Something to think about.
-Jan R
Thursday Thoughts
Month: May 2021
Don’t Give Up!
I write a lot about perseverance, because from everything I’ve read, it’s the one characteristic all published authors have in common. They don’t give up! They take their day or two or however long they need to get over the rejection from yet another agent, and then they dust themselves off and get back to work.
Don’t take rejections personal. The agent’s/publisher’s decision is business related, and truth be known, it may have nothing to do with your manuscript. If there are no obvious flaws with your work, send it out to other agents. Just because you were rejected by one agent, doesn’t mean you will be by the next.
The New York Times best selling author of “The Help”, was rejected by 60 different agents. You read that right. Her 61st attempt was a success. The book was on the best seller list for the entire year and eventually made into a movie.
So why do books get rejected?
Maybe your manuscript just isn’t ready.
- The author can’t format, spell, and doesn’t understand grammar. The result is incomprehensible sentences that leave the reader confused, pulling them completely out of the story.
- Dragging dialogue, head hopping, poor character development, plot holes, info dumping…
- Maybe your work isn’t that bad and with competent editing, it’s publishable. Staff editors don’t have the time and sometimes don’t even have the necessary experience to clean your work up. Hire an editor before you send your manuscript out for consideration if self-editing isn’t an option.
Maybe your manuscript is ready but….
- The agent/agency has an abundance of the genre you just submitted, and they are not accepting anything new in that genre until their inventory decreases. You really weren’t a fit for what they were looking for.
- Maybe the agent/publisher reviewing your work is in such a bad mood, they would turn down Nicholas Sparks “The Notebook”, even if it was handed to them on a silver platter – twenty four did. Agents make mistakes.
- Maybe the storyline/subject matter you’re writing about isn’t selling right now. Zombie books are getting old. People want something new.
- The publisher could literally be in a cash crunch, and no matter how great your book is, they can’t purchase it right now. They have a freeze in place until some books start selling, and they can build up their reserves.
What I’m trying to say, is there are a lot of reasons books get rejected, and they may have nothing to do with your work. I’ve read more than once, that perseverance is the key.
If you have a great, publishable piece of work, don’t give up, submit it to other agencies for review. If you have less than perfect work, roll up your sleeves and get to work. Don’t expect someone to fix it for you. They won’t.
It might be time to hire that editor, but don’t give up!!!
-Jan R
Thursday Thoughts
I love this quote! So True!
-Jan R
Remember – Less Isn’t Always More!
I think one of the best problems an author can have is writing too much. You shared more information than was necessary. It’s a lot easier to go back and cut than it is to add new content. At least it is for me.
The problem I struggle with is how much should I cut. I’ve been known to take a hatchet to a piece when a whittling tool would have worked much better. A quote I read recently stuck in my head and sums it up perfectly. “Less is more, unless it’s not enough.” David Corbett.
I understand and am living that quote right now. I have a project I’ve been working on for years. Yes, I said years, and before you get to critical, note that the average novel takes 7-10 years to get published. I wrote a blog on it one time to encourage my readers and myself.
At any rate, I took a hatchet to the project and lost interest in it. Every time I pick it up for editing and/or revision, I want to just put it down and be done with it. A story I once loved, had lost its appeal.
Before I even ran across this quote, I had begun to take a closer look at my work. Why wasn’t it appealing anymore? Well, for one thing, the opening wasn’t grabbing my attention and compelling me to move forward.
I deleted the prologue because I read somewhere that they were a no-no. In doing so, I lost the events that compelled the reader to move forward. I lost a thread that was interwoven into the fabric of the story and pulled everything together. I lost important details that were necessary for the reader to make sense of why certain things were happening the way they were.
The quote, “Less is more unless it’s not enough“, describes what I’ve been dealing with perfectly. Thank goodness I don’t completely delete my work. It’s still there. My plan is to retrieve that prologue. The first chapter will be set 20 years later and the story will go from there.
And by the way, sometimes a prologue is necessary and works, but I’ll talk about that another day.
Something to think about.
-Jan R
Thursday Thoughts
Something to think about.
-Jan R
Are Your Characters Stealing The Show?
As crazy as it sounds, your characters can actually steal the show. When I first started writing, I had no idea my characters would be so alive and so vivid. While that is a good thing, I discovered they also had minds of their own. That may sound like crazy talk, but after you start writing for a while, you’ll understand exactly what I’m talking about.
If you are to have any chance as a writer, you must embrace the plot. Consider your plot as the skeleton of the novel. It’s the bare bones that keep everything from collapsing.
You must maintain control. Don’t give your plot over to a character who would gladly pick it up and carry it into directions you never intended to go.
Fictional characters can become so vivid, so alive, that you find yourself altering the plot to accommodate their growth and the direction they want to go.
I got caught up in the excitement of following one of my characters through a storyline that I didn’t write. It was as if the novel was writing itself. The problem was, it was veering from my original intent and messing up my plot.
Most authors will tell you that allowing your characters that much freedom is disastrous. That doesn’t mean you can’t allow some revisions to your plot to accommodate growth. It does mean you don’t alter your entire storyline at the urging of a character that has no idea were you are going with your story.
Something to think about.
-Jan R
Writing your first novel-Things you should know 