I was very honored to be invited onto a live Q&A with book coach, Jennie Nash, this morning and to share my experiences on the self-publishing path. As always, it was a lively conversation. Here is the replay.
We covered a lot of ground, so if you were on the webinar and didn’t get your burning questions answered, please post them in the comments or drop me a line and I’ll do my best to answer them.
Michelangelo is quoted as saying that a work of art is never finished, merely abandoned.
But there are degrees of doneness and the trick is to know when to let go and when to go back and make improvements. And yet, at some point you have to call a project “done.”
Last year I completed my novel, The Smallest Thing. It went through many drafts of full and partial rewrites, including a couple with a story development editor, two rounds of Beta readers, and the sharp and unforgiving eye of a line editor. I was very proud to be able to send the book out into the world.
And yet, already I feel as if I’ve outgrown that project. I’m constantly working on my craft—through seminars, books, and workshops, as well as hours logged “practicing” putting words on a page—and I know I’m a more mature writer now than I was a year ago. It’s so tempting to go back into the book and make improvements.
Writers are our own worst critics and I know I am capable of tinkering with that book for the rest of my life. I know because I’m still tinkering with the first novel I ever wrote, still knowing it can be the book I first envisioned. But this time I’m resisting.
My book is out looking for an agent and I’ll know soon enough what work still needs to be done, because there will always be work that needs to be done. I think the answer to knowing when a book is truly done is this: When you sign off on the final print proof and relinquish your right to keep tinkering with it.
So for now, I’m moving forward with my next project and, for the time being, I’m calling The Smallest Thing finished.
I’m off the San Francisco this week for the San Francisco Writers Conference. Aside from getting to spend four days in one of my favorite cities, I’m also looking forward to getting out of my writer cave and, well, spending the weekend in an even bigger writer cave. But seriously, there’s a special energy that happens when you put 400 or so writers together to talk about the thing they’re most passionate about. It should be an inspiring weekend.
I’m especially excited about attending this year as my novel, The Smallest Thing, was chosen as a finalist in the SFWC Writing Contest. I’ll find out on Friday how it fared, so I’ll keep you posted. Fingers crossed.
I’ll be posting updates around social media throughout the weekend, so if you’d like to stay in touch, here’s where you can find me:
Facebook: AuthorLisaManterfield
Twitter: @lisamanterfield
Instagram: @lmanterfield
So, all that’s left is for me to pack my newly purchased “author clothes” (because apparently showing up to a conference in “writer clothes”—aka yoga pants and slippers—isn’t acceptable) and be on my way.
And, if you happen to be going to the conference this year, look me up. I’d love to say hello.
I’m starting a new novel project this month. I have a nugget of an idea, a main character with a story to tell, and a somewhat fuzzy cast of characters for her to encounter along the way.
Like my last novel, this idea was sparked by a piece of history that was significant to me as a child. In this case, it’s the story of Grace Darling, a young woman who, in 1838, became a national heroine when she saved the lives of nine shipwrecked people. I’m not trying to simply retell the story, even though it’s a good one. Instead, I’m playing around with bringing the scenario into present day and exploring what happens to a reluctant heroine. What would possess a teenage girl to risk her life to save other people? And how would her life change, for better and for worse?
Right now, I don’t have answers to any of these questions, but this is the really fun part of writing. I could take this nugget and follow it in 20 different directions, each resulting in a completely different book. What propelled her to get into that boat and start rowing? Was it love? Was it a desire for fame? Was she mad at her parents and wanted to make a point? I don’t know yet.
But as I start to dig for answers, my Grace is coming into focus. She’s no longer a lighthouse keeper’s daughter, but maybe she has an aunt who lives a solitary life in a decommissioned lighthouse. She has a brother, too, and a best friend, and she’s starting to tell me her history.
Where her story will go, I have no idea yet. Like Grace, I’m climbing in my writing boat and rowing out into the unknown. I can’t wait to see where I wash ashore.
As all the cool kids are putting out Top 10 lists, I thought I’d share my Top 10 books of 2015. The problem is I read so many good books last year, I couldn’t narrow it down to ten. So, instead, here is my Dazzling Dozen:
The Girl on the Train
Paula Hawkins
All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doerr
Station Eleven
Emily St. John Mandel
I knew from reading the back cover that all these stories would somehow intertwine, but I’d read more than 75 percent of the book before the threads began to converge and it wasn’t until the final few chapters that everything slid perfectly into place. I don’t often reread books, but this is one I wanted to read again as soon as I finished, to go back and pick up all the clues and details I missed the first time.
How to Build a Girl
Caitlin Moran
The Rosie Project
Graeme Simsion
A God in Ruins
Kate Atkinson
The Invention of Wings
Sue Monk Kidd
The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus
Richard Preston
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
Karen Joy Fowler
Feet in the Clouds: A Tale of Fell-Running and Obsession
Richard Askwith
This is Your Life, Harriet Chance
Jonathan Evison
The Martian
Andy Weir
So far, I have a short list of books to read in 2016. If you have a book you loved, please share it in the comments.
Happy 2016 and happy reading.
