The Full Manuscript

Hello everyone

Since last time we spoke, an agent asked to see my full manuscript.  How happy I was! 

Three weeks later she said it wasn't for her.  How sad I was!

I am currently deciding what to do next. A friend at Mungrisdale Writers has self-published. Her book is called Learning to Tie a Bow by Sarah Hampton. Should I do the same?

What do you all think?

Bel x

The rite of passage

So much has been written about getting rejections from agents and publishers. All I can add it that it is all true. Last time I spoke to my writing-buddy Lizzie Gates (http://authorgym.wordpress.com) I told her that I was despondent. She still maintains that you can’t call yourself a writer and that you mustn’t allow yourself to be down-hearted until you’ve had at least thirty (yes, 30) rejections. My niece Katie Ward, whose lovely book Girl Reading was published by Virago this year, says thirty – and all the rest! To date, I have had four rejections and have not been short-listed for the two debut novel competitions I entered.

So now it’s back to the drawing board. I am looking at my journal and reminding myself of some of the basics:

·         Research the agencies to be sure to approach the right ones

·         Follow their guidelines – to the letter

·         Know which authors/books you liken yourself/your book to (grammar!!)

·         Welcome feedback and don’t be over-sensitive

·         Persevere

·         Use contacts shamelessly (I’ve never been able to do that for anything)

·         Be professional (does that contradict the point above?)

I’m going back to Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook now to continue my quest.

TLC – no not Tender Loving Care!

In May 2011 I sent my first three chapters of Fail Better to The Literary Consultancy for critique. This was a ‘free offer’ to Cumbrian writers with experience of writing and with a low income! How did they know? I waited ages to get it back but when I did I was SO delighted. I wish I could quote everything from the covering letter.

Here are some snippets:

- ‘I’d like to say that I enjoyed reading this extract very much. The complex character of Judith was, at times, reminiscent of Ripley in Patricia Highsmith’s novels; not entirely likeable but definitely compelling!’

- ‘The pace is very strong indeed ..... and there is a solid and worryingly plausible story at play.’

- ‘You ask about genre. Reading this extract, it seems to me the best way to describe it in a pitch to an agent or publisher is to emphasise the pace and story alongside the psychological elements.’

I am now (October 2011) going through the rite of passage of reject letters. In re-reading the whole of the critique from The Literary Consultancy (TLC) I am administering some Tender Loving Care (TLC) to my writing ego.

Thank you, Zoe Strachan for your encouraging words along with constructive critique.

Cambridge Literary Festival

By March 2011 I had become preoccupied with agents and publishers. I chose my birthday present – a weekend at Cambridge Literary Festival in April. My reasons for that choice included:

·         To hear eminent authors speak - I saw/heard P.D. James, Nicola Upson, Dame Antonia Fraser and Robert Goddard

·         To attend a workshop on getting published by Nicola Morgan – that was fab and I later bought her book  www.nicolamorgan.co.uk

·         To attend a workshop on e-publishing – interesting and comforting

·         To soak up the atmosphere – it was lovely and not snobby at all

·         To see whether there were any ‘stalls’ selling stuff (another story for another day, my friends) – there was a book shop and I bought a beautiful blue leather notebook which will record my progress through the next book

·         To see Cambridge as I had never been there before – stunning and well worth a visit

·         To stop and see my sister Georgie on the way back – we spent a happy hour in her garden in the afternoon sunshine

It was a perfect weekend except for a huge shiny milk tanker rolling backwards into my beautiful car on the way there. Nobody was hurt and the driver’s boss paid in full for the repairs with no fuss or argument.

Blurb and synopsis

My mind was straying, some might say, ahead of itself in March 2011. I tried to write the blub for the back cover and a synopsis suitable for sending to agents. Looking back I realise how TERRIBLE they were. I read my first effort to my writing buddy Lizzie Gates http://authorgym.wordpress.com  and she sort of said, ‘Ummm!’ which spoke volumes. Lizzie, it moved me on and version 5 is just about there.

The synopsis changed several times as I slowly began to understand what was required. I tried to condense it to two pages but I didn’t know that the synopsis didn’t have to be double-line spaced to send to an agent. Thanks to Nicola Morgan (@nicolamorgan on Twitter) for advice on that point. It still isn’t perfect and every time I submit to an agent I revisit it and make more changes. I have approached four agents so far and they all have slightly different requirements. Hey ho – back to the drawing board.

By the way, the back cover blurb now goes something like this:

           

If Judith decides to be your friend, she’ll make it happen. She’ll find out what  you do and where you go. She’ll make sure she’s there too.

Do you think it is creepy enough?

The Joy of editing

Getting back to Fail Better and the editing process. The first edit took until the middle of February 2011. My journal is full of red ink indicating what needs to be added, corrected and taken out. There are also big ticks confirming I have made the changes.

The second edit started almost immediately with extra description throughout, and making more of what is happening with other people in Hexham when Judith isn’t present. I also added a ‘guilty secret’ to Chloe’s character – well, we all have one, haven’t we?

I’m not sure when this happened but someone asked me whether I based characters on people I know. I said no, but then thought ‘why not?’ My friend Tanya www.fearlessfeat.co.uk is petite and bright and I decided to make Chloe look and behave a bit like her (the similarity ends there, Tan, honest!) I have also named some of the characters after people I know. D.S. Doggart is a thank you to Lou for her kindness, faith and support – and loads of information.

Four edits done at the time of posting this so surely it is time to approach suitable agents? Watch this space.

3 months later . . . . . . .

Hello everyone. Another fresh start with the blog. Things have moved on so much since I wrote the blog that to go back and take up the story seems a bit retrospective.  Suffice to say that ‘Fail Better’ (current title) stands at 85 000 words and I have started to approach agents.

I have picked out some bits from my notes from my journal. On one session at Mungrisdale Writers (www.mungrisdalewriters.org.uk) our tutor asked us to list ten books that had significance to us personally or as writers. These were mine:

·         A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth – because I love it

·         Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini – a book from the point of view of men

·         A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini – a book from the point of view of women

·         Engleby by Sebastian Faulks – fairly unpleasant and weird but compelling (had a huge influence on my writing)

·         Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller – for similar reasons to Engleby

·         The poem Lines and Squares from When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne – it’s to do with a teenage love affair – don’t ask

·         Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers – because it changed the way I thought about moving out of my comfort zone

·         The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey by Ken Blanchard – people look after their own monkeys now!

·         The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot – I cried for days at the shock ending

·         Haweswater by Sarah Hall – because they don’t all need a happy ending

Since then I would add Girl Reading by Katie Ward www.katieward.co.uk – just because it’s fab and so is she. READ IT.

Which ten would you choose?