MathiasCavanaugh.com

My buddy Terence has the good advice of the day. So, what is a writer to do when a literary agent tells you your work isn’t a “good fit”?

“Query another agent. ‘Not a good fit’ is usually code for, I don’t rep this kind of story, or don’t know who to pitch it to, or that their roster of authors is already full.”

This was in response to me last night asking about various strategies and how to go about querying.

I have a habit of not wanting to throw things away. Usually every year I have to force myself to get rid of things that are laying around the house and collecting dust.

I have been jotting down a lot of ideas these past few months and doing a lot of free writing. Thankfully, unlike the things around the house that get collected, most of the writing related material is either in a binder or stored digitally. Though mostly digitally. Yes, my digital files are double backed up too so I don’t worry a computer crash and losing them. Read more…

Ok. I have some good news. That short story I wanted to write? You know, the one that instead turned into tens of thousands of words and what appears to be a novel? Well, I have found it within the plot of what I am writing.

It is going to require some changes to the longer story I have been typing out, but I think those changes are going to be for the better. Most of those changes have to do with the way magic is used in the world and a little bit of tweaking of the world history as well. It is amazing how thinking out a small part of the story to make it into a short story of its own allows me to see better ways to do other things within the main story itself. It also solves a couple conundrums I have been having with certain plot points. Putting the ideas for this story down have clarified a lot of the problems.

What happened was I was just free writing and jotting down notes yesterday when I was brainstorming some interactions between two of the novel’s characters. Out popped the short story in the form of a monologue by one of them.

Having happened long before this particular story, of course this short story does not fit into the novel’s full framework. The character’s summary of events in the novel does not tell the whole story so here is the chance for me to do that now and add some depth to this particular character, a female elf whose perspective and actions are only viewed in “Dark Moon” through the POV of the main character. So it has what I think is the makings of a good short story to work on.

It has taken a while to get there. But I have gotten there.

Title not decided on yet. Working title to be come up with.