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deborahjrossMadeleine E. Robins's first novel, Althea, is now available from Book View Cafe Press. She's written a marvelous blog about how this book came to be here.
I wrote my first book because I couldn’t find anything I wanted to read. Knowing Madeleine's other work, I immediately want to check this one out!
This got me thinking about all those first stories, attempted novels, bits of stories that never went anywhere. Marion used to say that the first million words were practice, but I have never taken that literally. It's important to give ourselves time to develop as writers, to work and work and hone our craft. Sure, there are rare writers whose first efforts are so good that they sell, but for most of us--particularly those of us who began writing as children or teens--those early stories represent a sort of flopping-about, trying to figure out what makes a good story and how to tell it.
Practice does not mean worthless. Practice means trying out our dreams, shoving around story elements to see what fits and what bounces...figuring out how to take the things that delight us and bring them to life in a book. So many of us began (and continue, sometimes in private, sometimes not) to write the books we want to read, the books that thrill and comfort us, the characters we dream about meeting or wish we were, the landscapes we want to run away to.
More on my blog here.
I wrote my first book because I couldn’t find anything I wanted to read. Knowing Madeleine's other work, I immediately want to check this one out!
This got me thinking about all those first stories, attempted novels, bits of stories that never went anywhere. Marion used to say that the first million words were practice, but I have never taken that literally. It's important to give ourselves time to develop as writers, to work and work and hone our craft. Sure, there are rare writers whose first efforts are so good that they sell, but for most of us--particularly those of us who began writing as children or teens--those early stories represent a sort of flopping-about, trying to figure out what makes a good story and how to tell it.
Practice does not mean worthless. Practice means trying out our dreams, shoving around story elements to see what fits and what bounces...figuring out how to take the things that delight us and bring them to life in a book. So many of us began (and continue, sometimes in private, sometimes not) to write the books we want to read, the books that thrill and comfort us, the characters we dream about meeting or wish we were, the landscapes we want to run away to.
More on my blog here.
