stuartforsyth

When my good friend and editor Lorna put the challenge of writing a novel to me last year, I jumped at the opportunity with a naive and joyous abandon.  The book was a submission for Terry Pratchett’s Anywhere but Here, Anywhen but Now competition for previously unpublished authors with a publishing contract and advance on royalties as the grand prize. I worked solidly through the latter half of 2010 and, surviving on surprisingly little sleep, reached my target in five months leaving the last month for revision and editing.

I don’t think I’ll attempt such sadistic timelines again but I was surprised (and continue to be surprised) at how easily the story came together. It’s April, 2011 and I’m a good 20% through my next book so writing, and creating, isn’t what I find hard - in fact, living in the reality of a story while my hands belt out the chapters is one of the most enjoyable activities I can imagine and I am gobsmacked that it’s taken me over thirty years to pursue it seriously.

It’s all the stuff that comes after that I find hard and need help with. The endless rounds of revisions, cutting back and rewriting and revising again.  And then at the end of the process, when you pretty much can’t stand the thought of having to re-read any of the chapters again it’s suddenly done and you have in your hand something tangible, something that has not existed before, something exquisite and entirely subjective in its beauty.  And then, with the manuscript done, comes the infernal ‘where to next?’ questions that seem so daunting and has been the bane for so many talented creators and artists.

I’ve made a decision to exhaust the traditional publishing avenues before tackling the self-published route because I want to be able to spend as much time on writing as I can. From what I’ve read on those few brave souls who have navigated successfully through a self-published model, there seems to be an inordinate amount of work required to actively market their material, to build a brand and to maintain that brand. It almost begs the question of how they continue to write?

I meandered into Dymocks this afternoon - as two magnets meander into one another - and came out a little poorer but considerable richer for the experience having purchased the books in the photo. I consider myself well armed now to take my first tentative steps toward finding the right literary agent to manage the business side of selling and promoting my books and short stories and hopefully free up more of my time to tell stories and create worlds.