Last weekend I attended the Chicago Writers Association annual conference. Last year was my first time there, and I was super anxious beforehand. I worked on my website, including learning how to do make-up for a photoshoot. Returning there this year made me realize how much has changed in my life since then.
About a week before the conference last year, my father announced he was entering hospice. After the conference I visited him in Nashville, then went to California to visit family, including a newborn niece, then went back to Nashville in May for what turned out to be the last ten days of my dad’s life, then back to California to inter his ashes and celebrate his life.
Last March, though the agents and small presses I pitched my novel to expressed interest, I decided I wasn’t ready to formally query them. Not only was my dad dying, but I’d also just sent my manuscript to “beta readers,” and wanted to incorporate their feedback. I was also still working on finding good “comps” for my query letter—books published in the last 3-5 years whose readers would like my novel. I’ve read many a good story this past year, some of them while my father slept fitfully beside me or in the next room.
The same day my father died, there was a death at Arboretum Cohousing, where my step-kids both lived. Six weeks later, after an internal Arbco shuffle and some waffling on our part, our offer to purchase the resulting available condo was accepted. We moved in October, and have been adjusting to the new family configuration, building relationships with neighbors, and taking on leadership roles in the community. We’ve also been sorting and purging more stuff at our old house, preparing for renters who will arrive mid-April.
As we’ve revised our lives, I’ve been revising my novel draft. I’ve made many changes large and small since June, including:
- Ramping up the speculative ideation, external stakes, and antagonism
- Moving more ruminations into dialogue
- Moving some flashbacks into “real time” and vice versa
- Shortening the timeline of the story
- Changing the pacing by cutting many scenes and extending others
- Removing a minor character, extending another’s role, and clarifying some character and relationship arcs
- Changing the location of the ending and giving it more resolution
- Cutting from 105,000 to 90,000 words (the recommended maximum for a first-time novelist).
I did not make every change beta readers suggested, and some I attempted may fall short. I’m still struggling with how to work the beginning, and will get more feedback from fresh beta readers next week. On the whole, though, I’m very happy with the changes, and I agree with Lisa, my book coach from last June’s “Novel In Progress Bookcamp,” when she describes my latest draft as a more “svelte” story. The last 4,000 words I cut while reading the entire draft aloud to myself. This helped me catch many problems in addition to tightening and beautifying the language.
Thankfully, I was much less anxious at the Chicago conference this year. I did some preparation in the weeks before, but not a ton. My friend Karen and I scrambled to get there a day early because of an impending snowstorm, but then I had a day in the hotel in Chicago to continue preparing for my read-aloud and pitch. Conference sessions gave me a clearer picture of just how much the traditional publishing industry is “flailing” and how viable the alternatives have become. Despite this I decided to continue with my “Plan A,” that is, to start by looking for an agent, necessary for the big publishing houses and helpful for other reasons. Two of the three agents I spoke with invited me to send 10 pages, and this time, I sent them. So, though there are plenty more revisions to come, and I’m still puzzling the best comps to use, my querying has officially begun. Since many people who do find agents query 100 before they find a good fit, it’s good to get started.
Though my dad didn’t especially want to read my whole book, he did want me to finish it, and to succeed in publishing it. As we approach the first anniversary of his death, I am feeling how my own work, life, and choices are part of his legacy in large and small ways. Symbolically, I decided to implement one of the only suggestions he made on the few pages he read before he died: to change the protagonist’s husband’s name from Josh to Joshua. Two small letters that add two full syllables, changing the rhythm of every sentence where they appear—without adding to my word count : ).
“With practice we learn to hold a difficult paradox: We simultaneously are and are not our characters.”
– Living Revision: A Writer’s Craft as Spiritual Practice, by Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew
More svelt, Josh to Joshua, new locations … such a living, breathing, emerging piece of you!!
Wow. I had no idea how much goes into the writing and publishing process. Thank for sharing and wishing you success!
Looking at your past year in retrospect leaves me breathless! What a transformative time of transitions, Becca! I cannot help but believe that it, too, will effect your writing. The change from Josh to Joshua is a sweet tribute to your father, who will now be honored through your writing. I so admire how you have handled so much in this short passing of time.
What an astounding process this is Becca. You seem to be working mindfully with each part of your writing process. As I sit here wearing a sweatshirt of my deceased dad I am especially touched by your connection to him in your writing.
And I am so looking forward to going to A Room of One’s Own and buying your book to enjoy and savor when the time comes.