The Ongoing Search

          In this business of learning to write and get published, I think the key is balance.  Don't focus on the highs or the lows.  Enjoy the high moments, but don't let the low moments last any longer than a moment. 

          I am enjoying some positive responses from legitimate agencies.  I sent four email queries on Friday, February 22.  One agent replied the next day and asked for a synopsis and the first 50 pages. Hooray!!  One small problem - I didn't have a synopsis written yet!  Okay, this should be an easy task.  After all, I just wrote 65,000 words so 1,500 should be a piece of cake.  Have you ever written a "book report" on the book you wrote??  It's not for the faint of heart, believe me. 

In this business of learning to write and get published, I think the key is balance.  Don't focus on the highs or the lows.  Enjoy the high moments, but don't let the low moments last any longer than a moment. 

          I am enjoying some positive responses from legitimate agencies.  I sent four email queries on Friday, February 22.  One agent replied the next day and asked for a synopsis and the first 50 pages. Hooray!!  One small problem - I didn't have a synopsis written yet!  Okay, this should be an easy task.  After all, I just wrote 65,000 words so 1,500 should be a piece of cake.  Have you ever written a "book report" on the book you wrote??  It's not for the faint of heart, believe me. 

          After consulting several of my study books - Donald Maas, Sol Stein, and Elizabeth Lyon to name a few - I sat down at my computer ready to type.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zilch.  Zero. Zip.  I couldn't figure out how to start, which - according to my sources - is the most important part.  The Hook.  After half an hour of typing a few sentences then leaning on the backspace key, I walked away.  The next day I managed two short paragraphs, but basically, I was still stuck.  The third day after receiving the request, a second agent emailed back and asked for the first 30 pages - but no synopsis.  Hallelujah!!  I easily emailed the pages and a cover letter back to her.  No response yet, but that could take weeks even for a simple rejection.

          Back to the synopsis I went.  Suddenly, it all flowed out.  I typed at breakneck speed for quite a while, then went back to read what I had written.  It sounded pretty good!  I kept reading.  Wait.  What's this?  She did what??  Where did that come from?  That's not what happened!!  My wonderful, independent brain decided to change the last few chapters of my FINISHED novel!!  I read through the last page of the synopsis and my imagination started firing on all cylinders.  It was actually the ending I wanted in the first place, when I first started the novel.  Somewhere along the line, the new ending fell into place, so I left it.  Obviously, that's not what my protagonist wanted to do!

          I finished the synopsis and printed it out to give to a friend.  She's the English teacher at my school and has never read anything I've written.  She made two or three suggestions but loved it.  So has anybody guessed what this means?? A MAJOR REWRITE!!

          For the past four days, I have spent every spare moment rewriting beginning with chapter 14 (there used to be 22 chapters; not sure how many I'll end up with now!).  I really do like it better, but it would have been nice if my protagonist and my brain had decided to work together like this back in July when I supposedly FINISHED the story!