What To Do
I have a conundrum.
My critique partner and I plotted out a werewolf story that I had submitted to an editor at Ellora's Cave (for a critique I'd won, not as a submission). Initially, the story was... not good. My heroine was TSTL, which is the worst thing that can happen to a book. But the editor said, "Rewrite this. I'd love to see it as a submission."
So I pretty much have an invitation to submit this manuscript.
My problem? Even after Suz and I worked out the GMC--and it's damned near perfect--I can't seem to get excited about writing this story. The characters just aren't holding my interest.
I have a couple of sequels I can write to books that will be published with Liquid Silver and New Concepts. Of course there's no guarantee they'll buy the sequels, but I have a better shot with a publisher that knows my writing and likes it. Sending a story to Ellora's Cave will be a cold submission, even if it was kinda sorta requested.
Therein lies my problem. Do I force myself to write a story that's not holding my interest (because someday, I pray to God, I'll be in a position where an editor has asked me to write a book with a storyline not of my own creation) and develop the discipline now to do so? Or, because I'm not in that situation yet, do I move forward with something else?
I don't know what to do. Somebody help me.
6 comments:
You're asking the wrong girl. I find that once I write The End I don't want to go back and fix a story. It's done. What do I need change it for? Minor edits aside - I hate rewriting. Although I did with Blossoming Spring but I rewrote from beginning to end because she annoyed the hell out of me.
But I am completely rewriting this from the beginning. Or am I? That's the problem.
If you're not moved by the story and the characters, you'll never get the fire into it. The fire comes from that deep need within you to get the story out, to put it down in pixels. The creative flow is a necessary ingredient.
That said, and understood, and internalized, there's the problem of making one's way in the publishing world. Forcing oneself to rewrite when the fire's not there is a job. Just a job. You go in, you put in your eight hours, and you go home.
So you have to ask yourself: do I want to write what I feel needs writing? Or do I want to write because somebody said they'd like to see it done differently? There's no guarantees either way. So call the toss - heads or tails. And stick with your decision.
Personally I don't think you NEED that POSSIBLE book badly enough to write it cold. You're not doing facts, you're doing emotions and involvement and caring and juicy feelings. And action. Ever try to make love when you weren't feeling horny? Same difference.
Write the sequels, but on your desk keep out the notes and such on the rewrite book.
While your mind is busy with what you love, the ideas will pop out for what needs to be done to send the book to EC.
You'll end up with two good novels.
Forrest and Sloane, you've given some terrific advice. Thanks! I think I knew the answer all along, I just needed someone else to "say" it so it would solidify in my mind.
Kate, LOL. Yeah, this isn't as easy as we might have thought, is it?
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