The Beginning of the End

Living in Canada means living with weather. When I lived in Toronto, there were ways to ignore it, but when I moved to Grey County, I soon realized there was no denying winter as it piled outside my door. I did learn to embrace it through: snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and eventually hockey. And I also learned there was no better time for a writer than in the depths of winter. And then there was that pandemic. For us introverts, it was a perfect time for writing.

Slowly things are opening up, or maybe I’m slowly opening up. Sometimes, I feel like I’m crawling out of a dark cave, adjusting to the light, checking out the horizon. And it’s not just covid, but my daughters have just come of age, so I’m also waking from the world of intense parenting—at least it felt intense! Obviously, the job doesn’t end here, but the duties are less time-consuming.

And I’m also coming out of a long period of editing my novel, getting it ready to submit. And as close to the end as it’s seemed, the finish line keeps getting moved back. Al-most-there-just-a-bit-more-to-do. I’d printed off a copy and read through and made edits before handing it to other friends to read.

While it was out being read, I got to work on my submission package: query letter, pitch, synopsis, website, dam fine first pages. I had originally thought I would start submitting last November, but then I wasn’t ready, so I said January, but then I hadn’t done my synopsis and oops, what about getting my website up-to-date. And I want to get this just right. I don’t want to blow my only chance with these people.

That bought me another day, and then I finally pushed the submit button April 2^nd. It’s only one and I have a few more I want to send, but the pressure for perfection is intense. I must have complete silence! And enough time to check my work a bazillion times.

And the comments came back from my readers: more edits, especially those dam fine first pages, the ones that will make or break this novel, the ones that the whole thing is riding on! I could put off submitting forever. I know you’re supposed to wait until everything is perfect: Don’t submit too soon. But then there’s dragging it out, inching toward the moment. I had to make a decision, something achievable: I would be ready to submit by the beginning of April.

March was coming to an end and I’d set my sights on getting those first 50 pages, dam fine—have I mentioned that?—but, by March 31^st, I wasn’t done those first fifty. But I was done the first 25! I just had to pick an agent that didn’t ask for more in the initial submission. But I wasn’t quite comfortable with my query going out on April first, didn’t want to jinx it with any mention of fools.

 Meanwhile, I’m still working on those comments on my “final draft”, but submitting is a long process. It can take months to hear back, if ever. I’ll keep editing while I’m submitting, because, in reality, it’s never done. But at some point, it’s time to step out into the world. It’s scary, I might get it wrong, but if I don’t start, I’ll never know.

 Resources:

Those that have gone before! My Writers group, the fine blogging on this site, are always a wealth of information and have led me to some of the following invaluable resources.

• The Shit No One Tells You About Writing: a podcast discussing everything query! https://www.theshitaboutwriting.com/
• BookEnds Literary Agency: A youtube channel where they discuss the ins and outs of getting an agent which, of course, includes querying. https://www.youtube.com/@BookEndsLiterary
• QueryTracker—I have signed up to track my queries and find agents looking for submissions. https://querytracker.net/
• For my pitch, I found this resource helpful: Save the Cat Writes a Novel, by Jessica Brody. https://www.jessicabrody.com/books/non-fiction/save-cat-writes-novel/about/
• And for my synopsis, the Jericho Writers Guide: One Hour Query Letter and Synopsis Builder https://jerichowriters.com/how-to-write-a-novel-synopsis-with-an-example/