Regular readers may have noticed that I failed to give you a May update on my reading or writing achievements for the month. Yes, April was already a little meager and things just got worse in May, but if you stay tuned for the end of June, I’m hoping to have actually finished a couple of books again. (I have a good excuse, don’t forget).

In the meantime, I’ve actually been getting a little editing and rewriting done. The writing gods really blessed me this year by moving the closing date of the Allen & Unwin Vogel award – it’s a contest for Australian novelists under the age of 35 – from 31 May to 30 June. It’s been the end of May for as long as I can remember, but thank goodness they gave me an extra month or there’s no chance that I would have some small revisions of Bratislava ready.

Having a baby is better than putting your novel in a drawer – rather than just forgetting bits of the novel, the upheaval of a first baby means I have utterly lost any knowledge of my novel and as I re-read it now, it’s truly like somebody else wrote it. I’ve also had my trusted reader-friend go through it and as usual her feedback has been invaluable (thanks, Claire – I owe you!). Over the past few weeks, bit by bit, I’ve been revising a chapter or two at a time and I’ll soon be ready to submit it for the Vogel. Oh, the other piece of luck there is they’re now accepting electronic submissions – last time I entered two years ago you had to send in a printed copy of your manuscript which obviously a) takes me longer to prepare and b) takes longer to arrive at their offices. Since this is the last year I’ll be young enough to enter I’m glad for all these mercies which will mean I (fingers crossed) can get my entry in on time.

So, my big tip for achieving a better rewrite, by getting “fresh eyes”, is to write your novel, put it away and have a baby, then go back to it. Obviously this would limit the number of novels you could rewrite in your lifetime, and probably is a bit tricky for men, but just so you know, that’s my piece of advice for today. Let me know if it works for you!

Tags: Allen & Unwin, revising novels, Vogel award

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