Every writer has experienced the moment when a
previously unheard of, unknown character has appeared from the creative ether
fully formed, fully voiced. These moments usually occur in those quiet in
between times when our brains are uncluttered and open to the voices of
characters, both known and new. (For me it is in the shower.) Sometimes the
voice may be a gentle whisper introducing itself, other times it is loud and
nagging: “Write my story! Write my story!” We ignore them at our own peril.
Angie introduced herself to me loudly and insistently.
I put aside my WIP, and set to taking dictation
from the seventeen year old who seemed to believe her story was unique, needed
to be told, and was the true path to finding an agent. Yes, I believed this was
the one. This was the story that would put me on the Young Adult map. Novel,
original, Angie’s story would certainly lead to the success I longed for. And
it was going to be so much fun to write.
Fast forward about 25,000 words. I’m perusing
the YA section of a local bookstore and my eyes light on an attractive book
cover that seems to be rather evocative of Angie’s story. My hands are shaking
as I take it off the shelf and read the inside flap. Stomach flops. I flip to
the first page. Yes, this book has eerie similarities to Angie, though there is
plenty that is different, I tell myself. Ten minutes later I see another book
with a similar theme. Gulp. This bookstore visit is no longer any fun and I
turn and leave.
Shaken, but undaunted, I continue to plod away on
Angie. Day job and life keep me from writing at the pace I’d like, but forward
progress is made.
Fast forward another 20,000 words. I follow the
blogs and tweets of several agents who represent children/YA writers. I open
the blog of one especially prestigious agent to read that if she sees one more
manuscript with the XXXXXXX theme (Angie’s story!) she will go crazy. She, and
every other agent in the world, receives at least five such manuscripts daily.
Oh dear. Oh dear. I had no idea. Truly, though I read plenty of YA, I had never
read anything like my book. How and when and why had this happened?
This was in 2012. Two years later I’m more than
aware of the glut of these books on the market. However, though my concept is
similar to these other books, my premise is unique. And Angie’s voice is very
much her own. Final rewrites were shelved for several months while I focused on
other writing tasks, such as edits for my alter ego’s book that was released in
April and writing the prequel to that novel, as well as general life things
that came up. But recently I finished the final polish and sent Angie out on
submissions. I did not, however, send her to agents. I chose instead to send
her to a few carefully chosen small publishers. A few months before I finished rewriting
Angie I started a new WIP that I’m very excited about and I decided to save
those agents for this new project. Or the project after that, which is truly
the novel of my heart—the one I’ve longed to write for years.
I’m fine now with whatever happens or does not
happen with Angie, because even if she never sees the light of day at least I
learned more about the writing craft as I wrote the novel. Every word we write
helps us become better writers. It’s never a waste. What I learned from writing
Angie is informing my current WIP and will inform everything I write in the
future.
And by the way, my alter ego just signed a
contract with my romance publisher for that prequel! Yay! Oh, and just like
everything we write, that one was a learning process, too. ;-)
