Hello, writers. It’s August, and much of the publishing world has gone on vacation. Now would be a bad time to be shopping a manuscript to publishers. I don’t know about shopping one to agents. One blogging agent wrote this week that she’s more likely to reject queries in the summer because she’d rather be outside.
I’m writing this while awaiting a call from my editor. She’s just read the manuscript for the second novel in my fantasy trilogy. This manuscript was a third draft, but we’re both referring to it as a “rough draft”. Tons of work still to go.
All of the editors I’ve worked with have been incredibly tactful people. They manage to tell you what you’ve screwed up while making you feel that only someone of your particular level of genius could have screwed it up in that particular way. The things I screw up generally fall into three categories:
1. Things I knew were screwed up, so I fixed them before I sent the manuscript.
2. Things I only suspected were screwed up, and wanted the editor’s confirmation before fixing.
3. Things I had no idea were screwed up.
Leaving #2 in is partly wistfulness—I like these screwed-up bits, and I’m hoping I’m
wrong and that they’re really okay. (Really, you should make every effort not to leave #2 in. And so should I.) #3 is always a surprise, and the reason we all need more eyes on our manuscripts. (In addition to more eyes, we also need to believe the things the voices attached to those eyes tell us.)
Even the most tactful critique can upset us. Inevitably it includes something like “I’m not sure readers will believe that Esmeralda would leave her husband over a little thing like mowing the rose bush.”
We think “But it’s perfectly obvious that the rose bush symbolized their marriage, and that he knew…”
If the critiquer is raising the point, then it’s not perfectly obvious, and we need to go back and fix it. Doesn’t mean Esmeralda can’t leave her husband and he can’t mow the rosebush, just means that, like an alligator coming over the transom, it has to make sense.
There are generally a few rosebushes in every critique we get, whether it’s from an editor or a critique partner.
Tonight’s challenge:
Esmeralda’s huband Mercutio has just run over a rosebush with her lawnmower. She responds by demanding a divorce. Write the dialogue that makes this make sense.
Alternative challenge for Togwogmagog enthusiasts:
Having found the Jewel of Togwogmagog after many trials and travails, the callow youth who went in search of it flings it into the Abyss. Write the dialogue s/he has with his/her Stout Companion immediately before doing this.
Write On! will be a regular weekly diary (Thurs 8 pm ET) until it isn't.
Before signing a contract with any agent or publisher, please be sure to check them out on Preditors and Editors, Absolute Write and/or Writer Beware.