Ana Spoke, author

by Ana Spoke | November 5, 2013 · 3:00 am

Change of plans

Hi there everyone! (by “everyone” I mean ten or so people that have subscribed to my blog in the two weeks it was up and live).

I have to apologise for the misleading advertising of my intent to publish Shizzle, Inc online, chapter by chapter. I thought it was a pretty clever idea, to get some fans for the eventual publication of a sequel. I expected that maybe in a year or so I would get enough followers to get interest from an agent or publisher.

What I did not expect, is that by sheer luck (not unlike that Isa, my protagonist, encounters on a regular basis), I would run into a literary agent while filming a commercial. Or that he would agree to read a few sample chapters. Or that he would like them enough to agree to represent me.

The only problem, the agent did not think it was at all genius to publish my book online – not if he can sell it to a publisher. He did criticise my plot and wants me to improve it before submitting, so it is still possible that the book doesn’t sell and I revert to the original plan, but I sure hope not.

So, in the meantime, I will blog about my experiences of trying to be a writer (which I think is way harder than coming up with fiction). I will start with what I learned about plot development. Tomorrow. Cause it’s late and stuff, okay?

Website maintenance

First steps

I didn’t know how hard it would be to sit down in front of a blank page, to start writing, not knowing if anyone would ever read a single word…or worse, thinking that if someone actually did find and read my stories, they would say things like “Wow. What a load of crap!”

Of course, there are much harder and scarier things out there. Like parachuting (which is not worth the risk, I mean, really not worth it). And actually, I have written fiction before (if first chapters of a half-dozen unfinished novels count). But I have never published or even posted anything in the cyberspace, for everyone to see and comment. Those first chapters of unfinished bestsellers are my personal treasures and secrets, my own fool’s gold.

But, you have to start sometime, somewhere, and for me it is today. Because I want to finish a novel, and because I want for others to read it. Because I want to get better at writing. Because I hope that in a multi-billion world there will be a few (a million?) that would one day close my book (or put down a Kindle) and say “Wow. What else did she write?” Now, that’s a dream worth the risk.