In Defense of the Form Rejection

I recently wrote a short story, my first in over a year. Inspiration struck and I listened.

Unlike novel writing, short stories are short-term rewarding because you reach "the end," while you are still loving that muse whispering in your ear. I was particularly excited about this story, as I knew exactly which magazine I was going to submit it to. A few years ago, said magazine had rejected another story of mine, but with glowing praise and a request to see more of my work. I kept that in mind, because this magazine is a professionally paying market and one that would be quite a feather in my writing resume. Thus after some furious late nights, anxious waiting for the beta reads to come back, and a lot of editing, I sent off my beautiful 3k-word gem to this magazine.

Another rather sweet aspect of short stories is these days most magazines use submission software. This means you can stalk, I mean track, your submissions. And, at least in the SciFi/Fantasy professional market, many of them have fairly quick turn around times. This is in part because they don't allow simultaneous subs in part because the stories are shorter. Altogether it's a much quicker and less frustrating process than novel submissions.

So a week full of checking the website later, there it was, that email. I took a deep breath and opened it to find... a form rejection letter.

The range of emotions that followed is one every writer is familiar with. But there was one more. Understanding. Working for a literary agency, I've sent out hundreds of form rejection letters over the years. And recently I opened up my own inbox to queries. In the beginning I tried to make each response a bit personal, a note here, a comment there. I knew what it was like to be on the other side, and that experience pushed me to communicate personally as much as I could, especially if the writing had potential. However, I discovered, to my dismay, that the majority of personal rejections were not appreciated, in fact they were often responded to with a "could you clarify this?" or "can you take this further?" or "what can I edit to change your mind?"

My personal notes were not received as the compliments they were meant to be, but rather as an opening for an editorial conversation. One that I had to ignore. It made me feel guilty, not continuing the conversations, but there is not enough time in an agent's schedule to answer every author question that floats through our inbox. I was also spending more time coming up with ways to make the reason I was passing on the project sound nice and encouraging and editorially useful, rather than focusing my energy on considering each submission carefully. Which made me reluctant to open my inbox. I had burned out. Thus more and more I found myself responding with a form rejection, both in the interest of time and clear communication. My defense of the form rejection:

• It's a clear answer.
• You receive said answer faster. 
• It's less emotional. 
• It helps prevent slushpile burnout, so the agent/reader can focus on what's important, considering the submission itself, rather than coming up with something to say in response to it. 
• The form rejection helps to keep expectations in check. 

I know most authors who don't do their research don't understand this, because they don't see the other side. I can't count the number of times I've heard writers say, "it couldn't be that hard to respond to a query!" Let me tell you, yes, yes it can.

Every once in a while, if the writing jumps out at me, or if I've met the author in person, I will still respond personally, but for the most part I've become a fan of the form rejection. Sure you could argue that if I hadn't gotten that personal response back in the day, I wouldn't have been as eager to submit to the magazine, but I also wouldn't have had as high of hopes. At least you can take comfort in the knowledge that I'm getting them as good as I'm giving them. We all just have to keep on keeping on. My so-called gem of a short story is already sunk into another slushpile.

*All artwork by street graffiti artist Banksy.

Follow Mary on twitter @Mary_C_Moore for more tips and updates on her query slushpile. To submit to her visit her website: marycmoore.com.

Know Your Rights

Most newbie writers believe that you get your book published and that's where the publishing train ends. So when they seek out an agent or publisher, or they self-publish, they tend to overlook one of the most important aspects of publishing, the subsidiary rights.

Sub-rights are a great way to bring in more money and get more exposure for your book. If you are self-publishing then you have the responsibility to see if these rights can be sold. If you land an agent or a publisher, they should be taking care of these rights for you. An agent will be shopping these with your interests in mind, the publishers in their own interest. There are a bunch of subsidiary rights that you may not know or care to know about, even after you've published, but there are 3 major ones that you should be asking about before you sign anything.

Film/Media: 

This is the obvious one. Most writers have already dreamed of that actor that will play their characters in a film. 

Audio: 

Audio sales have seen a steady increase over the years, so much so that publishers are more often trying to retain these. With the advent of digital content streaming, companies such as Audible are carving out a place in the market.

