High Stakes
Peter LindberghI had to laugh when London's secret agent and girl-about-town Miss Daisy Frost tweeted her 2009 predictions yesterday and asked if they had been rather tame compared to the reality unfolding in publishing circles: 'Dec – Rumours that an agent has sold a debut novel prove unfounded'. Ack - has there ever been a worse time to try and breakout?
The thing is, I'm not buying it. Creative industries thrive on creativity. Sooner or later someone is going to take a chance, and all we can do is make sure we're ready and writing at the top of our game. I spoke to the wife of a well-known songwriter at a party this week - she said the music industry is picking up. It's been tough for them too but things are changing. Maybe, just maybe, book publishing won't be far behind.
I attended a 'day-job' creativity workshop this week. It was ... interesting. Lots of talk about 'facilitating' projects, too many acronyms (jargon always makes me feel rebellious ...). Private sector arts are dead in the water at the moment, but the government is throwing money at creative projects in the public arena. 'Creativity' is a big buzz word in business at the moment, and in education it's being brought in as an extra-curricular necessity. Is it just me, or wasn't creativity simply part and parcel of growing up rather than something spoon-fed by government programmes? It's something I believe in passionately - creativity is a vital part of anyone's life whether you're an artist or not. If you are an artist or writer how do you feel when you're not producing new work? Doesn't your energy just drain away?
I've been working on two new projects this week - and the ideas are buzzing. There's about 10,000 words of the new book (can you talk about new projects? I can't. A friend asked me what it was about this week and I just ended up waffling 'WWII ... love story'. What's it they say about the first draft being written with the door closed, the second with it open?) The other story is set in the 1980's (which is why today you've got Peter Lindbergh's beautiful work and Swing out Sister). I've also been reviewing books for my two new jobs - looking at contemporary fiction this way is an interesting new angle. There are some great and really inventive new books out there among all the sleb dross, though it's easy to forget it among all the doom'n'gloom headlines. From what I've seen on Twitter and Fbook over the last few weeks established authors are getting new contracts and their tours are going well. Readers want new books.
Maybe it's time to adjust the goal posts - if publishers really are still wary of taking a chance on debut work at the moment as several of you have reported, so what? You can't stop the new work coming. Writers write, and the simple fact is the more you write the better you become, and I think the happier you are. It's the usual juggling act - how to feed the children and hold your end up at home while producing the best work you can. Maybe if we stop looking at writing to get published and just enjoy it, something good will happen. Sometime soon if we keep enjoying our writing, raising our game, the status quo will change - publishers will want debut work, and we'll be more than ready for them.
Hope everyone on our six week programme has had a good week - let's check in as usual in the comments.
TODAY'S PROMPT: Apparently James Taylor always does a handstand before going on stage. Turning things upside down, getting a new perspective and a fresh rush of energy is something we can all do. Today why don't you have a think about the book you have always wanted to read. Take a few minutes and brainstorm all the elements it would have. What kind of book would have you telling all your friends about it? When you have a list of these elements (perhaps unforgettable characters, conflict, gut emotion, high stakes ...) take a look at your latest project and ask yourself honestly if it has all these things. If not, why not? Sometimes it is so easy to get caught up in your writing you stop seeing it like a fresh reader. You know the characters inside out, you 'see' the locations - your readers don't. These days it seems the ability to write good books is not enough. Why don't you have a think about how to take your work to the next level?
