About a year or so ago, I finished writing my first novel for kids, and it remains unpublished. I put it aside, because my last contact with an editor suggested rewriting it in first person.
After three years trying my best to make this novel publishable, I realized I’m not a novelist. Some people might say I should have known before I even started that I wasn’t a novelist, but I tend to be a little naive when it comes to my own limitations. I have always believed if you put your all into something, with enough practice, education, and dedication it’s possible to achieve anything. But sometimes there comes a point when you have to make a decision what is more important – achieving a certain goal at all costs, or staying true to yourself. With this novel, I had decided it was more important to stay true to myself. I have had the manuscript critiqued at several writing workshops, and there was actually some interest from an agent at a serious New York agency, and an editor at one of the major New York publishers. But the manuscript didn’t quite measure up to their standards in the long run. It has several strikes against it. It’s not fantasy, it’s set in the future, which technically makes it science fiction. It’s not typical science fiction. The editor described it as a quiet story, which places another mark against it. There are so many strikes against this novel that I don’t believe any publisher would want to take a chance on it. There just doesn’t seem to be any room for this type of book on the shelves of bookstores.
Now that NaNoWriMo has started, I find myself thinking about writing again. I’ve decided I’m not interested in completely rebuilding this novel to make it fit on bookstore shelves. But I would like to revisit the story. I have ideas on what I’d like to do with it, and I think I would enjoy spending a little time every day working on it. So, I’ve decided to dedicate 15 minutes a day to rewriting this novel. Thanks so much to all the NaNoWriMo participants for getting me motivated again!
On a separate note, a couple of days ago I received a message from Janece that she had left something for me on her blog. To my surprise it was the 7×7 Link award. I need to put some thought into this one. I’m really honored she decided to include me in her list of 7 blogs! I feel so fortunate to have found such a nice community here on WordPress.
