I had already drafted the manuscript that would become my first book by the time I graduated from college, but I had no idea what to do with it.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I tend to write things and don't go the next step and try to get it published. I don't want to do book signings and stuff.
I wrote the first draft of my first novel at Michigan, and then I wrote the first draft of 'Salvage the Bones' at Stanford. So I workshopped the entire thing.
If I hadn't been able to get my first book published, I am not sure what I would have done.
When I began to write and used a typewriter, I went through three drafts of a book before showing it to an editor.
When I start any book, I have no idea what I'm going to do.
If you're having trouble finishing a book, it might be that you're trying to fix it as you go. Just finish the story, no matter how terrible you think that first draft is. Then let it cool off. In other words, don't look at it for a while. Then you can rewrite it.
If you want to send a manuscript, send it to an agent. And send a letter first, asking permission. Launch it into the real world of cold-blooded commercial response, not into the fantasyland of wishful thinking, cowardice and surrender to Resistance.
Write with abandon and no constraints for first draft. Cut brutally and save in separate files on second draft. Add conflict; don't be afraid to make your characters suffer. Read what you love. Write what you love. Love.
I was eighteen when I wrote my first book, and I can't remember what it was called. I have no idea where the manuscript is - I lost it when I was twenty-one.
I really strive to bring something new to each book. I don't want to write the same book over and over again.
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