So, Maybe Calling 2011 "Year of the Query" was a Bit Ambitious
Posted by Michelle Smith on Saturday, February 12, 2011
Under: What I'm doing
With Ulterior Motive at a friend's who is an editing whiz (she should do this professionally!) and the Gingerbread Man currently being reviewed and critiqued by friends/fellow writing colleagues, the question is, which manuscript should I tackle next?
It could take a few months before Ulterior Motive is back to me to rewrite, and same with the Gingerbread Man so querying them might actually not be feasible until beginning of 2012. Perhaps that's not a bad thing. With so many literary agent powerhouses leaving the industry, I can't help wonder if it's an industry that hasn't yet felt it's deepest cuts in this economy yet. Which means, when life is breathed back into this world, perhaps that will be a better time to search for an agent. They just may be in an "acquiring" mood.
I was surprised, after my first feedback session of Ulterior Motive, how much she liked the story. I wasn't surprised at how much she disliked its beginning. Ulterior Motive has, to say the least, undergone serious renovations to where the only thing that is still a constant is the plot. The how it gets there, how it ends and who the key players are have all changed. This being said, I found the original beginning completely irrelevant (and an unpublished writer's worst mistake--a dream sequence) and more about Caitlyn's back story than something the reader needed to know about. The second prologue I ended up scrapping was, while a neat idea, not important either. So, I started at the beginning. The beginning beginning. In doing so, I tried to summarize all of Caitlyn's back story, heart ache and emotional whiplash into three paragraphs. Needless to say it was a hack-job. In fact, my "friend-itor", Erinn, said, "I keep going back to that first page and thinking, why doesn't it sound like the rest of this?"
It doesn't match because a) it was a rush job, b) it was after the fact and c) it's clearly wrong in how to start the story. After bouncing ideas off her, I think we were able to come to an agreement on what would be a better beginning. Now I'm in the process of fleshing out yet another new beginning for Ulterior Motive.
The Gingerbread Man, though not my longest labor of love, is one of my crown jewels. A completely different type of story, a maverick move in formatting and written in a way I've never done before, I'm so happy with how it's turned out I can't wait to start marketing that manuscript. But I know it still needs work. After Erinn is done with Ulterior Motive, if her eyes haven't fallen out of her head, I'll ask if she'll check out The Gingerbread Man. Currently, it's in the good hands of my friends and fellow writers, the Coopers. A husband and wife team with amazing writing prowess. Jill writes urban fantasy YA and sets a scene that immerses you in her world. Michael, writes science fiction so amazing his world building leaves you craving more.
We all met on that little experiment called Authonomy (Random House UK, I think). The website had a great premise but was egregiously flawed in it's rating system that made it incredibly easy to manipulate. So the Coopers created a hub for serious writers looking for serious feedback called Writer's Wrule. Since then, Life Happens, the Coopers are now +1 and we are back tossing around ideas and offering each other constructive critiquing for our manuscripts. I love how we can openly chat about any aspect of anyone's writing, and because we're serious, we can give, ask and receive serious feedback without our feelings or egos being hurt.
I am truly in awe of their talent and respect their opinions greatly and am so lucky to have them as friends and writing buds.
So, what's next? For one, I'm critiquing Jill's 3rd installment of her YA urban fantasy series with a protagonist that is so real and so deep, I can relate to her and feel her pains and triumphs along with her. And...for my own writing, I have a selection that could use a little finishing. I want to pick the one that is closest to being complete (just needs an ending) and I feel that is a toss up between Tree of Life and Call of Bone. I am waiting to see which of those speaks to me first. Because at the moment, The Last Scion Darkling Series is beckoning me back into its shadowy realm. However, that is a large undertaking and one I just can't dedicate the resources to.
Call of Bone or Tree of Life?
It could take a few months before Ulterior Motive is back to me to rewrite, and same with the Gingerbread Man so querying them might actually not be feasible until beginning of 2012. Perhaps that's not a bad thing. With so many literary agent powerhouses leaving the industry, I can't help wonder if it's an industry that hasn't yet felt it's deepest cuts in this economy yet. Which means, when life is breathed back into this world, perhaps that will be a better time to search for an agent. They just may be in an "acquiring" mood.
I was surprised, after my first feedback session of Ulterior Motive, how much she liked the story. I wasn't surprised at how much she disliked its beginning. Ulterior Motive has, to say the least, undergone serious renovations to where the only thing that is still a constant is the plot. The how it gets there, how it ends and who the key players are have all changed. This being said, I found the original beginning completely irrelevant (and an unpublished writer's worst mistake--a dream sequence) and more about Caitlyn's back story than something the reader needed to know about. The second prologue I ended up scrapping was, while a neat idea, not important either. So, I started at the beginning. The beginning beginning. In doing so, I tried to summarize all of Caitlyn's back story, heart ache and emotional whiplash into three paragraphs. Needless to say it was a hack-job. In fact, my "friend-itor", Erinn, said, "I keep going back to that first page and thinking, why doesn't it sound like the rest of this?"
It doesn't match because a) it was a rush job, b) it was after the fact and c) it's clearly wrong in how to start the story. After bouncing ideas off her, I think we were able to come to an agreement on what would be a better beginning. Now I'm in the process of fleshing out yet another new beginning for Ulterior Motive.
The Gingerbread Man, though not my longest labor of love, is one of my crown jewels. A completely different type of story, a maverick move in formatting and written in a way I've never done before, I'm so happy with how it's turned out I can't wait to start marketing that manuscript. But I know it still needs work. After Erinn is done with Ulterior Motive, if her eyes haven't fallen out of her head, I'll ask if she'll check out The Gingerbread Man. Currently, it's in the good hands of my friends and fellow writers, the Coopers. A husband and wife team with amazing writing prowess. Jill writes urban fantasy YA and sets a scene that immerses you in her world. Michael, writes science fiction so amazing his world building leaves you craving more.
We all met on that little experiment called Authonomy (Random House UK, I think). The website had a great premise but was egregiously flawed in it's rating system that made it incredibly easy to manipulate. So the Coopers created a hub for serious writers looking for serious feedback called Writer's Wrule. Since then, Life Happens, the Coopers are now +1 and we are back tossing around ideas and offering each other constructive critiquing for our manuscripts. I love how we can openly chat about any aspect of anyone's writing, and because we're serious, we can give, ask and receive serious feedback without our feelings or egos being hurt.
I am truly in awe of their talent and respect their opinions greatly and am so lucky to have them as friends and writing buds.
So, what's next? For one, I'm critiquing Jill's 3rd installment of her YA urban fantasy series with a protagonist that is so real and so deep, I can relate to her and feel her pains and triumphs along with her. And...for my own writing, I have a selection that could use a little finishing. I want to pick the one that is closest to being complete (just needs an ending) and I feel that is a toss up between Tree of Life and Call of Bone. I am waiting to see which of those speaks to me first. Because at the moment, The Last Scion Darkling Series is beckoning me back into its shadowy realm. However, that is a large undertaking and one I just can't dedicate the resources to.
Call of Bone or Tree of Life?
In : What I'm doing
Tags: "editing" "call of bone" "tree of life" "darklings" "caitlyn mcfarland" "ulterior motive" "the gingerbread man" "querying"
blog comments powered by Disqus
