1 post tagged “pricey”
...560 pages? Well, the answer is definitely not two. But I digress.
On Sunday after a sedate Easter dinner with kids and family, Rain and I were going to print out a copy of my novel so that I could finally have Tabby do the first complete read through. I don't know what we were thinking. Obviously we weren't. It was late and we were both tired. So after a couple chapters were printed, this was the conversation:
Her: Wait, how many pages is this again?
Me: ...560.
Her: And each page is 50 cents. Alright, what's half of 560?
Me:....Oh shit. A lot.
Her:Yeah.
Me: Cancel! Cancel! Cancel!
Her: I'm cancelling! I'm cancelling!
Yeah so moral of the story? Do not print out a copy of your novel at Kinko's. That will be a several hundred dollar print. Yeah. No. So instead we came home and used up both our almost-full black ink cartridge and color cartridge. And we had to buy a new cartridge in the morning to finish printing the last seven chapters. You'd think a full ink cartridge would go further than that, wouldn't you? Apparently, it really only has about 350 pages worth of ink in it. I suppose under normal circumstances, that's more than enough. In ours, not quite.
Though we did not end up printing at Kinko's, we were still considering binding it at Kinko's. The lady assured us that they could bind anything up to two inches thick. We ask how many pages is in that. She ended up telling us the 560 pages would definitely be less than that.
Uh, no.
Quickly into the printing, we realized this was not so. In the end, it was about 3 1/2 inches thick. Quite impressive weight. In the family, threatening to hit someone upside the head with my novel is now a very gruesome threat. Though it appears impressive, I know quite well length means nothing to the quality of a piece. So, I was very nervous about the first full read-through my novel was about to get.
Usually, there are people reading along with my writing. Though I do not post my original work on the internet, I do have several great friends who are kind enough to be my test-readers. But family life has been so chaotic that writing was something I did on my own time and really didn't try to bother people with. At least until the end. By the time I finished it, I had read over this thing so many times, I was sure that I had lost perspective for the sheer amount of times I have reread this thing. To ensure that my style remained consistant and the voice was strong, every time I spent more than three or four days away from writing, I'd reread the entire thing, editing along the way. I know exactly what is happening, what has happened, and what is about to happen, from seeing one or two sentences off of any page.
I was very nervous for this first reading. There were several points that I thought might be questioned. I worried the length meant I didn't do well with pacing. I was trying to be as critical on myself as possible, hoping that it'd help when I was having to accept criticism. As my fellow writers know, criticism is a terrible blessing. We know we need it. We know it'll make us stronger. And we know we're going to hate it. Like I said in the previous post, I expect to be told where I suck, to become upset, for it to be insisted, and for me to slowly come to accept the advice.
But when Tabby finally read through it....I was surprised that she seemed to enjoy it. In the end, her feedback was extremely positive. Though she did warn that it might not exactly be an easy sell since there isn't really a conventional relationship in the whole thing. I knew this. I hate the fact that conventional means sellable but I also understand it. Still, I was shocked with how little criticism I received for it. Especially since I know Tabby has no problem telling me when she thinks something needs to be changed or needs to be removed. She will tell me when she thinks I've done something stupid. I even know the tone of voice she uses while doing so. The fact she hasn't...I'm not quite sure what to think of that. Obviously, she's only the first test-reader but I'm very pleased to have such good feedback after all the amount of work I put in this. For about a year and a half, I have been slaving over this. Writing, editing, reworking, plotting, constructing backgrounds and dates, studying....I put a hell of a lot of work into making this the best possible thing I can produce at this point. I know that a writer is always developing and that should I walk away from this for three months and come back, I'll still want to edit it to perfect the phrase with what I've learned during that period of time. Still, I'm happy with the end product.
Is it perfect?
No.
Is it sellable as a first novel?
There's some doubts.
Am I happy with the story and its intricacy?
Yes.
Am I proud of this accomplishment?
Twenty-Seven chapters. 560 pages. A year and a half of hard work and something that accomplished my original goal despite life's constant insanity? Hell yeah.
