I'm just finishing up with my copy of Watchman and readying it for its trip back into the great outdoors, and next up is Sadie Jones' The Outcast.Here's an interview with her from last year, in the Telegraph, talking about the frustrations of screen-writing and paying her dues as a writer.
At the foot of the article are four other--kinda obvious and lazy--attempts at pointing out other authors who had a time of it trying to get published. Rowling and Austen are on there, along with Frederick Forsyth who was rejected three times--what we wouldn't all give for just the three rejections, huh. Surely there are some far greater tales of rejection prior to finding wide-ranging success?
5 comments:
Thanks so much for that, Neil. An inspiring story, and well-deserved success. The Outcast is a wonderful book, and deserves its success. It's one of the best novels I've read in the last year.
Inspiring indeed, but also reminds me why I don't read the Telegraph...
"Slender in a floaty silk dress", "she says in a low, sexy voice", "fashionable architectural partnership".
Yuk.
It's heartwarming to know that Sadie Jones kept going for so long and succeeded so well with The Outcast. I loved it. Most of my writing life has been spent writing poetry. Just recently I started a writing course writing fiction, and my tutor squashed my enthusiasm somewhat with a severe criticism of my first attempt at chapter 1 of a planned novel. Reading the interview has made me realise how daunting such a huge project can be and boosted my admiration for novalists no end. Thanks for that. I think I'll keep going. Rosamund Browne
Frances, I've some other reading material that'll delay my start on The Outcast from a source not a million miles away, so looking forward to getting my teeth into that this evening.
And now, Tim, or rather charismatic and handsome civil servant Tim Stretton, we won't hear a bad word on this blog against any publication that gave Light Reading a favourable review, not when there's News Corp and the Mail to put to rights. And if I was Ms Jones, I don't think I'd object to the description--who knows, it might even help shift a few books.
Ros, good luck with the novel--and if you keep at it, unless you're extremely lucky or absurdly gifted, there's nothing else for it but to brace yourself to take the rejections and the re-writes on the chin. I hear rumour that, like a bad school, they're character-building.
Thanks for that Neil. It's good to know misery and rejection are part of the package. There's nothing absurdly gifted about me. Not with my awful spelling. Good luck to you too. I think there's a patron saint of writers, but right now I can't remember who it is
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