Kirsty Carse
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November was National Novel Writing Month and I participated with the aim of writing 50,000 words over 30 days. Once I'd exceeded the necessary word count for the first week, I became determined to go a step further and do an entire first draft of From Beneath. This may, on reflection, have been a slightly cocky move. I have finished the first draft, which stands at a proud 93,853 words, but the last quarter of the novel is full of plot holes. Also, as you'd expect with writing at such speed, the draft is rather shabby, and will need significant reworking.
However, that's for a couple of months' time. My next job is to start revising The Forever Summer, with the aim of getting it proofread soon and sent out to agents.
This month I came third in the Cambridge Writers short story competition with 'The Engineer's House'. It's over on the short story page if you haven't read it yet. I also got my contract through from Another Sky Press, who are including 'Taking Back Tom' in a short story anthology called Falling From The Sky early in 2007. I'll let you know when I find out more about publishing dates!
Downloads for both Bodies and What Was Kept Inside have been high this month and I am delighted about that. It seems that people are getting in a Christmas mood, too... downloads of my Christmas short stories 'Christmas is Cancelled' and 'The Dispirit of Christmas' are up significantly! With that in mind, you might like to get reading my new creepy Christmas story, 'The Real Santa'. You'll find it over on the short story page.
Bodies has had an astonishing first month online, with over 300 downloads already! Thanks so much if you downloaded it. If you haven't, what are you waiting for?
November is National Novel Writing Month, so I have begun my fourth novel in honour of it. It's called From Beneath, and you can read a little about it on the novels page.
I have submitted a short story, called 'The Real Santa', to the Writelink Christmas Chillers competition. Next week I will find out the results of the Cambridge Writers short story competition, so I'll let you know whether 'The Engineer's House' impressed the judge or not.
At last! You can download Bodies in its entirety. Go along to the Bodies page to read the 'blurb' and download the novel for free. I should warn you that some of the scenes are rather gruesome, and it would probably give children nightmares (it was known to give some of proofreaders nightmares after all!) but I hope that won't put you off...too much.
Also on the site from this month is a new short story, 'Trailer', which failed to impress those Bridport Prize judges. However, I'm planning to turn it into my fourth novel, provisionally entitled From Beneath. 'Trailer' forms the first chapter of the novel, more or less, so it will give you a taste of what's to come.
If you've read my LiveJournal lately you'll know that 'Taking Back Tom' has been accepted by Another Sky Press for inclusion in their Falling From The Sky Anthology. It's a book planned for early 2007 full of stories by unpublished writers. You'll be able to order it online and see my work in print!
You might also know from my LiveJournal that I will be taking part in National Novel Writing Month during November. From Beneath is what I will be writing then, so this month is going to be all about planning for that and writing the odd short story. I have completed the first draft of The Forever Summer now, and wouldn't want to have nothing to do!
I am still waiting on 4 agents' responses to Bodies. Keep checking my LiveJournal for the lastest news. If the last 4 reject the novel, it will become available to download on October 1st - so not long to wait now! Next month you'll also be able to download my new short story, 'Trailer'. Coming in November will be another very creepy short story, provisionally entitled 'The Engineer's House'. And in December there will be something suitably spooky for Christmas!
August saw a record number of hits on this website, which is all the more remarkable given that I've had no new material to post for a couple of months (you're going to be bombarded with new stuff in October, November and December, don't worry!) A huge thanks to everyone who visits the site, especially those who keep revisiting to find out how I'm getting on.
During November I will be taking part in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo as it's known) - a challenge to write 50,000 words in a month. It's open to absolutely anyone, so if you feel tempted to join the quest, read my LiveJournal posting of 31st August for all the details.
So far I've had 13 rejections for Bodies — so there are 7 agents still reading it. Keep checking my LiveJournal for news about responses as they come in.
I'm now around halfway through the first draft of The Forever Summer. I'm having a brilliant time writing it. Go to the The Forever Summer page to find out what it's about.
Bodies has now gone out to 20 literary agents. I spent the majority of June putting the finishing touches on the novel and getting the synopsis and cover letter exactly as I wanted them — a lot of hard work! Fingers crossed for some positive responses. Keep checking my Live Journal for the latest news.
Generally it takes up to 3 months for agents to respond so, in the event that Bodies doesn't spark anyone's interest this time, you'll be able to download it in its entirety sometime around October.
Also coming in October will be 'Trailer', my Bridport Prize entry, which I've now sent off. I'm not allowed to publish it (even online) until the results of the competition are known.
