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Posted by Colin Harvey Jun 12, 2008 |
I'm painfully aware that it's been about a month since I last posted on my blog. That's because as a writer, I have two or three key projects, and in order to keep them on track, have had to devote all my time to them -- even if it means no time to blog.
One thing that aspiring writers often don't realize is that a writer's greatest selling point to professional editors is reliability. If an editor sets you a deadline, move heaven and earth and work through the night if you have to, to meet it.
All the advice in the world about writing techniques is worthless, if a writer has a bad reputation for unreliability.
The first project is my novel, Winter Song. In order to deliver it by next year, I need to write about a thousand words a day while it's in draft stage.
Once that is done, my second priority is to ensure that I deliver the requisite four articles a month to Suite101. Which is where things have gotten a little tricky, in that the time involved isn't just the time needed to write the piece, but that needed to read the source material. Magazines like Asimovs and F&SF are each about sixty thousand words long, the length of an Agatha Christie. But when I foolishly took on China Mieville's New Crobuzon trilogy, I discovered after I started reading Perdido Street Station that each volume is between a quarter and a third of a million words --the length of four or five ordinary novels-- and even I can only read so fast!
Things are returning to normal, and you should see the review of the first volume of that trilogy --Perdido Street Station-- next week, and some blogs for good measure.