Abandoning my PC Journey/Tips & Advice Book

I have decided to abort my manuscript on my prostate cancer journey & tips/advice.

 

I have seven chapters finished out of an estimated twenty-five, almost 1/3^rd done.

 

Main reasons:

 

Most people want to read positive and/or happy ending stories when it comes to medical journeys.  My PC journey has not been positive, certainly hasn’t had many happy moments, and it’s doubtful it’s going to have a happy ending.  So I feel that its best for my story not to be in print, don’t think it would help many people, if anything, put the scare into some if they knew that bad things can happen from PC.

 

Not interested in sympathy from any potential readers.  Honest empathy is nice if sincere, but sympathy isn’t on the list.  I don’t feel sorry for me, just my draw in life, plain and simple.

 

As far as any advice I was giving or attempting to give, already a lot of books on the market covering that.  I wasn’t trying to re-write the Walsh book or any other book on the subject.  I am not an expert on anything PC related.  I decided I couldn’t give any new perspective or unique advice to whatever has already been said or published.

 

When I write, I always have test readers as I am in the midst of a writing project.  I threw the hint out here several times for test readers, but didn’t have as single taker or prospective reader, so that kind of told me something.  My test readers help me know if I am hitting the targeted reader’s for a particular book.  I make writing adjustments depending on the input I get from my test readers.

 

Finally, and I had said this from the start, I am a writer of fiction.  That comes natural for me. I have tried and failed several times over the years to write non-fiction, but I have to face it, it’s just not me, not my style.  I have a lot of imagination that is best suited for fiction.  And I like the literary license one has in fiction writing.

 

I read what I was writing, and it bored me.  That’s a good sign too, if I was bored, others would be too.

 

So I will leave these chapters in a file so to speak, in case I ever have a change of heart.  Probably a few people here better qualified to write a PC based book than me.

 

I tried, I really did, but it’s just not going to happen, will probably start a new work of fiction soon; always have several books floating around in my head at the time.

 

David in SC

 

 

Purgatory said...
I threw the hint out here several times for test readers, but didn’t have as single taker
or prospective reader, so that kind of told me something.
David in SC

If I had seen one hint, I would have jumped on it!

Probably a reasonable decision. Writing a book takes a ton of time, as you know. And there already dozens and dozens of prostate cancer books -- so it's hard to come up with something new and useful. You can spend the time that you would have devoted to this book doing things you enjoy and/or advising people here on HW, who I think continue to find your perspective useful.

ms. worry:

Actually, my original request wasn't really a hint, this is from a post in April of this year:

"I am looking for 2-3 test readers for this project. They will be the only people to pre-read this book in advance. If anyone is interested, e-mail me and tell me why you would like to be one"

Since April, I had asked once or twice again for test readers, and no takers. Not blaming this for my decision to cease working on the manuscript, it was my decision alone. But on all of my published books, always had test readers, and I valued their input. This is the only time I didn't have any.

david

I think the Korda book was great. I read it before my surgery. It put a lot of what I was told, but did not hear, into perspective. And it set some more realistic expectations.

Hi David, perhaps you can merge your PC experience, ideas, message with a fictional character in your new fiction-book. Perhaps it is a way for what you have written so far to survive...

David -

SpecialLady may be on to something. The history of literature is filled with many famous characters who had some kind of significant illness, handicap, or other challenge.

The excellent example that immediately comes to my mind is that of Sherlock Holmes, who was noted as having an opium addiction, a fact cited in some of the Arthur Conan Doyle stories. You can certainly think of other examples in literature.

Perhaps you can introduce another character into your storyline, a gentleman with PCa, perhaps a friend of Octavia, and weave elements of his life with it into your story. It would probably be a first, as I don't recall ever hearing of a literary character with PCa.

In fact, you might actually bring more attention to PCa with such an approach (not preaching to your readers of course, but "alerting' them about PCa through this fictional means ) so that, possibly, a reader or two might be influenced enough to take action on his own situation, because he now is aware of what may be going on in his own case, thanks to reading your novel.

Sounds like an excellent idea with possibilities!

Purgatory said...
ms. worry:

Actually, my original request wasn't really a hint, this is from a post in April of this year:

"I am looking for 2-3 test readers for this project. They will be the only people to pre-read this book in advance. If anyone is interested, e-mail me and tell me why you would like to be one"

Since April, I had asked once or twice again for test readers, and no takers. Not blaming this for my decision to cease working on the manuscript, it was my decision alone. But on all of my published books, always had test readers, and I valued their input. This is the only time I didn't have any.

david

April was a pretty hectic month for us, so I probably was not online to see it. Sorry. :)

I think merging into one of your works of fiction is a great idea!

David, I'm really warming up to your next novel with PCa playing a role.  I'm thinking that your character names should come from HW.  You can have the mathematician (Compiler), the beautiful heroines (Sephie, Susan R), the evil genius (davidg), the spy without a name (142) and of course the hero who always gets the girl (Tudpock).

Jim

"The Case of the Missing Prostate."

Well, the title might need a little work, but the theme sure applies to a bunch of us!

David, while I'm sorry to hear of any 'dream' not fulfilled, it is certainly understandable that at this point in your life, you've decided to put this book aside.

Tud, you old flatterer you...BTW, I am available if Oprah should call.

Thanks, Aimzee. And yeah, I did try, I have several other manuscript that I stopped at around the halfway point. The ones I did finish and even the ones that were published, were a breeze for me to write, usually takes me about 3-4 months to write what is considered a standard sized paperback book, once my mind is made up. That works out to be about 75,000 words. Long books are hard to publish, unless you are a Steven King or someone famous. Electronic books are quickly taking over real printed books, saves publishers so much money, and the author actually makes more royalties off a Kindle or Nook edition of a book. I believe all of mine are available on Kindle/Nook format.

If anyone is interested, think I still have 2-3 free electronic editions of "Cold Spots", my latest. Be happy to mail free to anyone interested, they were freebies from the publisher to give away.

david

81,

No, they look like little gift/credit cards. You punch in some code off the back of the card. The front of the card looks like the cover of the book.

Be happy to send you one, will contact you by e-mail for a physical address.

david