It needs a lot of work, my loves.
I combed through the manuscript yesterday, trying to identify the problem areas mentioned by my most excellent readers, and to see where I could do the easy fixes. There are a couple of easier fixes, which will work by simply jigging scenes around and fixing up the joins. I think I kinda have that one figured out.
The other stuff, though, is much more difficult for me. I will have to spend a great deal of time on it.
And then there's the issue of the story itself. It's a story that I've lived with for a long time. I really care about it. I care about the characters in it. And that might be part of the problem. No one who hasn't lived with these people or this story as long as I have will care, if I can't get them to care in the first few pages. Maybe I'm not a good enough writer to achieve that.
Yet.
There is a very real possibility that this story will never sell. That, however much I love it, it simply won't be marketable. If that's the case, I have to figure out what to do with it.
To be clear, I'll not stop writing this story. I do think it's worth telling. But simply having something worth telling doesn't mean that it's marketable.
I'll try, though. One of my readers gave me some solid advice regarding this story; pitch it at Can*Con (as I'd hoped I would), but tell them also it's in deep edits currently. I think I might do just that. Or maybe I'll leave it for next year and try to get my Avalon series represented.
That also means that I desperately need to get my synopses together for both of these things. I'll be focussing on this for the rest of the week. And maybe it'll give me distance enough to find my way on these edits that need doing. Not the easy fixes. That'll be happening pretty quick. But the other stuff.
Right, I have to get to work.
Ciao!