Help me decide if I need to scrap my novel and start over or not.
April 11, 2007 4:06 AM Subscribe
NovelFilter: Is this a legitimate artistic decision or just a loss of confidence?
I am about 30,000 words into a fantasy novel. It's not the first novel I've written (I wrote two rather crap romance novels about 5-10 years ago which were happily lost in the Great Laptop Meltdown of 2002) but it's the first one I am not consciously writing for practice and am actually taking seriously.
The idea for the novel started out as a quirky take on religion and death. I have a character who actually goes to a physical hell, and because I don't really believe in a physical hell, I set the whole novel in a fantasy setting. I read a lot of fantasy/sf as well as reading a fair amount of mainstream novels (probably a ratio of about 2:1).
The ideas about religion are spread throughout the book I am writing but have taken on a stealth quality - to some extent, they've lost their edge, because a criticism of a made-up world can't have the same strength as a criticism of our world. It's not the book I pictured writing (although it's still a really fun read and, I believe, fairly original, and might even make my points better by not getting people's defenses up, I don't know). Entertainment value means a lot to me too, I don't want to just write a piece of propaganda.
In terms of the trajectory of my career, I have had some short stories and a fair amount of poetry published (including a book of poems). The fiction has been split between sf/f and literary writing. Right now, I can easily go either way, and I think of myself as a speculative fiction writer, which is such a broad term as to be almost meaningless. I am worried that if I published a fantasy novel, however, that I'll be kind of ghettoized into only writing sf/f (for novels) and that if I later write a specfic novel that's more mainstream, it'll be more difficult to get it published. I have no idea if this is a reasonable concern or not. I can think of very few writers who cross genres like that. Are my concerns about my career valid?
Would I be better off scrapping what I've written so far and starting over with a real-world backdrop the way I originally thought, or should I let the story go where it "wants" to go?
How do you deal with this kind of indecision?
I am about 30,000 words into a fantasy novel. It's not the first novel I've written (I wrote two rather crap romance novels about 5-10 years ago which were happily lost in the Great Laptop Meltdown of 2002) but it's the first one I am not consciously writing for practice and am actually taking seriously.
The idea for the novel started out as a quirky take on religion and death. I have a character who actually goes to a physical hell, and because I don't really believe in a physical hell, I set the whole novel in a fantasy setting. I read a lot of fantasy/sf as well as reading a fair amount of mainstream novels (probably a ratio of about 2:1).
The ideas about religion are spread throughout the book I am writing but have taken on a stealth quality - to some extent, they've lost their edge, because a criticism of a made-up world can't have the same strength as a criticism of our world. It's not the book I pictured writing (although it's still a really fun read and, I believe, fairly original, and might even make my points better by not getting people's defenses up, I don't know). Entertainment value means a lot to me too, I don't want to just write a piece of propaganda.
In terms of the trajectory of my career, I have had some short stories and a fair amount of poetry published (including a book of poems). The fiction has been split between sf/f and literary writing. Right now, I can easily go either way, and I think of myself as a speculative fiction writer, which is such a broad term as to be almost meaningless. I am worried that if I published a fantasy novel, however, that I'll be kind of ghettoized into only writing sf/f (for novels) and that if I later write a specfic novel that's more mainstream, it'll be more difficult to get it published. I have no idea if this is a reasonable concern or not. I can think of very few writers who cross genres like that. Are my concerns about my career valid?
Would I be better off scrapping what I've written so far and starting over with a real-world backdrop the way I originally thought, or should I let the story go where it "wants" to go?
How do you deal with this kind of indecision?
because a criticism of a made-up world can't have the same strength as a criticism of our world.
Now hold on, that isn't true!
Many writers successfully build alternate worlds and then criticise them, in many different ways. That's good news for you - probably just one aspect of your work needs tuning. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater.
In what way does this criticism manifest itself? Angry folks/demons/shades? A misbalance of magical forces? An insurrection? A play? The rising of a nemesis? An event that happens to a character?
Or, maybe the world isn't drawn strongly enough?
Or maybe the characters aren't drawn strongly enough, and their actions and thoughts can't manifest the criticism because the reader doesn't care enough?