In the meantime, don't forget that you can download the first three chapters of Bodies and get reading right now!
Three more of my proofreaders have finished Bodies and I have made lots of revisions based on their comments and my own second (and third, fourth, fifth...) thoughts. I am sending it out to agents this month, once the last couple of readers have finished and I have done some more work on a synopsis and a cover letter. It will go out to about 20 agents and, as ever, I'll keep you posted on their responses here and in my livejournal.
This month I have been working on my short story entry for The Bridport Prize as well as writing a few more chapters of The Forever Summer. I haven't come up with a suitable title for the short story yet, but it's about a woman who has a premonition concerning her own death. At least, that's what she thinks it's about... it turns out to be something a little less straightforward. I've enjoyed writing it so much that I am thinking about using it as the first chapter of a future novel. Watch this space!
This month I have added a new element to the website... a LiveJournal. It acts as a more detailed version of this news page. Click here to be directed to it and find out more about my writing habits!
So far one of my proofreaders has already finished Bodies and the rest are still reading (it is 300 pages after all!) My sister was the one who got it finished first and has given me lots of useful feedback. As you probably know, she's a writer too, and has her own website — check it out here.
In the meantime, I have written another couple of chapters of The Forever Summer, which is going well. I am also formulating some ideas for my Bridport Prize short story entry next month.
I have just completed the revision of Bodies and given it to my proofreaders Ian, Deniz, Juliet, Russell, Andrea and Candy. I have cut out quite a bit from the first draft: mainly too much back-story clogging up the initial couple of chapters, and there was also some rewriting necessary to sharpen the ending. Anyway, my proofreaders will be giving me their thoughts when they've read it all, and that will definitely give me more to consider. It's so helpful to get other people to look at your work objectively, but it's also a bit scary handing it over after you've spent so long working on it!
I had some feedback on Blood Bond from the film director I sent it to. He couldn't take it on because he felt that, in many ways, it wouldn't work. It was the most detailed criticism I've ever had returned for anything I've submitted, but also the most damning. Nothing he said was unfair, however, and although I won't be rewriting Blood Bond, there's a lot of advice for next time.
We are moving house this month and my website will be offline around mid-April for at least a couple of days but possibly as long as a week. If you find you can't access it, please keep checking back!
I have now begun revising Bodies, as it's six weeks since I completed it. It's hard to say how long this will take, so in the meantime I am posting the first chapter (which I'm pretty happy with...just 275 pages to go!) on the Bodies page to whet your appetite for the rest. Or maybe it will just make you want to throw up your lunch... as you can probably guess from the title, Bodies is not for the faint-hearted.
My third novel is in progress too! I worked on it while Bodies was awaiting revision, and have an initial draft of the first three chapters. The working title is The Forever Summer and I've posted more information about it on the new The Forever Summer page.
What Was Kept Inside has now had 450 downloads, which is just fantastic. The hits on the website keep growing too! Thanks to everyone who takes time to visit me here.
The first draft of Bodies is now complete! It will be locked away in a drawer for six weeks so that I can revise it with fresh eyes. However, I will be posting a little taster on here next month, so watch out for that.
Meanwhile, I've started researching my third novel. More details (and hopefully a working title!) to follow soon.
Downloads of What Was Kept Inside are now up to almost 400, which I think ought to impress those literary agents to some small degree. If you haven't downloaded it, what are you waiting for? It's free!
Happy New Year!
You will not be surprised to learn that I plan to write more than ever in 2006. It looks likely that I will have the first draft of my second novel, Bodies, finished by the end of January. It is hard to predict how long revisions and rewriting will take, but I am keen to provide those literary agents who liked my first novel (but not enough to take it on) with a follow up.
Good news about my short story 'Christmas is Cancelled' - it was shortlisted in the Writelink Christmas Chillers competition last month. I have a new short story for you, called 'Taking Back Tom'. It's based on a true local ghost story. Both 'Taking Back Tom' and 'Christmas is Cancelled' have been entered in the Cambridge Writers short story competition.
The downloads for What Was Kept Inside keep going up! More than 300 people have now downloaded the novel. Thanks to everyone who did! You can still download it if you haven't got your copy yet — it's free.
I am also approaching film directors and television companies this month with the screen version of my novella, Blood Bond. Very many thanks to Matt for all his help and advice with that.
2005 was a great year for my writing. I completed my first novel and had some encouraging comments from agents. One of my short stories came third in a local competition, while another was shortlisted in a national competition. I also wrote my first novella and several other short stories. Read all the news from 2005 in the news archive.