Graaargh!!

Graaargh!! That's the kind of sound I made when I realised I hadn't posted here since January!  Graaargh!!  That's not a  big deal in itself, but it means I haven't been doing much to get the book published either.  Well, even that's not strictly true, I have been working on things, but I feel like I'm in the same place I was five months ago.

So what have I been doing?  Editing.  A revision of the ms.  That meant taking words out, putting words in, tidying up, clarifying.

I waited a while to do this as I felt if I did it straight away I would not be able to see the words as fresh.  I was too close to it, and finishing that last page was too recent.  When I'm drawing it is sometimes good to leave the drawing for a while, or even to look at it in a mirror, that allows you to see it afresh, and see what needs changing.  That's what I needed to do with the ms.

Now that's complete, I'm back to thinking about the synopsis.  And that's where I was five months ago.  Graaargh!!

While I would have preferred this exercise not to take too long, I did find working through the ms valuable.  I rediscovered the story, and I still enjoyed it.  It still made me laugh, even though I feel I should not be laughing at my own jokes.  I still felt for the characters.

Now, back to this synopsis.

Joseph Sin - the manuscript, the quest

Joseph Sin. Not my name, the name of my...well, what shall I call it. 

I can't call it a book, "a written or printed work of fiction or nonfiction, usually on sheets of paper fastened or bound together within covers" (dictionary.com). It isn't bound yet.

I could call it a novel, "a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length and complexity, portraying characters " (dictionary.com). But that sounds a bit pretentious to me: surely it can't be called a novel until it's published.

So, it will have to be a manuscript, "the original text of an author's work, handwritten or now usually typed, that is submitted to a publisher" (dictionary.com).

I'd like to call it a book. I'd like to be able to point at a printed version of "Joseph Sin" and say, 'Look, this my book!' So, this blog is a record of my quest to have Joseph Sin published.