Mar 6, 2010

I'm on Teen Fire

In case you haven't hear of this site--Teen Fire--I just wanted to do a quick post about it. This site has a writer's forum where you can post the first 1,000 words of your manuscript and get feed back from other Young Adult writers. I also wanted to share my own Shiney New Idea (here). I've posted the first chapter of my new novel and some of chapter 2. I'm not sure if I want to continue writing it. I need your brutal honesty. Should I keep writing on this or give up now?

9 comments:

Amanda said...

Hey Sarah,

I haven't gone out to read your excerpt because frankly any excerpt you've just written is going to need to be picked over, rewritten/revised, edited, etc before it's in form enough to critique. That's true of any writer, no matter how experienced. I wouldn't want to get an idea of a book from a segment you just wrote part of, you know? You can't know yet if it's good.

I think mostly now you just need to think about how you feel - are you considering abandoning it because you're daunted, or because you don't like the idea? And if it's the latter, is there any way to change the idea and make it better for you?

sarah darlington said...

Even though this is my new idea--I've actually been editing it since December. And I am excited about it. I like the idea but when I try to explain it to other's I think they just think it's weird. I guess that's my real question. Is this too weird?

Amanda said...

But you said you'd only written 5000 words on it, right? Or did I misunderstand. I guess my rule of thumb is I won't show anything I've written of a novel until I hit the 40k word mark. If I've gotten that far, I know nothing in the first 1000 words are going to change much. You can't know that only 5000 words in, because you don't know what direction your novel will ultimately go in, you know? Things change as we right.

I wouldn't worry about weirdness, though. Have you read Liar by Justine Larbalestier? That's the sort of book that if I explained it, it would sound weird-to-cheesy, but in reading it, it's anything but. Same thing with Suzanne Collins' Gregor the Overlander series. It's execution that makes a book not-weird, not idea. :)

sarah darlington said...

That's true. My 60K novel has undergone about 4 beginnings at this point and it's still not right. Here's my real fear. I've written two novels now and after finishing both (or nearly finishing both)--I'm thinking "well I'm getting better as a writer but this isn't what I want it to be--this isn't good enough to sell to agents" and I guess I don't want to waist another year of my life on something that won't be my "it" project. Does that make sense? (not that I'm waisting time--I am getting better)

Amanda said...

My first novel was total crap. My second novel was better but still not publishable. My third novel I'm shopping for agents for. I don't think you're wasting time. Just like with any writing, you need practice, and it sucks to practice on huge 60k+ bodies of work. It takes a lot of time and effort for nothing at the end. But like you say, you're getting better. Eventually, one of these novels will be publishable quality, and if that's worth it to you, I say forge on.

And if it makes you feel better, one of my current publishable novels is a rewrite of a rewrite of the first crappy novel. I had to go through full three mss, rewriting completely not editing, to get it to where I could query for it. It just takes time. I think you'll feel worse if you give up when you're this close.

sarah darlington said...

Thanks Amanda! :)

Christine Danek said...

I'm on Teen Fire and have posted a 1,000 words. It is great. I hope to revise it and post again to get amazing feedback. I will check out the wana be writers.
Good luck!

sarah darlington said...

Christine. What's your link to your post?

Swimmer said...

Wow I loved that and I'm not really into the whole fantasy thing but the writing was pretty awsome!!