It's Away! What Now?

[dr_pretentious]

And now that the manuscript is safely gone and can't be called back, I'm free to nitpick myself half to death.

If only I'd had one more month, I could have knocked a hundred pages out of it without breaking a sweat.

With a little sweating, two hundred pages. Of course, two hundred pages shorter would still be too long for prevailing market conditions.

Current page count: 986

Everybody who's friended me who knows anything about the publishing industry is now gasping for breath, having spewed coffee on the computer screen in a combination of amusement, horror, and disbelief at the sight of that figure. With a manuscript that long, questions of quality are completely moot.

And that's Volume One after I cut the first book in half. The first draft of my original conception of Volume One was longer than that when I still had a third of the story left to tell, so this is an improvement. But, damn.

Have I done a word count of the current working draft? Why, no. If I thought too hard about a word count, I would weep.

When the Shiny Young Agent opens the box, she will take one look at the size of the manuscript, and then ship it back unread. I provided her with a prepaid shipping airbill for the purpose. Either she'll return it unread, or she'll have a heart attack over the length. Possibly, she'll have a heart attack from the exertion of trying to lift the box.

The current working draft weighs about three pounds more than my niece did when she was born.

Of course, the Shiny Young Agent has been warned that the book is too long, and that the second half of the working draft is still very rough. She knows, and she wanted it ASAP anyway. I keep reminding myself so. Dan keeps reminding me so. Lots of people do. I'll confess, I'm fishing for reassurance, but not about that. Wait for it.

Tried celebrating last night, and last night that kind of worked. Went to see Serenity with friends. (Joss Whedon giveth and Joss Whedon taketh away. Praised be the name of Joss Whedon.) Went out for a drink afterward. Talked like a pirate while seizing tables for our too-large group. Lovely, lovely. Yet, today, the sense of doom kicks in.

Submitting the poetry for publication never felt like this. My dissertation defense was harder, but that was due largely to the structural violence of the university. Certainly, the professors on my committee were enthusiastic partisans of my work, but the traditions accreted to the occasion were designed to inculcate terror. The Shiny Young Agent is not interested in inculcating terror, is instead cordial and encouraging. Can't blame anybody for the sense of doom, unless it's me.

So, a question for those of you who've sent your novels out into the world before, especially if you've done it more than once: Is this normal?

Anyhow, there are five short stories that all want me to write them right now. There's the short prequel to outline before Nanowrimo starts in November. The one thing I can't do is tinker with the manuscript I've just sent out until I hear back from the Shiny Young Agent.

So tomorrow, I roll up my sleeves, put up my hair, and get back to work.

Comments

[calene.livejournal.com]

So, a question for those of you who've sent your novels out into the world before, especially if you've done it more than once: Is this normal?

It's normal for me. I've felt the doom for every single query, partial, or full I've sent out. Hell, when I sent the new book out to the agent fellow the other week, I still felt the doom. It has lessened over the years, but it's still there. *shrugs* Of course, I send out every submission expecting a rejection. That's just part of how I protect myself from the sting of getting one.

Best of luck on this! It's tough, but you can do it. And it seems like your off to a good start by diving back into writing other things. *hugs*

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Even if we're flukes, we're not lonely flukes.

[twoeleven.livejournal.com]

effusive, exuberant, and effervescent congratulations!

now, when do i get my copy of the precious? we must serve the mistress of the preciousss! we must, we must! :)

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Tonight or tomorrow. I had to send Vol1Pt2Ch10 out without ever having read the whole chapter straight through in one sitting. Some of the gaps got filled as late as 4pm Friday. So today, I read the whole thing over. It's got some structural problems and some sentence-level infelicities, but some of the scenes play well. Anyhow, I need to enter the changes for the little hiccups, and then you'll have three big chapters coming your way. Over 100 pages. The last thing you saw was Laurebes at En Tangur Brei's ritual grave-robbing party, right? Or did you get the Vaia chapter in which she tries to sue herself in Guild Court? I know you got the Battle of Lizard Rock, but after that, my memory gets fuzzy.

[twoeleven.livejournal.com]

the last bit i have is the grave robbing.

i'd rather you send me a whole chunk (either or both parts), as what i've got is already blue-lined, and i'd like to start fresh. that'll make it easier for you to figure out my comments on the current draft.

i'm also a little worried about version skew. there aren't any internal dates in either of the sections i have of pt2, but i got the first five chapters on 16 feb, and the sixth and further on 21 mar. my blue-lining is dated 30 may, but i haven't the faintest idea if you did anything with it.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

All your bluelining is saved in the Dave folder, a place of many treasured things, which I revisit whenever I begin a new sweep of revisions. Part 2 hasn't had a new sweep since your last round of comments, but I'll be rereading them, annotating them, and keeping them to hand while I mark up the ms, once the agent gets back to me with whatever she has to say. Whenever your comments come in, they percolate in my head with whatever other step I'm on, too. Your comments on the Sondliet chapters in Volume Two Part One had a lot to do with the battle scenes now in Volume One Part Two, and with the way I reworked the introduction of the naval characters in Volume One Part One, in the 2nd draft of the ms.

