Photo by Matt Hardy
I’ve let out the biggest sigh in my life. One that I’m sure can be heard all the way on the West Coast (if people there weren’t still asleep).
Yesterday, I actually submitted an official query to a real live literary agent for my debut novel! I can hardly believe that I’ve made it to this step. While I know that this is just the first step at the beginning of a very long journey, I’m still pinching myself that I’ve done it.
So, how did I get to this point?
First there was the catalyst layoff. This happened almost a year and a half ago. When I lost that job, I felt unmoored and rejected. I immediately jumped into the world of freelance editing, so I never really had any downtime. But, as I ramped up my editing business, I decided that now was the perfect time to start something that I had dreamed of my entire life: Writing a fiction novel.
My very first step in this journey was starting that novel, which I did in July of 2023. I’m not going to lie, taking that first step was daunting. I had written short stories in the past, but a novel was an entirely different beast. I had a vague idea for the story (a copyeditor detective), but once I started writing the novel, that plot device wasn’t quite working for the characters I was creating.
And once I started writing, once I let go of the reins that were tethering me back, the draft began to flow. This led to another first: My first draft. That draft was complete a little less than a year after I began writing the novel.
I quickly realized after completing that draft that I was far from done. I had left a ton of placeholders and plot holes and had even agonized over the POV. Over the course of the next few months, I completed multiple revisions.
These revisions eventually led me to my final first before submitting a query to a literary agent: sharing my novel draft with someone other than myself to read. This was a tremendously scary experience. When I was in the middle of drafting and revising, I was fully immersed in this fictional world. I fell in love with my quirky characters and the cozy little town full of dark corners and magics that they inhabited. But I had no idea how someone else would enjoy (or not enjoy) this world that I had created.
Would they find it boring? Would they find it inane? Thankfully, my husband is a great fiction reader, and he liked the book. It gave me confidence to send this baby that had taken me nearly a year to birth out into the world.
I have already experienced rejections as I’ve gone on my short story journey, so while I’m not immune to the pain that rejection gives, I am at least experienced with it. I’ve got a busy day ahead of me reaching out to more agents and getting started on my next book.
I can’t wait until my next first: obtaining an agent!
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