Translation:

Where in the world and in what language your book is being published is determined by which rights you have signed away. Did you give the publisher only North American English or did they retain World English? What about the right to translate and sell it in different countries? 

If an agent has offered you representation, ask what their process is for retaining and selling these important rights. How does the commission percentage break down? Do they have a sub-agent or do they partner with an agency that specializes? If the publisher insists on keeping one or all of these rights, what sort of parameters does the agent set in order to make the deal worth it? Most agents should be able to answer these questions easily and happily. 

If you went straight to a publisher, make sure you understand what is happening with these rights. If said publisher is keeping all these rights, there should be a time limit so if the publisher does not doing anything with these rights they revert back to you. 

So before you start shopping your manuscript, know your rights.

Reasons For Rules: An Agent's Perspective

By Mary C. Moore

Having been an unpublished author seeking an agent, I know how daunting a task this can be. Each agent has different submission guidelines and there are so many RULES. It seems as if you break any of these sacred RULES your query will go right in the physical and metaphorical trash, never to be seen again and you as an author will be laughed out of any possible opportunity to be signed. And when those rejections start rolling in, you question yourself and your writing. What RULE did you break? Then you get angry and frustrated. Why are the RULES so dang important anyway? Isn't it about the writing? Shouldn't they see you for the amazing talent you are and brush all that other stuff away? You start reading about authors who have broken the rules and been hugely successful and you  lurk on online forums to commiserate with other writers that are feeling as bruised as you are. Pretty soon you are convinced that agents have too much power and that their RULES are just petty ways of making authors jump through silly hoops for their own amusement. 

Now, being on the other side of the fence, I find myself spouting off RULES to hopefuls at writer conferences, online forums, on Twitter, and everywhere in-between. I have unintentionally become a gatekeeper, because on this side, the RULES have REASONS. Oh. So for your sanity and mine, I am going to explain the REASONS behind the seemingly random RULES. I'm sticking to fiction literary agent RULES to keep it short. 

Rule #1: Follow each agent's individual submission guidelines down to the letter.

Reason: Every agent has a different system for shifting through submissions. Their guidelines are based on what will help them get through the slushpile in the most efficient manner. By not following the guidelines, you are causing a disruption in the system, which means it will take longer for the agent to consider your submission and respond to you, in effect wasting their time and yours.  

Rule #2: Word count, 55k-75k for YA, 80k-90k for most adult, up to 125k for historical or fantasy.

Reason: Word counts are a throwback from traditional printing. There was a standard specification for print book sizes, which meant if your book fell outside those specifications, it was less likely to be picked up. Because of this, readers got used to a standard book length. And although publishing mediums have since evolved, the standard has yet to change. Thus, your book is easier to sell if it falls within the word count parameters. 

Rule #3: Classify your work as only 1-2 genres, plus age group. 

Reason: We want to know what genre your book falls into, so we know which editors we would place it with. Do not say "it's a unique new genre," not only is this not true (trust me, after slogging through the slush, I can say with confidence, you are not the first to come up with whatever concept you have come up with) it shows us you do not read within your genre, and do not understand it. We are looking for experienced authors who grasp who their reader audience is. 

Rule #4: Address the query to the agent you are sending it to.

Reason: Not only is this courteous, but it shows you've at least done a bit of research before querying us, which means you think we would be a good fit for your manuscript.  

Rule #5: Only query agents who represent your genre. 

Reason: We as agents, develop relationships with editors and publishing houses. If we specialize in a genre, that means we are experienced both in reading/selling said genre, but we also know exactly which editors would be right for it. That being said, there is no harm in querying an agent you are not clear on, especially those who list "commercial fiction" as one of their genres. Just try to avoid querying an agent who only represents thrillers and mysteries with your inspirational memoir.

Rule #6: Have your manuscript finished, edited, and polished before querying.

Reason: Although a lot of agents will do edits before shopping your manuscript, their time is limited. They are not going to be willing to do extensive edits on a project, so if you send out a manuscript before it is finished, you are essentially setting yourself up for rejection. 

Rule #7: Do not mention how well the book will do, or what great writing it is, or how you plan to be the next JK Rowling. 

