Writing Journey #7 – What Next?

 

“Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.” ― Ovid

Persistence. Perseverance. Those two words had to be the ones I needed most along my writing journey. I could believe I had some talent at putting words together. I could string enough together to make a story. I had even managed to string 70,000 or so words together to write a book. Luck is always handy too. I’d had luck or perhaps good fortune is a better way to express it when I had pointed at a name at random in that long list of agents in the Literary Market Place book I’d poured over in the library. I had enough sense to explore the proper way to send a query to an agent. I was thrilled when that agent wrote back and said she wanted to see more.

That didn’t mean that my book was going to be published tomorrow. Or in this particular case, ever, although I have thought about seeing if I can find a copy of it to see if the idea was good enough to try again. All so many years ago now. But I was encouraged by the interest of an agent and given a shot of perseverance. If this particular book couldn’t find a publishing home, the next could. Or so I dreamed. Meanwhile I was getting plenty of practice at putting words together. I was still selling a short piece to a magazine now and again. More shots of encouragement. More reason to persevere. But then there was that pesky but…

I finished my cattle drive story, set in Texas as best I remember. I, naturally enough, though it was a good story. I packed it up in a box and sent it off to this new agent who had liked my first novel enough to take me on as a client. She hadn’t found a publisher for the story. I’m not sure she even sent it out. I can’t remember getting any rejects for it. Perhaps that first novel merely was my door to having an agent which the writing articles I was reading said I needed. No, not just needed but had to have.

Keep in mind this was many years ago and things have changed in the publishing world. Then an agent was your ticket to getting your novel read by an editor instead of having to be part of the slush pile on said editor’s desk. That’s not to say editors did not find gems in those slush piles. It was more that they didn’t have the time to sift through the piles of manuscripts sent in by hopeful writers like me. The agent was then, and still is today, the gatekeeper. If the agent, a professional judge of writing, had read a manuscript and thought it worthy of publication, then the editors were more likely to give the manuscript a look. Agents also knew then, and now as well, what kind of books a particular editor or publishing house might be looking for. Of course, there are those stories of editors and publishing houses taking a chance on a story that became a massive bestseller after the book had been rejected many times by other publishers.

That didn’t happen, the massive bestseller part,  to my first book or any of my books. But at the beginning of a writing journey, hopes can lift you high. Sometimes  it can be hard to hang onto those high hopes. But I still had them when I packed up that second novel and sent it off to my agent. Just being able to write my agent at the time was reason for hope.

My two older kids knew I was writing books. They sensed my desire for success. We lived back a lane from the road where they got off the bus. If the weather was good, they walked the about a quarter of a mile to our house. The mailbox was down at the end of our gravel lane. At the time, our house was the only house up the lane. We had opened up a deserted county road and made it our lane. Later on, when more people built houses across from us, the county took over maintenance of the road and the mail started coming back the lane. I do have a reason for telling you all this. But then it was a good walk down to the mailbox.

One of those days, a month of so after I’d sent off my cattle drive story, the kids (11 and 9) came up the lane bringing the mail, including a big brown envelope or box from my agent. The kids were smiling, excited since they believed that getting something from my agent had to be good. It wasn’t. My agent had sent the manuscript back. I found my journal entry to jog my memory although I didn’t need a memory jog for the first remark. She wrote that “the characters were too shallow – the plot too involved.”  Saying my characters were shallow hit hard. She didn’t suggest I rewrite and resubmit. It was a flat rejection. I wrote in my journal. “I’ve really fallen on my face this time. …I spent hours and hours and hours working with Carrie. (Obviously my main character’s name although I only know that from seeing it in the journal.) For what? What next? Give up and shove it away? I can’t just give up.”

“All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” ― Samuel Beckett

I didn’t give up. Of course, you know that. I was already researching a historical romance as my agent had suggested after she read my first story. I gave much consideration in my writing journal to rewriting the rejected novel, but instead I decided to continue with the new story that had taken over my thoughts with new possibilities for new characters that I hoped would not be shallow. I decided to try again and if I failed again to hope I failed better as Samuel Beckett suggests in his quote.

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.” ― Randy Pausch

I had hit my first brick wall. I had received plenty of rejections for my articles and short stories, but this rejection from my agent after my hopes had risen so high was somehow worse. It was a brick wall. I had to find perseverance to believe I could make it over that brick wall and keep writing. Really, it was never really a choice. Stringing words together to make stories was part of who I was. What I am.

So what next? I’ll share more about that in my next writing journey post.

Audio Book Sale

Meanwhile, if you like audio books or think you might give one a try, Audio Books has a 50% off sale going for The Song of Sourwood Mountain. You can find the promotion here.

Book Giveaway

And one more thing. Since some of you are patiently reading all my Writing Journey memories, I want to reward you with the chance to win one of my autographed books. To throw your name in my giveaway drawing hat, just leave a comment on my blog post. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your thoughts about the value of persistence or perseverance, that would be great too. I have no idea how many more writing journey posts I’ll write. It’s been more than I thought about when I started down this journey road already. So, the deadline for this giveaway will be midnight EST August 23, 2025. I’ll pick two winners who will win their choice of one of my books. One of my published books. You must be at least 18 years old to enter but no special hoops to jump through except some sort of comment on this post. Then, if you comment on future writing journey posts in the next couple of weeks, you’ll get another entry each time.

Thanks for reading. You all make posting here fun. The creek picture was the best I could come up with for this post (you know water dripping on that rock) since I didn’t have a picture of my kids lugging that rejected book up the lane to the house. I did manage to smile back at them instead of cry when I saw it, because I knew it wasn’t good news.