Have I mentioned lately

[rolanni]

...that I Really Hate to Write Proposals? Honest to ghod, I would rather write a whole book on spec; it's less trouble and more fun. And I feel like monster, kinda sorta maybe promising the characters that maybe they might get to actually live in this book someday and could they, y'know, work for me just a little, on condition (and not enough to actually wake up, because if they wake up we're in Very Big Trouble), and if somebody buys the proposal, I'll get back to them.

So, anyway.

The proposal's done, or as done as I can make it, given my general squeamishness regarding the process.

And tomorrow I'll reward myself by working on The Nameless Novella.

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

>>>I Really Hate to Write Proposals? Honest to ghod, I would rather write a whole book on spec; it's less trouble and more fun.

Yeah. And then you don't have to worry if the book takes a left turn and dumps two-thirds of what the editor thought she was buying.

(Experience? Moi?)

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Far as I can tell, everybody hates writing proposals. On the other hand, I'd have thought that if it's for part of a series you'd have a long-term story arc planned, right? And if it's for the editor who's already buying earlier books in the series, you ought to be able to get away with "this book will continue the pre-existing story arc, hitting high-notes (X) and (Y) and ending on a cliff-hanger/resolution/love interest note", then including the series pitch for the editor to pass around the marketing folks again.

Or is it not that simple this time ...?

(One of the jobs I'm currently shirking is writing a yay-long retro-proposal for the first three books of the fantasy series, so the US publisher can pitch it at UK and foreign rights folks from other publishers. The books sort of diverged from the original proposal, which was okay by the US publisher, but means the original proposal isn't much use for re-selling sub-rights ...)

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Or is it not that simple this time ...?

Not so simple this time. New universe. New genre. Intended for a whole 'nother publisher.

Last time, our editor called us up when the first contract was about to go over and asked the magic question, "What are you writing for me next?" To which we answered, "An expansion of 'Balance of Trade' and the two books of the Great Migration." And he said, "Great. I'll put the contract in the mail." So soothing.

I realize that proposals are written for the marketing department. But considering the almost-dead-certainty that the characters will at some point during the actual writing of the book revolt, tear the story out of the author's hands and rush off at high speed in an entirely unexpected direction, thereby, as jhetley notes, rendering two-thirds of the proposal moot -- does make writing the proposal seem like an extended exercise in futility.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

I never really thought of proposals that way, though now that I look at it through that lens it sounds really, really disturbing!

Usually I think of the characters as having already having things happen to them and inviting me along as a war photographer or embedded journalist or something. Then if I get called back on some other assignment, I still think of them as doing whatever it was I left them doing, just without me to record it.

Of course, this is the kind of thinking about character realities that so many other authors call precious and artificial. :P

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Hmm.

I think the characters have their own lives once the book's in process. For me, though, there's a Meeting and Discovery period that happens just when the characters wake up, and which is part of the ...magic of writing. I don't want to take a chance of waking the characters up too early and losing that magical discovery time.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Fascinating. I'd never considered the actually meeting of the characters as an event tied to the books they inspire. That's a fascinating perspective.

I think my biggest irritation with character foibles, when it comes to chronicling their adventures, is the whole quantum uncertainty about exactly -what- all goes in the middle. I know the end and the beginning and the high points, but all the bits that join them that give the story so much of its context and life are in flux until I write them down in a finalized form. Drafts aren't good enough to nail these events.

I complain about this to the more meta-aware characters, who just pat me and say, "You know how sometimes you plan to have a conversation with someone, and you imagine how it goes and you even script what you say, and then you walk in and start the conversation and it rarely goes the way you planned?" And I say, "Yeah," with a sinking feeling... *chuckle* So I guess they don't know either, though they know. Frustrating. :)

[kijjohnson.livejournal.com]

I sort of like writing book proposals, which makes me unique. But then, I never stick to them.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'd mind writing proposals so much if I didn't have the idea that someone was actually going to take them seriously.

But then, I never stick to them.

Yup.

[moon-happy.livejournal.com]

I don't mind writing proposals IF I've finished the book. If I have to give them something very synopsis-like, it makes me less interested in the project because I know too much about it to care about writing it. I guess that suggests that at least some of the fun in writing is learning what happens. However, as long as I can get past getting started, the writing seems to take off anyway, and of course rarely resembles the proposal.