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How long till I should attempt a book?
I've recently taken the plunge at writing fiction after previously being unable to go from having an idea to producing a story from it - I'm much more comfortable with non-fiction. My fiction will be short stories in the Sci-Fi/Speculative Fiction, and maybe Horror, genres. If I manage to get some stories published in online or print magazines how long do you think I should hone my skills for before attempting a novel?
Comments
I think you'll come to trust your intuition - some ideas need to be thrown out there compact and complete at a couple of thousand words. Others, you just know have a lot more mileage in them. If you've got an idea for a novel - just go for it! By the time you've finished it your skills will hopefully be well-honed and you can apply them at the subsequent editing stages.
Wrong attitude to take DB. Very few novelists make big money, and the average income for a standard writer is frequently not the national average-according to surveys.
And most need a job to pay the bills while they are doing their novels...
Otherwise I agree with Lily totally.
At the moment you need to get known- get stories accepted and published, and learn the neccesary skills that all writers need.
Somewhere along the way the idea for a novel will emerge, and you'll be able to apply all you have learnt in the meantime.
I know that all the full time writers I know (and I know a lot) are very poor, practically breadline, the ones who make a decentish wage supplement with teaching, tours, teaching, school visits... and very little time left to write.
Shaun Hutson sells because he is Shaun Hutson and someone decided his first books were worth putting out. He gathered himself a following and away you go. His storylines are compelling, I have to agree.
So, write your short stories but, work hard at the articles, build up an impressive CV. Mine says over 200 articles and 50 short stories, that's the sort of percentages you need to work at, to show people you can write - anything.
Let your imagination play with a storyline for a novel. There's the second thing to say, it is rare that a first novel is accepted, we all write novels which are our a 'apprenticeship' (I wrote 3 in all) which show you that you can sustain the effort of writing 80,000 words and have a storyline that will span 80,000 words without the reader getting bored. Be prepared to work at it for a long time, polish, revise and polish again. Take a look at my threads, I detail the work involved in getting books out there. I've been struggling since 2006 to get this series up and running.
Does this help?
I accept that some existing writers' novels don't always hit the mark (just read something very disappointing myself by a long-established author) but I guess their publishers aren't quite so concerned when the author already has an audience.
Totally agree with everyone about not giving up on the day job!!
I agree with those who say have a try. As well as enjoying the process, try and make a success of it, and to my mind, that means finding a few books which explain how to do it. The place to look in Waterstones would be the Literary shelves, or ask an assistant.
Plot, pacing, dialogue, setting, characters, structure and description are just as hard in horror as other genres.
As other people have said forget about the money and giving up the day job (for now!), if and when you make it then you might want to consider these a bigger part of any decisions you make, but until then you have to write for yourself. You have to accept that even if youre going to make millions from your work, it's not going to happen any time soon.
I dont want to take away from anyones success but if you DO get some stories published in small presses dont immediately assume youre an amazing writer and you can tackle novels in your sleep. Practice, practice, practice no matter how much you think youre improving. You can never settle for an Im good enough now attitude, not in a market than changes as fast as something..that changes fast and often (sorry, my writing hat fell off).
Also youll never know how good an idea is, or how long you can sustain it, until you try it out. Ive had some cracking ideas that seem to be whole novels in waiting but when it comes to writing them down I cant stretch them past 20,000 words. Ive also had some fleeting ideas that seem silly at the time but then end up as 40,000-word works in progress!!
The only way youll know is to try them out, and while youre doing this youll be learning the ins and outs of novel writing (hopefully), so its a win-win situation. There is so much to learn about writing a novel, far more than anyone can learn in one lifetime, so hurry up and get learning as much as you can!
p.s What was it you didn't like about Hustons writing? I quite like him myself.
p.p.s If you need any tips horror wise then gimme a shout. Us horror writers have to stick together :)
p.p.p.s I do like a good post-post-postscript :D
Here's what I wrote about Hutson's Necessary Evil on Amazon:
"Necessary Evil is the first and only book by Shaun Hutson I've read. It deserves a 4 simply because the story is gripping and makes the book difficult to put down - especially as chapters finish on a cliffhanger.
Unfortunately the power of the story is let down by several flaws. The most annoying is an amateurish writing style which I got used to but still sometimes made me stop and wonder why Hutson was writing so clunkily. The relationship between the criminal protagonist and a policeman felt like it'd been lifted straight from a cliched hollywood thriller. A part of the story where armed police rather than the SAS were used just didn't make sense, and the reason given by a character was weak. "
Also with short stories on eZines etc you get the chance for feedback which you can use to help you move along. That and you get to meet and make friends with a lot of other writers and you can turn to them for help and they in turn can lean on you, it all goes to helping make you a better writer.
That's easy... 12.4 centimetres.
Or half a moment.
You can start a book at anytime, anywhere, about whatever you want.
There are no limits.
Of course, if you want the book to have a running chance of being published, it might be a good idea to have a good story, a good knowledge of the English language (or the language you choose to write the book), and a lot of patience and stamina.
But I'm sure you have all those already.
Have fun.
You have to have ALL of these??!
I give up, I'm going to be a fish farmer instead.
Oh, the smell!!
How do you do it?
I mean, farm fish?
Do you have a harvester?
Plus that way they're already fish finger shaped when I've finishing harvesting :D
How interesting.
And, er, what do you do about the smell?
Plus that way they're already fish finger shaped when I've finishing harvesting :D[/quote]
Love it!