Pink Think: “Trust your instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Photo by ajlmarques on Flickr
Heard back from an agent who had been considering my first three chapters of Ghost Moon Night. The answer was “no” and I won’t pretend it didn’t sting, but there is a pink lining behind this cloud.
The agent wrote me a personalized reply, telling me she thought my twist on the zombie story was unique but that she didn’t find the narrator compelling enough because the first chapter suggested the zombie problem was not solved.
This is the second round I have shopped this story among agents, and since I had no offers from the first round, decided to change the first chapter. Based on this agent’s feedback, I think I will revert back to the original version.
I’ve pretty much moved on from this novel, but occasionally, I send out a query when I hear of an agent that I think might be interested.
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I usually second-guess myself instead of going with my gut feeling, or original. For instance, I will work an article to death and lose its initial quirkiness for something more mainstream.
I think I am getting better at trusting myself. Recently, I submitted a piece to Family Circle’s fiction writing contest and I did NOT show the piece to my hubby. He has always been one of my best editors, but I didn’t want his comments to sway how I presented the story.
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Now that I know to revert to my original Ghost Moon Night first chapter, I can proceed with my next project this week, which is to print out a few copies of said novel for a book group.
One of my writer’s group friends asked me if her book group could use my story for their October/Halloween meeting. It’ll be fun to see what they think of the story, reading it in one sitting instead of installments.
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Other writing projects:
*Wrote a 666-word short story, “Roadkill on Grill” for a short story horror website. I sent my hubby the story and he emailed me back, saying, “You’re a sick little cookie,” which I took as a compliment. 🙂
*Monday-Friday, I have a 250-minimum-word goal towards my work-in-progress which I then report back to a group on Holly Lisle’s website. Love the community; love the extra motivation with having to report to someone. So far I have met or exceeded my daily goal.
*My youngest’s fourth grade teacher asked me if I could come up with a reading activity once a month. I plan to write a short story which we will read as a class and which I will end as a cliffhanger, and have the class finish the story, either with a cartoon, their own paragraphs, etc.
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Full steam ahead! What will YOU be working on this week?
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