The Big Decision

I had a tutorial this week which went well. I have some further work to do to the manuscript (nothing major) after which I will have one third of a novel which I am content to submit as my dissertation. So what’s the big decision? I start my PhD in January so have until Christmas to finish this novel (albeit I am travelling for six weeks). Should I expend a great deal of effort to complete it? The answer is no. It has been a fantastic learning experience but it is not my first novel. It is not what I want to go out to agents with saying “this is me.” The novel that I will be writing for my PhD is the one that I really want to write. It is also important to remember that publishers will go straight to the sales figures of any previous novels that you may have published and if they are not promising then they are unlikely to back you. I have a suspicion that even if I did finish the current novel and miraculously found an agent and a publisher it would not sell huge numbers. Whether it is a novel, a painting or a symphony, art requires patience and practice. I know that I am in this for the long haul i.e. years and I am not going to go to an agent until I have a novel that I am truly content with.