Milestones
Let us take a moment or two to look at some of the accomplishments that we have seen in the development of our book.
Perhaps the first thing I should mention is that we started it. A friend began a little online game thing that required we create characters. I created one. A much-evolved version of that character inspired me to begin to write. I thought it might be a short story. I thought it might a long short story. I wrote a whole seven pages (of gramatically incorrect, structurally over-done, weakly plotted dribble that eventually ended up 100% re-written and then ultimate tossed all together) and was stuck. I didn't know what to do. So I asked Susan if she'd be interested in writing a bit, continuing where I left off. And thus began something great.
There was a moment, eventually, where we decided that our long short story was actually going to be novel length. It was a little mind-blowing.
At some point, we made a startling revelation. What we were producing was something that could, in theory, be published. We were writing a fantasy novel not that much unlike the kinds of things we liked to read. Our names could theoretically be in print on a bookshelf. Woah. It began as a thought, a footnote to what we were doing for personal fulfillment only, but it grew. Oh did it grow. Because, you see, as we began to let ourselves consider the possibilities, we began to slowly realize that to be published authors wouldn't only be kinda neat, it would totally rock. And it became something of a dream. But it was that kind of dream that sort of felt like when you were a kid and decided you wanted to live your life as a crayon maker, or something utterly random: it would be neat, you spend time thinking about it, but you're pretty sure it's never going to happen.
Revelation number 2: Becoming a published author is an attainable dream. Not only is it something that could theoretically come about, it is a dream that we decided we were willing to make happen. We decided to work towards this. It wasn't a "maybe one day we could get this published!" that we whispered in secret, literally weary of telling anyone. Many of the people dear to us weren't aware that we wrote with some level of seriousness until we had already produced multiple hundreds of pages!
Something that is definately worth noting in the journey of our writing thus far is when we went to the Writer's Weekend conference. Nothing really came of it, directly. We learned some neat things, many neat things, in fact, that are being put to use now, moreso than at the time. But what was spectacular about that conference was that it really cemeted the fact that it was real. I don't think the "we can really do this" thought was completely real to either of us until that point. That conference allowed us to talk to publishing people, the sorts of individuals that lived in that cloudy realm of the theoretical. Meeting them made them real, and made us realize that we really could try to have them publish us. We also talked to authors; these were people that were like us. Sure, we were younger than pretty well all of them, but we knew that one day they were young too -- and they probably hadn't gathered the sort of information that we were getting at our age (in fact, a couple of people were impressed with us for getting out there so young, and mentioned they wished that they would have done similar things). But guess what? Real people were writers. Real people were at similar places to us. And real writers, who partially habitated on the NY Times bestseller list, told us when they were just like us, and that we had to say to ourselves that I am a writer, and I do deserve my dream!
It was acutally during that conference that we began to think of our book in a way that focussed on marketability. Our baby was goliath -- who knew? What we had written as one fantasy novel was long enough for three. So we began to think of things like story arcs. We began to think of how we would one day present our book to agents and editors.
Which brings me to the point of all this.
Today I mailed five query packages to be sent to New York City to be looked at by literary agents who will consider whether they want to take on the project of having our book published. Some time after/around the conference we came out of the writing closet -- we told our families and friends that we wrote, and would even tell them a bit of what it's about. Today it began the journey into the real world. Tomorrow, our query, our synopsis, and our sample pages will be picked up by a truck to begin their journey to the big apple.
First we just did it for the sake of doing it. Then, we realized that it could be real. Then we knew we wanted to make it real. Now it's real.
We know that in all likeliness these query packages will end up yielding us five rejection letters. We know that we're nowhere close to being bound and on a bookshelf. Hell, even if we do manage to land a literary agent, that still isn't a guaranteed outcome. We know that. But now we're actively submitting. It is impossible to get published unless you submit. We're at that part now.
It's dreadfully exciting.
Perhaps the first thing I should mention is that we started it. A friend began a little online game thing that required we create characters. I created one. A much-evolved version of that character inspired me to begin to write. I thought it might be a short story. I thought it might a long short story. I wrote a whole seven pages (of gramatically incorrect, structurally over-done, weakly plotted dribble that eventually ended up 100% re-written and then ultimate tossed all together) and was stuck. I didn't know what to do. So I asked Susan if she'd be interested in writing a bit, continuing where I left off. And thus began something great.
There was a moment, eventually, where we decided that our long short story was actually going to be novel length. It was a little mind-blowing.
At some point, we made a startling revelation. What we were producing was something that could, in theory, be published. We were writing a fantasy novel not that much unlike the kinds of things we liked to read. Our names could theoretically be in print on a bookshelf. Woah. It began as a thought, a footnote to what we were doing for personal fulfillment only, but it grew. Oh did it grow. Because, you see, as we began to let ourselves consider the possibilities, we began to slowly realize that to be published authors wouldn't only be kinda neat, it would totally rock. And it became something of a dream. But it was that kind of dream that sort of felt like when you were a kid and decided you wanted to live your life as a crayon maker, or something utterly random: it would be neat, you spend time thinking about it, but you're pretty sure it's never going to happen.
Revelation number 2: Becoming a published author is an attainable dream. Not only is it something that could theoretically come about, it is a dream that we decided we were willing to make happen. We decided to work towards this. It wasn't a "maybe one day we could get this published!" that we whispered in secret, literally weary of telling anyone. Many of the people dear to us weren't aware that we wrote with some level of seriousness until we had already produced multiple hundreds of pages!
Something that is definately worth noting in the journey of our writing thus far is when we went to the Writer's Weekend conference. Nothing really came of it, directly. We learned some neat things, many neat things, in fact, that are being put to use now, moreso than at the time. But what was spectacular about that conference was that it really cemeted the fact that it was real. I don't think the "we can really do this" thought was completely real to either of us until that point. That conference allowed us to talk to publishing people, the sorts of individuals that lived in that cloudy realm of the theoretical. Meeting them made them real, and made us realize that we really could try to have them publish us. We also talked to authors; these were people that were like us. Sure, we were younger than pretty well all of them, but we knew that one day they were young too -- and they probably hadn't gathered the sort of information that we were getting at our age (in fact, a couple of people were impressed with us for getting out there so young, and mentioned they wished that they would have done similar things). But guess what? Real people were writers. Real people were at similar places to us. And real writers, who partially habitated on the NY Times bestseller list, told us when they were just like us, and that we had to say to ourselves that I am a writer, and I do deserve my dream!
It was acutally during that conference that we began to think of our book in a way that focussed on marketability. Our baby was goliath -- who knew? What we had written as one fantasy novel was long enough for three. So we began to think of things like story arcs. We began to think of how we would one day present our book to agents and editors.
Which brings me to the point of all this.
Today I mailed five query packages to be sent to New York City to be looked at by literary agents who will consider whether they want to take on the project of having our book published. Some time after/around the conference we came out of the writing closet -- we told our families and friends that we wrote, and would even tell them a bit of what it's about. Today it began the journey into the real world. Tomorrow, our query, our synopsis, and our sample pages will be picked up by a truck to begin their journey to the big apple.
First we just did it for the sake of doing it. Then, we realized that it could be real. Then we knew we wanted to make it real. Now it's real.
We know that in all likeliness these query packages will end up yielding us five rejection letters. We know that we're nowhere close to being bound and on a bookshelf. Hell, even if we do manage to land a literary agent, that still isn't a guaranteed outcome. We know that. But now we're actively submitting. It is impossible to get published unless you submit. We're at that part now.
It's dreadfully exciting.
posted by Bethany @ 6:50 PM
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