So I’m finally past the short story edit. Wand of Ash is back to the editor. All the bulk order cards I had have been submitted to the printer, and I’ve been getting out of bed at least by 0430 on weekday mornings.
I’m finding that on weekends I stay up too late and cannot get up so early, but on Monday morning I’m back to schedule easy enough so I’m not going to worry about it. Sleeping in on weekends will be my little splurge.
Yesterday I posted the first five pages of my novel wip (Symbiosis) so I could get an idea of reader perception about genre. This was very informative to me, although it confirmed what I already suspected to be the case. So after the feedback began, I made some revisions and posted the revised first five. So far feedback shows I’m moving in the right direction but may not be there yet.
If you’d like to participate in this little experiment, the pages of each version are here, and the password for both is “merrymeet”:
http://madisonwoods.wordpress.com/2012/04/15/genre-in-five-pages/
Why is this important to me? I’m concerned about it because when I begin submitting this book to agents and editors they won’t have the benefit of cover art to set their perceptions. They’ll only have the pages I send. If I’m calling it ‘Speculative Fiction’ and it seems after the first few pages to be firmly ‘Paranormal Romance’ then this is going to most likely be a problem.
If I can’t get past this perception issue with the revisions I’m making now, then I’ll either need to accept that the story is ‘Paranormal Romance’ and make it conform to that genre, or rewrite to the point where it is no longer perceived as such, or scratch this one altogether and move onto the next one. It’s something that’s been bothering me for a while.
It also has impact on my long-term career goals as a writer. Not that there’s anything wrong with any genre, but the other stories in my head are less of romance influence and more of other influences. And Symbiosis definitely does not conform to the romance genre format. It might mean skipping the publication of Symbiosis until after the next one is out there, or going with a different pen name for this particular story.
This may be a needless worry on my part, but until I can find someone in publishing (in the genres I intend to make my career) to give me some insight, I’m going to go on my own gut feelings about this.
Weekly Goals
- Wake up at
0445 0430 each morning
- Finish revision of first chapters SYMBIOSIS to better reflect genre
- Pick up where I left off on rest of Symbiosis editing before short story edit project began (still have to locate that point…)
Annual Goals
- Finish polishing Symbiosis so I can send it on it’s way to the next phase of life
- Begin readings at a public venue for our local Friday Fictioneers
- learn to convert to ebook format
- Compile all the flash I’ve written so far into a collection for Kindle
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Do you set goals for your writing career or take each day as it comes your way? I’d be interested to hear your plans for the week or the overall plan for your career if you have one.
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Gosh, this post is getting long… sorry about that. But I only have a few more things to add. Tomorrow’s guest is Lisa Bouchard and she’s going to tell us about her early rising schedule. She gets up at 0400 to write before her household wakes.
And on Thursday, this week’s pitch will be mine for Symbiosis. I’m looking forward to everyone’s suggestions and input!
