Saturday 7 April 2012

New Ideas/Distraction/Rejection... Again.

New Ideas

After vowing to take a break I got bored a few weeks ago and came up with an idea for a trilogy. Yet it will not get written for many years but I'm thankful for the continued inspiration for more stories.

Distraction

I spent a week or two constantly worry about how the latest book would do now it was sent away to an agent and it was very unhealthy. However a good distraction came a long and time has flown by.

Rejection... Again

So the agent Susan Armstrong said my ideas for the latest book were "fantastic" but my narrative and characterisation needed to be better. Therefore she felt she couldn't represent it.
I'm getting fed up of rejection. Mainly because I'm being told it's good, but not good enough. If I was told I was rubbish I'd give up. But if the ideas are "fantastic" then surely it's worth investing in. I know my writing isn't so bad that with a little bit of help it could be good enough.
Having said that I personally think it's good enough now, but only needs help with basic editing. I hate pointless narrative and feel the character information and development is adequate for the Young Adult audience. I'm not trying to write a technical master piece here. I just want to write a very interesting story with good characters and I feel this book does that, but what do I know?
I'm undecided what to do now.
Should I suck up my pride and try to give more narrative and character information and development?
Or should I stick to my guns and send this off to other agents and hope they don't feel the same as S.A?

I guess I'll decided at some point and update in the next post.

6 comments:

  1. Having read both the Chronicles of Elementary and Empiphany, it's little surprise to me that you have been constantly rejected. "If I was told I was rubbish I would give up" you claim. Consider this your first honest critique: your books *are* rubbish. Little to no character development, plots like Swiss cheese, not to mention your frankly embarrassing and patronising way of speaking to the reader. Considering that you write for the "young adult" audience, the level of needless gratuitous violence in Empiphany is downright outrageous.
    In short, I wasted a few days of my life reading your books, but you're wasting months of yours in writing them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well if it's any consolation I appreciate that you took so much time to read something that you clearly didn't enjoy. Thank you for your feedback and it can be the first of the 'really hated it pile.'
    Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. As someone who has read; and critiqued The Book of Prophecy - I have to disagree with "smackinbitches"; you have all the basics required for a great book.
    I don't want to come across as someone purely jumping on the defence bandwagon - but *I* know that *you* know the book isn't perfect yet, we've discussed development (both in character and story) as well as extensive editing.

    The journey of a writer is a long and rewarding one. Not all stories appeal to all audiences, and not all tales are perfect from the first draft. Never give up, you've got the passion, ideas and skills that can only get better.

    Gratuitous violence in Empiphany? I haven't read the full MS yet - but I seriously doubt the violence in Empiphany is above and beyond that in other fantasy/sci fi/dystopic fiction for young adults ... The Hunger Games anyone?

    Good luck, Steve! I'm a fan.

    ReplyDelete
  4. If you are unable to accept negative feedback as well as positive without deleting it from your blog, you are going to have a difficult time having your books published. I am happy to discuss my points privately if you do not wish to have them aired on here.

    ReplyDelete
  5. If I was going to delete comments I would have deleted the first one. I'm not sure why it deleted your other comment but I got the email notification on what it said.

    I could justify a lot of what you said but this is only going to turn into a negative discussion and I don't want that. As I said I'm grateful for the feedback and that you felt it necessary to read the stories even though you could have stopped at any time if they were so bad.

    I do have one question though, and that is why you can't use your own name and details? If you are truly someone who wants to give an honest opinion, do so with honesty. I'm not going to dislike you or be offended, because everyone's opinion has some validity. If you don't use your real name it just looks like you are someone out to spread negativity for no other reason than to be negative.

    I'm grateful you have taken time out of your day to give your opinion and it is clear you don't like my work. Therefore, unless you want to reveal who you really are, which will give your opinion some weight, shall we leave it at that?

    Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hmmm... I got the email notification that 'S.B' posted on here again but the comment is gone. Maybe the monitors took offence to the user name. Whatever the case I think it's time to learn and grow from this experience. Thanks for the comments 'S.B.'

    ReplyDelete