All together, I think I sent around 40 queries.
At one point I shelved it for about six months and then did a major rewrite. I would query a batch or two of agents, collect rejections, sit on the book for a while, query again, etc. I queried this book for about two years, but that was really off-and-on. How long did you query before landing your agent? I was pretty sure she’d say no, I was just long-shotting a query to make myself feel better about yet another rejection letter. Actually, it was a fabulous piece of serendipity. My agent is the awesome Jennifer Laughran, and I got her through the traditional query process. Who is your agent and how did you get that "Yes!" out of them? So far I’ve only trunked one novel, and that had more to do with content and the market changing than giving up on the actual book. But if I get into a first draft, I finish it. I quit on ideas all the time, or write the first page and nothing else. Have you ever quit on an ms, and how did you know it was time? The first one is firmly trunked, which is kind of a long story, but I did write three more books between the time I wrote DOLLS and the time it sold MF: THE HOUSE OF A THOUSAND DOLLS was the second book I ever wrote. How many trunked books (if any) did you have before you were agented? Oddly enough, the first time I sat down to write a novel, I was in high school and there was no fear. But I’ve been known to be a multi-tasker when I edit.ĭid you have to overcome any fears that first time you sat down to write?Įvery part of the process has a fear attached to it, and most of them revolve around the fear that this time I won’t be good enough.
When I first draft, I’m very focused and don’t work on more than one thing at a time. But I have done a first draft in a month before.ĭo you work on one project at a time, or are you a multi-tasker? DOLLS took me a year to write, the novel after it took about three or four months. How long does it typically take you to write a novel, start to finish?Įvery book is different. Then after the first draft is done, I go through it with a basic plot outline in hand to make sure the pacing is right.
That way, if I run out of words on one scene or setting, I can go work on another. I work mainly in lists, list of scenes I need, lists of characters, lists of settings.
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