It’s been a while since I’ve posted to my blog so I thought
I’d write an update of where I’ve reached in the process.
I completed my re-write of “Safe
Sext” and I think it’s a far better novel than it used to be. Thanks must go to
my friend Sarah Garrett who suggested I should do a search and destroy mission on the word “that”. It’s one of my worst
habits - over-use of the dreaded “T” word. I went through the whole manuscript
and managed to delete about a hundred unnecessary “that’s”. Result.
Whilst I’m thanking friends I
must also mention Fran Quinn who has consistently made incisive suggestions
about the plot and the storyline. I’m grateful for the time she has devoted to
helping me when she’s concurrently trying to re-write her historical novel “The
Smallest Man”.
I’ve also been trying to work on
an elevator pitch for the novel, which seemed to be a harder task for me than
writing the whole book. Neatly encapsulating such a complex plot in three
sentences has been a tough ask. However, I wanted to share the elevator pitch I’d
developed,
“Safe Sext” is a contemporary and realistic
love story that follows a group of teenage friends. It explores the phenomenon
of sexting and how easily a simple situation can dramatically escalate through
the misuse of social media. It focuses primarily on Nick and Chlöe and how their
new relationship is threatened by a malicious Facebook post of a naked photo of
Chlöe.
It’s hard for me to get
sufficient critical distance to know whether this ticks enough boxes, but I
wanted to try and get a sense of the marketability of the novel. I remain
convinced that the basic premise captures the zeitgeist of teenage life, even
though it’s some years since I was a teenager myself. I can only hope that one
of the agents I’m currently submitting to agrees with that assessment and can
see the potential in the novel. My fingers are crossed, which might explain
those typos!
