Hey, folks. Today I had a radio interview with Cindy Swanson of 101 QFL, a station in Rockford, Illinois. Here’s a link to her blog, where she reviewed On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, and here’s a link to download or listen to the interview.
I’ve been hiding out in the local coffee shop most days, writing furiously to meet my deadline for book two (the title hasn’t been decided yet), enjoying myself but at the same time remembering that writing takes a lot of work. I’ve been consoling myself with Anne Lamott’s freedom-giving advice for writers: You have to be willing to write a crappy first draft before you can get to the (hopefully) good final draft. I keep wanting to go back and self-edit, to worry over sentence structure, to liven up the dialog, but the book would never get written if I did that too much.
With songwriting, you have the freedom to sweat over every word and every line as you go, but with novel writing, at least as far as I can tell (I’m still quite the rookie), you have to write something before you have anything to work with. It’s like the first draft is the clay with which you make the book. In order to make the book, you have to find the clay.
AP
P.S. If any of you have read the book (and liked it, preferably), would you mind posting a little review over at Amazon.com? I’ve heard that it’s helpful.