Cutting Up

2017 meant the start of querying my new adult novel. I sent out query letters to eight agents in the beginning of January, and now after two rejections — one automated and the other personal, I’m starting over. Mostly by cutting down my novel.

I rushed the querying process. This is the novel I primarily wrote in 2013 and been sporadically giving it attention since then mostly due to my demanding career. I want to get it out the door. With upping my novel intake in 2015, I’ve been reading acclaimed books by youngish authors who obviously remained focused. I want to be a part of the group, too. I stopped querying after I realized my word count may still be too long for a new adult novel at 97,000 words.

These acclaimed novels look like they overstepped acceptable word counts for specific genres because they took longer to devour, so I thought maybe I could get away with the same thing. Then after realizing the silent rejections, I looked back at the document and thought maybe the word count scared agents as well as the lack of a good title. 

While I’m still working on a title, I decided to cut chunks out. Since it’s in first person, the character’s stream of consciousness went on too long a lot. It’s an issue other reviewers have told me, so I had cut it before, But now with reading more and studying the way authors write, I noticed there was too much explaining or commenting on inaction rather than keeping it simple with the action. 

The character would say something along the lines “I kept it blunt” when she said little in an awkward situation. But her words spelled out she kept it blunt, so it didn’t need to be actually said after her quotes. Taking a break away from the novel has definitely helped with self-editing. 

Now with my novel severed at parts with more severing to come to get it down to at least 85,000 words, I hope I can get back to querying with some success. Thanks to the Writer’s Digest “Guide to Literary Agents 2017″ I bought a few weeks ago, my success rate is zero, and it could be higher with several agents asking for work at a time. I’m trying to get on that level.