Reason: The reality of publishing is much harsher than the success stories of JK Rowling and EL James. Most authors don't start making a living off their writing until after their fifth or sixth successfully published book (this is true for self-published authors as well) and even then you're probably not going to be able to buy that island. On average it takes years/decades to become financially successful as an author. We are looking for clients that understand that and are willing to put in the time and energy toward that goal. 

Rule #8: Keep your bio to simply your experience as a writer as well as any relevant experience to your novel (i.e. if you're writing legal thrillers and are a lawyer, mention this). Leave out the names of your pets, your dreams of stardom, your inner demons, and any other personal/professional background.

Reason: Agents are professionals, and they are looking for professional clients. Your query letter should have the same information that a cover letter for a job resume would have. Relevant experience only. Of course once we've signed you, then the relationship may evolve to a more personal level, but there will always be a professional line. 

Rule #9: Keep the query short. 

Reason: The slushpile is no joke. There are hundreds of submissions that an agent or agent's assistant have to read on a monthly basis. If a query is too long, out of necessity, we will skip most of it. 

Rule #10: Only nudge an agent if you have an offer of representation or they have not responded past their posted response time.

Reason: Again, the inbox is flooded already. If you nudge, odds are we won't read the email until after we've seen your original query, (unless in the subject line are the words: OFFER OF REP), so you are just adding to the pile and possibly being annoying. However, things do slip through the cracks. Usually in the submission guidelines, an agent has posted their normal response time. If it is past this date, go ahead and nudge. If it's a full manuscript, nudging after six months is reasonable. 

I hope this post has helped you make sense of a seemingly random set of parameters and given you more confidence to keep going. It is good to remember that most agents are hopeful that authors will follow these RULES, but we are also human and understanding. We may reject you because you didn't follow one of our RULES, but that doesn't mean you are blacklisted and we never want to see your face (or pen) again. In all honesty, we are so inundated with queries, we probably won't remember your particular RULE-breaking query in the first place. So don't be nervous, just do the best you can. 

There are many more RULES that crop up in all aspects of publishing: formatting, grammar, design, editing, writing, contracts etc, even self-publishing, and I'm happy to give REASONS for these in the comments below. 

As for the RULE-breakers out there. You know what they say...

Dealing With Negativity

Dealing with Negativity

(From the people whose opinions you actually care about)

I can’t tell you how many book dedications I’ve read where writers thank their family for putting up with them while they were in the throes of writing their book, their kids eating peanut butter sandwiches so mommy can keep writing and so on and so forth.

I think that’s wonderful. I also wonder (with a certain feeling of shame for doubting their veracity) whether their families really were as supportive as all that. 

Because mine is not.

My kids don’t care whether or not I’m trying to squeeze out time to write a book. They want dinner, and help with homework, they want clean plates to eat off and clean clothes to wear. Books be damned, they want mommy dates and snuggle time. My boy wants a chance to work through how some kids at school called him stupid because he has autism and is hyper-focused on Elvis, the king of rock and roll this month, and Elvis is Not Cool. My girl wants a chance to talk over how some little girl was her friend last week and this week hates her and is hanging out with some other little girl.

This is life-shattering stuff for them folks.

Then there’s my husband who thinks its all a waste of time, that I’ll never finish any of it, (except I did) and even if I do, I’ll never make any money off of it (probably true) so why not focus on something that actually brings in a living wage. Of course, I already make a living wage a different way, so then writing in his mind is a hobby. And hobbies shouldn’t take away from snuggle time and eating chips in bed while watching Supernatural with him, from doing “my Fair Share” of paperwork and dealing with crap all adults have to do but never want to like incorrect bills and disputes about who is responsible for replacing the air conditioning system. Hobbies are for doing in free time.

And you know what? They have a point.

Writing is a huge time suck. And my kids deserve all those things they need. My husband shouldn’t have to deal with all the crap of life because I want to—let me rephrase that—I need to write.

I get it. 

But I don’t get “free time.”  I’m not even sure I believe in this mythical thing  people call Free Time.

Any time I have is stolen--I get it by not doing something else I should be doing.

