Humungous Tome

Jo

Jo

(Is that how you spell 'Tome'?)
I have been writing The Novel since the dawn of the dinosaus. Slight exaggeration, but this is one of the reasons I've joined this group. I've been receiving WN and WM for a few years now and felt it was time I heard points of view etc. The problem is that My Novel has been my baby for some - many - years now and I am ultra sensitive about it. This is not a good thing if ever I want to publish, but that would simply be the icing on the cake if it ever happened. I would just be happy to finish it! Don't get me wrong, I enjoy writing it and it almost always excites me. The only time I got bored was when I began rewriting the first part yet again, at which point I put it aside for around 6 months. They say if you have a story burning inside you, then write it. This does indeed burn! This is a long story because I've been writing it, on and off, for centuries - well, around 21 years to be exact - and when I've heard tales of lifetime novels, this is it. I've written it between art, parenthood and zillions of other interests. The plot also embarrassed me, involving bisexuality, sexual scenes, and violence. No blurred round the edges stuff here. My female protagonist is a Calamity jane character whose story I am telling from birth to mid career when, as a rancher, she is  inaugurated as mayor of her hometown for the second time after years of struggling for acceptance etc. She is a devastating character in both looks and personality and has lovers and enemies in equal proportion, both male and female. There - told ya! (Phew!). Anyway, I do need encouragement over this, and will grit my teeth and unplug my ears in order to try and accept critisism.  A lot of folk know I've been writing it, but very few have read any of it. I've just been too shy. Be gentle with me......

Jo
www.kitty-le-roy.co.uk

DEE

The fact that your tome (yes, that is how to spell it) is humumgous puts you in the top few percent of writers. It is only its incompleteness that keeps you out of the top one percent. So: congratulations on a great achievement so far.
There are two warning points in what you have said:
You were bored rewriting the first part. Is this because you were tinkering too much, because you were thinking of other things (ie you wouldn't have been reading any book if you didn't feel you ought to be rewriting), because it is what you, as the writer, need to know but the reader doesn't or because it actually is boring?
The plot embarrassed you. Because of what it is or because you are afraid of what others (eg your family) might think?
It doesn't sound embarrassing to me - it sounds a great plot.
You could try reading some of the 'boring' part to a writers group or sharing it with an online writers group.
But, do remember: you've done exeedingly well already and it deserves finishing.
(This from someone who has not sent any finished novels off - so I need a lecture like this myself!)

Lixxy

I am very impressed Jo!  Your tenacity is exceptional and the novel sounds like something that woud definitely sell well.  I was also concerned that you were bored re-writing the first part and would like to know how you respond to Dee.  But, keep going and well done for what you have achieved so far.

Howard

Hi Jo. Like Dee I think you've done well to persevere and get as far as you have. It sounds like a very interesting project and your main character fascinates me. In reality, your content does not sound like particularly exceptional human behaviour, so should you worry? If you want an outsider's objective view you can get a professional appraisal or send 9000 words to WN. Good luck! 

Jo

Thankyou so much for all your responses - they've certainly inspired me and are definitely encouraging. That time I grew bored was simply because I am trying to rewrite the first few chapters to get into the start in an inspiring manner. The story doesn't bore me, it's the fact that I've written that part so many times it was growing tedious! In the beginning I'm introducing my protagonist to the narrator and there is probably far too much detail. Therefore I'm ignoring it for the moment and will return to it once I've been through the story again. I have actually written 'end' many times, so the plot is there. I have - as someone once wrote (can't remember who, a famous author) - a beginning, a muddle, and an end! The reason I've kept going for so long is that the story really excites me when it's going well, which is quite often. I'm not concerned about publishing it, but I would love to finish it. It's very long - over one hundred chapters - and certainly needs drastic cutting. The time span covers the end of the American Civil War when my protagonist is born, until around 1910 when she has reached a point she would like to be. I don't know whether I would class it as a western, but basically I was inspired to write a novel where the heroine is a female John, Clint and Gary all rolled into one. My love for the west obviously got me going many years ago. I was fed up with all the meaty roles in westerns being taken by men. There were many gutsy female westerners who took on 'traditional' male roles, but they are rarely portrayed. As years have passed, she has grown more and more devastating - a female Robert Redford, if you like - who happens to possess the fastest gun in the west, and who is a born leader. That's part of it, anyway. I'll tell you all more later.

Jo

Howard

If you were interested in publishing it, Jo, you might have enough to think about a trilogy!

Evaine

She sounds like Barbara Stanwick - didn't she play a gutsy female rancher in a long running TV series, back in the days of black and white?

TaffetaPunk

Don't worry about embarrassing scenes, Jo - I've got some compromising stuff in mine, basically it's based in the music business (I finished typing a ms tonight, and I have another handwritten one to start typing, now), and the next one is a different band, with a minor character from the first becoming the main character in the next.  Anyway, this next main character is rather flamboyant - doing lots of stuff I would never dare :) It IS set in the rock business, after all!  Oh, the joys of fiction, eh?  I find if people ask to read it, you shouldn't be embarrassed - it means they're interested.  I currently have about 4 people lined up to read mine, and it's people whose opinions I value (ie NOT family).  If you have to ask people to read it, you probably won't get more than a 'that's nice, dear' response, which as writers, we none of us need.
I'm actually going to send the synopsis/first 3 chapters to the WN reading service, too - I think it'll be money well spent.

Jo

Hello folks - yet more responses! Howard, you mentioned turning it into a trilogy. I had thought of that, but don't think it would hang together very well like that. Instead I've divided the story into three parts: First - Youth and growing up, second - Outlawry, and third - Return and Final inauguration. The story revolves around an androgynous, tough, funny tomboy whose family moves west from New Orleans, and who discovers her true sexuality and leadership as time moves on. At first her charismatic magnetism causes folk to forgive her her rebellious idiosyncrasies - such as everyone finding themselves jealous of her appearance and persona, and fearing her, but as she turns into a young woman, their forgiveness wears thin. Her tough, rough nature escalates and her enemies grow in number. She has grown into a female gunslinger and her sexuality is uncovered. To cut a very long story shorter, she is beaten and eventually almost run out of town. She can no longer take the treatment and does leave town to pursue her brother's killers. At this stage she turns outlaw leader and is eventually, after several years, broken out of prison to rescue her town from the gang who have taken it over. At this point, she has become a legend in her own lifetime. Typical male plot played by a woman. I'll leave it there because I could go on forever. TaffetaPunk (great name!), I'm getting used to the idea of embarrassing. The tale is uncompromising and tough with much violence and sex, just as I want it. I'm researching in depth at the moment, and rewriting it as I go along. I'll get there eventually.

Jo