The days that say no
Here’s the place to talk about today’s email – “The days that say no” – in which I talk about that feeling of reluctance to grapple with your current draft. We’ve all been there. What’s your solution? What’s worked, what hasn’t, what’s your advice?
And here’s a picture of apple blossom to make us feel happy.
Yes, the off day came for me when I finished rewriting my novel’s first thirty pages thirty times to make them the best I can be and still can’t get an agent to ask for the rest of the manuscript. So I have sent the first 8,000 words to your editorial service at JW, to be edited by a writer and editor in my genre. We’ll see if that breaks the impasse. My last agent rejection was a polite form letter stating: “The marketplace is more selective than ever and I must keep a modest list. “
How do I figure out what this “selective market” wants, more specifically, what agents in my genre are hungering for in response to their own perception of what this market wants?
How do I, to quote Catherine of Siena, “set the world on fire” with my story so that agents will crawl over broken glass with daggers in one hand to fend off other agents and roses clenched in their teeth to woo my attention? Perhaps my use of metaphor is the stumbling block. Who know? But I’d like to find out.
Basically, don’t overthink the market – just write an amazing book. That agent comment doesn’t mean much more than, “Your book didn’t reach quite the right standard, but I don’t want you to feel bad about it.”
I’d be interested in how useful you find the editorial service, David. I had two professional critiques done (not Jericho) on the same manuscript and had different opinions on quite a big issue.
It was useful as a check on skills I need to work on, and on blind spots where I’m too close to the story to realize I’ve left readers confused on details such as time, e.g., is the story set in the past or the future? I also learned how bad my synopsis was, the need for economy of words for crisper prose, and the risk of using too many new terms too fast for readers to assimilate when doing world building. It was useful as a ‘to do’ list on editing my first draft and directing my continuing study of writing craft.
It did not answer for me the question of whether I might have a viable story for the market. I am still trying to decide how much effort to put into another edit of the novel. I have already rewritten the beginning multiple times without capturing agent interest and I am wondering if I should just shelve the first novel as the cost of learning and start on the next project.
This email came at just the right time! I’ve had my novel edited by JW manuscript assessment service (weeks ago now), which was really useful. But as a result I have ripped the thing apart, virtually re-written it and now it’s 20% longer than it was. I’ve got to the point where I hate the blinking thing. Everybody’s motivations are inauthentic or silly, the plot is thin, I hate all the characters, and I’ve started feeling that I’ve wasted a good couple of years of my life. And that’s allowing for the lack of objectivity about one’s own work and the 50/50 it’s great/it’s terrible seesaw that one has literally all the time. However reading this email makes me realise that this also is normal, and you just have to work through it. I’ve been here loads of times (I hate it/I love it), and every time I hate it I know it’s OK because in a couple of days I’ll love it again, but this time it is particularly bad. I am not so much stuck as have just fallen out of love with it and fear that this will show through in anything I do to it. It’s just comforting to know I’m not alone, other writers have been here before, and you just have to work through it. The JW website is absolutely wonderful. I wouldn’t even have got this far without it. The reassurance I get from the weekly emails is great. Thank you Harry!
You’re welcome! And yep: that’s all completely normal …
I am working with an agent who says debuts have to be great, not good, or you will not get a second book.
I had a first draft of something a few months ago but I could tell it was not going to be dynamite so I cut bait and started on something else. Following Bingham guidelines, Donald Maass, Larry Brooks, and the K.M. Weiland story structure Scrivener template, I started on a new work I think has all the story structure and plot points in place to totally nail it. I have loved your emails Harry, thank you so much, by the way.
To create a better workflow, I use the Scrivener template I modified from Weiland and work my way down the menu from hook, to setup, character intro, setting, inciting incident and so forth. I tell myself if I only write the intro paragraphs to one new chapter a day, I will be fine, if that is only 250 words, as long as they are 250 great words, and keep the plot moving. I do not put pressure on myself to write more, knowing quality counts, but I usually get 1500 a day. It takes me an hour to get the first 250 and an hour for the rest, once I have it locked in.
Perhaps I am in an unusual position in that an agent read a manuscript and told me she saw “talent” but wanted to caution me against getting published as a debut novelist coming out of non-fiction with something that was just okay–because she said my fiction career would stop there, and I needed to push it up to a higher level. I totally believe her and trust her and am doing what she says. I read every email from Jericho Writers and put them to use. It is VERY hard but I am enjoying it and I look forward to being part of this forum.
Thanks Harry and team.