Or, maybe our world does have magic and a real hell - most can't perceive it, though. That's a legitimate artistic decision.
posted by By The Grace of God at 4:26 AM on April 11, 2007
Now hold on, that isn't true!
Many writers successfully build alternate worlds and then criticise them, in many different ways. That's good news for you - probably just one aspect of your work needs tuning. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater.
In what way does this criticism manifest itself? Angry folks/demons/shades? A misbalance of magical forces? An insurrection? A play? The rising of a nemesis? An event that happens to a character?
Or, maybe the world isn't drawn strongly enough?
Or maybe the characters aren't drawn strongly enough, and their actions and thoughts can't manifest the criticism because the reader doesn't care enough?
Or, maybe our world does have magic and a real hell - most can't perceive it, though. That's a legitimate artistic decision.
posted by By The Grace of God at 4:26 AM on April 11, 2007
I suspect that, for your purposes, you need to write either 100% fantasy, or 100% verisimilitude. It might help if you used a successful model to base your work on (why reinvent the wheel?). Are there any novels you know of that have achieved a similar goal to what you want?
Beware that there are a f*** of a lot of fantasy/sci-fi writers, however. Most write complete crap, but they clog-up publishers in-boxes, and give anybody involved in the genre a harder time. Many mainstream publishers won't touch sci-fi. In terms of a successful lucrative career, steering clear of fantasy/sci-fi is sensible (although not necessarily right for you—JK Rowling made it through...)
posted by humblepigeon at 4:50 AM on April 11, 2007
Beware that there are a f*** of a lot of fantasy/sci-fi writers, however. Most write complete crap, but they clog-up publishers in-boxes, and give anybody involved in the genre a harder time. Many mainstream publishers won't touch sci-fi. In terms of a successful lucrative career, steering clear of fantasy/sci-fi is sensible (although not necessarily right for you—JK Rowling made it through...)
posted by humblepigeon at 4:50 AM on April 11, 2007
Ian (M) Banks uses two different names for his SF and literary fiction.
And Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy did for me, as a reader, what you're trying to do... so it can be done.
posted by Helga-woo at 4:56 AM on April 11, 2007 [1 favorite]
And Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy did for me, as a reader, what you're trying to do... so it can be done.
posted by Helga-woo at 4:56 AM on April 11, 2007 [1 favorite]
Is this a legitimate artistic decision or just a loss of confidence?
Neither one. Questions about the marketplace are valid and don't have to indicate insecurity but neither are they artistic. This is a legitimate business decision.
The real question is whether you are OK with business matters dictating your artistic output.
posted by DU at 5:03 AM on April 11, 2007
Neither one. Questions about the marketplace are valid and don't have to indicate insecurity but neither are they artistic. This is a legitimate business decision.
The real question is whether you are OK with business matters dictating your artistic output.
posted by DU at 5:03 AM on April 11, 2007
I'm a dumbass from Alabama and I've never written fiction, so feel free to disregard my comments. When I read your question, I immediately thought of Kazuo Ishiguro. Never Let Me Go can be read as pure science fiction, dystopia, mystery, etc. But it is so much more than that and it managed to entertain while touching on deep issues and questions. If you have come close to achieving something similar, it is worth the struggle.
posted by loosemouth at 5:14 AM on April 11, 2007
posted by loosemouth at 5:14 AM on April 11, 2007
Also, take a look at Magic Realism (if you haven't already). This was popular around 10-20 years ago, so, on a purely commercial level, it might be considered blasé nowadays.
posted by humblepigeon at 5:32 AM on April 11, 2007
posted by humblepigeon at 5:32 AM on April 11, 2007
Email me if you want a link to a video where a guy describes his visit to Hell (in a vision.)
It's quite....detailed.
posted by konolia at 5:36 AM on April 11, 2007
It's quite....detailed.
posted by konolia at 5:36 AM on April 11, 2007
I think the key thing to do is finish it, regardless of whether you think it works in its current incarnation or not. Worrying about where it might be shelved is not the key thing here - genres are there for marketing purposes, so that people have a rough idea of what they're buying. There are plenty of SF novels out there that deal with current issues in a fantastic context (even though the better ones tend to be removed from the SF&F canon by critics and authors insisting they're 'too good to be SF', c.f. Kurt Vonnegut, Margaret Atwood).
