A hilariously bad day

Yesterday was a hilariously bad day for a writer.

First, I received not one but three rejections. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry about that, since I’ve done everything I could with that manuscript and query letter. It might just be that agents think my stories just won’t sell. I don’t know what to do, but I have to start thinking of the next step.

Then my blog got five hits from Poland, and I thought that my favorite Pole decided to read my blog for once (I am not his favorite American, alas) only to find out the referring address was a porn site.

So, yesterday’s theme: If I wanted recognition, it was not forthcoming.

I’m not going to apologize for wanting recognition anymore. But the desire makes for difficult days when I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Room for improvement

I’ve got my development edit back from my developmental editor, Chelsea Harper (who deserves a shoutout) and there’s plenty of work that needs to be done. I think it’s a good thing that she caught all these places, because I as an author can’t see all of them.

I should explain what a developmental editor is — a developmental editor examines the story for plot development, character development, and writing structure — in other words, she looks at the story with an eye for making it stronger and more readable. This can be the difference between a rejection and an acceptance, because agents have so many manuscripts to choose from that they’re going to skim your work initially to see if it “grabs” you. A mild introduction, an ambiguous character, an information dump (telling rather than showing), will all turn off an agent. Even if the story idea is brilliant and daring, they won’t see it through the distractions.

I think that’s an important thing to emphasize — I as an author can’t see all the places my work needs improvement. I’m too familiar with the characters to see where I’ve shortchanged them. I’m too in love with the story to see where I’ve made it hard for readers to be in love with it.

I used to think I didn’t need an editor, because I was an articulate person and I could catch grammatical and other errors. I was arrogant, and I was wrong. I now see developmental edits as part of the process if I want to get published.

If you’re a writer who wants to get published, I suggest finding the money for a developmental editor. If you can’t afford that, find someone who reads a lot to go through it — it’s probably not as good as a good professional, but it’s something.

Your work deserves critique.

An embarrassment of riches

I don’t know what to write next.

This, as you may guess, is unusual for me. I have eight novels (with two needing serious work to redo), and these were written in a five-year period. (And should have been edited more ruthlessly much sooner, but I didn’t know better).

I want to hold off a bit on editing the two that need serious work (why? Because I feel like I haven’t done anything but edit lately.)

I have a couple ideas of what to write:

Gods’ Seeds. This would be another book in the Archetype universe, taking place after Reclaiming the Balance (which needs much work) and before Whose Hearts are Mountains. and which features a brewing war among Archetypes
A sequel to Voyageurs, which would require a lot of history research, which I detest
A sequel to Prodigies, a New Adult novel, with no idea who I’d be following.
Something new and I have no idea.

None of them are grabbing me yet. Probably because I feel guilty for having books out there that need editing.

I suppose this is an embarrassment of riches and I shouldn’t complain.

Time for me to see what ideas grab me …

I’ve just sent about 20 queries of Prodigies (with the improved query letter and in in its publishing edited/developmental edited/diversity edits) to young adult/new adult agents, and I have the jitters.

The optimistic part of me thinks I’ve done hard work improving.

The pessimistic part of me is afraid it’s not going to be enough.

The pessimistic part of me is afraid there’s something fundamentally wrong with my stories and will keep thinking so unless I get picked up by an agent. Then the pessimistic part of me will be afraid there’s something fundamentally wrong with my stories until I have a publisher. Then …

The pessimistic part of me is a pain in the ass.

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What is the path now?

Send Prodigies queries to Young Adult/New Adult agents (done)
Wait for a couple months.

Some of the agents will send generic rejection letters
Some notify acceptances/rejections via QueryTracker (highly recommended for agent searches: www,querytracker.com)
Some don’t send anything, so if I haven’t heard from them in 90 days, then they’ve rejected it
If I receive a request for more of the manuscript, weep tears of joy and send it. This still doesn’t mean I’ve been accepted.

Wait a bit longer and resend the new improved Prodigies to the fantasy agents who got version 2.0.
Wait for a couple of months …

Of course, I have a new improved cover letter for Voyageurs and it’s finally going through a developmental edit. Which means I will go through the process again for Voyageurs (see above).

Readers: I need your love, good wishes and prayers. I don’t ask for things like this a lot, so here I am. If you can make them non-anonymous, all the better!!

Meanwhile,

In praise of competency

I’ve always had a good imagination. This gave my parents and school psychologist a turn when I told them “the monsters are my friends!” (I was ahead of my time. Nowadays monsters are all the rage among little kids).

When I write, I get to make my imagination real, after a fashion. Not flesh-and-blood real, but living an existence in my pages. My monsters are now preternatural beings and people with special powers, but others can now see them.

I’ve always had a great vocabulary as well. In fifth grade, I used the word “flabbergasted” to describe my reaction to a classmate. When my sister protested my use of fancy words, my mother pointed out the value of the right word: “I was surprised when my classmate gave me a present. I was flabbergasted when he dropped his drawers in front of me.” Obviously, I got my love of vocabulary from my mother.

