Second chance at a first book

Filed in: writing    Tags: first book | intrigue of the dragon court | rejection | rewriting

“Fool, fool. Back to the beginning is the rule.”

Well, I’m finishing up the last of my edits. One last pass to insert a little more detail here and there and Butterfly 4.0 will be ready to be sent back to my editors. That’s not to say there won’t be another round of edits coming…apparently that’s not unheard of!

But that means, I’ve got no choice but to drag out Dragon Court. My first manuscript. It literally gathers dust in a box beneath my desk. I thought it cute that I continue to write with my first shelved project at my feet, like an ancient relic. I haven’t opened it yet, though I did brush the cobwebs off. I know what’s inside. It’s the first paper copy of that I ever submitted along with the rejection letter from the editor that earned me my PRO status.

It’s a nice letter as far as rejections go. It has a positive comment – good worldbuilding of 8th century China. And it has constructive feedback – Work a lot more on the romance. I’ve come to learn that in the world of rejections, this was a golden one.

I’m afraid of this manuscript like nothing else. I know it’s not good. Backstory, too many POVs, and the writing…I don’t want to look! It’s like the thing is haunted. I made up this curse around it and it’s my Achilles heel.

I know this is a big opportunity. I have a chance at selling my first book — heck, I have the chance to sell more than one book!  My Little Sis pointed out that this was the most complex of all three. Maybe it’s fitting that I write it again, now that I have more experience. To really learn how to write my first book — I need to write three.

So I’m going to call this my first and fourth book. What comes around, goes around. I think it needs a new working title now that “Dragon” has appeared in Book #3. I’m thinking of calling it “Across the Silk Road” or “A Dream of the Middle Kingdom”. Hee hee. Yes, they’re lofty non-romance titles, but those get changed anyway.

Maybe partway through, a better title will come to me. Or someone will just give me a title, like what happened with The Dragon and the Pearl.

Edited to add: By the way, that box in the picture really is my first manuscript.

No Comments

#queryfail & #agentfail

Filed in: writing    Tags: agentfail | positivity | queryfail | rejection

Even if you don’t want to look the ensuing fallout/commentary is pasted everywhere. And then it’s like a trainwreck, you can’t look away.

So I will hop onto the train for just a moment. I just want to say, anger does such bad things to you inside. If the venting helps, then I suppose that is a good thing. But the negative vibes make me sad-faced so I have to stay away. Both from the original #fails and then all the side conversations.

To me, an agent rejection or no response means one thing: They’re just not that into you.

Okay, I lied. It means two things. The second one is, your writing isn’t good enough yet.

There is much more peace in that understanding than wondering about all this other static. Going to Zen out now and revise.

No Comments

The Red Line of Death

Filed in: writing    Tags: agents | red line of death | rejection | writing

Rejected manuscripts always come back in pristine mint condition, don’t they? Coupled with a form rejection letter, it leads us paranoid writers to wonder, did the agent even read it?

I know they read far enough to know they didn’t want to read anymore. That could be ten pages in, five pages in, or maybe, they didn’t even get past page 1. So I started wondering, how far are my submissions getting before they’re axed? Damon Knight coined the term “The Red Line of Death” for the spot in the manuscript where he stopped reading. It could happen for any variety of reasons, but when the reader is done, they’re done.

I realized that my CPs and beta readers may not be able to gauge this. They’ve committed themselves to reading the entire section I’ve given them so they’ll keep reading past the rough spots. In this case, it’s kinder to be cruel and tell me: here the writing was too choppy, the pace got too slow, the characters became too stupid to live. This must be what agents really mean when they say “the writing didn’t grab me as much as I’d hoped”.

I believe that my writing doesn’t have to be flawless to be picked up. But it has to be engaging. It has to be readable. It has to keep the pages turning. So this is my new quest. I know my writing is flawed and it’s going to be flawed when I send it out, as hard as I try to polish it. Rather than aiming for perfect prose and technical perfection, I’m chasing the red line. I’m gathering up feedback, especially personalized rejections, and try to use them to gauge where is this line right now for me. It’s different for every agent for every manuscript of course.

When I was getting nothing but form rejections, I assumed I wasn’t getting past page 1. So I worked real hard at my first five pages (I even got the book ). I also entered contests and paid attention to what people who didn’t love me were saying about the opening. I took every negative comment from a judge to heart. I know they say not to do that, but I do.

It was a long, long time and many rejections later before I started getting a couple of personalized rejections. Yes! I even got a couple of partial requests based off of sample pages. They all ended in rejection, but I sensed my line had inched forward a bit.

I finally received a couple of full requests. Not many, mind you! If the request was just off of a query, I know it says nothing about my red line, but if it was off a sample — yay! The line has moved farther, at least for that particular agent.

Even if someone reads through to the end, the story can still be rejected. But in that case, for a brief moment, my little story will have a fighting chance. I don’t know if Butterfly Swords has taken any editor or agent there yet, but hopefully one day, someone will reach “The End” with no red line in sight.

No Comments

Query wars: Ouch and double ouch

Filed in: writing    Tags: agents | queries | rejection | writing

I don’t care what people say, nicely worded rejections DO hurt less. I got a one-two agent punch in the head today – back to back rejections. One on a full request and one on a partial.

They both said the writing was good, but it’s not a right fit for them or the market. One of them used the term “extremely well written.” A crumb, but a tasty one. Got the same response from a pie-in-the-sky full request a couple of weeks ago.

I’m still holding out hope that if the writing is phenomenal (I have a lot more work to do on that front) then someone will overlook the fact that there’s not a huge market for Asian themed romance and take a chance on a kid like me.

No Comments

Fate but not destiny

Filed in: writing    Tags: agents | musing | rejection | writing

I was revising a manuscript today and using thesaurus.com, trying to come up with the correct way I wanted to describe this feeling my heroine was having. Then I realized why I couldn’t put my finger on it. The idea I was trying to capture was yuán fèn. The fate of bringing two people together. It’s not love at first sight. It’s not attraction. There’s no word for it in English.

There’s another saying about yuán fèn that translates roughly into: “Fate without destiny”. That’s when two people are brought together, but it’s just not in the cards that they stay together. The English saying of “Not meant to be” just doesn’t capture the bittersweet sadness of “Fate without destiny”.

So to turn my thinking back on its tail, which I like to do –
Lately I’ve been getting better responses to my queries, which is a little spot of happiness. This week has been a roller coaster. Started the week with some awesome requests to be followed up with a couple disappointing rejections. It’s all part of this cycle and I’m thinking that these agents and I, so far we have fate but not destiny. My query and opening pages are getting my toe in the door and that’s a big start. I’m just not closing the deal and I need to work on that.

There are still nibbles out there. I have to get those requests from earlier in the week out and hopefully this time, destiny awaits. Enough spiritual philosophizing – back to work. Destiny wants the lazy description in this paragraph polished up.

No Comments