A New Life Now Flourishes We found it necessary last year to have two willow trees taken down near our Wisconsin summer cottage, since they were in bad shape and would have fallen and destroyed our property. We felt sad to see them go, since they'd been a part of the landscape there for as long as we could remember.
Much to our delight, one of the tree stumps began sprouting new life. It's growing into a beautiful willow bush and even needs trimming. The other remains dormant.
The same thing can happen with manuscripts. I'd written Two Wrongs when I'd just started seriously pursuing publication. The manuscript contained flaws and received rejections. I put it away and worked on others. During that time it remained dormant.
Then, armed with the knowledge I'd gained through ten years of participating in critiques at Chicago-North RWA meetings, attending conferences, reading articles about writing, and more, I went back to the manuscript. After some updating, tightening and corrections, I pitched my novel to Janice Strand, Senior Editor of Hard Shell Word Factory,at the Love is Murder Conference. The result was I received my first publishing contract.
If you have a novel that's dormant because it wasn't exactly right before, take it out and see if there are ways to make it better. You just might discover new life!
Morgan Mandel
www.morganmandel.com
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
http://mysteryturtles.blogspot.com
http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment