So in my genius, I have created several versions of my novel, one (the original one) for those open to YA as well as adult, and one for those who are adult only, where my protagonist is 18 instead of 16, because one agent called it too YA leaning for them and I thought maybe the age change would help (see last post).
But because I couldn’t help myself tinkering with the manuscript after a couple of feedback things from Lovely Rejection #1, there were also a few sub-versions with some scenes added and/or deleted.
And because I am really, really not techy (not to mention my brain is increasingly overtaken by baby-growing hormones, and my most recent submissions have been sent while fending off bedtime-ready toddlers who need to NOT TOUCH THE COMPUTER RIGHT NOW. OR MOUSE. OR KEYBOARD.) I’ve just realised I managed to send a half-edited version of the manuscript in my last three subs. It’ll read ok ie no half-sentences etc, but a scene I cut for being lame, there it still is tossing it’s ugly triumphant head, and of the three other linked scenes I added then cut, the final one seems to have resurrected itself.
OH DEAR. I had my suspicions that submitting close to the arrival of Child #5 might drastically increase my chances for human error. But no, I thought, though I may be human, I shall not err. Ironically this was an erroneous assumption.
So that’s it. NO MORE SUBMITTING till I emerge on the other side of New Baby. It’s official.
Having said that…so I got Lovely Rejection #2 this afternoon. Which had a great piece of feedback that chimes with something I’ve been musing on half-consciously since writing the book. The first 5th is kind of a different vibe/voice to the rest. Why? Who knows. I guess the setting of the original world before my protagonist breaks free of all that is pretty different to what follows, and maybe I subconsciousy let this influence my voice too. But maybe it’s fine, I thought, because my main character is also different then. Her growing as Stuff Happens is kind of the point of the whole book.
But now Lovely Rejection #2 has validated this niggle. The vibe of the set up suggests a style of book that doesn’t suit her tastes. But guess what? She loved the prologue, which is more like the book’s vibe later on 🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️
While it’s encouraging to be having apparent near-misses rather than purely silence or form rejections, 1,000 near-misses will still not land me an agent.
So. Unable to stop myself (because maybe I should really just leave the manuscript alone after my initial wave of subs, as advised by every blog ever on the topic…), I’ve started visioning how I could rework the initial setting…and it looks fun. And it means I’d get to write again which I miss and want to. Further fun.
Unfortunately it would also create yet another version of this book that’s still out on submission with around 8 agencies. Dare I confuse things even further🤔 not to mention, reworking the first 5th would be no small task, and the first draft would then need all the editing and revising and ‘blah de blah yadda’ before we got to ‘ta da’, and then all the little differences would need working through the rest of the novel as inevitably my heroine would be a tad different once given a tad different beginning. 🫠
Why on earth would I do that? Especially when I’m heavily pregnant, looming about in 28 degrees trying to shepherd 4 kids (and escaped poultry) around 4 acres with only minor mishaps, and have a brain that appears to be melting at the edges, or at the very least a bit soggy?
Why indeed. Probably for the same reason I started writing this book in the first place. Just Because.
Country Mum Writes 