Gems Amongst the Dust – Lessons from the Slush Pile
I’ve been working on Deadly Vision for more years than I care to count, and received more rejection letters than you’d care to count, or would reasonably subject yourself to. But I believed in the story and knew that others would too, if I could only write it in a way that would capture their imaginations and attention.
So I went to writing conferences, took classes, read many books, and constantly worked to improve my writing and my storytelling skills.
But one surprising place that provided an immeasurable amount of guidance and information was rejection letters.
In general, I never accepted rejection letters as a rejection of the story — just where I was with it at that moment in time, with that particular agent. I even went so far as to file my rejection letters not in a file named “Rejections” but in one I named “Try Again.” Once the story was better, they’d hear from me again, whether they wanted to or not.
But before I filed those letters away, I’d scour the rejection letter for any possible feedback that could help me. Now, usually, there’s none to be found. Just a form rejection letter or a stout, “didn’t connect with me” or “too busy to take on new projects” response. But every once in a while there was a gem to be found amongst the rejection dust.
To that regard, here are the three main tidbits of feedback I received from three different agents or editors, lost in the midst of their rejection letters, that helped me transform my book into the final draft that is nearing publication by Penmore Press early next year.
1) “Despite the gripping opener, I wasn’t drawn into the narrative.” While this might seem like a horrible bit of feedback to receive, it was great. Taking it purely at face value, it meant that my opener was good, or rather, “gripping.” Believe it or not, to me that was validation that I actually could write something interesting and tell it in a compelling way, something every writer doubts about themselves at one point. So, it was inspirational, really, not a downer. Further, it meant that what I had as my beginning, the shooting of someone who would turn out to be a lynchpin character, was riveting, and I needed to move the rest of the story along quicker to maintain that gripping intensity. This was huge, and led to a major rewrite. I chopped out scenes that proved to be unnecessary, shortened others, sped up the pace, and moved forward the Point of No Return, the moment our hero, Taylor, gets launched upon his ultimate journey. This is the moment the reader wanted to get to, so why have it so far back into the book? Let’s get the story moving.
2). “Until Crawford was killed, I didn’t get a sense that our hero was in danger.” This refers to the murder of one of our main characters, the Chief of Staff at the Hospital where our hero works, Dr. Bennington Crawford. Now, I’d started the book off with a home invasion/shooting, but Crawford doesn’t get killed until about 1/2 way in. So, it meant to me that between the gripping opener and Crawford’s death, I need to up the intensity. Up the threat. Up the danger. This led me to creating several scenes that focused on the mindset of the hired killer, Edgar Ross. Getting into his head, his past, his motivations, his obsessions; crafting these scenes became some of my favorite, if not most disturbing, parts of the book.
3) “I liked the premise, but your antagonist is cliched.” This was huge and well-deserved. My antagonist was cliched, nearly a mustache-twisting Boris who wanted world domination. This happened because I was so focused on the protagonist’s story that, to me, the antagonist was merely a place keeper to throw obstacles onto our heroic journey. How bad is that? With this bit of feedback, I rethought the entire book. I needed a villain who was likeable in his own way, if not at least realistic and internally consistent. His reasons for opposing our hero had to be legitimate and founded in his own sense of morality and his ultimate goal. He had to believe in what he was doing and believe he was in the right. That led to the creation of Randolph McIntyre, the Senator from Georgia who was the republican nominee for the upcoming Presidential election. To heighten the stakes, I made him the father of our hero’s wife, Sherilyn. This created a multi-layered story with political intrigue and family dynamics that really helped to enliven the story, add verisimilitude, and launch Sherilyn from being a minor supporting character, to a major aspect of the book with her own story arc. In the end, it’s her strength, that saves our hero’s life.
Never accept rejection. Dig deep for any small kernels of advice, even if they aren’t really presented as such. And never stop believing in your story. Just keep working to make your story better.