The Problems I refuse to Fix

I haven’t written a post here in a while nor have I been as enthusiastic at querying as I promised myself I would be. I’m trying to decipher my own feelings on this new querying adventure. Maybe a blog post will bring things to light.

I do want to say that I have been writing and editing at a normal pace when life allows. I have finished my first wave of edits for Angry Mars. It’s ready for a rewrite. I’m currently working on editing my first draft of The Weathered Ones [Title: Unconfirmed]. That one is going to involve a heavy rewrite, as I believe the first draft only has about 20k words I can use. It’s been a completely different journey than Angry Mars, where all the notes and maps have been down for about five years now. I also finished some basic notes on another standalone sci fi that I can’t wait to start!

So back to querying. I think I started this journey back in August 2022. With embarrassment, I must admit, I’ve only queried a little over thirty agents. Here are some things I’ve learned in my querying Journey:

1. As emotionally detached as I’ve tried to be, i.e.. Telling myself this is my first novel and it probably won’t sell so just go through the motions as a learning experience. Molding my query for each Agent and trying to convey my feelings for my book is hugely emotionally draining for me. I started out with the ability to send out five queries at a time, every two weeks.. Now, it’s been reduced to one or two at a time, with my most recent query a month ago. (I queried one today!)

2. I’ve read “know your genre” and “know your audience” so many times, I began to just roll my eyes. How could you not know who you’re writing to? Anyone who wants to read it, right? Guess what? I didn’t have my genre as nailed down as I thought and this led to changing it with each query to fit what an agent was looking for. You want sci fi? Cool, i’ve got space and aliens in mine. You want Fantasy? Fantastic! I’ve got knights and kings and castles in exotic lands. You guys, I didn’t even know the age of my protagonist when I started. This is a quirk with my writing. In my thoughts, readers want to relate to their protagonists. I leave mine purposefully ambiguous so that anyone can enjoy the adventure. Is that bad? I don’t know.

3. Rewrites and edits during the querying stage. I’ve been working on this novel since 2017. If I don’t just put it down, i’ll never move on to other things. My books needs rewrites. NEEDS. And I refuse to do it right now. If someone expresses interest, then I will 100% rewrite everything that needs it, but for now…because this is my first novel and probably won’t sell anyway, there will be no rewrites. Which leads me to my last point.

4. I’m not proud of my prologues or first chapter. At this point, i’m positive neither of these work as a good hook. My first prologue is just a hook and doesn’t even include the main characters. And yes, it starts with him waking up. What a cliche. My first chapter needs some work to. I’ve looked at these things so many times, i’m just not happy with them anymore. And you really should submit your best work. Again, a great learning experience and i’ll be sure to avoid it for the next book, but I’m not going back to fix it at this time or I’ll never move on.

Am I crazy to stick with my no rewrite rule like that? Am I wrong? Let me know.