at retreats to polish their next entry, I do feel quality prizes like the Miles-Franklin are worth pursuing. Win, lose or never get a mention, at least you know you are among good company. More books don’t make the Longlist, Shortlist or win than do and many of them are acclaimed as superb writing. I will try and obtain a list of entrants that never got anywhere and see which books ‘failed’, yet have nonetheless entertained millions of readers. And that is what it is all about, surely? Entertaining your readers.

 

 

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Legal Deposit Done

Posted on February 7, 2012 by perry






In late January I complied with the requirement to deposit a copy of the novel at the National Library in Canberra. This is called ‘legal deposit’. Since I am NSW based, I should also deposit with the State Library and apparently copies are supposed to be left with the Sydney University library, all up another three copies. That is four in total and two more than I have sold. When the budget allows I will comply with this requirement also. It would be foolish to possibly be in sight of winning a major prize and then being eliminated for failing to comply with the legal deposit requirements.

I also dropped off ten reading copies for the Prime Minister’s Literary Prize. While free to enter, it is a prestigious and lucrative prize of some $80,000, tax free. It pays to fourth place with $5,000 for each of the four runners up, so who knows? Like the Lotto, you can’t win if you are not in!

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What Can You Learn From Writing A Novel?

Posted on December 28, 2011 by perry






A lot, in a nutshell. It is a process that is part emotional and part technical. Coming up with the original idea is often not a one time affair but something that develops over time. Or, it can be something that flashes into your head in a burst of inspiration.’Twenty Sven Seventy’ was the former, something that took some time to form, even though I didn’t learn about NaNoWriMo until late in October. I had been thinking of the novel for some time and had the title (named after the post code of where the story takes place) but it was going to be a very different product. I originally planned ten short stories of 5,000 to 10,000 words that would all interlink, but each would stand on its own. Each story would focus on a specific character type that we have in our community and very typical things that happen.

The 50,000 word target and also the ‘no short story anthologies’ rule for the Miles-Franklin and other prizes I intended to enter it into meant it had to b e a stand alone novel and there was no value in risking even interlinked short stories and calling it a novel. That idea will keep and is one way I advise people to write a novel if the thought of a long story daunts them. Break it down into a pile of short stories, but link them.

I also learned that you really must give your writing time to ferment, or fester as the case may be. The deadline for the Miles-Franklin was two weeks after the NaNoWriMo ended so time was of the essence. The next novel I write (‘Never Be Unsaid’, currently in progress) Will be put away for a month before I return to it and read it again with a fresh mind. All the repetitions and typos and clunky sentences should leap out at me then. as a self publisher I have to edit my own work, not something I advise the feint hearted. I do get critical friends I respect to proof the manuscript as it is written and that is a huge help. I also ask for suggestions and editing help and they give it so freely, but then again I do it for them, too so I don’t get too guilty about it.

As for the writing process itself, I think you can learn discipline and target achievement. Learn to set writing targets of X,000 words a day and stick to it. One thousand words a day for one hundred days and you have a fair sized novel. I prefer to write a story so that the story is properly told, not to a set number of words, especially when a story is best told as a novella of say 20,000 words and some tree broker wants it at 100,000 for economy of scale, production costs and so on. This is why I will never be a best selling author but at least I feel my work will maintain its artistic integrity. I write what people pay me to write for my living, I write my fiction for myself and my readers, the cover price is merely a value one must put on one’s work. If I don’t value it, who will?

 

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