A B N A Vets Forum Dwight says hi -- how is every..

Hi Leah and all,

How is everyone doing?  Dwight Okita (Prospect of My Arrival) here.  It seems the main ABNA boards are mostly social these days -- very little writing related.  How do people make time to work on their novels with so much socializing?  That's always a balancing act.

And writing is so solitary  So I'm coming by ABNA Vets and I just visited ABNA Books.  Both sites at least try to touch on writing issues.

I haven't gotten a publisher yet, but I queried two NY agents and mentioned my placement in ABNA, shared my PW review, and the link to the amazon site.  They both said they wanted to see my full ms. -- so maybe one can get some bump from the contest.  Usually agents only want queries, or plain don't respond!  So to get a personal response was great.  I encourage folks to make use of PW or contest placement or amazon customer reviews, etc.

I've gotten word that the HP finalist prizes should be shipped by May 1.  I'm most looking forward to the new laptop.  And the plasma tv should be fun.  Do people find post-ABNA that they have been re-energized to work on their novels?  Or are you in a slump?  What's up with people?

Dwight

Hi, Dwight. Many congratulations on all the fun and excitement.

I, for one, have been energized. Now I have so many projects going, it's difficult to balance, but I'm definitely motivated to transition to fulltime writing. The competition inspired me to get my rear end out of  bed before daybreak to write before going to work. I'm still (pretty) faithful about doing so, but despite being a morning person, it's rough some days. Nevertheless, I keep plugging away on my newest novel as well as freelance commitments.

And my PW review and contest status have inspired my agent. So there. :)

Hi Caron,

I'm glad to hear you were energized by the ABNA experience.  That's good that the contest has also energized your agent.  Congrats on having an agent.  I'm sure many of us have been energized.  For one thing, having our chapters out there for the world to browse have made our work much more public.  And that in itself is a good thing.

My HP goodies just arrived today.  A laptop, a printer and a plasma TV.  They still haven't made it out of their boxes, but a friend's coming over to help with set up.  It's nice to have something very tangible like this.  Al the top 10 get this stuff.

I think one thing I'm sensing is that the concept for my novel is a winner.  But I have some rewriting and restructuring to do to make the whole book sing.  One agent told me that the premise suggested it would be a "science thriller" like Michael Crichton or Margaret Atwood.  I wouldn't say I intend it to be a thriller -- a closer model I could compare PROSPECT OF MY ARRIVAL to is the movie ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND.  That movie had moments of universal truth about love and painful memories, humor, science and breathtaking beauty.   I aspire to those things too, and sometimes achieve them.

I do like the image of a thriller in the sense that it implies a page-turner.  I must keep the word PAGE-TURNER on a bumpersticker over my computer.  I think it's important for me to understand what compels a reader (what compels me?) to turn the page, to go deeper into a journey that they find irresistible.  It requires me as an editor to be very strict, going chapter by chapter, one subplot at a time, one page at a time.

Well, it's nice to chat about some of these issues.  Is seems the regular ABNA boards at Amazon no longer are a place for serious discussion of writing issues.  Maybe this is a good place.  Or ABNA Books.

Dwight

Hi, Dwight!  

Very nice to see you here. 

You asked what we're up to.  Yesterday, I did my first review for Valya's new journal, which she'd gotten up and running in April.  That's just about all the writing-related work I've done.  Well, I *am* still thinking and thinking about my plot - I have the same issue you described above (though I've not read yours, it sounds familiar).  It's plagued me from day one, I even read some sagas to get into the nuts and bolts of a stripped down, all-action approach. 

Thinking about that plasma TV: I just heard about a movie called "Stranger than Fiction" which sounds related to the writing process.  (Have you seen it?  It looks like I was living out of the country when it came out so I have no idea if everyone here went to see it in droves)

Sounds likes you've the surfed post-contest momentum well and you're tucking back in to writing.  Best of luck.

 

 

Hi Clark,

I think I'm in a good place.  At first I was in a frenzy to get an agent.  But now I want to take my time and do a deep revise of my novel.  I am asking myself -- what is it that makes me turn the page?  Advance to the next chapter?  What makes it irresistible for the reader to go deeper into the forest?  The thrill and the danger.

I've been reading the full 50 pages of Harry's novel and I think he's got a great sense of how to keep the pages turning, the reader engaged. 

My HP goodies came on Saturday.  I'm typing from my new laptop with its wide screenscreen and Windows Vista.  My 42" flat screen tv is on in the background as I was the 10 o clock news.  Still haven't even unpacked the color printer yet.

 

Hey, Dwight and all.

One of my writing mentors hounds me about goal motivation and the story question. I tend to think that if I have this nice little story with important things to say or funny dialogue or exciting action scenes, then what else do I need? But he says--and I see that it's true--that if something doesn't hinge on a particular outcome, then readers will get bored . . . or drift away, just like the point of my novel.

I've read some of Prospect--which does have an interesting premise, by the way--but I don't yet know whether it really matters to him if he's ever born or not. Hate to try to speak into your particular work, having read so little of it, but if being born is a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, then maybe that's something to address.

