Rejected

So I heard from the first agent on Dissection. It was a rejection. It's okay, I'm used to rejection. And published authors get treated no different than unpublished authors. No feedback, and it was a form letter. The agent even forgot to change the book title in the body of the letter. So there's that.

I still have two more queries out there. Hopefully I hear from them soon. And I have a first round list of agents to send to, so I'll probably send a few out this afternoon.

Wish me luck.

Done!

I finally finished my rewrite of An Unbalanced Line.  But I'm not done. I made some notes on the manuscript along the way, which I want to fix, then I print it out and read it aloud. Reading aloud helps me get the voice and dialogue right and it also is useful for finding little mistakes, typos, punctuation problems.

Then I do revisions.

The step after that, I get some beta readers. I usually pick four or five people. A couple readers, a couple writers, and I have one friend who is a writer and an excellent editor. 

After that, I do another set of revisions, then maybe another. I do as many as it takes to get it to a place that I feel is good enough to send to agents.

How do you get feedback on your work? Who do you count on to give an unbiased opinion? Do you read aloud?

I'm interested in other writer's process.

F³A: I've not written in weeks...

I always tell myself, whatever you do, never stop writing. Even if you get stuck, even if it feels like work instead of your passion, yadda yadda yadda. But lately, with this rewrite, I've felt so unmotivated. Plus, I've been so busy with other life stuff, kids, house, day job, exercise, general laziness, I just haven't been able to get myself to open that manuscript.

Work has been so hard lately, and mostly I sit in front of computer all day, the last thing I want to do is get back on the computer. I was determined to write yesterday. I had a coffee date with a friend, and had brought my laptop with me to write after our date was over, yet by the time it was, I was fading, my brain was void of all activity and I went home and slept beneath the sun, which felt really good by the way.

I did give my friend 20 pages of the manuscript yesterday, hoping that when I get her feedback it might get me excited about the project again, but I don't know if that will work.

I honestly don't know what to do to get myself to open up that manuscript. Any suggestions?

Totally forgot it was Friday. Almost forgot the Scribbles.

Random iPod shuffle song:

Book of the Week: Breaking Beautiful by Jennifer Shaw Wolf. I've not read a mystery in a long time and I'd forgotten how much I love them. I love sitting on the edge of my seat, not being able to wait to turn the next page, not wanting to put the book down. Jennifer's book was not different. Awesome.

Netflix of the Week: I've not watched anything, not a movie, not a show, nope, not even the Olympics. Not a minute open for TV.

Quote of the Week: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” ~ Winston Churchill