|
|
|
|
In case you missed my email earlier this week ... I relaunched the Aliventures site with a brand new design, and a few changes. You can find out about those here:
From Monday onwards, you'll get my weekly blog posts as part of your (free) newsletter membership. If you don't want to receive blog posts by email, click this link, which will instantly unsubscribe you from the blog posts.
(The old blog post delivery mechanism will be switched off tomorrow, so if you used to receive my blog posts by email, don’t worry – you won’t end up getting them
twice.)
|
Is Your Current Project Taking Far Longer Than You Hoped? |
Whatever sort of writing project you're currently engaged in --
whether you're trying to finish a novel, launch a blog, or make it as a freelancer -- there's a good chance it's taking longer than you hoped.
If that's true for you ... I know exactly how you feel.
I'd hoped to be done with the Aliventures redesign a bit sooner than I was (though I'm very happy with the end result -- if you haven't seen it yet, take a look at the site here: www.aliventures.com).
I'd hoped to finish my second novel in two years rather than the four it took, between 2012-2016. (My daughter was born in March 2013 and my son in December 2014, which meant my writing at this point was sporadic at best.)
Right now, in late 2018, I'd hoped I'd be further along in my writing career. In particular, I'd hoped to be selling more fiction by now.
It's easy for me, and perhaps for you too, to look at other writers and feel a bit (or quite a lot)
inadequate.
Maybe it's yet another debut novelist making headlines while you still haven't finished your first draft, or a blogger who's appeared out of nowhere and now has a massive audience, or a freelancer you know who's just paid off their mortgage.
It's hard to realise what you don't see.
You don't see the years (almost certainly) that they put into writing before they got to this point. They may well have
got lucky; they may well be talented. But every "overnight success" I've ever seen in the writing world has actually been someone who was toiling away for years practicing their craft, trying things out, and sometimes failing.
You also don't see the advantages that they have. Even if their circumstances look superficially
similar to yours, the details of their life could look very different. Maybe you have three small children and so do they -- but they also have a full-time nanny (or family nearby who can help out a lot), for instance.
If your novel is taking you ages to finish, or you just can't seem to get your freelancing career off the
ground, or your website has been "under construction" for a year now, or you thought you'd be writing for a living by now but you're still working at your day job, you might want to:
Adjust your expectations. Are you being realistic and reasonable about what you can do? Are you being unnecessarily
hard on yourself? If your project ends up taking twice as long (or three or four times as long) as you'd originally hoped, it's probably still worth doing.
Carve out more time for your project. If you only have an hour a week to write, it's going to take a looong time to finish a novel. Where could you make more time? (Who could help? What could you drop?) If you haven't
already done so, download my mini-ebook Time to Write for ideas (get it from www.aliventures.com/newsletter-secret, password "alinewsletter").
Let go of perfectionism. I'm sure I'd have delayed this website launch endlessly if I hadn't had a deadline! There are still lots of little things I want to do and tweak. But often, it's better to move forward before you feel quite ready. That might mean sharing your work-in-progress with your workshop group without doing yet another edit, or writing and sending a quick pitch to a publication's editor, rather than agonising over it
for days.
Whatever you're working on, I hope you can find a good way forward. And if it does all take a lot longer than you'd hoped ... you're not alone. |
|
What I've Been Reading: Worlds of Exile and Illusion, Ursula Le Guin |
Over the past week and a bit, I've been reading Worlds of Exile and Illusion -- three shortish, linked novels that come partway through Ursula Le Guin's Hanish Cycle (a loosely connected set of novels). This was chosen by one
of the members of the science fiction book group that I attend, and it was a great choice – even though it meant for some rather rushed reading on my part!
As a group, we all agreed that Le Guin's writing is fantastic. She's a more literary science fiction author than some -- but if you're not into literary fiction, don't let that
put you off; these are engaging, fast moving novels. (Equally, if you're not into science fiction, you might find these surprisingly enjoyable.)
From a writerly perspective, I particularly liked the way that Le Guin has created a broad universe, spanning a long period of time: each of the novels is like a little glimpse into a tiny corner of that universe. The characters of each novel are, in
different ways, isolated and at least somewhat unaware of the bigger picture. There's a lot in these novels about truth and seeking it, about history becoming legend, and about different societies meeting and interacting.
I'm definitely going to go on and read more Le Guin (particuarly The Left Hand of Darkness, her most famous work, which comes later in the Hainish
Cycle).
If you're interested in checking out Worlds of Exile and Illusion, you can find it here on Amazon:
(This should direct you to your local Amazon.)
|
|
Reminder: Start Freelancing is Open |
In case you missed it earlier this week: my six-week course Start Freelancing is currently open for registration.
The course has six detailed modules (text based, with occasional videos where appropriate) that come out week by week, plus a further four weeks of full support for any questions you might have.
If you've been thinking about freelancing, or if you've
had a go but didn't get very far, you'll want to check out the full course schedule here:
Start Freelancing begins on Monday 15th October, so registration closes next Friday (12th October) to give me time to make sure everyone's fully settled in before we start. The sooner you join, the sooner you'll get your welcome
pack and access to our private Facebook group.
If you've got any questions about the course, just drop me an email ([email protected]) and I'll be
glad to answer them for you. |
|
I'll be back on Monday with a blog post as usual. If you're looking for something to read till then, don't forget that as a newsletter member, you can download my four free mini-ebooks on
different aspects of writing and blogging. Head here to get them:
Password: alinewsletter
Happy writing,
Ali
|
If you don't want to receive the Monday blog posts by email, click this link and you'll be instantly unsubscribed from them.
If you want to receive the blog posts but not the
newsletter, click this link and you'll be instantly unsubscribed from them..
If you want to receive both the blog posts and the newsletter emails (recommended!) ... don't click anything! :-)
If you want to unsubscribe from everything, use the "Unsubscribe" link right at the very
bottom of this email (next to "Change Subscriber Options"). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