So how do you avoid this kind of negativity from the people whose opinions you actually care about: your close friends and family?  And if you can’t avoid it, how do you deal with it?

The question isn’t rhetorical folks.

I have no idea what the answer is.  I would have liked to quote that biblical verse about how a prophet isn’t respected in their hometown. But lets face it—I’m no prophet. Probably you aren’t either.  And to be fair, these people in our lives have a valid point. So what do we do?

For now, my answer is to try to prioritize. I try to meet my family’s needs as best I can (and buy paper plates so I spend less time doing dishes.) 

(Sorry Earth.) 

I cut writing time out of sleep time and reading time.  I deny myself so that I don’t have to deny them.

It means everything comes so much slower writing wise.

It means I’m tired a lot.

It means sometimes writing feels like a chore, not a joy.

But the words still come.

What do you guys do? Is there a better way?

Care and Feeding Instructions for Your Favorite Author aka Reviews

Today we're going to talk about how to give your favorite author a long, happy, and stress free life.

Okay, maybe not stress free, but it'll hopefully at least keep them writing more books.

I'll let you in on a little secret. Human beings are like sharks that smell chum. It's human nature to want to see what happened with that train wreck. Why do we have traffic jams? Because of rubber-neckers. We want to see what the fuss is all about. 

Same thing with books. If a book has a ton of reviews, it's going to garner attention. It helps the author get noticed, hit lists, come up in search engines, etc. All of which are so very important for a new author to make their way in the vast book jungle.

Reviews not only give exposure and help with sales, but they also give that author support and encouragement to keep on writing. You may not realize it, but authors are human beings (Well most of us are, the jury's still out on Anne Rice, she may actually indeed be a vampire.) We have feelings, and often times you'll find us circling the drain of self-doubt. A review may just save an author from setting fire to his/her computer. A review may give them the encouragement needed to write that sequel. A review may even save their career. 

Because, guess what? We get just as excited when we see a new review hit as you do fan-girling over the book!

That was pretty much me when I saw my very first review. It's a feeling unlike any other in this world when a perfect stranger picked your book out of the millions of books available and decided to take the time to write about it for the world to see. That means something huge. Reviews help bridge that gap between the reader and the author. Let me tell you, I can guarantee you even Anne Rice, or Jennifer Armentrout will never forget their first review. Or even their five-hundredth, if it made a fan squeal with delight those words left will stick with us. 

If you think your words don't matter, think again. Every review matters. Every fan matters. Especially to us little guys out here just starting out in the world. We're like weebly toddlers, unsure as we take our first steps into the world. Even if it's one or two lines, it makes a difference to that author. It doesn't have to be a novel of gratitude and undying love (all of which are okay if you chose to do so). Just enough time to stop by and say, hey, I liked your words. Keep it up. 

And now, in return...authors...I want to talk to you. Let's remember to keep ourselves in check. 

1) You're going to get a craptastic 1 star review at one point in your career. Even the great authors out there have gotten 1 star reviews.

Watch this if you think I'm lying.

Go look up your favorite book on the planet. There was someone who gave it 1 star. It's a right of passage. Remember all those rejections from the query trenches so long ago before you had an actual book published? Yeah...channel that thick skin. Sometimes while riding the high of a 5 star review, you'll hit turbulence, and a 1 star will dive bomb you. Embrace it and move on. Do not be this person!

2) Also, try and not be this person as well. 

It's really hard trying to get your name out there. It's really hard to do promo and drum up a readership when you're just starting out. But let your work speak for itself. Let friends, family, and your author network of support get the word out. And it's really hard not to try and remind folks to kindly leave a review when they're done reading. Because, let's face it...life gets busy, people get side-tracked like a dog seeing a squirrel. Book reviews often get forgotten about. But if you have to relentlessly hound your street team, family, friends, coworkers, FB friends, Twitter, etc to write a review, you're going to turn off your potential readership. I guarantee you. 

I'm writing this blog post for you, on your behalf. Don't resort to groveling to try and get folks to do something. It will always have the opposite effect.

3) If someone does you a solid and actually gives you a review? THANK THEM, and leave it at that. Do not try and hunt them down and figure out why they didn't give you a 5 star review when they only gave you 4. Thank your lucky 4 stars they took the time to give you that.