And that's definitely take it or leave it advice. :)

Glad you're enjoying the new electronic goodies. I'm still using my same ol', same ol'.

Hi, Dwight!  Congrats again on your achievements -- I know you're having fun with your new toys.  Bet you'll soon have an agent, soon be a published novelist.

 

I've been energized -- still working on the new novel, considering what to do with older things, helping a friend through a big writers' conference, tending to my speculative fiction group (where I always have fun and learn stuff.)  I'm also trying to keep up with the poetry submissions for the journal Conclave -- Valya kindly took me on as a poetry editor.

 

I'm glad you checked in here;  your positive attitude does everyone good who encounters it.

Hi Leah,

Good luck with the new novel.  I got one response from the agent at Wrtiers House.  We traded a few emails.  He said he was definitely drawn in by the premise of PROSPECT, but thought it would have turned out to be a "science thriller" along the lines of Michael Crichton or Margaret Atwood or the book "Never Let Me Go."  I would probably never write those type of books, as good as they are.  Because it seems of vision of the future much darker and pessimistic than the one I have in mind.  I told him a closer model for me is the movie "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."  Has anyone seen that movie?  Jim Carrey elects to have a procedure to remove painful memories from his brain.  And as the memories are removed and flit through this mind -- he decides to try to stop the procedure.  He doesn't want to erase those memories.  Cool idea and great cinematic execution.  I should buy this movie to watch on my new big plasma tv.

I think it's useful for me to see that movie as a kind of model.  It's by know means a thriller.  It has an inherently beautiful, moving vision of life in the future...as it intersects with the possibilities of science.  I'm planning to spend May and June revisiting my novel to address some of the feedback I got in the contest.  I want to make sure -- even if it's not a thriller -- that my novel is a page turner.  The pages need to be turned not so much out of a sense of danger, but out of curiosity as Prospect goes deeper and deeper into the woods that is modern life.

Congratulations Dwight.

To finish in the top ten  your novel is a WINNER.

Don't be in a hurry to do too much restructuring. The structure as you have it is what made it better than 4990 other ms. 

Certainly have a look at the comments but don't go turning it into a thriller on the comment on one agent. Trust your own instincts. Give it time to find the right agent and publisher in the form it is in.

I got Sunshine etc and Stranger than Fiction together a packaged DVD and I loved both. In Stranger than Fiction the story as it is being written is actually happening to a man complete with the author's narrrative. It is a fantastic idea. They are both movies that give you something to think about.

Gayna

 

I loved Eternal Sunshine -- rented it back when Blockbuster had their no late fees promotion, and kept it out too long -- they discontinued the promotion without notifying customers, and when they wanted $17 from me in late fees, I threw away my Blockbuster card.

That is such a wonderful movie -- slightly creepy, just enough for tension, but ultimately so positive about the one thing we all long for -- Love.

Eternal Sunshine was a great movie, and definitely not a science thriller in my mind.  I wouldn't read a science thriller, but I would be attracted to something like Eternal Sunshine.  As you've said, Dwight, the movie is more about bigger human truths and relationships.  That, to me, makes it akin to literary fiction.  That's a good thing!  Don't change your vision for your book just because someone wants it to fit a commercial genre it's not.  Having a page turner is well and good, but speaking to truths of the human condition is special.  It's literary.  It may not be for the reader who just wants to know what happens next.  It may be for the reader who wants to think big thoughts, ponder big questions.  Stick to it!  Your original story got you this far; it will also get you an agent, a publisher, and an eager audience.  Best of luck!

Gayna, Leah and Beth--

I'm glad you all like ETERNAL SUNSHINE.  I hear what you're saying about not being too quick to change my novel to fit into what someone else wants.  And Beth, you have a point that my novel progressed through the contest because of what it is now.

I am approaching revisions with cautious eagerness.  Ultimately I myself am not totally satisfied with this version and know I can make it stronger.  The essential story will still be very much the same.

I'm finding that there are different ways to revise a novel.  One can look at the overall structural issues.  Or one can go page by page, re-reading one's novel as if a stranger to see what is experienced or needed. 

Right now I'm most excited by doing the latter.  This weekend I'm reading from page 1 to 210 of my novel, straight through in a sitting or two.  I have pen in hand as I read.  And I am discovering things.  New possible plot twists or character connections, a darker secret for Prospect's mother to make her more complex.  I'm also seeing some opportunities for a character other than Prospect to be "narrator" at times.  For instance, some new chapters maybe added from the scientists point of view, as she notes the peaks and valleys of her bio-experiment.  This will also allow us to get more into the head of Trish.  Or by allowing Prospect to have a dream or two in which his referrals' darker secrets are revealed.  This can heighten tension in the plot.

I've never tried to revise this way, but I'm finding it exciting.  Usually I revise by looking only at overall structural questions (I'll still do this as well).  But this page by page approach comes closer to approximating the reader's experience.  I think of the reader as the rider on my roller coaster.  I want them to have a great ride...that they'll tell all their friends about. 

Have others tried revising this way?