A Writer's Notebook, Day One-Hundred-Twenty-One
The workshop this morning was very positive. Essentially, the play is in place, with the new ending needing a slight tweak, but otherwise the story is working. The main issue is still to cut more. At the moment, it is running way over, but it was suggested that half a page might be sufficient. Finding those cuts at this point is getting a bit more challenging, but it is not impossible.
My mind isn't really focused on that at the moment, though, as tomorrow morning I have my meeting with the agent, and am hoping to get some guidance about the next steps to take with my novel. While she did state that it was well-written, the first and most essential question is whether it would benefit me to do more work on the manuscript.
It may well be that the book is in need of work on some level, and I am glad to resume work on it if that is needed. But it may be that she feels the book is ready for an agent, but it just needs the right agent. In either case, I am hoping that I might be able to get some advice on next steps. If the book isn't ready, I may need help from an editor or similar to give me a new perspective. It if it is ready, the question is who should I be submitting to.
I have other questions beyond that, of course, but I think getting those answers will be essential. There is, of course, one other issue that I will need to address first and that is to attain just how much of the book she actually read. I believe, from her emails, that she completed the manuscript, but it was not explicit, and I don't wish to make that assumption.
At the same time, I know that if she did finish it, that is significant, as an agent won't usually dedicate their time to a book they know they aren't going to represent. For her to have read the whole piece means she felt it was compelling on some level and that it does work in some way, in spite of what is missing from the book.
If she didn't finish it, of course, that does change my perspective a bit, but the point is to know. I am fairly optimistic, for some reason, based on some of what is in the email, which seems to suggest she did complete the book, at least to me. I may find that the call tomorrow is very supportive and positive, and that she genuinely did feel the book was great but didn't connect with it on some level.
On the other hand, she may not have much advice for me, in terms of the specifics. Their are not any agents I have found who are specifically looking for experimental literature, so it may be that I need to just knock on a lot of doors. In the end, I don't really know what to expect, but I am very eager to get a chance to ask some of these questions and to get the perspective of a professional who has familiarity with the work directly.
As well, I am expecting to review my query pitch, and doing that with someone who has read the book is likely to be very helpful. While I don't want to misrepresent the book, I know that I can do harm by including too much about the experimental qualities. I don't know if it is worse to weave them into the pitch, or to allowing the book to speak for itself on the front. In the end, the only point is for the pitch to make the agent read the book. Knowing that the book is experimental, it may be useful to not mention that fact, or it may be considered a misrepresentation.
Anyhow, it is getting late and the meeting is quite early, so I am going to bed. I will try to get on early in the day with an update after the meeting, if I have some time.
My mind isn't really focused on that at the moment, though, as tomorrow morning I have my meeting with the agent, and am hoping to get some guidance about the next steps to take with my novel. While she did state that it was well-written, the first and most essential question is whether it would benefit me to do more work on the manuscript.
It may well be that the book is in need of work on some level, and I am glad to resume work on it if that is needed. But it may be that she feels the book is ready for an agent, but it just needs the right agent. In either case, I am hoping that I might be able to get some advice on next steps. If the book isn't ready, I may need help from an editor or similar to give me a new perspective. It if it is ready, the question is who should I be submitting to.
I have other questions beyond that, of course, but I think getting those answers will be essential. There is, of course, one other issue that I will need to address first and that is to attain just how much of the book she actually read. I believe, from her emails, that she completed the manuscript, but it was not explicit, and I don't wish to make that assumption.
At the same time, I know that if she did finish it, that is significant, as an agent won't usually dedicate their time to a book they know they aren't going to represent. For her to have read the whole piece means she felt it was compelling on some level and that it does work in some way, in spite of what is missing from the book.
If she didn't finish it, of course, that does change my perspective a bit, but the point is to know. I am fairly optimistic, for some reason, based on some of what is in the email, which seems to suggest she did complete the book, at least to me. I may find that the call tomorrow is very supportive and positive, and that she genuinely did feel the book was great but didn't connect with it on some level.
On the other hand, she may not have much advice for me, in terms of the specifics. Their are not any agents I have found who are specifically looking for experimental literature, so it may be that I need to just knock on a lot of doors. In the end, I don't really know what to expect, but I am very eager to get a chance to ask some of these questions and to get the perspective of a professional who has familiarity with the work directly.
As well, I am expecting to review my query pitch, and doing that with someone who has read the book is likely to be very helpful. While I don't want to misrepresent the book, I know that I can do harm by including too much about the experimental qualities. I don't know if it is worse to weave them into the pitch, or to allowing the book to speak for itself on the front. In the end, the only point is for the pitch to make the agent read the book. Knowing that the book is experimental, it may be useful to not mention that fact, or it may be considered a misrepresentation.
Anyhow, it is getting late and the meeting is quite early, so I am going to bed. I will try to get on early in the day with an update after the meeting, if I have some time.
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