Reading Afterworlds As An Unpublished Author
Yesterday I read Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld, a book that's gotten some mixed reviews--I think the review that puts it best is Dahla Alder's, particularly when she wonders who the target audience is for this book. I enjoyed it; the only thing I wasn't a huge fan of was the romance aspects of Lizzie's part of the story.
One thing all of Darcy's writerly stuff did for me, though, as an unpublished person who wants to be traditionally published, was make me want to write my ass off. Any good book will do that, but a book that's at least all right that's about writing or publishing? Hell yeah it makes me want to fight. I'm currently in the process of querying agents, and it made me check my email much more frequently than was probably necessary or okay, seeing as I was at work. But it also made me want to work on things, to rewrite, to revise, to throw some words down on the page.
I don't know what it is about books on writing, but I know that I'm not alone on this. The first couple of years I did NaNoWriMo, I spent a lot of time on the forums, because other people talking about writing made me want to write, and I was fourteen and needed all the help I could get. Now when I do NaNo it's mostly just an excuse to write another first draft when I already have SO MANY (not that I really need that excuse--I am currently about 15k into a first draft right now, because I got the idea on vacation and just COULDN'T NOT, even though I'm also 8k into a DIFFERENT FIRST DRAFT I started before the school year ended), because my first drafts tend to be glorified outlines, but it was just interesting.
So even though some people did have quite a bit of problems with Afterworlds (or at least, confusion), I'd recommend it on the writing inspo alone.
One thing all of Darcy's writerly stuff did for me, though, as an unpublished person who wants to be traditionally published, was make me want to write my ass off. Any good book will do that, but a book that's at least all right that's about writing or publishing? Hell yeah it makes me want to fight. I'm currently in the process of querying agents, and it made me check my email much more frequently than was probably necessary or okay, seeing as I was at work. But it also made me want to work on things, to rewrite, to revise, to throw some words down on the page.
I don't know what it is about books on writing, but I know that I'm not alone on this. The first couple of years I did NaNoWriMo, I spent a lot of time on the forums, because other people talking about writing made me want to write, and I was fourteen and needed all the help I could get. Now when I do NaNo it's mostly just an excuse to write another first draft when I already have SO MANY (not that I really need that excuse--I am currently about 15k into a first draft right now, because I got the idea on vacation and just COULDN'T NOT, even though I'm also 8k into a DIFFERENT FIRST DRAFT I started before the school year ended), because my first drafts tend to be glorified outlines, but it was just interesting.
So even though some people did have quite a bit of problems with Afterworlds (or at least, confusion), I'd recommend it on the writing inspo alone.
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