I was in a car in the Irish countryside a week before Christmas with some new acquaintances and it turned out we all had creative careers or side careers. I mentioned my romance novels, explaining it was early days yet and I had had only limited success with one publisher that ultimately led to a rejection. A minute or two later, my phone vibrated and I saw I had an email. The subject line was ‘Manuscript Request’!
As I always do, I first saw the feedback for suggested changes. In this case, they said I had too much exposition on the first page (which I knew) and could do with some more internal monologue (also not entirely unexpected – I go a bit overboard with ‘show don’t tell’ and then need to backtrack). But when I reread the email, it was actually rather nice. I need to record the positives for when I need them later:
- ‘Great tension’. *Virtual fist pump* Back of the net!!
- ‘Great meeting’. Boy did I work hard on that. Glad to know the end result worked and didn’t sound stilted.
- ‘Sparky dialogue’. This one’s my new mantra. I’m still glowing.
The biggest positive is that I get to work with Tess and Diego for a bit longer. I’m not quite done with them. After my rejection last time around, I’m determined to enjoy this stage. Even if it ends the same way, this is an accomplishment I’m going to celebrate.
Leonie Mack 