You have them if you write. Manuscripts in a musty box in a basement. Apologies to all those writers who hit it every time with their books and their box is empty or nonexistent. But for everybody else you know what I am talking about. They are the books that just didn't work for whatever reason. A lot of times it takes years to figure that out. Sometimes you see very early on the book is not there and give it up for another project, but usually it is during the third or fourth or fifth or twentieth rewrite the pottery reveals it's cracks and you sigh a collective, oh shit.
The first novel a lot of times makes it. Maybe it's just fresh, but that second book is in danger right away. There is a inclination to try and duplicate what worked before or go way out on a limb and try something extremely different. Both attempts usually fail. For myself I tried a stock thriller that after diagramming and interviewing people and countless drafts just sort of gave itself up as a really bad idea that led to a really bad book. Then the title changed five times and it was just dead.
I followed that with a novel about early yuppies who give it all up to find meaning. Hmmm...Dated before it was even done. Really really bad. That one imploded early and only cost me a year. Then there was the logging book that dragged on for years and then a series of starts that never saw the light of day. What can you say? Writing is like a gun and there are are a lot of misfires. But, occasionally, it comes together and makes every bad novel just a stepping stone along the way. That' what you tell yourself anyway.
http://www.billhazelgrove.com/
Rocket Man will blast off April 26th
The first novel a lot of times makes it. Maybe it's just fresh, but that second book is in danger right away. There is a inclination to try and duplicate what worked before or go way out on a limb and try something extremely different. Both attempts usually fail. For myself I tried a stock thriller that after diagramming and interviewing people and countless drafts just sort of gave itself up as a really bad idea that led to a really bad book. Then the title changed five times and it was just dead.
I followed that with a novel about early yuppies who give it all up to find meaning. Hmmm...Dated before it was even done. Really really bad. That one imploded early and only cost me a year. Then there was the logging book that dragged on for years and then a series of starts that never saw the light of day. What can you say? Writing is like a gun and there are are a lot of misfires. But, occasionally, it comes together and makes every bad novel just a stepping stone along the way. That' what you tell yourself anyway.
http://www.billhazelgrove.com/
Rocket Man will blast off April 26th
