I’ve finally started querying Moonrise Ink to agents. This basically means I’m emailing agents with a short summary of what my book is about in hopes that they will want to read the entire manuscript, and, if they love the entire manuscript, offer me representation. Some agents ask for a bit more than just a query, such as a synopsis and/or the first ten, twenty-five, or fifty pages of the manuscript. I love being able to include manuscript pages; it just gives me more of a chance to interest someone. Some agents even ask interesting questions like, “What would your main character say about your manuscript?” or “What is your favorite sentence from your manuscript?” It’s always fun to get an extra chance at being creative.

The hard part of querying, besides gathering the courage to press that send button in the first place, is the waiting. Agents get hundreds of queries a week, and, as you can imagine, it takes a lot of work to go through them all. And that’s on top of all the work they’re doing for their existing clients. Some agents even say on their websites, “If I do not respond within X weeks, you can assume I’m uninterested.” So this process could take some time.

And there is some good news. If you fail at a job interview, you must find somewhere else to work. If your manuscript fails to get you an agent, though, you can always write another manuscript. And, if you want to be a writer, that’s probably what you were planning on doing anyway. Exciting ideas are always flowing through your brilliant mind, right?

So, while I wait, I’m diving into some new projects. Like I said before, I’ve got the adult supernatural fantasy to be co-written with a friend. That still needs a lot of planning and plotting. And I think my next solo-written novel will be another middle grade fantasy, a bit darker in tone than Moonrise Ink. I am still plotting it out.

Anyway, wish me luck!

I’ve finished editing and retyping the second draft of my upper middle grade fantasy novel, Moonrise Ink! I’m now waiting for feedback from a few first readers. In the meantime, I’m researching potential agents to query and putting together my query letter. Actually, I started doing that a while ago because I’m impatient, but I’m doing it some more. *gasp* Not sure when I’ll start sending out queries, but it won’t be long. I’m excited to have finally gotten to this stage, but also terrified. *gulp*

I’m also plotting and fleshing out a number of ideas for my next projects, though I’m not exactly sure what they’ll be. I’ve got a young adult sci-fi and several more middle grade fantasy ideas, along with a potential adult supernatural fantasy to be co-written with a friend.

I’m going back and forth between being excited to start a new project and being sick with nervousness over whether or not I’ll find an agent with Moonrise Ink. Or maybe that’s just allergies.

ETA: I forgot to mention, the final wordcount of my second draft came to 78,900 words. That’s down from 105,400 words. So I was able to shave 26,500 words away. 78,900 words is still long for a middle grade novel, but that’s honestly as compact as I could get it.

Last week, I finally finished my first round of edits for the second draft of my first novel, Moonrise Ink. I did it by printing out the first draft and editing it with a pen, making pen marks all over every page and crossing out as much as I could, trying to get my bloated wordcount down. So now I have to type it all back up. I’ve only been at it for two days, and seem to be retyping about 10K words a day, so I expect to be done by the end of this week, or early next week. (I can’t be certain until I finish retyping, but my rough estimate is that I’ve cut about 30K words from the draft. That’s from 105K words down to 75K words. 75K words is still long for a middle grade fantasy, but it might be the best I can do at this stage.)

Near the end of this month or early next month, I expect I’ll begin my great agent search. I’m looking forward to it. If I fail to get an agent, I’ll write another book and try again. No pressure.

Just a small progress report. I’m still editing my first draft of Moonrise Ink. I’m currently on page 98 of 221. It’s quite a tedious task, but I’m trying to make sure every sentence is concise and contributes something to the scene. Many words, phrases, and sentences are being scribbled out. I’m also trying to make sure each scene focuses on what the characters want and what’s stopping them from getting it. After all, that’s what creates conflict.

This is harder than writing because I feel more emotionally distant from the story. I am purposefully looking for mistakes and weaknesses in my own writing. I’m not really trying to imagine what my characters are feeling; I’m trying to make sure I’m communicating something as concisely as I can. I don’t want awkward writing or too much information to stop a reader from feeling something. Does that make sense?

So, overall, I definitely enjoy writing more.

And I think plotting is still the greatest fun.

So basically the writing process gets less and less fun with each step:

1. Plotting! Rush of new ideas! Lots of daydreaming! Woohoo!
2. Writing. Daydreaming emotional experiences with the tediousness of finding the right words to describe them. Fun but difficult.
3. Editing. Ugh. Look at all this stuff that doesn’t work. Boring.

A couple days ago, I finally finished the first draft of my novel, Moonrise Ink! The first draft clocks in at 105,365 words. Of course, that wordcount will probably decrease as I work on a second draft. 105K words is a bit long for a middle-grade fantasy. Still, I don’t want to chop words for the mere sake of a shorter wordcount; it’s all about what the story needs.

So I’ll soon be working on a second draft. For now, though, I’m taking some time away from reading my own writing so I can see it with fresh eyes in a few weeks or so. In the meantime, I’m beginning to research the market, possible agents to query, and working on coming up with the best query letter I can.