You know that partial manuscript requested by an agent earlier this summer? The one I've been waiting to hear back about with fingers crossed? Well, I heard back. She rejected me.
BUT wait! There's more!
It was the best rejection letter ever. She said my "writing is very good" and I "capture real life situations well," even explaining which part of a supporting character's story she liked especially. Best of all, she gave me usable criticism regarding what caused her to turn it down. Now, this is a woman with invaluable experience in the industry, a woman who has guided many authors into and through successful careers. This letter was a personal gold mine of information for me, and more than that, validation by someone who knows her stuff that I can write.
!!!!!!
Don't think I've gone completely off the deep end here. Would it have been better if she'd read the first three chapters and picked up the phone immediately to have me send the rest because she couldn't sleep until she knew what happened? Um, YEAH, that is the dream. She may not have been that excited by what I wrote, but she gave me hope that one day soon another agent WILL. Yep, I can write.
Hot diggity.
So for the foreseeable future my mission is to figure out how to write a good synopsis (so the next agent doesn't think the dead body turns the story in a completely different direction) and to take a good look at my heroine and see if I can make her a little more likeable, a little closer to the beginning. That doesn't sound too daunting, right? Well, except for the synopsis. That's a nail-biter.
Who's Snoopy-dancing with me?
