posted
just got turned down by an agent for whom I had high hopes. Her comments, basically, were: Nice characters and development, it lags and needs cut, the ending didn't "wow" me.
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ooh! A place to bang my head. *BANG,BANG,BANG*
Maybe that will knock together the nuerons that will take the countless magnificent stories swimming around in my head, and arrange them into a format in which I can express them into prose that will not be rejected time and time again.
I feel your pain.
Keep writing. It is what we do. Submit it elswhere...until there is nowhere else to submit it to. By then we will have evolved into slightly better writers and will no doubt have other stories to cry over.
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Keep writing? You mean I was supposed to do something BEFORE the head-banging? And I thought I was already a pro at that...
Posts: 406 | Registered: Mar 2007
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Sounds like a good title for a story: Day Job. This is reserved for Deb (unless she bequeaths it to me).
Posts: 746 | Registered: Jun 2007
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But don't give up!!! Maybe taking another look at the ending and trying something different will strengthen your story. I thought the positive comments the agent gave were really great. And hey, you just got free feedback from a professional. Your edit and/or next story is surely going to WOW someone!!!
posted
I'd bang my head, but I'm on the outs over any number of common customs in the publishing world. And this looks like another one looming up. Isn't an agent supposed to sell stories, rather than offer literary criticism?
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
I feel for you, but the fact you got an agent to look at your work and comment is a major feat in itself. My advice, look at the work again, with the agent's thoughts in mind. If you agree with them, make the changes that might fix it and submit to another agency, or even the same one if they left the opening. If you don't agree, submit to another agency anyway. As writers that is all we can do. Remember an agent's opinion is just that his/her thoughts, it doesnt make it gospel. But I would look seriously at what he/she said and consider it, sometimes as writers we are too attached and can't see beyond our thoughts.
posted
Yeah its good to remember that in the end, all this stuff largely boils down to opinion/taste. Finding the right person is key. I've read your work a bit, I'd say its just a matter of time and finding the right people and markets and all.
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Oh, it sucks because my pride and ego are hurt - I was trying to decide what my vanity plates would say. And then, of course, there is the fact that she was rejecting it for reasons that had begun to occur to me as well. Which means take it apart and rewrite it, or give it a nice funeral. After a couple of days moping, I'm thinking I'm going to rewrite it the way it should be - or at least, the best way I can now. Because a normal, sane person would just stop. So, If I keep going, in spite of a rejection, and actually learn something from it. . . .
[This message has been edited by debhoag (edited July 04, 2008).]
posted
Deb, it does hurt when they don't recognize our obvious brilliance.
Believe me, I know. I've been rejected by some of the best agents in the business. If you can see how to improve it, that's good. Don't give up on it. And remember, there are a lot of agents out there.
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