Thursday 9 June 2011

WILFUL (STUPID?) DETERMINATION

I have my first, very polite, rejection from one of the three agents who are currently considering Out of Time. Rejection is never pleasant, though I've definitely gotten used to it by now. So at least if I do have a bruise on my head from repeatedly banging my head against a wall, I've been doing it so long now that it seems normal. Which is probably the most positive thing I can say about it!

I have done some new writing lately, though not much on this blog. In the new novel, I've got 22,000 words beautifully polished, so far. The quality degenerates through the current 52,000 word total into segments that I hacked out of a previous version and shovelled into a heap ready for editing. This book, I should say, has seen forty agents (at least) in its previous incarnations. Two agents requested the full MS and in both instances rejected it - one within two days, the other in two weeks. The lesson I think is that in writing, patience, optimism and maybe a bit of wilful stupid determination is required.