: Re: When do you stop "pushing" a book? Let's suppose you have finished your novel, through all the appropriate stages of drafting and editing needed. You begin submitting the book to various agents

Answer: You stop when you are ready to stop. You begin again when you wish to begin. New agents come on the scene every month or two. New publishers too.

Part of the answer, which complements the excellent existing answers, is to assess what you are gaining from the experience. You might be learning through the process, and this may be valuable in and of itself. If you hit a point where you are no longer learning but only suffering, it might be time to stop.

Another suggestion, which you haven't mentioned doing in your case, is to read more of the sort of books you are attempting to 'sit next to' on the shelf. Someone asked me a few days ago if I'm trying to do what Michael Crichton has done in his books. Hadn't occurred to me that way, but if I were trying to do what he has done, then I would look at my manuscript side-by-side with his books and ask myself where are the differences? Is his pacing tighter? His descriptions more unique? his stakes higher? His command of language better? his story structure easier to follow? Is he more emotional in his writing than I am?

I used to roll my eyes when people suggested reading more, but I don't anymore, because as we learn to read as writers, it becomes more and more valuable to analyze what sells. Reading works. In part because books that sell often do all of the things we are 'supposed to avoid' such as using adverbs and peppering in god-awful long sentences of sixty-seven words, half of which are unneeded or perhaps were only added for fluorish, and the other half of which may actually move the narrative along but you can't sort the one from the other because all you know by the time you reach the end of the sentence is that that was one hell of a lot of words. :-) And so, read more, and see if there are things your writing lacks that are present in published work. I bet there are (for all of us, including those of us who may have published.).

Load Full (0)

: I once had a story set in a future setting and my protagonist was an African American teen. In his introduction scene, he and his friend are discussing the school's upcoming production of

@LarsenBagley300

Load Full 0 Comments

: When can characters be reused? Can one legally include a reference to, or an appearance of, a character from an existing work of fiction? How much of that character can be used? What makes

@LarsenBagley300

Load Full 2 Comments

: What are the components of a legend (in the sense of a tale, not a figure legend)? I'm compiling in-world legends for my built world, and would like them to feel like established legends from

@LarsenBagley300

Load Full 4 Comments

: So there are three things I take into consideration: Is the singer going to be a part of the story? If not than I try to look for songs that are 5-10 years older than the current

: Re: When do you stop "pushing" a book? Let's suppose you have finished your novel, through all the appropriate stages of drafting and editing needed. You begin submitting the book to various agents

More posts by @LarsenBagley300

: I once had a story set in a future setting and my protagonist was an African American teen. In his introduction scene, he and his friend are discussing the school's upcoming production of

: When can characters be reused? Can one legally include a reference to, or an appearance of, a character from an existing work of fiction? How much of that character can be used? What makes

: What are the components of a legend (in the sense of a tale, not a figure legend)? I'm compiling in-world legends for my built world, and would like them to feel like established legends from

: So there are three things I take into consideration: Is the singer going to be a part of the story? If not than I try to look for songs that are 5-10 years older than the current

Login to post a comment!

0 Comments

Back to top