A year's worth, a worthy year

It's been a year since I launched Flogging the Quill. This is, if my count is correct, the 99th post. I feel like looking in the rearview mirror.

For me it's been a good ride. I started FtQ as a guerilla marketing effort to build my freelance editing business during a period of, er, self-employment. And it has maybe generated some editing clients in that year. Not a lot, but enough to pay the blogging bill.

There have been far more valuable, unanticipated benefits than strictly business. In essence, I've written a book, 80 to 90 thousand words on the subject of compelling storytelling. My agent is marketing a book proposal but, if it doesn't sell someday soon, I'm giving serious thought to self-publishing a "best of" book. I'll ask you about that at the end of this post.

Another benefit is that writing this blog, which includes answering your questions and doing a bunch of edits of work you've submitted, has enhanced both my editing and my own writing. I've been forced to think and write definitively on the craft of telling riveting stories. That sharpens the clarity of my thinking, and informs my responses to both your work and mine. My self-editing is sharper, I think, as is the editing I do for clients.

I've had some fun, too. Did you read the  "Open your novel with kitty-cats in action"  post?

You've helped me directly with my storytelling during this year. I posted the opening chapter of a novel that was already being shopped by my agent, but about which I had nagging doubts. Your input guided me to a rewrite that, I feel, greatly strengthened the story.

I've "met" many writers, and benefited from a sense of community in the loneliest of the arts. Comments and emails bring me names and personalities and interesting points of view that I would never have sitting alone with my computer.

I say the loneliest of the arts because I think that non-novelists simply cannot appreciate what we're doing. My spouse has watched me write everything from commercials to novels for more years than either of us wants to think about, and she's been constantly supportive -- yet she cannot truly empathize with the size and complexity of the task, of the remarkable amount of achievement it takes to write a novel. But you know. And I don't feel so isolated. Perhaps this sense of community is at the root of the rise of litbloggers. We need to be separate, yet we need to be connected.

It's been very cool to be welcomed into the litblog community, to exchange notes with
Bob Gray (Fresh Eyes), M.J. Rose (Buzz, Balls and Hype) -- I bought her novel,  The Halo Effect, too. Good stuff.), Mad Max Perkins while he was with us (I miss him), Miss Snark, and a number of others. I see the quality of their work, and it's a special compliment when they find merit in mine.

So what about you? What are your thoughts and feelings about Flogging the Quill?

My next post will be the one hundredth, and it would be great to post feedback from you. So how about dropping me an email/comment on what FtQ has meant to you? I sure hope I'll hear from you.

And I'd appreciate hearing from you on the notion of a book based on FtQ. What would you say to a trade paperback edition, say 15 bucks or so, of the "best of" Flogging the Quill, 2005. It would contain the best of the posts made over the last year, only expanded in many places. Many of the edits I did would be included, and go would into greater depth. And it would be organized into fairly discreet subject areas instead of the scatter-shot that it is online. I'd very much appreciate an indication of your interest -- or lack thereof, as well -- in a book version.

I'm looking forward to the next year of the Flog. I've pulled back on the frequency of posts -- I started out at 3 per week and now do 1 per week, but I didn't have a full-time day job then. I'm hoping the quality is still up. On the Internet, the truth outs. The Net is harsh that way, but I love the honesty of it. I mean, we're totally selfish (in a positive way) about the time we spend on the Internet. If we aren't served by content in some way, we don't go back, so we? It makes you feel like you've got to earn your keep, you know?

Come to think of it, that's not so different from what we've got to do when we're writing a novel.

But wait, there's more. I'll finish a new novel in a few months, and I'm getting excited about that. Any volunteers for critiquing it? My progress on it has slowed, though, because of my new story blog, Death Sucks: On being a vampire kitty-cat. Gonna be interesting to see where that sucker goes, pun intended, especially considering the aforementioned honesty of the Internet. Curious, isn't it, how storytelling can be both hard work and fun at the same time.

So, please, let me hear from you. I would greatly appreciate it.

Best,

Ray

Free edit in exchange for posting permission. You send a sample that you have questions about and of which you'd like an edit. I won't post it without your permission.

© 2005 Ray Rhamey

Comments

[Shelly]

I haven't commented in quite a while, but I have been reading. I've been busy, more with learning how to do graphics than with writing, but I have appreciated all the writing discussions going on here.

I also found the edit you did on my excerpt way back when to be very helpful. Even the things I didn't agree with. :) You gave me food for thought and that is always a good thing.

You might be interested to know that the excerpt I submitted for critique here has been rewritten and I'm in the process of reworking that novel. I layered in more description, I removed half the scenes I'd written (I'd finished 3 chapters), and I'm still not quite sure what it's about. Which means what I have will get rewritten a few more times. But I am keeping in mind your comments as I work on it.

You were the first person with real pro editing experience to look at anything I've written, so that was helpful, too. At least you didn't say I should perhaps consider doing something else with my time.

Congrats on a year of blogging and here's to the next 365 days.

[Bernita]

Have read you since I found you.
Even when it's a "lesson" that one has already applied, sometimes the style, manner,or direction of your advice light a bulb in my pointy little head and lead to improvement.
The demonstrative detail of your examples is invaluable. Thank you.

[Heather Cook]

I'm mainly a non fiction writer but am now fiddling around with fiction. I really appreciate the words of wisdom that you share and I have learned quite a bit about how to structure the first few pages of a manuscript to really capture the attention of a reader.

Also, I love the fact that you are respectful of those whose work you edit. You never slam them or are overly critical. So rare.

Keep it coming!