This may sound weird

[wishfulthinking]

But I'm going to write a book and submit it to a publisher. I've never thought that before. I never intended to get published. I write by chapters, and don't plan. But this came to me, how I am going to write the complete book, word length, how long it will take me [3-6 months] everything [well, probably not everything].

Is this what happens for most people when they decide to write a story that is lengthy and I have just been missing out? Am I maturing as a writer? Will I lose interest in 1 month?

 

[tanyachrs]

Well, it's never happened to me but I think it's wonderful you have a vision and you should run with it at top speed. Envisioning what you want to do should keep you nicely on track.

 

[wishfulthinking]

I've written a 1/4 of it so far. I'm just downloading some music to write by

 

[neonlyte]

But I'm going to write a book and submit it to a publisher. I've never thought that before. I never intended to get published. I write by chapters, and don't plan. But this came to me, how I am going to write the complete book, word length, how long it will take me [3-6 months] everything [well, probably not everything].

Is this what happens for most people when they decide to write a story that is lengthy and I have just been missing out? Am I maturing as a writer? Will I lose interest in 1 month?

Good Luck!

It may take longer than you think - this years Man Booker prize winner Kiran Desai (Inheritance of Loss) spent eight years writing her novel.

You might try NaNo next month (50,000 words in a month) - there is a thread here somewhere - and use it as a tool to pace you through the first draft, I've did exactly that two years ago and have almost completed the editing of my first novel.

Finding a publisher is where the hard work begins - honestly. You need to do a mass of research to target publishers for your genre. You will be suprised by the many and varied submission formats demanded - each has to be specifically crafted Query Letter, Synopsis, some chapters - some require individual chapter synopsis (a demand really quite cruel in expectation).

There are some good websites out there to help you through the publisher loop, www.absolutewrite.com - navigate to Share Your Work then Query Letter Critique many useful links on those pages. Take a look at Evil Editor Blog - takes a little while to sort out how the site works but you will find (among the humour) very useful indicators of how an editor will read your synopsis and the problems they might encounter - you know your novel inside out, you automatically fill in the gaps and make the links that an editor will stumble over and view as problems.

Don't forget your very fine friends on this site - they helped me enormously in drafting a synopsis for my novel (through SDC - though I had the thread taken down as part of my novel deals with an actual event and Googling the event linked to the Lit SDC pages where my novel plot was being discussed in some detail!)

Good Luck again. What is it about?

 

[Aurora Black]

I wish you the best of luck.

Have you thought about signing up for NaNo this year?