An update on my manuscript...

Hiring a developmental editor, showing instead of telling, and why I use parenthesis so much

A few months ago I hired a developmental editor to go through my Women’s Fiction/Upmarket manuscript and help pinpoint why I was struggling to get agent attention. With only one partial request and about half a dozen rejections in a couple of months, I knew this was par for the course but also, it felt terrible. It was a huge ego hit for someone who genuinely thought they’d start querying in October and have an agent by the end of the year.

🤦‍♀️

Hiring this editor was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my writing career so far. Her feedback has been incredibly helpful, a humbling mix of kind words about the polished writing and commercial voice and concept, as well as the tough love I needed about my tendency to tell not show, and write in a passive voice. She also pointed out things I had no idea I was doing, like too many dialogue tags and my tendency to use parenthesis all the time. You have no idea how many parentheses I’ve had to take out of this one article alone!

At her advice, I’m taking the next month to absorb her feedback and play around with those techniques outside of my manuscript. It’s better to learn outside the MS, she said, rather than inside of it where you run the risk of working it to death and losing the freshness of your voice.

To do this, I’ve decided to write a collection of short stories that I can practice these techniques on. Right now the plan is to return to my MS in late January/early February and with any luck, I’ll be back in the querying trenches by late Summer / early Fall. I’m still so excited about this novel, and I can’t wait to share it with you.

Thanks for reading this far and I hope you enjoy the new collection!