6 April 2008

Appreciating writing

Quote of the Day:
Do first what you dread the most.
--Anonymous

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While making pancakes for breakfast this morning, my daughter and I discussed the writing process. It has been quite an experience, thus far, for both of us.

I was mostly aware that writing a book takes an immense amount of work, but she seemed to think that a writer just sits down and types for a couple of days, and voilà, the book is there. Neither of us really understood much of the rewriting process, and we were completely oblivious to the publishing rituals.

And, while we are still to experience the true nature of the publishing world, we have a bit of a better understanding of the process leading up to the bit where one gets published. Luckily there are numerous agents' blogs available, guiding even the most naive authors (like me) through the whole process - how accurate and true they are we will find out in due course, I suppose.

But, the main thing we said this morning is that we definitely appreciate our much loved books even more now. My daughter said she will no longer wish for her favourite authors to produce the next book in record time. In fact, she is rather happy that they take their time, and make sure the final product delivered is of the highest quality possible.

I am sure her wading through the first draft of Frank has had something to do with this sentiment, but possibly also seeing how dedicated I am to this story and the characters has brought a greater appreciation in her mind for the labour of love that is writing. It hasn't put her off writing yet, so she would be far better prepared for this process when she is ready to pen her first great novel than I ever was.

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When I woke up this morning, I had an overview for Frank that needed to be written. I have, thus far, only been able to bring myself to making a summary of chapter one, and it is probably too longer for a summary. I need to practice my precis writing skills again. But, I have a summary of sorts, which reads as follows:

Frank arrives at his new planet, to find that the previous god grossly neglected the maintenance. to add to the problems, the dominant species on the planet is faulty - the body was probably incorrectly labelled, attracting all the wrong kinds of souls to this lower level planet.

An unexpected visit from an old friend hatches plans for improvement, but when the old friend involves Frank's unconventional mother, things go wrong.

With the help of a group of celestials fond of the planet, as well as his dad, Frank tries to thwart his mother's plans. But, is it too late for this small planet?

I do like my original, but I feel this one may do the story a little more justice.

I would like to start sending out query letters for Frank by the end of April, to test the waters a little. I may use a combination of both summaries for the queries, and see which one gets better bites.

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