Is This the Worst Time to Be Unpublished?

First of all, thanks so much to everyone for the support today. It's no fun at all when you receive a rejection letter and even though Jamie Ford (NY Times Bestseller) sent me a lovely note telling me that there's nothing wrong with a few rejections, it's still an occasion that calls for extra sugar in the tea and a mild hissy fit at not being able to afford chocolate.

The important thing when your work is rejected is to be analytical; evaluate whether you could have done anything to improve your chances or not, and work out how to vary your strategy next time.

I was fortunate enough to meet someone who's been rejected by this particular agency and gone on to be published elsewhere. He told me to pay very close attention to their wording if they rejected me as they are good at pointing out exactly where writers have gone wrong.

They said nothing negative about my writing. They described it as 'fluent and easy to read' and went on to explain that the marketplace has become very tough and they lack the confidence to take me on in this marketplace. Basically: 'there's a recession; you're unpublished; we don't want to take a gamble.'

I've noticed that this is happening to quite a number of new writers at the moment and it's understandable. I'm not cross with this agent for not taking a chance on my writing, I'm just frustrated. If they'd told me that the characters weren't strong enough or the writing jarred I would have something to work with. This isn't something I can edit my way out of.

Everyone's going through this at the moment. Companies are closing and qualified people are unemployed. Why should the creative industries be any different?

Our writing can't just be 'good enough' or even 'fluent and easy to read' any more. It must be extraordinary. It must be the equivalent of the Family Guy episode that screened in England last night - The King and I with robots and strippers. If it's not completely different then it won't get noticed. If it is completely different, however, doesn't that also make it a risk?

I suppose I'm asking two questions:

1/how do agents/publishers make the right choices in the current market so that their own businesses don't go under?

2/how are we, as writers, supposed to handle these choices?

Is This the Worst Time to Be Unpublished?

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Back to The Plan

Yesterday was a sparkly day of wonder but, as I was talking at the speed of Gilmore Girls dialogue about the excitingness of it all, my husband's left eyebrow raised a fraction. He had shown approval and support and shared - in his own way - in the excitement but this eyebrow-lift marked a change of direction. I shut up.

'How much editing have you done recently?' he asked.

It was a fair question and a fair answer would have been 'not enough,' however I launched into a justification of why editing had not been my top priority. I listed the guest blog and the importance of my own blog and the whole 'getting-people-to-know-about-the-blog' thing and the importance to agents and publishers of blogs, etc, etc...

He lowered the left eyebrow. He raised the right eyebrow.

'So you're saying I have to edit? You're saying I need to send off my manuscript?' I spat.

'When did you last send off a manuscript?' he asked.

I thought back to my blog. It was back in December. The 'writers write' post taunted me from the shadows of my brain. 'Bloggers blog,' I thought hopefully. Well, bloggers may well blog but my goal is to be a writer of novels not just blogs.

So, here I am. The blog will be updated, but maybe not every day. Perhaps I could call upon my readers to chat amongst themselves for a while. Hit the comment button and play nicely in my brief absence. I have two novels to edit and a lot of stamps to buy.

When I return, it would be a lovely surprise to see a new follower or two. Think you could spread the word to the interested?

Ta muchly. Back soon.

Rebecca

Back to The Plan

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Is There Something in the Grass?

The Cotswolds

I live in 'The Cotswolds' in England and I'm feeling rather inadequate about it to be honest. It's the writing capital of the world, you see, so it's tricky to feel good about my own scribblings unless I tune that information out - but it's a fiendishly tough one to tune out.

The Writers' Triangle

The Cotswolds area is a kind of wonky triangle with the corner points being marked out by Stratford-Upon-Avon, Bath and Oxford. There are loads of places in between sufficiently steeped in writing history to give me The Fear but, even looking just at these three points I nearly faint with 'I'm not worthy'ness.

Shakespeare was from the first place, Jane Austen from the second and Oxford University with all its many genius writers - from John Donne to Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, Graham Greene, Iris Murdoch, William Golding, T.S. Eliot, Richard Curtis, Helen Fielding (Bridget Jones's Diary)... and so on and so on - is in the third. J K Rowling was born here and it's teeming with best-selling writers to this day and, just in case I think 'never mind, I can just blog my way to greatness' I am reminded that Oxford Uni also churned out Tim Berners-Lee (a.k.a. 'that English chap who invented the World Wide Web'.)

All this gives me a bit of 'calm down, you're not that great' perspective when I'm congratulating myself on my latest draft and makes the editing process even more painful. My inferiority complex can't even be fixed by moving away. I grew up here. I am tainted by everyone else's greatness.

Right, I'm off out into the freezing night to roll around in a field. All those literary giants breathed here and whilst they were breathing, they will have facilitated the growth of plants and these plants begat other plants and so on and so on. In short - there may be something in the grass. If there is and I roll in it... what the heck am I on about now? Note to self. Seek professional help.

Guest Blog!

Fortunately, my mood and sense of utter inadequacy has been lifted by an invitation to write a guest blog. I am jolly excited by this and hope to pull together some kind of 'blog tour' in the near future which will give me a sense of real authory-ness and prepare me for the greatness which, temporarily, eludes me. I'll keep you posted. Meanwhile, make sure you come back here on Thursday and I'll post the link to my guest blog.

Loving all the comments by the way. Keep them coming. :)

Rebecca

Is There Something in the Grass?

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From Drafted to Crafted

Operation 'Land Ahoy!' Limps into Action
Right, enough of this nonsense. Operation 'Sh*tstorm' (see earlier post) has been optomistically promoted to Operation 'Land Ahoy!' as the government has offered temporary port-in-a-storm assistance with various fundamendal expenses, which is nice. Glorious subsistence-level bread-line abundance stretches out before us but, perpetual chin-up-edness aside, the third week of my husband's redundancy has been a fun-sapping exercise of the worst kind.

Leaping Salmon or Fetid Fish?
It's not something they've made up to sell papers: there really are no jobs out there. Numerous big (some huge) companies nearby have recently breathed their last and the employment market is flooded with the overqualified and supermotivated. I am reminded of salmon: desperately aiming for one small dot of river; crammed together and unable to move; using up all the oxygen in the water as bears and eagles pick them off like wasp-ridden fruit from a plum tree. Wow. Note to self. Stop watching wildlife programmes.

Close to the Edit
Analogies aside, it's tough out there. Hubby's doing his best on phone and Internet; and pounding the pavements with his head held high and his Curriculum Vitae held higher but no luck so far. My plan to launch straight into my editing has gone awry in the face of such gloom and I have been gripped by the need to do my best housewife impression and focus all my energy on keeping hubby's grin firmly in place. For the most part, I have done a passable job but I have now lost the plot and need to return to my writing. He's a grown up. He'll cope.

Today begins the big edit. The process of looking my work square in the face and chiding it for its very existence is upon me. I must mock it mercilessly and hack it to bits until it cries
'No more! For the love of all that's good and green! Why me? Why??'
Should be fun. Wish me luck.

From Drafted to Crafted

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