ALL of publishing is subjective. If you haven't figured that out as an author, then perhaps you need to re-evaluate your career path. Not everyone's going to love your book baby as much as you do. Mainly because it doesn't play out in their mind like the movie did in your head when writing it. You can't please everyone all the time. So make sure you're writing the story for you. And if someone happens to interpret it the way you intended, celebrate!! If someone liked it, but doesn't want to marry your book boyfriend....do not try and change their mind or beg them to give you 5 stars instead of 4. It will only devalue yourself as an author if you have to beg, borrow or steal those 5 stars. If you don't want an honest review of your work, don't ask for reviews. Oh wait, you shouldn't be asking for them to begin with. Didn't we already cover that?

And, lastly.....Back to readers...Please don't be this person:

The power of the interwebs runs rampant. Some people feel the need to hide behind their screen names and make up for the time Santa refused to bring them that Cabbage Patch Doll when they were 7. Or disgruntled author can't handle success of fellow author. Or their cousin left them at the alter for the family goat. Whatever the reason people feel the need to lash out and tap into their inner douchecanoe....it happens. It happens a lot. People who didn't even read the book leave a 1 star review. People rate a book 1 star before it ever even comes out. 

Just, please think about the author on the receiving end. That's all I ask. Because, as we've discussed....word of mouth is the most powerful tool you have as a reader. Use that power wisely. 

So, in closing, here's a helpful check list to help out your favorite authors, or your soon to be favorite authors. 

Just step AWAY from the manuscript. **EDITING OBJECTIVELY**

It's not you, Manuscript, it's me. I think we need some space.

You may be asking yourself this same question. But it's true. 

This post is going to let you in on a little golden nugget of wise advice: 

Put a chunk of time and space between you and your manuscript before you edit.

Repeat after me: I will not edit for a minimum of 4-6 weeks. 

Now say it again!

Okay, realistically, this isn't always going to happen. If you're an established author on deadline with your publisher, you may work down to the wire. But even so, if you're an established author, you pretty much know this rule of thumb anyway, and hopefully those are the revisions that are down to the wire, and not the first draft to your editor. Give yourself enough time to let the manuscript sit, settle, and cool off before you attempt any edits.

I know you're looking at me with this face:

TRUST ME ON THIS! You will only do yourself a disservice if you attempt to edit or revise without clearing your head.

The best editing I've done is when I have put at least six months between me and a manuscript. Hell, I've even come back to ones after a year. It's amazing the things you will see with fresh eyes.

When you come at a manuscript while you're still in the heat of the moment, you won't catch things. While the story is still fresh in your mind, you're too attached to your characters to do any kind of edits objectively. In this day and age of instant gratification and technology, it actually hurts us more than helps us aspiring authors. It makes us send things out into the world well before they're ready.

EVERY author will tell you they've queried at least once, often times more than once, way before they should have. I know you want to put your book baby out into the world to be loved by an agent or editor and all your adoring fans just waiting to love on it. But don't put something out there you will regret in a year or two. Save yourself the regrets, and double shots of whiskey, while you're drowning in the query trenches up your eyeballs in rejection letters.

Your story plays out in your mind as you're reading it, so as the author, you have a tendency to gloss over things as you're reading. I guarantee you will miss grammatical errors that everyone else, and their cousins, will catch.

You need to be able to distance yourself from your characters, from your plot, from the way the story plays like a movie in your mind. Readers can't see the movie in your head, you MUST be able to put that to the page. If you don't come at it from a fresh angle, you will never be able to see what others see. And you have to in order to make others see what's in your head.

I guarantee it, plot lines happen in your mind without you even knowing it. A large portion of that never makes it into your story. Coming at your manuscript from a distance will allow you to be pulled into your world without being tethered. Your umbilical cord, for lack of a better term, will be cut and you'll be able to read word for word and see what's missing.

It will also allow you to read through it again as a reader, not as an author. If you find yourself skimming, then you know what you have to do.

