Who's up for another round of Pet Peeve Friday?!
This pet peeve is a little more specific to me, but I think it can affect all writers out there.
When is a manuscript really done? When do you know it's time to send it out?
For example, let's use my gnome story. I thought this story was done last June when I entered it in the Delacorte contest and subsequently queried the snot out of it. Got a few requests, but rejections on the partials.
Okay, fine, and I shoved it under the proverbial bed.
This year, I start getting serious about my second manuscript in the series, FF and have 10K written/edited. Well, I see that Miss Snark's First Victim has a Secret Agent contest ready to go with an agent who wants only MG and YA. The entry is only 250 words, and the only MG story that I have finished is my gnome story. I sub it. I see some comments that make me think.
On Sunday about 3 AM, I wake up realizing that I need to cut TWO CHAPTERS. Not just any two chapters, but chapters two and three as they don't really move the story forward.
Now, why on earth would I go back to this story and rework the whole front end? Isn't this story dead in the water? Am I a total idiot? {uh, don't answer that}
No, I didn't win or get runner-up in this contest, but I did get an honorable mention of sorts, along with about 10 other stories. This is the Secret Agent and she works at the Erin Murphy Literary Agency, which happens to be closed to unsolicited queries.
Hey, any foot in the door!
So this week while I was cutting and reworking the first thirty pages of gnome, I finally realized why one of my partials got a rejection. The agent said she didn't like the character. At the time, I thought, okay fine . . . until I started reading chapter three.
My character's mean. She does some mean teasing to a friend and enjoys it. No wonder that agent didn't like her--heck, I don't like her. That wasn't my character--it was me writing stuff trying to 'discover' who my character is.
It's how I write, but I wasn't sharp enough to catch it first time around. *sigh* I just wished I'd realized it before I sent all those queries out.
Of course, since I've reworked the first thirty pages, I now feel the need to cut 5 K out of the rest of the story. My discovery doesn't mean I'm going to get a request for more material. All I get out of reworking this is the satisfaction that I finally did right by my character.
So, how long did it take you to realize your beautiful baby had cradlecap?
It took me six months AWAY from the manuscript before I realized it. Kick me, if I try to query FF too early, 'kay?
Write on!
I know! It's hard to know when you can call it finished.
ReplyDeleteI myself have only just closed a previous ms to finished, but let me tell you it felt so great!
Glad to see what you can fix to make it stronger though! Gotta love that!
Congrats on finishing your MS, Sara! Ah, that sigh of relief and then you look at the first pages again--
ReplyDeleteThis is me, not you, "Oh, no! I can't believe I wrote such drivel. Why did I do THAT?? What was I thinking? Is THAT even a sentence?" :-)
The more we write, the better we are as writers. I should have known to step away from the gnome story, because this isn't the first, or even second, time I queried too early--IT IS MY FIFTH TIME. You'd think I'd learned my lesson by now.
*sigh*
I'll just chalk it up to being an excited idiot.
I hope you never stop being an excited idiot. Loving what you're doing is the whole damned point. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jody--I just hope you still excited for me after you've read my gnome story for the umpteenth time! :-)
ReplyDeleteThis morning I was just thinking that I've make new changes on my WF--more than a year and a half after I first started sending it out. It's not too late, so anything we can do to make our books better is good.
ReplyDeleteAh, THANK YOU, Edie!
ReplyDeleteI needed to hear that!