I had been discouraged by the Summer of Rejection 2009, and had done what I thought was the sensible thing (and it was): I essentially laid aside the Frontier Team, stopped working on Book 2 because the agents who had seen the project hadn't been interested, and turned my energy to a new book, a project I love. Here is the one-line summary of that book: Food Fights: An Organic Revolution, about a girl’s War for Dietary Independence from her father’s food fad obsessions. The book is much more hip than the Frontier Team. I had been told by the Hip Agents I talked with that the Frontier Team was "too wholesome" for their lists. Well, this one is anything but wholesome... it actually promotes rebellion. I am enjoying the writing immensely, when I can get to it.
Anyhow, when the New Year turned, I realized that just because I wasn't working on the Frontier Team any more, and just because my new project would be so much more appealing to agents, didn't mean that I shouldn't keep, at least casually, trying to pursue agents for the Frontier Team. So I had lackadaisically been sending out queries, a couple every few weeks.
Well, a query that I sent out the second week of February just paid off: An agent from an old New York firm had read the first five pages and was interested in reading the full manuscript! Now, I had had fulls requested before, but only from agents I'd met in person, none from someone who had actually read the beginning and wanted more. So it looks promising, at least more promising than the rest. The agent's turnaround time is 8 weeks. If it takes that long for him to get back to me, it's likely that I'll have the Food Fights first draft ready by the time he is done.
This means that if life weren't busy enough, I'm now working head-down full-speed-ahead on the Food Fights manuscript... there is a conference in May that I want to attend in Boston if I don't hear back from this agent soon, and it would need to be ready by then. Last night I worked really hard and finished the outline, which is kind of complicated because each chapter title is an event in or aspect of the American Revolution, and metaphorically corresponds to the events in that chapter in the book. (Examples of chapter titles: 1. Lexington 2. Concord 3. The Olive Branch Petition 4. Common Sense 5. Declaration of Independence 6. Battle of Brooklyn 7. Crossing the Delaware ... all the way through Chapter 16, Treaty of Paris.)
So, I'll try to keep up here, especially about stuff the girls are doing, but I'm likely to be in Push Through and Ahead mode for the next couple of months.
And, frankly, any encouraging words would be welcome. What I'm trying to accomplish in the Food Fights book is kind of daunting. It's really ambitious. All kinds of themes and messages are being woven together while I'm keeping the pace and plot fast and the characters engaging... it's the kind of book that I hope kids will find something different in each time they read it. The kind that I'd like sixth grade teachers to assign as book report books because there's just so many nuggets of gold in there. The kind that speaks to both kids and adults and makes them think at the same time as enjoying the characters. The kind that wins the Newbery.
While I am hoping that the plan works, I am not positive it will. So I'm just focused on getting that Perfect First Draft done. (As Anne LaMott says, "Every first draft is a Perfect First Draft.) I have discovered that it's really easy to have my fiction writing enthusiasm squashed, especially when there are all kinds of other things I have to work on. Right now I need cheerleaders rather than skeptics. I love to edit, and I'm sure the second draft will be very different from the first draft, once I see how it all hangs together. But if I lose momentum, I won't have the first draft at all.
Momentum = mass times velocity
Hmmmm. Well, that gives me no insight at all. I'd hoped it would, but it didn't. I had to type it out first and see it there, and then know that I must edit it out.
Momentum = mass times velocity
See? The first draft is a Perfect First Draft. I'll never know how to edit if I don't get it on the page first.
Wish me luck.
1 comment:
I, for one, am looking forward to reading the completed book.
Is it Anne Lamott who also says that writing a novel is the trick of applying the butt to the chair, or was that someone else?
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