another update on novel

in my last post, i explained that after having “completed” my novel late last year and spending months querying agents, i was given a blessing — told by an agent that in order for her to consider representing me and the novel, it would need to beefed up considerably. she didn’t tell me how many words to add, just that its word count at the time — about 43k — wasn’t something she felt she could sell to publishers.

so i wrote a foundational subplot that i’d already given significant thought but assumed i wouldn’t write unless/until drafting a sequel or prequel (sounds presumptive, i know, but the manuscript, despite its small word count, felt full enough). it took me two months to write this, then another six weeks on revisions and editing, and as always, the both processes led to many discoveries within the story and outside of it, and huh wouldn’t ya know it, it’s a much better book now, and while it’s still on the briefer side relative to its primary genre, it is much more substantive at approximately 55k words.

this time i’m going the competition route first — to see if it might get long- or shortlisted or even place. if i’m fortunate enough for that to happen, it should at the very least open some doors to agents looking for similar material. the dream is it places, i meet an agent i wouldn’t have met otherwise, and it leads to a partnership and eventual publishing deal.

i’ll start querying again toward the end of summer. i’m incredibly hard on myself, but i’m excited to have written this. sometimes i can’t believe it lol. a lot of it feels like stuff i stumbled into, but that’s the creative process in a nutshell, i suppose. i’ve never been more confident about it eventually getting in front of strangers. i think i’ll have an agent agreement by the end of this year, and i think it won’t be much longer after that a publishing deal has been met. i’m not the fantastical, irrational type at all — i’m literally the opposite — but this time i’ve got a feeling, one might say.

anyway, keep ya updated.