I've been working on a WIP, rearranging the middle of a mystery, and
forwarding pages to my "volunteer" editor. I've changed enough of the
middle now that I'm having to rewrite the ending in order to throw the
reader off and still keep them interested.
It feels
like I'm writing an entirely new story, which is somewhat true. The main
story line is the same, but there's some new scenes I hadn't seen
coming that have thrown me for a bit of a loop and making it necessary
to come up with some new red herrings. Established writers will
occasionally put out the piece of advice that you will "normally" need
to write five books before you're really ready to be published. I'm not
sure I have that much patience.
As this book gets
straightened out and polished up, I'm gearing up to get back into the
routine of sending submissions, and receiving rejections. I'm ok with
the rejections that I do get back - at least they're responding. I
greatly appreciate the ones that come back with suggestions or any kind
of feedback. It's not personal, what I'm sending them simply isn't a
fit.
I look at submissions as if they are a job
interview (and I've had hundreds of those). If I get an agent or
publisher I want to be as good a fit for them as I want them to be for
my book. Yes, it's a bit strange to have that frame of mind, however
I've been in the business world long enough to separate the business
from the personal.
So I find myself back at square one,
with a different book series, still looking fondly at my first book
series (yet to be published), at the start of a new year. Seems fitting.
