Wow! where did the days go? I could have sworn that only 2 days had passed since i was last on here...ah well.
So I am getting ready to submit my first story. It's a children's chapter book and it is intended for 6-9 year olds. An early reader kind of thing. Something that might be offered in one of those take-home-and-order flyer things that kids get at school.
There is SO much fact checking to complete before choosing an agent! And most don't want anything to do with children's work..unless its akin to Harry Potter or The Golden Compass or its a picture book. But most things inbetween...good luck!! Few agents want to represent.
So I signed up for this SCBWI regional conference. And I paid my extra $35 to get a one-on-one meeting with an editor, agent, or book doctor/published author. I figured I had a captive audience, private time, and something to look at. Then I realized that they didn't want my genre (early readers/chapter books). Of course! Makes sense, since that was what I had written...grr.
So what's a girl to do? Change the story line! Turn it into a picture book! Take 3000 words out and add illustrations. Halfway through the script it was clear I was going to need a total of 2500 words to tell my story. At least 1000 words too many. Okay, back to drawing board, as it were.
Next I decided to turn it into a Middle Grade Novel. About 20,000. Now I just needed to add 15,000 words to my story. All right. That's fine. Write a synopsis for it, send in the first chapter (only allowed 1200 words anyway!), and call it a day. So I did.
Then my husband starts grilling me on the synopsis; telling me it doesn't make sense. "It doesn't need to make sense," I tell him. "Ignore the synopsis. I just want someone to look at my work. I don't care if they like the synopsis. At this point I just want a pat on the back or someone to tell me I have no talent." "But I don't understand xxxxx." Grrr. What is there to not understand? The story is essentially the same, but there are now more characters and an adventure that the kids need to go on to solve the puzzle. Is this my best work? No. It's not. But I only found out about the conference 4 days before the submission deadline for the one-on-one meetings. I had to rush and I'll just explain it to them. There's two versions of the story. One is detailed in the synopsis layout and one is detailed in the chapter. Again...I just want the pat on the back.
Maybe I have no talent for this and I should just let it go.
So, Hubby comes to me over the weekend and says, in front of a friend no less, that I should stop waiting for the conference (which is still 6 weeks away) and submit the effing story. Its good as is and my waiting around is just proof that I am afraid of success. WHAT?!? Where did that come from?
And as the stomach continues to turn, I have spent the day researching and fact checking agents to see if they represent my genre and I am working on the danged query letter. I will submit it this week, I told him. Do I go ahead with the conference anyway? Not sure.
In the meantime, my 3 year old is bored with me always writing and is DYING to have friends and school and he won't have that until September...I need to get him into school or get a babysitter so I can devote time to this shite, instead of ignoring him or getting up every 10 minutes to do something for him...but that takes money and I don't want to spend it.
ARRRGH!
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