Crack on, get it done, then leave it for a while and work on other things. Come back to it and then decide if it needs to be reworked, or shelved, or just sent out to publishers after a bit of polishing. But always maintain your forward momentum.
posted by Happy Dave at 5:53 AM on April 11, 2007
Crack on, get it done, then leave it for a while and work on other things. Come back to it and then decide if it needs to be reworked, or shelved, or just sent out to publishers after a bit of polishing. But always maintain your forward momentum.
posted by Happy Dave at 5:53 AM on April 11, 2007
@ humblepigeon
This was popular around 10-20 years ago, so, on a purely commercial level, it might be considered blasé nowadays.
I think you mean passe, not blase.
posted by Happy Dave at 5:54 AM on April 11, 2007
This was popular around 10-20 years ago, so, on a purely commercial level, it might be considered blasé nowadays.
I think you mean passe, not blase.
posted by Happy Dave at 5:54 AM on April 11, 2007
Best answer: There are really two questions here; I'll try answering both.
1. "Should I retrofit my novel not to be sf/fantasy because it'll box in my ability to publish 'mainstream' litfic later?" I think you can only write the book it occurs to you to write. If you're 30,000 words in, you've gotten much farther than most; finish the book you're writing, don't start over. If what you're writing is good, you won't be ghettoized. Jonathan Lethem comes to mind here -- his first book was published by Tor and sold as well-written sf, his later books have come out with mainstream presses and been sold as literary fiction with fantastic elements -- what he's actually doing hasn't changed very much.
2. "How do you deal with the indecision?" It's very natural, and indeed, there probably are large-scale changes of some kind you're going to have to make. You never finish the same book you start. This is what I did: if I realized at some point that something in the first half of the book was going to have to be totally different, I wrote the second half as if I'd already made the change -- then at the end went back and rewrote the whole manuscript. But no changing until the end is reached. Otherwise you can get stuck in a loop revising and revising the book without writing the end.
posted by escabeche at 6:13 AM on April 11, 2007
1. "Should I retrofit my novel not to be sf/fantasy because it'll box in my ability to publish 'mainstream' litfic later?" I think you can only write the book it occurs to you to write. If you're 30,000 words in, you've gotten much farther than most; finish the book you're writing, don't start over. If what you're writing is good, you won't be ghettoized. Jonathan Lethem comes to mind here -- his first book was published by Tor and sold as well-written sf, his later books have come out with mainstream presses and been sold as literary fiction with fantastic elements -- what he's actually doing hasn't changed very much.
2. "How do you deal with the indecision?" It's very natural, and indeed, there probably are large-scale changes of some kind you're going to have to make. You never finish the same book you start. This is what I did: if I realized at some point that something in the first half of the book was going to have to be totally different, I wrote the second half as if I'd already made the change -- then at the end went back and rewrote the whole manuscript. But no changing until the end is reached. Otherwise you can get stuck in a loop revising and revising the book without writing the end.
posted by escabeche at 6:13 AM on April 11, 2007
Finish the book and worry about this question when you're done with the first draft. A remarkable lot can change as you revise, including an entire setting. I revised a novel from adult mainstream fiction (75,000 words) to YA fiction (50,000 words) with a whole new ending, and a different set of escalating circumstances. It's still the same book; it's just better.
Get it down first and get your artistic rocks off, then go back with the critical business eye.
posted by headspace at 6:16 AM on April 11, 2007
Get it down first and get your artistic rocks off, then go back with the critical business eye.
posted by headspace at 6:16 AM on April 11, 2007
I think you mean passe, not blase.
I get the following as a definition of blasé, and it's the meaning I intended:
"Unimpressed or indifferent to something because one has experienced or seen it so often before"
posted by humblepigeon at 6:25 AM on April 11, 2007
I get the following as a definition of blasé, and it's the meaning I intended:
"Unimpressed or indifferent to something because one has experienced or seen it so often before"
posted by humblepigeon at 6:25 AM on April 11, 2007
There are plenty of writers who cross genres, but they just use pseudonyms. There are also a lot of writers who, after publishing a few novels within one genre or subgenre, get abandoned by their publishers because of flagging sales and have to start over again with a new name.
