Sweat and Tears

I am almost 3 1/2 years into writing this book and I think the biggest lesson I've learned is that it's a lot harder than I thought it would be. I think in the beginning I had this unrealistic belief that all I had to do was write a book and viola! here comes the money and fame! In reality, writing the book was only the very first small step (and that took 2 years!).

Now I have to rewrite the book because I've found out that I actually didn't know how to write when I started. I cut the prologue and some of the characters, and I've rewritten the first 10 chapters entirely. Of course, it's a lot easier now than it was in the beginning.

This is another reason I am against banning books. It's not easy to write a book in the first place, let alone get published, and then if it's banned that's fewer readers exposed to the masterpiece (or piece of crap, depending on the book). It's hard enough to get a buzz going for a debut author; we don't want to make it harder.

Besides, I need as many people as possible to read my book. The best advertising is word of mouth, and I want to reach as many mouths as possible!

Banned Book Week

There is nothing more repulsive to me than censorship. If you don't want to watch/read/listen/play something, then don't. I promise not to make you do something you don't want to do if you will promise not to deny me the privilege of making that decision for myself.

I think that everyone should read widely and experience as much as possible. It's only through experiences that we can truely learn about ourselves and the world around us. Knowledge is power, and the more knowlege I can obtain the better.

I also think that children have the right to think for themselves. If they are old enough to read, they are old enough to choose what they want to read. Books will censor themselves just based on content - 6 year olds aren't going to understand or enjoy reading A Time to Kill, by John Grisham. The language is too complex, as are the ideas.

Movies, music and video games are a little different from books because there isn't really a learning curve involved. Anyone that can see and hear can watch a TV. Some discretion on the part of the parents is required for those mediums. But books? Come on.

Instead of banning books we should be encouraging children to read more! In fact, we should encourage the whole country to read more. That's why I'm joining T.H. Mafi and The Rejectionist by reviewing a banned book on September 30, 2010. I haven't reviewed a book since I was in school, so this should be interesting!

-Natalie

The land of editing hell

After the first round of rejections, we are working on making our query stand out. I (Natalie) have read tons of blogs and forums on the horror that is writing a query. Had I known when I started writing my book that getting published was so hard, I probably would have started on the query first! Next time, I'm going to write the query, and base the novel on that.

We are also editing our novel again. Our word count was too high, according to the internet, so we are cutting and cutting as much as we think we can in order to get the word count down. I've also pondered getting rid of the prologue, but I don't know yet. I'm going to have to discuss it with Rick and see what he thinks.

I have a friend that is reading and giving me advice and editing tips, which has helped a LOT. There is no substitute for a fresh pair of eyes.

So, back to the grindstone for us. Hopefully our manuscript and query will be shining like polished gold soon.