When you can pick up your manuscript and say to yourself--"Wow, I don't even remember writing that. That was a great line!" Or, similarly, "Wow, what the hell was I smoking when I wrote this?" You're ready to edit.

On more than one occasion I've caught things in a manuscript after coming at it with fresh eyes and repeatedly facepalm myself. If you don't have any WTF moments when you're editing, you haven't put enough time and space between you and your darlings.

If you read through it and think what you've written is absolute gold, go put yourself in a timeout. Start writing something new, or take a writing break completely and watch some reality TV. That will give you some perspective. But that's another post for another time.

If you've read through the manuscript after letting it sit and you find yourself with a goose egg on your forehead from repeatedly facepalming yourself, get that red pen out and start slicing and dicing.

Also, grab your favorite editing drink of choice, you'll be in this stage for a while.

The thought of having to do revisions can be overwhelming. But every manuscript needs an edit. Every author will tell you that. Even the greats don't make a perfect first draft. A beautiful book baby is a lot of work. The majority of that comes from repeated revisions and letting go of your darlings; from characters to what you once thought were genius lines. 

In the end, you will have a gorgeous book you can be proud of. Nothing worth anything ever comes easy. So why put something out into the world that isn't your very best?

Some books take years of writing and rewriting. Some books come out a little quicker, but still need loving care and genuine, objective revisions. It'll be frustrating, it'll be agonizing, it'll be fun to kill off character, it'll give you pride to know you put your heart and soul into a project to make it its very best.

And then the day will come:

But that's another post for another time.

And for those of you ready to partake in the editing phase, after going through your waiting period of course, here's a link to a great month-long editing course: Janice Hardy's FICTION UNIVERSITY

Happy Editing!

NEW SHIRT, NEW SHOES, NEW STORY by Janice M. Wilson

A few weeks may have passed and you haven’t written anything new.  It’s official – you’re in a rut.  Several times you had sorted through the stack of other stories in your drawer that are waiting for an ending or edit, but they still haven’t seen the light of day (or death) because there’s something about them that makes you flush with pride.  I bet you have a whole file cabinet drawer filled will unused forgotten characters and their stories.

They are so stale and bland even the dust won’t settle on them.  You would read each one again but it’s just one old dour waste of time. 

You ask yourself, “Where was I going with this?” or maybe “What on earth was I (not) thinking?”

Maybe they are all old, waiting for you to shut the cabinet door and let them stay asleep.  Before you tuck them into their cozy cardboard sleeve or feed them to a shredder or trash can – go take another look at that pile.

Take one out of the pile (or file cabinet), read through it and determine the main plot.  Then decide who the main character is.   Fish out another one from that pile and do the same, even if it takes three or four times. Now, do they all sound alike, the same point of view, same mood, same crisis, or same drama?  There’s one main problem.  You need to break out of your comfort zone and try something different.

Here’s a few things you can do to air out the cobwebs:

Flip it.  Just like on a reality show - gut it and rebuild.  Maybe the same characters can do the same hard work, but give it a twist.  Build a new wall and set a traffic pattern for your character to go the other way.  Have the characters change POV or even the sexes and watch the story drama change due to the different outlook and emotions.  Add a pool for someone to skinny dip in. 

For those who never finish anything try this: Start with a teaser – begin with the end.

Houston, CREATE a problem.  Time travel seems to be a pretty popular topic these days so it is a safe topic to try.  Maybe that techie guy who can’t peel his face from his phone for a minute needs a forced shutdown and left unplugged in an era a few hundred years ago?  Or some starchy old farmer who never travels past his town is given a laser gun, a 30 year forgiveness age-back, and wrecks havoc.  Make the character going through living hell NOW instead of in the past and take the reader through it with you.

Or……

Magnetize.  Either two magnets with latch and hold (opposite ends) or repel from another (same ends).  Apply that to your storytelling.  Have one female from one story meet and hate another male character in another.

Maybe it wasn’t the first two with a winning (or opposites attract) success, but you have other stories that can be entwined into instant magnetism, or they can hate each other.

Either way – you have a new story!

