I’m digging into my agent revisions for A SHARPER DARK. This is my first time through the process, so I have exactly zero to compare it to, but I’m excited. I have a marked up copy of my manuscript filled with very specific comments, questions, and revisions, and a letter with some bigger ticket items – issues of structure and theme; kind of a list of things to think about while working through this pass of the book.
In other words, I have a lot of things to do.
I haven’t taken a creative writing class since college (a very long time ago), and I’m not part of a writer’s group or critique group. Other than the agents who were kind enough to ask for the full manuscript of ASD, exactly three other people have read even parts of the book as it stands now. Writing is a solitary process in the best of circumstances, and I took that to the extreme (my family doesn’t even know what the book is about), but I’m thrilled that this point the revision process is a little more “open” – it’s like I’ve finally turned on a light or thrown open a window on a dark and small room. It’s nice to hear (and read) what someone else sees in the work – to hear or read about what works and what doesn’t. While I was querying ASD I was fortunate enough to get some genuine and nice feedback from some great agents, but at times that feedback was contradictory, to say the least, and trying to make quality revisions to the book (in order to convince those agents it was worth taking on) felt like hitting a very fast moving target. Now that I’m working with Carlie I’m listening to only one clear voice, even if it’s not my own.
I’m still on the fence about how much sharing of my writing I want to do while in process. It’s hard for me to see writing a couple of chapters and then mass-blasting it to 4 or 5 people for their comments and critiques. Much like my experience with querying agents, there is a great chance the feedback will be well-intentioned but contradictory, and I imagine that a chorus of other voices might distract more than focus. I know that while I’m working away in the sweat shop of the first draft or two I don’t really want to hear anyone else. I’m in my own echo chamber, to be sure, but it’s my voice I want to hear anyway – I really need to hear the whispers of whatever pushed me to put pen to paper in the first place on a particular story. And until I’ve gotten to The End, that’s a comfortable, even if it’s a pretty quiet and solitary, place for me to be.
Leave a Reply