- To submit a piece to a magazine, have it summarily rejected and then find that said magazine has added you to its email list. And then proceeds to email you every week about its other content.
- To get feedback from an editor, pointing out all the plot holes and errors in your book. And rather than feel peed off with them you're actually grateful they showed such diligence and peed off with yourself for not doing a better job in the first place.
- To get to the end of a manuscript and then realise you've left some really important loose ends untied.
- To toil for years over an idea that won't go away, only to find - somewhere near your book's completion - that someone else has just been published with a similar idea.
- To spend a day or more in mental torture over the fate of an imaginary person that you made up, when either you can't understand how they get out of the situation or they don't like what you've written for them.
- To have only two pages remaining in a notebook. Too few to write a lengthy piece and too many to discard in favour of another notebook.
- To move through the world like a thief, collecting memories and stories from those who may appreciate their true value.
Shadow State, the fourth Thomas Bladen novel in the Spy Chaser series, is available later this year through Joffe Books. You might find something here to read while you're waiting.
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Derek-Thompson/e/B0034ORY08
US: https://www.amazon.com/Derek-Thompson/e/B0034ORY08
, screaming into pillows, banging head against a wall, and especially shredding a sheet of paper into bits and throwing it into the air are all actions created by or for writers.
ReplyDeleteBut how lucky we are, when the ideas flow and we have space to think and pen and paper to hand - on a good day!
ReplyDeleteAll of the above :)
ReplyDeleteLet me know if you think of any others!
Delete