Passing the time with Ernest Hemmingway…
Gotcha!
As ya’ll pretty much know, there’s more to writing than just typing on a keyboard.
1. The story idea - do you plot and plan and outline and research? Or are you inspired by a dream, a sunset, a storm at sea?
2. Getting it down in a comprehensible format - not only writing the words but shaping primary and secondary characters and their relationships, creating dialogue, directing the action, and spinning meaning from ideas as ephemeral as spider silk.
3. Self-editing - do you edit as you go? Or do you write the entire book and then go back and edit?
4. Completing a first draft - Are you an author who writes a first draft, does a quick edit and sends it off? Or do you write two or three drafts before you are satisfied?
5. Subbing - Following to the letter the guidelines of each publisher you sub to. If you are world-famous, perhaps all you have to sub is a concept, or maybe just a single word. I know I spend at least half a day getting the manuscript format correct, writing a good, descriptive synopsis and making certain I include all information required by the publisher.
6. Waiting for acceptance or rejection - working on other manuscripts while waiting.
7. Acceptance - Signing contracts, filling out all the necessary forms and putting together blurbs. Siren, for example, requires three blurbs of varying length and they ask for a completed cover request for the cover artist at the same time. A day-long project. Rejection? We won’t even get into that!
8. Edits - Working through 2-4 edits before the final once over.
9. Promotion - Blogging, virtual blog tours, newsletters, website promotion, submitting ARCs for reviews and hoping for a positive response.
What did I miss? I know I must have missed lots because it seems as if I’m working all the time on one writing-related project or another.
By the way, I love The Old Man and the Sea, but John Steinbeck is my greatest American novelist - East of Eden, Cannery Row, The Red Pony (sob), The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, Tortilla Flat, The Pearl, Once There Was a War, The Winter of Our Discontent….