What I didn’t have, as a beginning writer, was competence. Things I thought were stylistic quirks were taking people out of the story, and I didn’t recognize that. I could have found out if I’d sent my manuscripts to a developmental editor, but I didn’t know I needed to. I thought a utilitarian query letter would work. I didn’t utilize beta-readers, because I didn’t think I needed those either.

I had ideas, I had imagination. I had the drive to be published. What I didn’t have is competence in the skills needed to make the story understandable and engaging.

I’m working on those with the help of developmental editors and beta readers and diversity editors and publishing coaches. I’m learning from them and incorporating it into my work. This gives me competence — enough, I hope, that I will get published.

My cultural sensitivity lesson

Because Prodigies’ main character is multiracial and I am from dominant white culture, I decided to get a diversity edit done. I asked the director of our diversity, equity, and inclusion office on campus to give me a read.

Justin Mallett is doing an excellent job with the diversity edit on Prodigies . So far (and he’s not done yet), he’s pointed out a lot of mistakes. A lot. As a progressive/social democrat who believes myself to be “woke”, I expected to find a couple mistakes, easily fixable.

I have some choices of how to react:

Decide Mr. Mallett is being overly sensitive
Deny, repeating to myself, “I can’t be a bigot. I have Native American ancestry!”
Berate myself for not being more culturally sensitive
Accept the gift of awareness I’ve been given and make the corrections

I’m going to choose #4. We’re allowed to make mistakes when interacting with other cultures, just as we accidentally offend people we know. But if we learn that an action offends someone and dismiss their concerns, we are saying that they do not matter. If we decide they have a problem because they don’t see things our way, we have become a bigot. If we believe the entire group they represent has an oversensitivity problem, we show prejudice.

Bigotry and prejudice don’t require hanging nooses or segregation. All they require is to see others, their culture, and their needs as inferior, and that starts with the unwillingness to listen. It starts with words.

I will be glad to correct the less culturally sensitive parts of my work.

Winter’s Nap

I would just as soon sleep all winter.

I would have made a fine early agrarian — farm manically all summer, hibernate all winter. In a cave wouldn’t be bad as long as it was warm and comfortable — ok, fine, I’d have a hay mattress on the floor, infested by fleas and lice. I guess I’ll stop my romanticizing here.

It’s hard for me to get out of bed in the winter. My husband’s laughing at this because I’m always up and out of bed before he is, at 5:00 AM every morning. Honestly, though, it’s HARD to get out of bed. I keep hoping to be snowed out of work even though they shoveled all the snow from Sunday’s blizzard.

The world is no longer that simple as to follow the rhythms of the year. Academia, my home, follows a rhythm, which is why I love it. But winter is still worktime, and I fight the need to be cozy every day to go to work.

Christmas break will be here in two and a half weeks; I think I’ll make it till then.

I’m back

Sorry I went missing for so long — I was doing some heavy reading through Apocalypse and editing it — it probably needs another edit. I was very focused.

Also, we had a blizzard here Sunday, and that plus the snow day that followed got me off my writing.

I have to go back to work today (I think) but it was nice to have Thanksgiving break as a writing retreat!

What now?

Note: This was written Friday late afternoon.

I’m done. What now?

I finished the second read-through of Whose Hearts are Mountains this afternoon and even wrote a query letter, even though it’s still in need of a developmental edit. I’ve spent time in the hot tub and am waiting for a dinner that I suspect will be wonderful.

But part of me is like, “What do I do now?”

I get really focused when I’m writing and editing. And during a writing retreat, I’m more focused than usual because I’m in a calming place where there’s just enough background noise to keep me from being distracted by silence. Lied Lodge, with its vaulting stone and wood greatroom, fits the function of retreat superbly.

But what now? Dinner, followed by part 2 of a slow-motion Harry Potter marathon, then home tomorrow before the snow hits. We’re supposed to get lots of snow, which means we’ll get barely three inches and I’ll be going back to work on Monday.

Also, I know the answer to “what now?”:

Get Prodigies back from the diversity edit, fix things, and query it to young adult agents with the shiny new query letter
Send Whose Hearts are Mountains to my dev editor
Look over Apocalypse a couple times before sending it to a dev edit
Sit on Voyageurs for a while before sending it on a dev edit
Try to figure out what’s wrong with The Kringle Conspiracy
Write another book. There’s at least two I could write right now.

That’s enough work for three years, I think.

Escape from Black Friday

Normally on the day after Thanksgiving, Richard and I go to a mall for Black Friday. Not to shop, but to watch people. People are generally not at their best when grabbing bargain deals, but there is still enough quirk to make people-watching fun.

Not this year. Lied Lodge (Arbor Day Lodge) is such a soothing combination of wood and stone and fireplace and comfy rocking chairs and plenty of coffee that I’m settled in here for another day of writing retreat. I might get through the second edit on Whose Hearts are Mountains to send it to dev edit (I’m pretty sure I’m sending it to dev edit first.)

We’re cutting the visit a day short because Sunday is bringing a snowstorm to the area that might bring as much as 8 inches of snow. I’m hoping for a snow day Monday.

Peace to my readers.