In the past week or two my inner novelist has been threatening to burst from within me. I’m getting a real massive urge to work on my big project, The Escapades of William Hart, again.
The first instalment, Revenge on the Spanish Main, still needs touching up on the terminology front, but I began working on the second, The Golden Age, not long after the first edit of Revenge was completed such was my absolute love for the series and all of its characters.
I put Golden on the back burner while proof reading of Revenge was done and I started work on Paul.E.Bailey’s World. The latter has become all-consuming since. Literally every single bit of writing I’ve done since August 2016 has been geared towards featuring on my blog. While I’ve certainly been enjoying the change of pace and getting my teeth into new projects and challenges I have to admit that I am really starting to miss my first literary love of novel writing. That’s a lie; I do miss it and with growing intensity as each day passes.
I want to sort Revenge out in its entirety now and to get cracking on Golden as soon as humanly possible. That means sending Revenge the way of publishers too. I can’t sit on it much longer and want to know what the people who really matter think of the project I have worked harder on than anything else I can think of in my life before or since. Despite its flaws (and I know it has them aside from the terminology) I honestly believe Revenge is good enough to get published in spite of its length and my newcomer status. The synopsis for Golden suggests that it could potentially be even better than Revenge when it’s finished which is why I’m so eager to get to work on it.
So what does this all mean for Paul.E.Bailey’s World? Well I certainly have no intention of stopping work on it. Its rapid rate of growth since the turn of 2017 suggests that dropping it entirely in favour of getting back to work on my Escapades series would perhaps be detrimental. What it does mean though is that my rate of blogging might drop off for a while. It also means that if I were to get published then I may have to make my works of fiction a temporary feature on my blog depending on what the publishers want. I’d be interested in putting the smaller works of fiction from my blog into a compilation book of some description, but that would be pointless if they were all still available to read for nothing here on Paul.E.Bailey’s World.
Is it silly that I’m thinking that far ahead? Does it smack of delusional behaviour on my part or is my confidence that I will get published something I have a right to feel? Of course none of you actually have any idea how good Revenge is. You only have what I’ve posted here to go off and I’ve already admitted that I feel my writing has improved vastly since August. So does that mean I should look at perhaps rewriting Revenge or at least editing it for a third time before I make that leap of approaching publishers? Or am I just procrastinating too much?
The problem I have is that Golden is the one I want to work on and not Revenge. If I’m being honest with myself, the thought of going through Revenge for a third time makes me sigh extremely loudly. It’s not like I can just read it in a few days. It’s over 300,000 words long and I live in a small house that affords very little space and silence as well as having other things to do. Being a dad for example. Looking for work. My blog. The world can’t stop for editing purposes. If I could have a week of just being trapped in a room on my own with no distractions then I’d work on it solidly and get it done, but because I simply can’t ignore all other factors mentioned it’ll take a couple of months again to go through. I really don’t want to!
That said, it seems that my choices are limited. I can’t afford to assign a professional editor. I can’t afford to assign somebody versed in 18th century sailing terminology to pick the bones of what I’ve missed or screwed up on. So I have no option but to go through it again and perhaps acquire some form of literature that’ll help me in the terminology department. The internet evidently didn’t do quite the job I’d hoped. Who’d have thunk it?!
Having typed everything up here, my conclusion is that Golden may have to wait a while longer before I return to it and I have to admit that makes me feel sad. Working on Revenge again isn’t going to scratch this novelist’s itch that I’m suffering, but I feel it is unavoidable and necessary to get my house in order where Revenge is concerned before pressing on with Golden. Grudgingly. Very grudgingly!
Realisations can seriously suck balls sometimes. It looks as though this itch is going to be here to stay for a while. I might as well get used to it…
The Adventures of an Average, White Man...© 
Yes, realizations about life’s practicalities do oftentimes suck (I speak from personal experience with a vaguely similar situation at this very moment… well, perhaps not entirely similar, but in the same vein). And no, it is not at all delusional for you to think so far ahead! Because you know what? With your talent and your drive, it won’t be that far ahead at all. You’ve got confidence, and you have earned every ounce of said confidence.
P.S. I am selfishly quite glad you are sticking to blogging, even if it will be on an abbreviated schedule!
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The opportunity to get to work on it needs to arise soon, but I hark back to when we were talking about solace and a lack thereof. I can’t seem to win regardless. I WILL power through at some point though. When the time comes that I’ll put the majority if my effort into my authoring at the expense of blogging then I’ll let everyone know of course. I’ll still blog sporadically, but the main project simply has to come first as I’m sure you’ll appreciate.
