Met with Sean Issac, editor of the Canadian Alpine Journal, who requested that I do a review of a book of poetry. I’m happy to. He accepted another story of mine for the journal this year, and last year he gave my story a layout that writers dream of: a two-page spread without distraction. It looked so good. he seemed so excited about the story and how it was different from the usual trip-report material. I could only be thrilled with his layout.
He gave me the book: Dick Culbert’s poetry from the 60’s and 70’s. The “before I was born”: collection, we joked. I’m excited.
I told him about my novel in more detail and he’s excited to do a review for next year. I said I was struggling with the climber’s lingo and terminology even when I though I had kept it fairly obvious. My publisher still thinks it is too obscure. He said: “don’t let them water it down.”
Funny thing: this publisher diary: everything moves so slowly. Then I think about it: you get a book in there, where someone wants to actually read it. I mean cover to cover. Like anyone, especially in the publication business where they get, on average, ten manuscripts a day!, that is pretty cool. Most people think that: hey! they have an idea, and someone will give them an advance to write that book. Short answer: NO. Just like we would do with anyone saying they had an idea to get rich and wanted some money to get going. No going to happen.
So. You get someone to actually read your novel-length manuscript. That alone is success. Not just that you finished it: 70 or 80 thousand words, but that even a friend has the time to read that.
The idea of writing is so distant from the reality of publishing into the public sphere that I am stunned to think that all I imagined was accepting awards.
Archive for April, 2009
Slow Advances…
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009Wondering and exhausted.
Monday, April 6th, 2009What will they think of it. Don Gorman asked me if I was going to push back on anything, or if I had. I told him that I hadn’t and that I wouldn’t. Just that I would negotiate the issue. I think that the editing is a collaborative process that ultimately ends with a stronger story. The only fear is if it is watered down.
Waiting is torture …
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009I run through too many scenarios at this late point: should I reduce the characters, the exposition, make it more plot-driven? All these questions, I remind myself, have been considered years ago and decided upon. I wrote it all down, tried different things, threw away hundreds of pages, felt satisfied that the current form is the best way to tell the story. And now everything feels up for grabs.
And I worry about stupid things…will the publisher want to delay, or cancel? Will the draft look like crap to me once it is finally printed. I tell myself I still have this chance to change it. I have one more full read through. I can pull the book. Once it is done it is done, no point doing a poor job. Despite the 14 years invested I would do that if I felt it strong enough, but when I read each scene I thing it is great. It is almost something that is emergent that is amiss in my mind. Maybe all parents worry like this when their children are about to leave home.
I tell myself to focus and really state clearly the scenario that I am afraid of, then recognize that it is not the end of the world, and then find ways to act so that the scenario can not occur. But still I wake up in the middle of the night, not remembering if I have dreamt, but feeling like I have the book in pages pulled part all around me, trying to reassemble it before sunrise.
Is it possible to have perspective or know if you like a story after reading it 400 times?