Sam Sullivan's Blog - Posts Tagged "century"
On "20th Century"
20th Century
Seven years ago, while a freshman in college and with no real goals for myself, I set out to write a novel that would eventually be entitled "20th Century". The book was first presumed to run about 300 pages; two weeks later of writing and I bumped up the estimate to 400. Several weeks later and I revised this upward. At page 500 for the end I gave up on length estimates and let the book more or less write itself. Three months of heavy writing followed by 3 more months of softer writing to wrap up finished the first draft of the book. It clocked in at over 1,000 pages and was unwieldy, long past any realistic schedule or time budget for completion. Thus the editing process began. Over the course of several years I took various editing passes on the entire manuscript, adding a few things, removing much else, rephrasing and articulating better in others. It became more and more functional as time went on, but it always sat in a drawer of mine, going nowhere while I pursued other projects like "Phantasmagoria" or "The Fire Mountains", or prepared my Civil War novel, which is forthcoming. "20th Century" was a hard book to make work. I only recently reedited and completed it for release because of the old adage that a work of art is never really finished, but merely abandoned. I could change and tweak the novel for years to come, not really making substantive changes but more like rearranging the furniture. Whether the novel works with people or not I will be fascinated to see; it isn't how I write a novel anymore, and in my own way I've come to accept what it is, limitations and all. It's important to revisit these things from our past, and surprisingly cathartic to make them available for public consumption. I've had success with my latest novels, which makes me wonder if there might be a market for something like this, though it is still considerably longer than the others, even after years of almost violent cutting. Seven years in the making for this release, and whether or not the fruits of those labors were worth it will be up to each individual reader to decide. For my part, I wouldn't have published it if I didn't believe it possessed suitable merit. Expression is worth the money. If you get a chance to read it, I hope you find the journey meaningful.
Seven years ago, while a freshman in college and with no real goals for myself, I set out to write a novel that would eventually be entitled "20th Century". The book was first presumed to run about 300 pages; two weeks later of writing and I bumped up the estimate to 400. Several weeks later and I revised this upward. At page 500 for the end I gave up on length estimates and let the book more or less write itself. Three months of heavy writing followed by 3 more months of softer writing to wrap up finished the first draft of the book. It clocked in at over 1,000 pages and was unwieldy, long past any realistic schedule or time budget for completion. Thus the editing process began. Over the course of several years I took various editing passes on the entire manuscript, adding a few things, removing much else, rephrasing and articulating better in others. It became more and more functional as time went on, but it always sat in a drawer of mine, going nowhere while I pursued other projects like "Phantasmagoria" or "The Fire Mountains", or prepared my Civil War novel, which is forthcoming. "20th Century" was a hard book to make work. I only recently reedited and completed it for release because of the old adage that a work of art is never really finished, but merely abandoned. I could change and tweak the novel for years to come, not really making substantive changes but more like rearranging the furniture. Whether the novel works with people or not I will be fascinated to see; it isn't how I write a novel anymore, and in my own way I've come to accept what it is, limitations and all. It's important to revisit these things from our past, and surprisingly cathartic to make them available for public consumption. I've had success with my latest novels, which makes me wonder if there might be a market for something like this, though it is still considerably longer than the others, even after years of almost violent cutting. Seven years in the making for this release, and whether or not the fruits of those labors were worth it will be up to each individual reader to decide. For my part, I wouldn't have published it if I didn't believe it possessed suitable merit. Expression is worth the money. If you get a chance to read it, I hope you find the journey meaningful.
