Editing Updates <3

Here's my good mood: I finished my edits. I do believe, my dearies, that 'Hounds' is ready to go out amongst agents.

Here's my less-than-good mood: That means jumping out amonst the agents, handing over my novel, and waiting for rejection.

I like to think I am knowledgable about the publishing industry (although less so about the spelling here--knowledgeable?), but at the same time, I hate rejection. I have, one can argue, led an occasionally boring life, partly to avoid rejection. But I know rejection is part of the game, as much as I want to be confident and say, "I'll get an agent with my first query sent." People like confidence, they like certainty, they like to see that you (read: me) can handle stress and not fall apart at the drop of a hat.

Well, stress is fine, good, I can deal with that. (You guys haven't met my family. Stress is daily entertainment in this house.) I love writing. I want to write for the rest of my life, to get better with every story, to make a living out of this skill and passion. I just hate rejection.

I commented on a post on Sherwood Smith's journal once, a few weeks back--the topic revolved around conversations, conventions and introverts, but it reminded me of this feeling I struggle with from time to time. I shared my example. For introverted me, stepping into a conversation is like a game of double-dutch jump rope, rocking back and forth, waiting for the right moment. Unfortunately, my "right moment" never seemed to come. I would stand there rocking, waiting, and someone else would jump in on the other side.

I don't want writing to be another missed opportunity. [And my writerly instincts scream at all the 'I' statements.] But I need to screw up the courage (a weird cliche out of context), and just do it. Query is ready, book is done and edited, and there's an excel sheet with a good number of agents and their requirements listed, just waiting for me.

Everything waiting for me. ~cue scared kitty again~ I think I'll be okay once I start. So here I am, watching the rope as it slaps the hot pavement. Someone nearby sings a silly rhyme. I'm gonna jump...now.

A Writer's Summer

Well, this writer's summer, anyhow.

I started with wanting a week or so of rest. I cleaned. Then I caught the cleaning bug even when I didn't need to clean for the sake of a graduation party. Now I've started the process of cleaning the house, and yet have spent the day so far, on the computer.

I have editing to do, and research for agents, then the querying. I'm thinking it will work best in that order. Much as part of me wants to just send off teh query letters, I know I've seen a few agents who aren't accepting letters right now, and others whose blogs I follow, but who don't accept my genre.

(To explain, I first starting reading agent blogs a couple of years ago when I visited agentquery.com, thinking I'd query for that first novel and be ready to do so as soon as I was done with it. Well, agent query contains links to agent blogs, for some of them. So, in my search for sci fi/fantasy agents, I found blogs, and those blogs had links or comments by other agents, some of whom didn't accept my genre. From there, I have a fairly large list of blogs I visit, and although my first thought it to query those I follow, I immediately remember that that won't work for all of them.)

Anyway, it's Tuesday, for those of you following the calender. I tend to wear my watch, with its reminder of the day and date in addition to the time, but still, I lose track. I've blinked only to find days, weeks, almost entire months having passed with my hardly noticing. This week is nearly half over, which to my mother means the whole week is almost at an end. So I think what I'd like to do is finish with the manic cleaning, so my work space is clean, and so I won't have the rest of the house as an excuse. Then I'll hit the editing. One story just needs a final go-over, fix up the ending a bit, make sure the world-building works (i.e. enough of it, but not too heavy). The other is more recent, but needs a lot more work.

First one first, then query, then hope for the best.

In the midst of that, research short story markets for this secondary world fantasy story with no magic.

In blog-admin updatey-ness: there is a Followers link in the side bar, as well as a Search bar.

Happy writing, people.

When it's a hard hit

I asked for some general feedback on a draft of a query blurb. I was trying a different tactic and mostly wanted, "Works/Doesn't work," with maybe a "Too long/Not enough detail/need better hook." What I got was a detailed five-point explanation of why and how the blurb was wrong.

Suffice it to say, I was a bit thrown. I mean, I was writing it pretty late last night (just before bed, in fact) and blurbs and synopses are not my favorite things in the world, so I wasn't expecting it to be ready for sending out, but it isn't fun to ask for a short response and see just how 'off' your work is. I immediately felt discouraged, despite how little a thing it was (little in terms of length, but it's also what agents base their decisions on). I was beginning to get excited at the prospect of my upcoming Summer of Queries, and this felt like a huge step back.

I know that as a writer, I get too close to the story and the writing itself, so whenever I get harsh feedback, I tend to react emotionally at first. Give me a few hours or a few days and I'm fine and can analyze the comments, disregarding what doesn't work for me, keeping the stuff that does. But it's a dejected bump I need to get over first.

This blog post helped me do just that. Toni McGee Causey of "Murderati: Mysteries, Murder and Marketing" writes about Susan Boyle (the phenomenal Britain's Got Talent singer) and the topic of when do you give up. When do you say, I'm not going to be a writer anymore.

I read that and thought, "Getting upset over this is stupid and useless. The feedback, though harsh, was given with good intentions and is helpful. I am not going to stop writing because of it, and I sure as hell won't give up on trying to get published. So why bother whining and moaning that someone was mean about it?" If the blurb doesn't work, it helps to know now before I send it off to agents. I typed it quickly and posted it on my personal blog, and one imagines I'd have made many more changes before mailing, but I might've missed one of the big problems, just because I get too close to the writing. I get too used to the way a sentence looks and can't always see what's wrong.

I imagine that problem will fade (hopefully) the more I write and edit, but in the meantime, I am not giving up, and I thank my friend for the feedback. I'm going to revise that blurb, then go work on a short story.