~ Written by Danielle N. Bilski ~
This month has seen a lot of major changes in my life. One in particular being my leaving the full time administration job I started late last year. I spent the Easter week in serious contemplation and decided that it was time to concentrate wholeheartedly on my writing and give it the chance that it has not yet been given to, I guess you could say ‘bloom’, for want of a better word.
The last four months have seemingly slipped through my hands with the elusiveness of water and I have not achieved as much of my manuscript as I hoped. I felt I was doing something five full days a week that my passion was slowly dissipating for. At the same time one of the most important things to me; my time with you, was being severely compromised.
On a positive note, I spoke to my wise uncle again (see post 3. Beginning can be difficult, but as they say ‘You have got to start somewhere’.) He has experience writing and publishing a book and has been very supportive of my writing. We got to catch up at my cousin’s wedding last weekend and I shared with him a few things about the nature of My Time with You, including the title. He loved the title so much that he vehemently insisted that I register it for an ISBN (International Standard Book Number). That night I was so excited that I did some research online when I got home and completed an application as a self-publisher.
So I am so excited to share with you the official news that My Time with You now has its own ISBN.
At the same time, I also did some research about copyright laws and found out that it is not possible to copyright a book title or manuscript title that is in the process of being written. However, you can register book titles as trademarks. I have previously looked at trademark registration, which can be up to a 3 year process.
Therefore I don’t think it is necessarily worth the trouble, when it doesn’t guarantee that someone else won’t use the name. I still have to look into this a bit more, but I don’t want to get too tied up with these details in this forum. (Unless you are interested, of course. Feel free to leave me comments on the type of things you are interested in reading on mytimewithyou.com.au .)
Tomorrow is the 1st May 2010. I am committed to making the most of every day from now on, ensuring not another day slips away without spending some time with you. My Time with You is too precious for me to forget and to pay the respect to that it deserves.
In reference to My Time with You manuscript content, I have spent the last few days looking at who our narrator is referring to when he speaks of ‘you’.
The other night I wrote a note to myself which read ‘This decision is delaying the writing process. Choose with informed intention.’ Following my own prompt, the next thing I wrote on that page was a Pro/Con list.
Originally it was only going to be one person, but I realised that ‘you’ can be interpreted in an inclusive context and could in fact be referring to more than one person. I want readers to be able to identify with the story I am telling through My Time with You, therefore the variety of characters that our narrator recounts his time with is pivotal for the direction the journey takes us.
Therefore I am going to play around with this idea of multiple main characters, some of which you may not expect or initially understand. That is the beauty of fiction and creating a world that is different to what you expect. I want my audience to be entertained, but also to open their minds to new ideas and be willing to take a meaningful journey with our characters, with me and with themselves.
I feel so grateful to be able to share this entire process and the inner workings of a creative, unpredictable mind with you. I want to sincerely thank every single person who has supported me and this project for the very beginning, as well as all of our new friends. I appreciate my time with every one of you. I hope you enjoy it too. ©2010 Danielle N. Bilski