#firstnovel — Public Fediverse posts

My debut novel is with my agent, and I have now begun a monthly series on how I wrote Hiram Falls: the origin, the revisions, the changes, an intimate look at one writer's process: https://geoffreygevalt.substack.com/s/writing-hiram-falls

(Subscribe for free and you get a bonus: text and audio of character sketches performed by Vermont Stage Company.)

My first post: An 1892 diary of a teenage girl...
#WritingCommunity #fiction #HiramFalls #writing #writers #firstnovel #magicalrealism

#writingcommunity #firstnovel #WIP

Sometimes magic happens. I just received word that a kick-ass agent with jewels for clients has agreed to represent my book, #HiramFalls

Hurdle one is cleared. Now for the second ...

Finding an agent seemed a dreary enterprise, and I feel blessed that my misery lasted but six weeks.

Spring in #Vermont: We got a dump of 14-16 inches of heavy wet snow, and were house bound April 4 & 5. When is spring coming?

But it was a great opportunity to finish making a final pass -- clean-up and tightening -- on #HiramFalls

I just sent out the finished manuscript to a potential agent who asked to see it.

Wish me luck!

#firstnovel #writing
#photography
#writingcommunity

Finished!

First novel.
5 years.
6 staged character sketches.
10 drafts.
Immeasurable help from others.

#wip #hiramfalls #writingcommunity #fiction #photography #novel #firstnovel #writing #writers #literaryfiction #magicalrealism #historical

Thought I was just about done with the draft of my first novel. Opened it up today to go over the entire thing again, promising myself that I'd only make minor edits, if any. A promise broken as early as the prologue... 😅

#amwriting #firstnovel #lovingit

Book Review: The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho

A bravura act of 'critical fabulation' by Paterson Joseph, the book was well-reviewed when it was first published in 2022, but didn't get the coverage it deserved.

#forReaders #bookstodon @bookstodon #FirstNovel #HistoricalFiction #BookReview #histodons @histodons #18thCentury

http://othernetwork.com/2023/07/20/book-review-the-secret-diaries-of-charles-ignatius-sancho/

Disappointed with your 1st draft? Console yourself with this, from Thomas Edison:

"I was always afraid of things that worked the first time."

#AmWriting #WIP #FirstNovel #Rewrite #CreativeAdvice
#WritingAdvice #writer #writers #writing @amwriting @writers @writingcommunity #writingCommunity #forWriters

#WritingWonders Day 21 What transport does your MC use?

The best horse available.

#WIP
#FirstNovel
#HistoricalFiction
#writer #writers #writing
#AmWriting
#writingCommunity
#forWriters
#bookstodon
#WritersOfMastodon
#AuthorsOfMastodon

The most common weakness in drafts I've read (and I've read thousands) is that storylines or relationships are set up, but don't pay off, or pay off, but aren't clearly set up. If everything you set up pays off and everything that pays off is set up, you are well on the way to a viable draft. (PS, it doesn't have to be a gun!)
#FeedbackFriday #writer #writers #writing #AmWriting #writingCommunity #forWriters #bookstodon #FirstNovel #Screenplays #WritersOfMastodon
#AuthorsOfMastodon #WIP

#AmWriting #writing #writersBlock
#writingCommunity
#forwriters
#writersofmastodon
#WIP
#FirstNovel

#WritingCommunity

After some debate with myself, I have written a piece about the fact I am frozen in my tracks at the sixth revision of my #WIP , #HiramFalls .
I need your help. #FeedbackFriday

Here it is: https://medium.com/fuck-niches/what-its-like-to-wait-592dd8998fb2?sk=585fd930d651040de877f89d6807c29e

That's a friend link --- you should be able to read it having to jump through hoops.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, advice as to how I can get #unfrozen.

#writers #amwriting #firstnovel #fiction

I forgot the intro part of today's #WritingWonders ... I'm in my Third Life.

1. Journalist, mostly newspapers (remember them?) for 33 years. Worked with fantastic people, we won lots of awards, put some crooks in jail.
2. Started & ran a nonprofit that helped kids write better (gave them audience all over the state) and teachers teach writing better (gave them private websites and training to write and comment with their kids).
3. Now three years into #firstnovel, #HiramFalls. Getting there.

@kevryanperson Been delayed by illness, but have been keeping to a practice of devoting early part of each day taking notes on a specific character, reading some of their chapters and letting my brain do a walk-about with them. Full bore next week.

#wip #FirstNovel #writingcommunity #revision

Day 0: January #WritingWonders

After such a marvelous response to last month's entries, I'll be repeating this experiment again, referring to my novel #WIP "The Oathbreaker King: a Shroompunk Tale" and my main character Giuvano.

See December's entries here:

https://dice.camp/@vkfarfalle/109484985677944035

0/31

#fantasy #writing #FirstNovel #shroompunk

The boy is screaming because he is going far faster than he ever dreamed his new sled would go atop the thick layer of ice that had #frozen from the gentle rain the night before. The boy tries desperately to steer the sled, keeps wiggling the handle left and right but the sled is hell bent on going straight in the fastest possible line towards the end of the field that ends on a rock ledge with a scruff of young maples behind.