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I absolutely appreciate that. Prioritizing things and making sacrifices accordingly is a fact of life. Being conscious of what is being sacrificed shows true dedication, in my mind. I’m reminded of a quotation I saw somewhere (unfortunately I am paraphrasing, and don’t know the source to attribute it to), that said something to the effect of, “Never give the excuse that you didn’t have time. You had time. You just chose to use it differently.” I read it years ago, but it has really stuck with me and nags me in the back of my mind when I find myself coming up with excuses for why I didn’t get around to this or that. I really admire your decision to put your main projects first, as has to be done. I presume that I speak for the rest of your fans when I say that we support your endeavors!
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I really like that quote because it’s so true. There is always time for things, but it’s a case of prioritising and certain things are simply more important. Either that or you would simply prefer to do one thing over another, which again I don’t think is a bad thing unless the thing you’re putting off is more important.
Anyway, I began the third edit over the past few days and we’re well underway. I’m determined to make this the final edit now 🙂 Your support, as I’m sure you’re aware, is absolutely invaluable to me and I appreciate it immensely.
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Hey Paul is there a difference in approach from the way you compose for the blog vs the novel, it is the mind frame the same when create?
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That’s a tough one to answer. I suppose there are certain elements to my approach that are different with each. I feel less pressure where blogging and writing stories expressly for my blog are concerned unlike my novel which I sometimes worry about so much that I feel nauseous. That said, I tend to stick to a uniform style of writing itself for each depending on what it is I’m writing. I’m a pretty keen researcher when it comes to writing things I’m not too sure about.
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Do you ever feel writing the novel that you have give it the extra “Paul” treatment and grab the thesaurus or do you just let you natural gift flow and speak for itself, from a writing stand point
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I don’t think I give it any special treatment as such. Sure, there are some pieces of writing I take more seriously others, but I like to ensure my work is technically as good as I can make it regardless of what it is. I try to ensure each thing I write has a point to it that has some meaning. That’s why I haven’t yet got around to award acceptance posts. It’s not that i don’t appreciate the awards, but I feel my time and blog is better served writing posts with meaning rather than reveling in glory and answering questions about myself. Though I do want to post about the Blogoquent Award because that’s something I won through votes rather than being nominated. That counts for something I feel.
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Chin up! You’ll get it done in time. I am truly grateful for the fact that I am stay at home at the moment (though I am looking for work so that may end soon) and that my partner works and my kids go to school – that affords me peace and quiet during the day that is ever so helpful when focusing on writing. I am trying something new the past couple days actually – jumping straight into it in the AM after the kids leave for school… Making a coffee and sitting down on the couch with my laptop and just writing first thing. Worked well yesterday and feels nicer and more focused than how I was doing it which was going back to sleep, chores… and then saving writing for after kids went to bed. (Which half the time saw me as too brain dead to do much more than watch TV and stare at my laptop thinking about writing lol)
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300,000 words? That’s a lot.
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I am very aware of this. Haha. In terms of content though it’s entirely necessary. If I brought it down to around the universally accepted 70,000 then the story would have absolutely no meat. It’s the first in a series so character and scene building is a very necessary evil.
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Or you could make several (well 3-4) smaller novels out of it and leave them all on a cliffhanger so that the reader feels compelled to buy the next one!! LOL
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I’ve thought about that and have split the novel into three parts, but I genuinely can’t see how to make each part so they read like a separate novel. Even when split like that there needs to be some kind of big ending to each part I feel. My problem is I wrote this story in the same vein as my favourite best selling authors who have the freedom of writing epics of a similar length to mine. The publisher knows they’ll sell just because of the name.
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Yeah that whole first time novel needing to be short is kind of a pain… I wonder if perhaps you’ll need to write a shorter first-novel just to get your foot in the door with the publisher before releasing an epic length novel. Not that you shouldn’t at least try to go ahead and get Revenge published as is – just a thought in case they come back to you regarding length. Perhaps a stand alone book with your same characters from later in their life and once that’s published and you have readers for it, you can bring them back around to what I assume is an origin story of sorts?
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Your words have indeed struck a chord and it’s definitely worth considering at the minimum. Never hurts to brainstorm and write up a synopsis 🙂
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Certainly doesn’t! Good luck to you with your brainstorming and synopsis writing! I must say I love hearing when my suggestions really cause people to stop and consider… even if they don’t end up going with my specific suggestion, I still get a feeling like I’ve been helpful
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I definitely agree with that. If I can in any way contribute to a person’s success then I’m very happy to do so. Success is always better shared as well I find so surely sharing the journey must be better too.
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I think you’ve hit it on the nose!
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I should hope I’ve broken it, never mind hit it 😉
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😂
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