Don’t worry. No one will be seeing my ms’s for ages either! I think it’s important to have writing discussions and just knowing you’re not alone in what you’re trying to do. A novel, and imo, especially a fantasy novel is difficult.

Writer’s Festival’s are usually great experiences. I’ve only made it to the Sydney Writer’s Festival once though myself in 2009.

You know, this makes me feel great. Its like being one step further along in the process, having someone I can share my stuff with, and have discussions about writing with.

The Perth Writers festival is next month, and for once I (think) am here for it. I’m going to try and make the best of it.

Carol you have so much faith in me! I don’t think I’ve ever inflicted my ms’s upon you.

Finding a voice is such a hard thing to do and it is something I am still struggling with. I might make a post about it in the future and we can go into the issues in depth then. I think dealing with it in rewrites is a great idea however!

ps: If you ever wanted me to take a look at your draft, I wouldn’t mind 🙂

I think what I would like to improve with, is to be more descriptive and prose-like. But will probably just concentrate in trying to spit the words out first! Then deal with it during the editing stages.

Carol, I believe that your work is amazing! I really do! You wouldn’t have stuck it out this long if you weren’t. Maybe it would help to find a beta reader for the editing stage to help you see that your story is worthwhile but just needs some extra work.

Maybe you just need to keep rewriting the same story out in different styles and voices till you find the one you love and the one that works best for you.

Everyone thinks their stuff is no good. But as Philip Pullman said, the public don’t know what they want till you give it to them. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

I always love the stuff you write. I wish mine could be as good! I go through stop and start phases, too. But I have the opposite problem where I just try get my stuff down, with the view to come back and edit it, but I don’t think what I write is any good. I think my plot and characters etc are okay, but I don’t have the style I would like to have. Sigh.

I haven’t been to wordpress before this….

I’m working at the moment on Rose Red 🙂

I’m going through the same thing with my ms. I get desperate when my writing is bad, and start editing, and then the chapters are never finished. I know I should go for the rough first draft and then edit, but between knowing it and managing to do it, there’s a whole world and even more.
This year I’ve set myself the goal of 3,000 to 4,000 words a week, or a chapter every week and a half, more or less. I’d like to get the first draft for, say, three quarters of the book by the end of the year. It is true that editing when you have ‘something’ is far easier and more rewarding than polishing as you go along and getting nowhere. I also found that the experience of beta-ing fanfiction and being beta-ed on my own works helps when it comes to put myself in that state of mind.

Anyway, congratulations on working on your ms again, and best of luck for your writing projects this year! Which ms is it, if I may ask? You told me once you were working on three different projects…

Great couple of first blog posts, by the way. Now you’ve made me want to update my own blog. 😉

Now all we have to do is find other WordPress people…

I know what you say is true but I would like to at least make some headway with my ms. One is 55 000 words so there is not much left to write, and another is 30 000. I’d like to get a couple more 1000 words drafted this year, even if I am prioritirising my enormous project.

I actually like the idea of redrafting. I mean, at least the whole general plot is down by then.

I came, I saw, I commented.