In any case, I haven't made any big changes to the events or characters in the bits of Vol1Pt2 that you've marked up since last you saw them, though I think you'll see your fingerprints on the exposition, especially about Hasilra's reforms to Beltresin military doctrine.

The major version skew is all ahead of us. Parts 3 and 4 of Vol 1 are really ungainly. The incidents and characters are pretty stable, but a lot of the scenes are in need of a total overhaul in terms of POV, and I put a lot of backstory in as it came to me, just to have somewhere for it to go before I forgot it, without any expectation on my part that I'd ship the draft around before I'd had the chance to move those things.

So, a whole new iteration of Part 2, in Word documents, by email tomorrow. Sound good?

And, again, thanks for the scotch. Haldur's deflection of Larintul owes a great deal to it.

[shakti-lemaris.livejournal.com]

Heh. Had to look up "inculcate."
You're so good for me on so many levels.
Shiny Young Agent is going to love it.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Thanks, dear one!

How's the elemental project coming?

[shakti-lemaris.livejournal.com]

Better. I'm actually doing some writing. Not as much as I wish I could, but it's a start. I'm part of a small writer's group that meets every three weeks just to share and encourage. It's been really good for me.

[oaktavia.livejournal.com]

ROFLMAO
I had to look it up too...

and then laughed even more uproariously!
(sounds like a "Lisa" descriptive word if I've ever heard one LOL)

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

I just read the chapter, which cheered me up no end, even with poor Haldur's Awful News. Shiny New Agent would have to be a moron not to love it. So there.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't know. One of the old friends who found it hard to love a first draft still gave me the very astutue feedback that he wanted all the characters to be "about fifteen percent more vivid." I might have been happier for about five minutes if he'd liked the draft as it was, but every day after that, I would have been less effective, had I not held that phrase up to myself as a standard to meet. No moron, that one. Maybe the Shiny Young Agent will bless me with rejection. Sometimes that happens.

The thing that really bums me out is the thought that the things I actually am doing right won't matter, simply because I did too many of them over the course of too many pages. I wouldn't mind so much being rejected on the merits of the case, but marketability not reducible to merit.

[reynaud.livejournal.com]

Well, I suppose I could do a simple calculation as to the word count.

As for SYA, she HAS been warned and I will bet she has seen monster manuscripts before, especially considering the size of some of the books out there. If she thinks it'll need weeding, I'm sure she'll tell you.

You might actually start thinking of doing that cutting even now.

And, by the way; Yay! It's done and out! Good luck.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the kind wishes!

There are a couple of standard ways to do word count. Most word processors will do it automatically. But because fiction often involves lots of dialogue, shorter paragraphs than non-fiction, etc., some presses insist on an arcane, pain-in-the-ass character count estimation method that word processors don't do, and that gets a substantially different answer for the same document. But that's a problem for another day. Even if the agent offered to represent me tomorrow, there would still be so many changes to make to the ms before it got shipped around, it wouldn't make much sense to do the count until after the cuts. If she turns me down and I have a chance to make the cuts before trying another agent, it'll make sense to sort out my word count before querying elsewhere.

I've thought about jumping in and making the cuts now, because some of them seem pretty obvious to me. (Forty-page-long parade that served only to sort out exposition for my personal benefit? GONE!) But she may be able to tell me what to play up or play down to make the book more marketable, and I want to allow for the probability that she knows things I don't.

[reynaud.livejournal.com]

As for the word count: Now that just seems wierd. I kind of assume they do that so they have some idea how many pages they'll need to print ... but why they need a character count estimation is bizarre. Especially as some word processors will give you an accurate character count as well. Personally, I was just going to go with the simple "200-250 words/page" model and multiply...

As for the cuts: A forty page long parade?! Gah!

As for the SYA knowing more than you: Blasphemy!

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

Well, yay. I say again.

I would like to see short stories. They'd probably also go well in the "getting readers to actually know you exist" niche.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

That thought had occurred to me.

When you say you'd like to see short stories, do you mean, actually see them? Because that could be arranged.

[oaktavia.livejournal.com]

Yes Yes Yes Yes!!!!!
would LOVE to see short stories!!!

hey, if SYA doesn't like it they need to read an "Agents for Dummies" book!

You ROCK sweetie!
Congrats!!!!

[writersweekend.livejournal.com]

It's normal.

May the force be with you.

[skyefyr.livejournal.com]

Stop being so hard on yourself. Shiny New Agent would have to be a complete and utter moron not to fall in love with it.

Have I mentioned lately how absolutely amazing I think you are?

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

Woooooo-hoooooo!

Blare the trumpets!

Rejoice!

We will do it together on your behalf, since your nervousness is completely normal.

Love you, oh many-talented, amazing woman!