Five words that change the universe. A new kind of supernatural thriller, based on an original mythology– simple and limitless in scope.
So that’s not how this post originally started. But here’s how it previously appeared on the WordPress tags page:
tiptoewrites wrote just now: The way I want to market The Dreamers or pitch it to agents/publishers is as a modern, supernatural … more →
I think maybe I have to have a pitch so succinct that it will draw people in from the tags page. Nothing about that summary says “click me, click me.” So I fail at marketing, but if at first you don’t succeed… edit your post!! Anyway, here’s the actual post:
The way I want to market The Dreamers or pitch it to agents/publishers is as a modern, supernatural romantic thriller – but one that doesn’t lean on the existing tropes (vampires, demons, hunters, wizards, ancient christian conspiracies hiding the existence of angels, you know, the whole shebang) but instead creates its own mythology, one that’s completely original, devastatingly simple and full of possibilities. You don’t need to learn the names of ancient gods. All you need to know is five words, and those five words turn the universe upside-down.
Now that I’m getting close to finishing my initial solo revision of the first part of the book, I’m starting to think about what happens when my set of revisions is done. I think I’ll most likely solicit beta readers online (probably only two or three) and ask them to have a look. Now I need to go back and really look at how books are published, and see how I go about finding a professional editor to tear the damn thing apart. Do I do that after it’s accepted for publication? (Can they see past an unedited story to what it’ll look like after editing?) Do I shop an unedited draft, or do I look for editors that would be interested? Wouldn’t a professional editor want to see whether they’re interested in editing the work first– that is, doesn’t it have to be good enough to shop around to editors first? (You need an editor to sell a book, and you need to sell your book to get an editor. Sigh!)
You’d think since I work in publishing I’d know the answers to some of these questions, but fiction and news are seven worlds apart. Oh well, I have enough dumbass writing books by now that I should be able to find the answer. (The books are only dumbass when they don’t answer my question. When they do, they’re divine and the best purchase I ever made. Hah!)
I’m so excited about this draft because it’s shaping up consistent. When the ideas were still vague and I was trying to get them down on paper there was tons of incongruity and half-baked notions that didn’t connect to anything else. Now there are clear motivations for the characters to do what they do, now and later in the book, and there’s even a little bit of foreshadowing (and outright signs ‘n’ omens). I no longer have to look at a scene and say, “Yes, but how did they get there in the first place? And why would they care?” The answers are woven into the story, and what’s more, they’re an integral part of the story and the character development. That feels awesome to have achieved.
My transitions are still a tad awkward, and what happens in between actions — the necessary mental reflection through which we see the story’s significance and motivations and Miranda’s thought process– is still far too full of It seemed to be… and It was as if… I want to throw those sentences out a very high window, splatter them on the ground, and see if they are better when I put them back together. Yes, Humpty Dumpty is my editor.
Show don’t tell, as old and true an axiom as it is, is much easier said than done.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: editing, getting published, my novel, publishing, writing