Change hats.  If you can’t take the heat stay out of the kitchen, right?  How about you take your story somewhere else, as in another section of the bookstore?  Trade in your civil war era romance epic for another genre.  That’s right – that entails major CHANGE, one you may not want to face.  But if Scarlett O’Hara is still sitting there waiting for Ashley (just like a spider!)  to come rescue her out of your file cabinet, then I think you need to put those amazing character to work somewhere else.      

Good Grief, Charlie Brown!.  What if you take that same story and change just one character.  That old farmer husband becomes a little boy.  Does his relationship change with the sour woman next to him?  Of course – that may be his mother now, and the little boy who is more psychotic than Norman Bates is telling the story.  Or maybe he grows up like Mr. Rogers or a rock star on an iron horse.  That one little ‘twitch’ changed the whole paradigm of the story, and you have a new POV.

You could end up changing both characters and your old tired farmer is completely unrecognizable.  Perhaps that girl is his mentally challenged sister that he grows old taking care of out of family obligation.  Or maybe he doesn’t take care of her well…………

Newed

I’ll give you an example I had used.  A few years ago, I wrote a story loved by many, although it was really an exercise for a writers group.   I wrote the story from 3 different points of view (3^rd person, present tense), one after the other.  The pianist, Chloe, had a fan in the neighborhood who grew up listening to her become an expert in classical music.  Tom, the smitten baseball hero, took his dog for a walk just to hear her play and to see the slender elegant young woman play the piano through her windows.  The third character, the dog, even gave a shortened take on the story.  It was a fun exercise as I read it aloud to the group and we discussed the one plot with 3 takes on it.  A few in the group requested that I turn it into a real story.

I wrangled with it for years. Still, for some reason I never became too enthralled by it until another meeting with the writers.  A guest speaker gave us a challenge to write an opening scene with an intense immediate drama.   For some reason I remembered a weird old dog I had while growing up.

This is what I came up with using the same characters as the pianist story, but I changed the POV to first-person from the woman’s perspective and past tense (which completely changed it):

My Irish setter whined when I unwrapped the crinkly freezer paper and put the raw meat in the pan.  Something smelled familiar that he didn’t like and with tail between his hind legs he galloped out of the kitchen, leaving me alone with the newly married jackass I had dated last year.  I seasoned the red dense meat with a bunch of dried herbs and pepper.  David watched back and forth at the dog running out, then at the hunk of meat in the pan.  I hadn’t expected guests so I continued with my tasks as if he wasn’t there. Feeling the hunger waking up again, I really wished he hadn’t shown up.

            “Hungry, David?”

            David looked back where the dog had run.

That was a true story about the dog – Lucky – who used to do that when my mom cooked a certain cut of red meat.  If it were any other meat, the dog – ANY dog - would try to steal it.  I still told the same exact story of her serenading him to her love nest, but from the back door, starting with the dog’s drama instead.  Something unusual is going on here.  Not the part about a embittered and heartbroken woman who had an unexpected visit from the same bed-hopping ex-lover – now married.  But when a dog ran away from red meat? This is unexpected and puts a question and a fear in the man’s head.  Instead of a sweet lovey-dovey story of boy-finally-meets-mystery-girl-in-neighborhood-and-they-fall-in-love-yatta-yatta, I made her out to be a sociopath with a neurotic dog.

The best part is – the story rolled after that.  I stepped out of the comfortable smooch booth and added a dash of mystery. But it heated up the whole premise.  Once titled “Summoned by Song” then became “Roast Beast”.

Hey, whatever works for you – try it.  Just don’t throw it out or tuck it away in a drawer.  Bring out the best or worst in the characters or situation or swap the story teller and timing.  Or hop on a story-spinner and add some mischief.  When all else fails – add a ninja!  (just kidding!)

Rabbit’s hat. Some other ideas tried with success were to end a novel with a short story written at another time. A scene with a steamy bubble bath applied to the characters in the present novel, bowing out with a satisfying ‘happy ending’, but open enough to maybe explore sequel novel with these same characters.  In my own experience, I reused a nature piece, working it into a ghostly environmental nightmare story.

Point is - don’t waste anything – scenes, settings, intrinsic characters, those experimental pieces.  Blow off the dust, give it a makeover and wardrobe change - at least.  

You can do so much with them to liven up another snoozer.