Peril On Your Street

I spent a few hours yesterday writing down a chapter-by-chapter summary of my latest novel. I did that in response to the literary agent's complaint that my pacing was the reason he rejected my project for representation. I hadn't done that review before, but it was an educational time. Before,  I simply took my seat-of-the-pants approach and followed a logical path from event to event. I missed the forest for the trees in the process. I should have listened to one of my first-draft beta readers who told me the story didn't grab her until one of my main characters began talking about his history. That is about twenty chapters in. She saw the same thing the literary agent did, but I was too close-minded to see the wisdom. I see it now. That chapter-by-chapter list showed me that I spent too long establishing interpersonal connections among characters and not getting to the meat of the story. That won't continue. I embark today on major revisions on that first chunk

I have written about the tough but necessary part of this author lifestyle that involves rejection. Have a thick skin, I've been told and repeated to my blog readers. Expect a lot of thumbs-down responses. Yes, it's part of the life. That said, it's never easy to get that letter or email that says my project doesn't fit a literary agent's parameters for representation. A top agent requested a full manuscript of my latest novel. (I won't name the agent because I didn't seek his approval to use parts of his note.) It's the kind of agent that fosters an author's hopes. His fleet of writers feature names that are instantly recognizable and newbies who have won top awards. He sent me a wonderful note today that said he wasn't taking my novel under his wing. There were parts of the note that were encouraging with terms such as, "you write with energy and great care," and "given the ambition of this plot, I feel certain another agent el