I've been lazy. I haven't done a darned thing that's been literally writing related for at least a week and a half, and now I'm starting to get a little antsy.
I've got some type of video queued for me the moment I get in from work, which pretty much tells you where I'm at mentally. Naturally, once I'm at home and watching the thing, I feel some vague feeling of discomfort, so there’s a lot of fidgeting and trying to do other things at the same time instead of just taking the time out to appreciate.
I guess its my inner self trying to cajole me on, but there's always something more important to do, or something to prepare for, or some other reason why I'm not getting up and off my backside to actually do one of the things I need to do. In my admittedly very limited defence, I've also been trying to figure out what the heck my book cover will look like. With as much as I've learned on this journey, one thing I've come to the conclusion is that I can't see an editor or an agent being interested in picking this story up. Its not that I think its bad - I'm proud of where I've come from and what I've created, but I'm not sure my writing is that the stage where its publishable by a big publishing house... maybe not even by a small one. That's not to say that I won't consider sending it out to agents once finished is actually finished, but in the meantime, there's nothing stopping me from putting it up as an ebook at a less than paperback price where hopefully someone will enjoy it.
In order to do that, I'll need a book cover. I can't draw a full stop correctly, so I'm taking the time out to find someone somewhere who does have those skills that I can pay for. I went to a couple of my local bookshops to have a closer look at what book covers are like these days. It made me remember why I stay as far as I can from arty things. I've got the artistic skill of a cro-magnon trying to do fine art with a tree trunk as a pencil. Its been interesting to be able to pay attention, because one of the things that it made me do is look at my story and ask myself "who is the story for?" all over again.
And I still don't have a good answer. I know it wasn't written for an adult, and its not really a children's book. When I wrote it, I had my younger daughters in mind both in that not-adult-not-child-just-a-painful-to-cope-with in-between phase. It took me so long to get my thumb out of my nostril that they changed significantly in that period, so the voice I was using changed as well (That's one of the reason's I'm doing this passthrough, to have a consistent tone and voice as I can just feel there are two distinct styles of writing in first third and other two thirds).
I know it has a female protagonist, because, well - written for my daughters - why on earth wouldn't it? Does that mean I'm trying to target the female audience? not realllllly. Is it a tween book? I don't think so. Is it YA? Kinnnnda. I've given up trying to accurately categorise it. Its not a bats vs wolves type of book, so no picture of the heroine swooning, or of a suave and yet somehow dangerously cute young man on the cover. This is more adventure, less swash, but there's a little bit of buckle thrown in amongst everything else. There's a little bit of coming-of-age, but more coming-of-self, of finding and creating and identity, and most of all, of independence. I wanted my heroine to be the main character, and if she's doing any swooning, by gum there'd better be some time of legitimate biological reason for said swoon.
In any case, I have a vague idea of what the cover could or should look like. I need to be able to communicate that to someone crazy enough to take it on for the meagre amount of money that I'll have to save up to pay them for. Apparently I also have to write some type of contract. Woah. That is seriously not something I'd expected when I started this journey.
Still, as one of my favourite all-time characters, Dorrie says, "I didn't know you could speak whale!" Sorry, wrong quote. The one I'm thinking of is to make sure I keep plodding through it all, and "just keep swimming".Before I forget, let me introduce to a new word that just sends chills running down my back: Typography.
Seriously?
