Swallowing the Bitter Pill

Most would say learning to swim without supervision is a bad idea.

And while the consequences aren't nearly as dire, writing a novel without the base guidelines is also a bad idea because you may find yourself in the situation I’m currently facing.

So, what’s the calamity and how can I help you avoid it?  Well, it’s really quite simple.  If it’s your first novel, don’t write a long one.  Okay, how long is long?  My revised rough draft came in at 240,000 words.  Even for epic fantasy, that’s basically twice what any agent is willing to look at.  The magic number is ~80,000 words with a little leeway given to epic fantasy up to 120,000.  (Agents were interested when I pitched it at 120,000.)

Seriously, out of all the information I found in books and online about writing, why was that never mentioned?  The funny thing is I see that recommendation everywhere now.

To fix this, I hired a great editor, put in the work and managed to cut 60,000 words from the manuscript.  But even at 180,000, there was no way anyone was giving a debut writer a chance with that monster.  By that I mean my pitch is a knockout.  Almost every agent I speak to shows interest in pages unless they don’t rep my genre.  The one pitch retreat where I used 180,000, they couldn’t say no fast enough.  Hehe, lesson learned.

During the editing process, I soon realized if I cut anymore, I’m basically carving the heart out of my story and I wasn’t willing to do that.  Next came the difficult decision to chop the book at a clean breaking point and split the manuscript into two books.  To me, the best spot was after act 1, leaving acts 2 and 3 as the next book in the series.  That resulted in a 60,000-word story that needed a better ending instead of a dead stop waiting for the next act to start.  After a day trip with the family where we puzzled out ideas for a new ending and a productive week of writing, the new ending was crafted bringing the novel up to 80,000 words.

Huzzah!  Great success, yes?  Unfortunately, no.  Yes, I had a manuscript that met the specs but honestly, I didn’t like it anymore.  Yeah, it works as a story but all the really good parts are still in acts 2 and 3.  What I have now is a story that was never meant to stand on its own.  I’m not alone either.  Yeah, those agents said yes to the pitch but over half have said no after submitting pages to them.

So, as the title says, it’s time to swallow the bitter pill and go with the nuclear option.  AKA, plan D.  Take one of my existing premises, write a new novel designed for 80,000 words and try to get that published.  And hopefully, once that’s successful, I can put my original story back together and get it published the way it was meant to be.

Mark it, May 26th, 2025.  The start date of the next novel.  After everything I’ve learned, surely it won’t take 7 years to finish like the first one.

Wish me luck!