#MastoPrompt #HiramFalls #amwriting #firstnovel #WritingCommunity

@KatLynReid So sorry; 2 ideas to try to console you.

1: When I embarked on my #firstnovel I came down one morning, read the 25,000 words I'd written and realized it sucked. So I deleted it. And the backup. I spent the summer having fun. In the fall, I resumed and am now on my sixth and final draft.

2. Word is infuriating. I can't tell you how many times I had, without realizing it, two versions of the same file up and 'saved' them in the wrong order and lost everything. So I bought Scrivener.

@MJQWrites I am, as they say, no longer gainfully employed. By choice. So I have the luxury of having more time to focus and plan and embrace the largest project of my life, my #firstnovel.

When I was working, I tried to follow the practice of Toni Morrison who, as a single mom and full-time book editor, stole time in the early morning and late night to write but used moments in her day to think about a phrase, a scene, a character. She was always thinking about what she was writing.

In her diary, Carrie writes:

"We sat in silence, E. and I, huddled in the carriage and watching the day disappear.

"In the clear, #crisp dusk, we saw a hawk circle above us, saw the sky turn all deep blue with just an orange slit beneath the clouds in the west, we two all snug in our hearts under the wool and hides.

We didn’t even feel the cold as we made our way down the mountain, everything so bright, white, blue."

#MastoPrompt #HiramFalls #amwriting #firstnovel #writingcommunity

@ProfeJMarie Yes, I can identify with this. And the thing is, which is which?

Because I've been waiting to re-enter my #firstnovel #HiramFalls until I had a chance to read the markups of and talk with my editor, I've had lots of time (too much?) to think over what is not working and why and what to do about it. Which, in essence, is the hardest thing about writing.

Millard opened the telegram:

"Mother not well. Come home. Now. Best, Father."

"Best?" Millard thought. "Fucking, BEST?"

He waited an hour. Then he phoned his father at work. The conversation was brief.

"Father wishes me back,” he told Sylvia. “He's facing a lot of #pressure at the bank. He needs me."

Millard’s father had never said he needed Millard at the bank. Millard’s father would never say he needed Millard for anything.

Sylvia knew that.

#HiramFalls #MastoPrompt #firstnovel

@samgalerosen Welcome to the Fediverse from a retired Vermont journalist, now #amwriting my #FirstNovel #HiramFalls

@FreshLookEdit @edibuddies

Music. Absolutely.
I #amwriting my #firstnovel & found the biggest issue was getting back into the frame of mind of the day before. I finally settled on music: Julia Kent (https://juliakent.com) a NYC cellist; she became my musical muse. Only listened when I wrote. It worked. I wrote her. We've talked about connection between music & writing. Powerful.

BUT, for a two-week blast to get recent draft ready for editor, I did NOT listen. Didn't need to.

@mmahaffie Welcome to you, fellow Vermonter. I live down the road a piece in Hinesburg.

I #amwriting my #firstnovel #HiramFalls An excerpt will be put on stage by Vermont Stage Co. Dec. 14-18 at The Black Box theater.

Be well. Look forward to connecting with you here.

@jlizhenry it is daunting to be now 3 years into this #firstnovel but feeling, finally, that it's there & I can attain the quality I want.

I've been incredibly lucky to have people helping who've not been afraid to tell me exactly what they think. Now, specific feedback from a new (and tough) editor who a) loves it & b) wants to help me get a literary house to publish it.

#HiramFalls will someday soon be seen! But this final step is going to be tough.

#amwriting #WritingCommunity #writer

5 things about my #wip

1. A mechanic with a damaged brain who sees and talks with a man no one else sees, at least not regularly.

2.The man is real. He can communicate with crows and coyotes and bears and owls.

3. Sons who take their fathers' crimes to a new level.

4. Two journalists who discover the truth.

5. One journalist who discovers a secret that, if revealed, will hurt those he holds most dear.

#HiramFalls #WritingCommunity #5thingsWIP #firstnovel #amwriting

@jlizhenry I'll be writing today. But mostly re-organizing in preparation for my (hopefully) penultimate draft of #HiramFalls, my #firstnovel

Hang in there. Keep on writin'

@Charleyhall #MastoWriter #characters

I #amwriting my #firstnovel called #HiramFalls. and it's all laid down. Beginning my near last revision. When I was creating characters, I fell in love with them each.

In the early morning -- waking up, dressing, getting coffee -- I'd see which character came to mind ... and which lingered. THAT character became the day's favorite.

BUT, one fav: Ben, a mechanic whose brain was damaged by an accident, but who is near genius at fixing Nash automobiles

@Morganshamy So do you find yourself writing to music? Tchaikovsky perhaps?

I discovered in the writing of my #firstnovel that music has become key. My muse is cellist Julia Kent (https://juliakent.com) - perfect fit. I loop her catalogue. Some tracks are best for certain characters. Only listen when I write. When I sit down, turn on the music, it's easy for me to get back to my mindset of before.

I reached out to her. We talked of the connection of music and creativity.

#amwriting

@abbys480 Congrats to you. As a longtime journalist I can only imagine how that feels, to write a narrative that long, that complex.

I am about to embark on the 6th draft of my #firstnovel and am most stoked by the latest words from my editor and reader-editors. I hope you have a similar support system.

Welcome to the fediverse. #writer