Overcast and raining this morning but the birds are singing away as cheery as a gospel choir.
Yesterday I had another meeting with my fiction critique group and I wanted to write a bit about getting a manuscript ready for an agent or editor. These days in the publishing industry there is a clogged pipeway of unsolicited manuscripts—the notorious slush pile—and if more writers would perfect their manuscripts before they mailed them off, then the whole system would work more efficiently.
If you’re reading this I’m sure you know better than to send off a manuscript that hasn’t been rewritten and honed and fretted over. The first draft is essentially for putting the story down on a paper, later drafts fix pacing and language, theme, character development, individual scenes and plot points. In your last drafts you’ll be analyzing scene goals and how quickly you’ve gotten in and out of scenes. You’ll make certain that your characters are vulnerable, achingly complex, and capable of surprising your readers. You’ll make certain that your story is highly visual and yet that you don’t have huge blocks of information weighing down the story. In your last draft make certain that each verb sparkles and gets the job done and that you can justify every modifier. Bottom line: if you haven’t gone over your manuscript at least three times, you’re not a writer, you’re a typist.
So after you’ve printed out your polished gem, you’ll want at least a few qualified readers to give you feedback. In my critique sessions I’m always amazed at the insights that other writers bring to the process. And while we have all heard about writers whose husband or wife is their first and most qualified reader, in my experience, a person’s spouse isn’t always in the best position to give intelligent feedback. Instead you want voracious readers to go over your manuscript; preferably people who read widely but still are discriminating and opinionated. Then really listen to what they have to say and weigh and possibly incorporate their suggestions.
At some point you’ll need to stop yourself from endless rewrites and tinkering and take the plunge of submitting. Over the years I’ve seen a number of manuscripts where the writer rewrote so often that the original thread of the story was buried and the result was a tangled mess. So quit when you’re exhausted and weary of the project and satisfied that there is nothing more you can do to improve it.
Next comes the hard part—trying to connect with an agent or editor. I’ve recently met a writer who mentioned how she had little trouble meeting agents and making contacts in the industry. She was a fiction author a while back and is now back in the fray, rewriting a suspense novel. I was rather fascinated by her and I wished that more writers had her confidence and chutzpah. It seems to me that too many writers see the publishing industry as the enemy and don’t realize that publishers and editors of every ilk need us.
You’ll want to adopt this writer’s confidence and you’ll want to do your homework and research the most appropriate agent for your story. It’s always a good idea to examine the front matter of every novel you read, especially the acknowledgments so you become familiar with the agents and editors in the game. Check out the agent’s previous sales, the types of books he or she represents, and the agency’s manuscript guidelines. Then follow the instructions to the letter.
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