Do You Have A Goal - November 2016

It's been a long time since I've blogged on here. A couple of weeks, most likely. Just a heads up, this blog entry may be a long one.

Since completing my novel I entered an online contest called #p2p16 where writers choose a selection of editors to work with for one month before the agent rounds. I entered this contest with high hopes. Unfortunately, I wasn't chosen. Even though I put on a cheerful face about it and congratulated the winners, I was disappointed.

I felt so confident in the beginning, but then doubt began rolling in when the editors were tweeting their top picks, maybes and passes (without mentioning the writers name.) I saw a few tweets that could have matched mine, and those tweets were clearly passes. The hope I had deteriorated and nothing was left. 

Dealing with rejection, no matter how big or small it is, still hurts. At least for me it does. There are always other opportunities and I do know that my time will come. But every once in a while I do become frustrated. Compared to a few years ago, I know how to deal with it better. 

One editor from P2P16 did request a partial from me, but ultimately passed in the end.  As time went on, the winners were chosen and I wasn't one of them. I was really bothered by it, and wondered what I lacked in writing that my story doesn't seem to be connecting with editors or agents. The editors offered feedback for the ones they didn't choose and I've since received three different feedback. Overall the sum of all three editors were:

1. My word count is too low for YA (currently at 50k)
2. The voice wasn't strong enough

Out of these three editors I chose one to edit a partial of my novel, Hell Hounds. She offered a LOT of insight including an editorial letter, in-line edits for the partial and help with my query. 

Hell Hounds is a dual POV story from the two main characters, Keisuke and Charlie. This editor informed me that Keisuke's voice wasn't very strong, but she was surprised to see that Charlie's voice was very strong in her POV. She wanted to know what made me connect so well to Charlie and what could I do to apply it to Keisuke's POV to make it stronger. 

Long story short, I've since decided to change the concept of Hell Hounds and remove Charlie's POV and replace it with Keisuke's brother. Charlie (who is a girl, btw) is still in the story, and will be a main character from both brother's POV. 

Maybe in another blog post I'll explain the new premise in better detail. What I will say is the the premise if MUCH better and LONGER than the original concept.

Because I'm revising Hell Hounds again, I won't be able to enter in the upcoming author mentor match that starts December 1st until December 6th. I was so looking forward to joining, but I know that I wouldn't be able to finish it time. It wouldn't do me any good to rush my novel for a contest and the end results are horrible. 

It is my goal to find an agent that has faith in me and my story. n order to make sure I'm heading in the right direction, Hell Hounds has to be as polished as I can get it. The manuscript has already been seen by multiple eyes throughout the years and currently I have a handle on my tells for my writing style. I already wrote my chapter outlines, next I'll be moving onto a detail descriptions of the characters, world and etc. Then I'll start working on the actual chapters (most of which are already finish.)

Onto other updates, I've been reading a lot more lately and I've managed to finish a couple of books one being titled Zodaic by Romina Russell. It's basically a fantasy meets science fiction, type of book and I really enjoyed it. 

I also have a Kindle that my boyfriend bought and I LOVE IT! I've purchased a few books on there and it makes easier for me, considering it enables me to have space in my apartment, lol. Without a Kindle, my apartment would eventually be consumed with books!

That pretty much concludes my update for this month, and a bit of last month. Not as long as I thought it would be, nonetheless. 

I hope everyone had a great holiday yesterday! :)