On returning from a conference, the writer was asked if her attendance there had been a success. Her answer was that, on a personal level, this was probably not the case, since although she had achieved her ambition of meeting not just one but two literary agents, neither of them seemed likely to add her to their client list.
She had, on the other hand, received a great deal of advice and encouragement, not all of it contradictory, and in most cases favouring her next project, which, as a historical novel, is apparently more likely to find favour than anything in the huge and amorphous category of ‘contemporary fiction ’.
To the conference in general, she gave a mixed review. A plenary session given by a renowned author and brilliant raconteur was well worth the visit. The cattle-market atmosphere of one-to-one appointments she found less inspirational. Most perplexing of all, was a talk on ‘locating your novel’, in which the speaker digressed (not for the first time) to inform his audience that due to government inadequacies over swine flu, they would all be dead by Christmas.
The writer is not yet sure how the conference experience will shape her writer’s journey, but has already taken one salient piece of advice very much to heart.
She will not write in the first person again.
Ever.
Ali Bacon / Books and Other Things 
Perhaps Literary Conferences are as useful as Literary Writing Degrees and their like. Isn’t it amazing that Shakespeare, Trollope , Dickens and the rest ever managed to put pen to paper?
Why not do what Libby Cone did with War on the Margins? Write what you are driven to write from inside yourself and use the blogosphere to launch it.
Good luck.
LikeLike
Hi Maureen – thanks for offering me some consolation, though you’ll see from my reply to Richard I have regained some equanimity today! I think every writer would like the vindication that commercial publication confers, but I do see the attraction of ‘going it alone’. One agent I spoke to actually suggested that Sugar Daddy might sell 5000 if self-published. Peanuts to a big publisher? Sounds a lot to me!
LikeLike
Isn’t that just one of those rules that is there for the breaking? For instance, the narrative can be pushed along at a fine old rate by a bit of first person writing…
Mark Billingham (think Ian Rankin but London rather than Edinburgh) used first person very effectively in a couple of his books for writing about the actual crimes being committed, seeing them through the perpetrators eyes and getting some sympathy with the reasons for the actions.
BTW, hope Ellie’s job interview went okay. I wait with baited breathe to hear about my Friday interview, but I’ve also persuaded myself that they probably saw a whole swathe of people more eminently suitable!
LikeLike
Most of the books I’ve read this year have been, coincidentally, first person narratives. Having said that, I do know there are disadvantages of first person and take on the nose some of the points that were made to me. Hope the post didn’t come across as sour grapes, but it does feel like ‘rules’ for a first novelist are tougher (perhaps rightly) than for those who are already established. On the other hand if a book has enough of the mythical ‘wow’ factor, the odd trangression would no doubt be overlooked.
Hope it’s a case of no news is good news on the job front – to make things livelier Ellie is in competition with a best friend!
LikeLike
Oh no! Mine is in the first person! I started off writing 3rd, er, several books ago, and this is my first in first and i love it…
Glad you gleaned something positive from it, anyway:)
Sam
LikeLike
Sam – thanks for calling. Maybe it’s time for an exception that proves the rule … fingers crossed!
AliB
LikeLike
Mine’s in the first person and is my debut novel. It’s also commercial women’s fiction. My second novel (that I’m writing now) is in the first person for 2 characters and third person for 2 characters. Whether my agent/editor will approve, I have no idea!
LikeLike
Hi Calistro
Congrats on breaking the first-novel-first-person taboo. Will look out for ‘Heaven’ in the shops.
AliB
LikeLike