The Tomorrow Child grew out of another story that I started writing in 2002. Back then, I had just read the first couple of Harry Potter books, and convinced myself that I could easily write something as good as that.
'Hello, Mr Bloomsbury, I'll take my six figure advance now, if it's all the same with you.'
I started writing a story called Jason Price and the Guardians of Time (so original!) that had an enigmatic supply teacher who would enter the teacher's smoking room (yes, this was back in the day when you could still smoke inside) and disappear to a dimension that existed 0.168 seconds in the future (don't ask why, I can't remember).
It was terrible. Well, let's say it had plenty of good ideas, but they were underdeveloped and never really held together as a story. There was no narrative drive, just lots of exciting events that sounded great in isolation, but didn't add up to anything. And the dialogue, well, damn!
I sent this to a small publisher, full of hope and dripping with naivety. It was a first draft. I don't think I even proof read it. I had some expectation, that anxious what if buzz. What if somehow all the mistakes were overlooked and the potential of the story shone through?
Not a chance. It came back with some brief notes, a pat on the back for imagination, and that was it. No publishing contract, no advance, simple rejection.
I came back to it in 2012, after some success - a short story published in a Doctor Who anthology, another in Writing Magazine, and another which was sold to an anthology that never made it to print - and started to redraft. The teacher went, along with the first hundred pages of kids creeping around a school to find out what he was up to. The future dimension changed to a world of dark matter where memories are collected and archived.
I spent a couple of years drafting and redrafting before finally stumbling on the heart of the story, the thing that would drive the narrative forward (hopefully). It came to me one evening when I was out jogging. What if the main character was actually . . .
So, if your stuck in a rut with your writing, go out for a jog, or a walk, or maybe even a bike ride or a swim.
I can't tell you if The Tomorrow Child is any good, but it's evolved into something a million times better than it's predecessor. And while self-publishing might not be the fulfilment of the dream that I set out to achieve as a writer, it perhaps marks an evolution in my attitude towards writing and selling a novel. It gives me a marketplace to test my book and my marketing skills, and it doesn't stop me from seeking the traditional publishing route with my next novel.
'Hello, Mr Bloomsbury, I'll take my six figure advance now, if it's all the same with you.'
I started writing a story called Jason Price and the Guardians of Time (so original!) that had an enigmatic supply teacher who would enter the teacher's smoking room (yes, this was back in the day when you could still smoke inside) and disappear to a dimension that existed 0.168 seconds in the future (don't ask why, I can't remember).
It was terrible. Well, let's say it had plenty of good ideas, but they were underdeveloped and never really held together as a story. There was no narrative drive, just lots of exciting events that sounded great in isolation, but didn't add up to anything. And the dialogue, well, damn!
I sent this to a small publisher, full of hope and dripping with naivety. It was a first draft. I don't think I even proof read it. I had some expectation, that anxious what if buzz. What if somehow all the mistakes were overlooked and the potential of the story shone through?
Not a chance. It came back with some brief notes, a pat on the back for imagination, and that was it. No publishing contract, no advance, simple rejection.
I came back to it in 2012, after some success - a short story published in a Doctor Who anthology, another in Writing Magazine, and another which was sold to an anthology that never made it to print - and started to redraft. The teacher went, along with the first hundred pages of kids creeping around a school to find out what he was up to. The future dimension changed to a world of dark matter where memories are collected and archived.
I spent a couple of years drafting and redrafting before finally stumbling on the heart of the story, the thing that would drive the narrative forward (hopefully). It came to me one evening when I was out jogging. What if the main character was actually . . .
So, if your stuck in a rut with your writing, go out for a jog, or a walk, or maybe even a bike ride or a swim.
I can't tell you if The Tomorrow Child is any good, but it's evolved into something a million times better than it's predecessor. And while self-publishing might not be the fulfilment of the dream that I set out to achieve as a writer, it perhaps marks an evolution in my attitude towards writing and selling a novel. It gives me a marketplace to test my book and my marketing skills, and it doesn't stop me from seeking the traditional publishing route with my next novel.
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