You’re welcome – and that approach sounds super-good to me! Happy writing, and let us know how it goes …
This email is so true, Mr Bingham. Four years ago I had the spark of an idea for a story. I was absolutely passionate about it. I wrote for 2 weeks straight and completed my first draft. Naive as I was at the tender age of 16, I thought it was almost perfect. For 2 years afterwards, I edited that book. I loved it. I loved everything about it: the characters, the plot, the action, the dialogue. I patted myself on the back and was sure that it was ready for publication. (I knew practically nothing about the hard and somewhat cruel world that the path to publication really is…)
Well, about a year and a half ago, I stumbled upon Jericho Writers (back when it was still the Writer’s Workshop). I did a lot of reading and a lot of learning. But the more I learned, the more I disliked my work. The more I saw what was wrong with it and how far it was from where it needed to be, the more I grew discouraged, up to the point where I began to hate the book and the 50 something (very rough estimate) drafts that I had pain-stakingly worked on and poured into. I still wanted that book published, but I just could not be bothered working on it anymore. It simply hurt too much. What disturbed me the most was that I had actually begun to hate the story that I had been so passionate about and had invested so much time in.
Well, then came the Festival of Writing, 2018. I got my pieces polished up for the Friday Night Live and my one-to-ones. And at that Festival I began to get my passion for writing back (which had begun to wane, to my great horror. I still wanted to write and had so many ideas, but simply could not bring myself to sit down and do it.) When I got back home, with my agent assessments and slides from various editors, I got out my manuscript and prepared to rework it. It took me a while to begin, but once I had gotten my head around the mountainous job ahead of me, I began to systematically work my way through the manuscript. As I did, I began to get my love for the story back; I began to get a new excitement, a new passion.
Even now, I am not finished my redraft. University work and a busy schedule (including moving country and house!!) have recently kept me from working on it, but when I have time I do and I love it. I am loving the research that I find myself doing, I am loving the tiny details that I am finding out that make my written world so much more real and meaningful, and I am loving writing again.
Thank you for all the encouragement and the weekly emails! They are great and Jericho Writers has been a huge motivation for me to keep on editing until I get there.
Thanks, Jordan! You’ll get there for sure …
Thanks for the emails Harry. They always make me smile, and you are usually spot on with how us writers feel about things. My current project is on the back burner whilst I finish a degree course, but it is well on the way and I’m content to kmow that it will still be there when the degree is done. I loved the quote about first drafts – so true! 🙂
Phoeey! Degrees? What use are they? Chuck the degree and just write a book. *
* – note, this advice may not be very good.
I am on a hiatus from my first draft and I have suspected that I have some technical issues with my draft that has me jamming on the the brakes.
This email was a exactly what I needed to kick back into gear!
I’ve no idea what I’m doing but having had my suspicions validated by your email, I feel that I can now tackle the draft and get back on track.
Wish me luck! 😅
P.s. Thank you for putting off the bacon and book long enough to share your wisdom.
Shaunna
Good luck, Shaunna!!
My solution has been quite simple. I sent the MS off to a JW Editor for MS Assessment and booked a place at this year’s Festival of Writing, with the intention of entering all the comps. Now that’s given me the solutions to problems with my draft and a deadline I cannot afford to miss!
What could possibly go wrong? 😊
P.S. Harry, thanks for all the motivation you dish out in spades.
Ha, ha! I wouldn’t say that’s guaranteed to work, but that approach does probably increase your chances of an Option 1 type publication by a factor of, oooh, five times at least, I’d guess – and probably a bit more! See you at the Festival …
There’s still a good market. Heroes don’t have to be lesbian. Male heroes are fine. That said, you have to think about your market and what’s being written in it today. The test is still the same: go into a big bookstore and look for debuts (or near-debuts) in your genre. If you’re finding reasonable comparables, you’re fine. If not: then either you’re a genius, or you have an issue …
Lately (nb. never start a comment with an adverb) I was writing a 17C novel set in London but getting bogged down with the linguistics (how many would know or care what a ‘flying pasty’ or ‘sirreverence’ stood for?) and after a vivid dream I immediately moved to Mongolia (fictionally speaking) where my proposed farmer hero Gongor Khunbish and his eagle-hunter cousin Bat Erdine are about to benefit (or not) from a visitation of mushrooms from Mars. Having completed the first chapter I woke up the next morning energised to write Flash Fiction and start a 365-day blog.
I do not recommend this method for those with vertigo.
Dear Poggle, it is better to have vertigo than no vertigo (think ‘pun.’) But seriously, I may have to go to Mongolia to flesh the scenes out. Google is all very well but . . . My uncle wrote Rose of Tibet using only an old ordinance survey map . . . and Googlemaps is so good (as one can actually get down onto the road surfaces and look around) but unfortunately one only sees Mongolia from the satellite. I need to know what peasant farmers eat for breakfast on the Steppes. Lots of stuff like that.
Am thinking to go next summer. Anyone want to join me??