For example, look at Meg Cabot. She writes YA and chicklit under a couple of names and at one point she wrote historical romance under the name Patricia Cabot. Or Nora Roberts writing sf/f as JD Robb. She's a special case, admittedly.
I also think that you're in the middle of your novel and freaking out. Write the first draft. Worry about the rest later.
posted by sugarfish at 6:52 AM on April 11, 2007
For example, look at Meg Cabot. She writes YA and chicklit under a couple of names and at one point she wrote historical romance under the name Patricia Cabot. Or Nora Roberts writing sf/f as JD Robb. She's a special case, admittedly.
I also think that you're in the middle of your novel and freaking out. Write the first draft. Worry about the rest later.
posted by sugarfish at 6:52 AM on April 11, 2007
I get the following as a definition of blasé, and it's the meaning I intended:
"Unimpressed or indifferent to something because one has experienced or seen it so often before"
Ah, I get you. I don't think you can 'consider something' blase though. You can be blase about it, because it's passe though:
"antique: out of fashion; "a suit of rather antique appearance"; "demode (or outmoded) attire"; "outmoded ideas"
Metafilter: Blase about how passe plates of beans are.
posted by Happy Dave at 7:50 AM on April 11, 2007
Does resetting it in the real-world provide an interesting and engaging artistic challenge for you? If so, you might consider it. Otherwise, stay on your current trajectory and worry about how to market yourself after it's done. Theoretically, I suppose you could also write the real-world version after finishing the speculative version.
In terms of the market (I'm not making any artistic value judgments here), it seems to me that speculative fiction is gaining "literary credibility" -- witness the increasingly mainstream interest in Philip K. Dick, the multi-genre work of Samuel R. Delaney, and publishers like Omnidawn which publish both "Fabulist and New Wave Fabulist" fiction and contemporary avant-garde poetry. So, in theory at least, it might not be as much of an either/or choice as the market would have traditionally demanded.
posted by treepour at 10:32 AM on April 11, 2007
In terms of the market (I'm not making any artistic value judgments here), it seems to me that speculative fiction is gaining "literary credibility" -- witness the increasingly mainstream interest in Philip K. Dick, the multi-genre work of Samuel R. Delaney, and publishers like Omnidawn which publish both "Fabulist and New Wave Fabulist" fiction and contemporary avant-garde poetry. So, in theory at least, it might not be as much of an either/or choice as the market would have traditionally demanded.
posted by treepour at 10:32 AM on April 11, 2007
Ah, I get you. I don't think you can 'consider something' blase though.
You can now :)
Seriously though, there are those who see language as a set of rules, and those who see language as a set of guidelines. I think I fall into the latter camp. It's criminal when people fall into this camp through ignorance, but I don't think that applies to me in this instance. There is no word that suffices, so I extended what is already a loan word for which no English equivalent.
FWIW I'm sure I'm not alone in using blase this way.
posted by humblepigeon at 12:01 PM on April 11, 2007
You can now :)
Seriously though, there are those who see language as a set of rules, and those who see language as a set of guidelines. I think I fall into the latter camp. It's criminal when people fall into this camp through ignorance, but I don't think that applies to me in this instance. There is no word that suffices, so I extended what is already a loan word for which no English equivalent.
FWIW I'm sure I'm not alone in using blase this way.
posted by humblepigeon at 12:01 PM on April 11, 2007
Response by poster: sugarfish nailed it - I am freaking out. These answers were all very helpful in confirming what I actually decided while stuffing envelopes at work today: finish it first and then worry about this stuff. Further to that, I've written another 860 words. Go me.
Thank you, everybody!
posted by joannemerriam at 3:01 PM on April 11, 2007
Thank you, everybody!
posted by joannemerriam at 3:01 PM on April 11, 2007
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by logicpunk at 4:17 AM on April 11, 2007