Shiny! (?)
Jun. 3rd, 2009 02:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_pretentiousWell, I've rashly fired off the Big Book to an agent. I polished the synopsis until I didn't hate it, let it simmer a bit, then polished it some more until I thought it might have, as ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jamesenge put it when he proposed that the synopsis is more a trick than a form, some shininess to it.
After a couple of hours working my way through the most convoluted set of submission instructions I've seen in a long time, I hit send before I could fall prey to my own perfectionism again.
If history is anything to go by, now all I have to do is wait several months for an enthusiastic preliminary response, so that I can then get strung along for a year before the usual rejection comes: We really liked your book, but have just discovered to our shock and horror that it's exactly as long as you told us it was in your cover letter in the first place. Why can't you write something short, for Pete's sake?
There's a name for the Buyer's Remorse people get right after they've bought a house. Is there a standard term for the analogous Submitter's Remorse people get right after they've submitted their manuscripts? There must be.
Nothing for it but to get back to work. I've been away from the Ria story long enough now to give it another big push.
jamesenge put it when he proposed that the synopsis is more a trick than a form, some shininess to it.After a couple of hours working my way through the most convoluted set of submission instructions I've seen in a long time, I hit send before I could fall prey to my own perfectionism again.
If history is anything to go by, now all I have to do is wait several months for an enthusiastic preliminary response, so that I can then get strung along for a year before the usual rejection comes: We really liked your book, but have just discovered to our shock and horror that it's exactly as long as you told us it was in your cover letter in the first place. Why can't you write something short, for Pete's sake?
There's a name for the Buyer's Remorse people get right after they've bought a house. Is there a standard term for the analogous Submitter's Remorse people get right after they've submitted their manuscripts? There must be.
Nothing for it but to get back to work. I've been away from the Ria story long enough now to give it another big push.
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no subject
Date: 2009-06-03 05:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-03 08:30 pm (UTC)Yes, there's a standard term for this sort of thing. It's called "second thoughts". But mine generally evaporate once I've pushed the "send"/"release"/"submit" button, because that's the point where it's *somebody else's problem* and I can no longer either fix or break it.
(And that's what I keep telling myself when I'm faced with the button: "Push that button, and your source of stress will *go away* and start bothering somebody else.")
no subject
Date: 2009-06-04 03:00 pm (UTC)-Scott
no subject
Date: 2009-06-05 04:49 am (UTC)I am eager to see the Ria story when it is fit to be seen.
Oh, Pish.
Date: 2009-06-05 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-07 04:40 am (UTC)Re: Oh, Pish.
Date: 2009-06-07 04:58 am (UTC)The amount of fame and furor showered on writers in our culture really looks like a problem I could live with.
In some ways, I already miss the freedom I felt when I was writing to entertain only myself. Including professional gatekeepers in my imagined audience may make the revised product better, but so far it certainly doesn't make the process more fun.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-07 05:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-07 05:06 am (UTC)We're looking forward to seeing you and
Re: Oh, Pish.
Date: 2009-06-08 04:28 pm (UTC)