.
This weekend I won't be writing anything except a detailed chapter-by-chapter outline of the novel, as I'm now at the point where I'm just sort of floating along without any direction. I don't want to get halfway through the ms only to realize that I have to go back and insert some new thread or character that's integral to the main plot. Granted, that may happen anyway, but at least a proper outline should give me a better idea of what I need each chapter to do, how each chapter should push the narrative forward. So the wordcount above will be static for several days, but no biggie. I can make it up later. Better to write well, than write quickly. :)
One thing that's come out of my ms so far is rather surprising: I've written a couple of explicit erotic scenes, which I hadn't intended to do. I don't know if I'll keep them for the final draft, but if I do, then that means I can't pitch this novel as horror anymore, but as erotica. Horror readers may tolerate a fair amount of sex in their novels, but erotica is usually explicit beyond what is considered "tolerable" for literary and genre fiction. Once the first draft is finished, I'll have to decide whether the erotic scenes make the novel better as a whole, or if they should be cut. The bad part about marketing the novel as erotica is that I can think of only one agent in the business who represents erotica writers, and she's already rejected my writing (rejection by way of simply never responding to the manuscript her associate passed on to her, after said associate rejected me - it's been over a year, and she hasn't responded to my polite query, so I assume it was tossed in the trash).
It also means that in addition to being agentless, the ms will also have only a couple of legitimate print publishers that I can send it to. (No, I will never have any novel of mine e-published.) Understand, I don't have a problem with writing an erotica novel - much of my fiction has a lot of sex in it, and my erotica tends to be a bit dark and fantastical, so there's potential for reader crossover as I move from one genre to another. But it'll just make it harder for the novel to find a home. Which kind of sucks. I'm getting ahead of myself, though. I should probably stop thinking about it and just keep writing the damn thing. :/
This weekend I won't be writing anything except a detailed chapter-by-chapter outline of the novel, as I'm now at the point where I'm just sort of floating along without any direction. I don't want to get halfway through the ms only to realize that I have to go back and insert some new thread or character that's integral to the main plot. Granted, that may happen anyway, but at least a proper outline should give me a better idea of what I need each chapter to do, how each chapter should push the narrative forward. So the wordcount above will be static for several days, but no biggie. I can make it up later. Better to write well, than write quickly. :)
One thing that's come out of my ms so far is rather surprising: I've written a couple of explicit erotic scenes, which I hadn't intended to do. I don't know if I'll keep them for the final draft, but if I do, then that means I can't pitch this novel as horror anymore, but as erotica. Horror readers may tolerate a fair amount of sex in their novels, but erotica is usually explicit beyond what is considered "tolerable" for literary and genre fiction. Once the first draft is finished, I'll have to decide whether the erotic scenes make the novel better as a whole, or if they should be cut. The bad part about marketing the novel as erotica is that I can think of only one agent in the business who represents erotica writers, and she's already rejected my writing (rejection by way of simply never responding to the manuscript her associate passed on to her, after said associate rejected me - it's been over a year, and she hasn't responded to my polite query, so I assume it was tossed in the trash).
It also means that in addition to being agentless, the ms will also have only a couple of legitimate print publishers that I can send it to. (No, I will never have any novel of mine e-published.) Understand, I don't have a problem with writing an erotica novel - much of my fiction has a lot of sex in it, and my erotica tends to be a bit dark and fantastical, so there's potential for reader crossover as I move from one genre to another. But it'll just make it harder for the novel to find a home. Which kind of sucks. I'm getting ahead of myself, though. I should probably stop thinking about it and just keep writing the damn thing. :/
Labels: "the ruins of love", erotica
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