{"id":1099,"date":"2018-10-15T20:27:23","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T00:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/dremadeoraich\/?p=1099"},"modified":"2018-10-15T20:41:51","modified_gmt":"2018-10-16T00:41:51","slug":"courage-and-comfort-found-in-good-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/15\/courage-and-comfort-found-in-good-company\/","title":{"rendered":"Courage and Comfort Found in Good Company"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>Remember back in August when I blogged about Pitch Wars? How excited I was?\n

Yeah. I knew the odds were against me at the time I applied. Nearly 3,500 mentee hopefuls mobbed the volunteer mentors with juicy manuscripts. It stood to reason that 99.999% of us would be eating chocolate and drinking red wine (or other comfort indulgence of choice) the evening of Mentee Announcements. I was one of them. (Sambuca was my drink, in case you were wondering.)<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ Don\u2019t get me wrong. I\u2019m absolutely not<\/em> complaining. The Pitch Wars Mentors are all awesome, beautiful souls for taking on this work and I appreciate their dedication. I also know Pitch Wars is only one of many paths toward publication. But at the moment, a lot of questions are circling like vultures in my head, and based on some of the Twitter posts I\u2019ve seen from other mentee hopefuls who didn\u2019t get selected, I\u2019m in good company on that score. It might sound like I\u2019m whining here. I\u2019m not. I know reading others\u2019 stories always helps me, so I want to share my frustrations, questions, and doubts about my own work so that others in a similar boat will know they aren\u2019t alone.<\/p>\n

The problem\u2014as many other writers will know\u2014lies partly in the fact that I don\u2019t know what other paths are out there. Other than the routes I\u2019ve already tried, and which did not work, I\u2019ve got no compass, no direction, no idea where to even begin to look. How do you Google something for which you have no name or definition? (Hint: \u201cfree writing mentorship programs\u201d gave a limited scope on returns.)<\/p>\n

I need to find a way to name that nebulosity, because trying to \u201cfix\u201d a first novel manuscript without any roadmap is almost like tasting a soup that\u2019s not quite ready to eat. You\u2019ve put all the right stuff in, yet it still needs something<\/em>. You just don\u2019t know quite what.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I wanted a mentor for assistance with The Founder\u2019s Seed<\/em>. As far as I can tell, and from what my beta readers and critiquers have said (and not just friends and family), it\u2019s a damn good story. Yet I can\u2019t seem to garner any interest that might aid in publication. Therefore, it must be lacking, but I require experienced assistance to determine precisely where and how. I\u2019m not sure whether:<\/p>\n

\u2022 I have the genre wrong (I don\u2019t think so; pitched\/intended for fantasy\/sci-fi) $\"\"$ <\/p>\n

\u2022 TFS is more suited to YA than adult market (I pitched\/intended it for adults)<\/p>\n

\u2022 It\u2019s too tropish (I don\u2019t think so, but even if it is, tropes sell, right? As long as it\u2019s told in a new way, it should work.)<\/p>\n

\u2022 It\u2019s something more foundational: i.e. character development, plot flow, pacing, etc. (I\u2019ve taken classes and read craft books and tried my best to follow the advice of these professionals, but not on a one-on-one basis.)<\/p>\n

\u2022 It\u2019s total bunk that needs to be trunked so I can start the next project (I don\u2019t think this is the case, but without experienced guidance, how would I know? Even assuming it needs to be trunked, if I can\u2019t identify what\u2019s wrong with this one, how will I get my next novel right? And what if I\u2019m only one step away from success, but I give up too soon?)<\/p>\n

The point is that without input from someone who knows the answer to some of these questions, I sometimes feel like I\u2019m trying to assemble a mechanical device with no diagram on what goes where and only a vague notion of what it should look like when it\u2019s complete. I don\u2019t even know if I have all the right parts. It\u2019s darn frustrating.<\/p>\n

So what do I do now? That\u2019s the million-dollar question right there. I know my writing gets better with practice. I\u2019ve gotten a lot of that over the last few years, both in shorts and in revisions of TFS, which is so<\/em> much better now than it was a couple of drafts ago thanks to the invaluable input I\u2019ve garnered thus far from beta readers and critique classes. I did pay for an editor twice, in very<\/em> early drafts. It was expensive (worth it, no doubt), and if I could afford it, I\u2019d do it again. Since I can\u2019t, I\u2019m not sure where to go from here.<\/p>\n

But isn\u2019t that an unavoidable part of the writer\u2019s life? Despite the creative flow of this art, it is also a craft<\/em> which requires constant honing and improvement. The publishing world is in constant flux. Markets come and go, and even those that stick around long-term must evolve to meet the demand of their buyers. The writer who can\u2019t keep up falls behind, so it\u2019s a race. Every day.<\/p>\n

And if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that challenge is part of the appeal of this life. Because even if we are going in circles, we know that every attempt, every draft brings us closer to the Center, and our ultimate goal of publication.<\/p>\n

So yeah. I consoled myself with a shot (or two). And then I got back up and moved on to the Next Thing. And once you finish your glass of red (or white) over your similar miss, you should do the same.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

Thoughts? Comments? Stories you\u2019d like to share? Talk back!<\/p>\n

See ya next week.<\/p>\n

Larry King Quote graphic by QuoteFancy<\/a><\/p>\n

Man on Macbook by Tim Gouw<\/a>
\nMan in Maze by John T<\/a>
\nPhotos courtesy of Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"