Sunday, April 10, 2016

Back To The Drawing Board

Like most authors, I'm constantly searching for new ways to approach my craft. I take online and in person workshops, read articles on how to show vs. tell, enter contests for published authors showcasing their new work. Since I have been published for four years, some folks think I don't need to do this anymore since I must know it all by now.

If only it were that simple.


I had an idea for a contemporary two years ago, which was to be part of a trilogy. I wrote the manuscript, found an agent to peddle it for me, had it sent out all over the place, and got no bites. I fired the agent, took a look at the editing notes the agent only gave me after the first round of rejections, and revised the manuscript. I then sent if off myself to another publishing house with whom I've had some dealings in the past. Their acquisitions person got back to me saying she'd love to work with me, liked my work, but wanted me to change the beginning, middle and end. I told her I'd get back to her, and promptly filed the manuscript away for a rainy day.

It's not raining, but we did have a freakish snow storm here in Ohio over the weekend, so I thought it was a perfect time to pull it out and take another look at it. After reading the first twenty pages, I realized I hadn't run the document through my checklist, since some of my taboo words showed up with an uneasy frequency. Maybe the acquisitions editor wasn't so far off the mark after all.

I still think I'll send it elsewhere when I deem it ready to go again. And I'm not writing books two and three in this trilogy until the first one finds a home.

6 comments:

  1. Great post. Hope you find your ms a home.

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    1. Thanks, Susanne. I hope all the time I'm putting into it pays off at some point.

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  2. It is so hard to be objective about our own work, isn't it? Good luck with story:)

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    1. If anything, objectivity falls by the wayside and I go into hyper-critical mode. Nothing is ever good enough, polished enough, ready enough. It's one of the reasons I hesitate to self-publish, since there's no staff behind you to tell you when to pull the plug.

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  3. I'm working on a proposal for my agent now. I didn't like her answers a few months ago, but I was hobbling around on one leg and needed to finish a book anyway. When I got back to it this week, I saw what she saw.

    Perspective, its a great thing.

    Good luck with your edits.

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    1. I agree, Lynn. Sometimes you just need to pack it away for awhile. Good luck with your proposal.

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