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Brilliant. I think this hits the nail on the head and out through the other side of the shed. The landscape is the mirror in which characters are reflected...

Indeed - in fact it might help to consider it this way. I'm not a chess player (I can lose in a record number of moves). But I know that you, as a chess player, won't look at a board of pieces and see a mathematical configuration of objects. You'll see landscapes that mean something to you. A...

This can be done. If, and only if, it is approached from the right angle. The currency of all good fiction – from the wildest fantasy to the most kitchen-sink drama - is human emotions. If emotions are engaged, then it doesn't matter if you're writing about a war, a grubby floor that needs...

Isn't it funny how a typographical error can spark a nice idea? I opened this thread because I wondered, 'What's a spell incarnation?' It sounds a fascinating conceit. A spell made flesh, turned into a living being. Someone should have a go at that in a story. :cool:

Re: first person writing, any advice Not everything changes when you write in first person. It wouldn't have any bearing on, for example, whether you said 'this' or 'that'. In the example you give, I'd personally use neither. 'I regretted it the moment I said it,' would do fine. But I don't...

It may help to think about why this story is being narrated in the first person. Who is the character, and whom are they speaking to (i.e. whom do they think they are addressing?). They may be writing letters/emails/a blog to a set audience, they may be recording their memoires onto a...

Could not agree more. And that is an awful lot of awfully big 'Ifs' too. Not to be flippant, but one would be better off buying Lottery tickets. Someone wins that every week. A J K Rowling-type phenomenon comes along once in a blue moon.

Also, last time I checked, there were barely any UK publishers that were taking non-agented submissions in any case. Maybe that solves the whole thing. Multiply submit to agents (they certainly don't mind it). Then they do the whole multiple-submission thing for you. Simple! ;)

Not you, no. In fact, I don't want to 'convince' anyone as such. Merely offer another perspective. I am getting the feeling that things are slightly different in the States from how they are here. In the UK my impression is that publishers accept the reality that authors will submit to many...

It may certainly look that way from the outside :) At the publishing house where I worked, it was all lovey-dovey and sweetness and light face to face, but once backs were turned, you should have heard the language...!

Well, I am assuming we are in the real world still. Most people are unlikely to get more than one offer. Most people are very likely to get none. Submit to 10 at once, and IF your book is good enough, you may get an offer in about a year's time. Submit to the same ten in sequence, and the law...

I will have to argue the point, I'm afraid. This is simply not the case. Publishing is a business, like selling nachos or double glazing. Do you really imagine that if a publisher comes across something they think could make them a profit, that they would pass it up just because it had been...

Dammit, think about it! Submit to as many people simultaneously as you can. Buy as many stamps and envelopes as you can afford. Post a copy every day if you have the energy. Otherwise, you will grow old and toothless waiting for a response. What have you got to lose? Why are you considering...

This is either a very profound statement by the editor or the ultimate cop-out. :p A bit like a quote once supplied to me by a Puffin editor. 'We chose these books because they were great stories, beautifully told, and in line with our current publishing strategy.' Whoah, slow down, too...

What a wonderful phrase that is... :cool: High horse time. When literature or another art form (like music) becomes 'product', then warning bells should start ringing among the readers. I don't blame the publishers really - they have a living to make. Until recently I worked in book marketing...

Lawks. This is all rather depressing, no? Commissioning or rejecting novels on the basis of being 'too short' (though not solely on that basis, obviously). :rolleyes: 100k word cut-off point? Where would that leave us, if extrapolated backwards? No Ursula Le Guin - no Earthsea books. No...

I think there is a time when you have the luxury of being picky, and that time is after one has already been published, probably several times. I think a new writer has to take whatever comes their way. As to the extract, I really rather enjoyed it. A promising glimpse at an...

I remember being told that Iago (in 'Othello') has more monologues than any other character in Shakespeare - and he is indeed probably the nastiest villain that WS ever created. The idea of villains monologuing is interesting. Gollum in LOTR talks to himself an awful lot, mainly because he has...

Not a question as such, more a comment... I remember the name John Jarrold from back when I first started submitting work to publishers, around 13 years ago (the horror, the horror...). I think the biggest frustration for aspiring writers was that you never got anything more than a standard...

Yes, it has pace and flow, even if it is a little rough in some places (and a lot rough in others). The most important and elusive ingredient, the 'voice', is there. So that's something to be very pleased about. And there is definite intrigue in the empty village idea. (However... no-one...