Despite the problems some readers from the publisher found with Too Many Ghosts, I have had so many requests to please publish the story, that I am revisitng the manuscript. Despite, also, the fact that it must have been so terrible that no one on this list commented at all when I forwarded the manuscript last year. I made a lot of excuses, knowing that everyone is so busy, no one had time to read it, and no one wanted to hurt my feelings.
But making it a resolution/goal this year, I have given the manuscript to some local readers and asked for their opinions on what I can do to make the book better. Now I just have to get the courage to plunge into it myself. That is a daunting task for me as it was a very traumatic experience trying to work with the reader's comments like: "I don't like a book that doesn't have the same characters throughout. I like to read about the same characters through the whole book." Doesn't matter that this is a book about having to travel across the US searching for a lost fiancee and how people along the way help her out.
For two months I have procrastinated the dreaded task, but now I have to actually get into the manuscript and see if I can fix the problems. The next difficulty I am encountering is actually getting back into the writing mode when I have so enjoyed having that time to do other things! There wasn't enough time in my day to accomplish it all, so now I will have to be inventive to create writing time.
It's like vacuuming. I will put that off indefinitely and clean and polish and get everything else done until there is nothing left to do but vacuum, then I finally have to bite the bullet and do it! That is the point at which I find myself now. So in spite of everything, I will rework the dreadful manuscript and see if I can actually make something good come out of it. I loved the story! It was so fun to write and research. I hated taking out 100 pages, then still having to make changes.
Hopefully with all the different publishing venues, if I finally can make it a good read, I will then have a new adventure of figuring out what to do with it. That is another daunting task! I have really enjoyed my retirement, but I guess there are still more stories in me wanting to be told, so here I go! Wish me luck!
3 comments:
Best of luck, Lynn. =) You're a talented author and I'm glad you're sending out your manuscript.
When did you send it to the other writers on this list? I never got it. I'm glad you're dusting it off and giving it another go. Good luck with it!
I sent it to the list sometime a year ago. That is SOOO encouraging that no one apparently received it because I thought it was so bad no one could bear to comment on it!
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