HOW I TAUGHT MY MS A HANDSTAND
Originally posted August 12, 2013
Yesterday, Nat Russo posted on Twitter "Your first idea is often cliche. Keep asking "what if". Change things. Brainstorm." This was one of his many #writetip posts that I often enjoy and retweet. To this particular one, I replied, "I turned mine upside down."
Literally. I turned my manuscript upside down. I taught it to do a handstand.
For quite a while, the characters of my dragons had been building in my head, growing, coming to life, becoming something I could truly work with, create a story around. But I was afraid of breaking down that wall and writing something TOO different. Yes, there would be dragons in my story, but there would be vampires, elves, at least one demigod, faeries to some degree, and possibly other supernatural elements. It would be complicated. It would have a deep mythology of its own. The world would be ours yet not.
I played it safe and made a vampire the romantic hero. The story was good. My beta readers enjoyed it. They even loved it. The dragons were an excellent element with strong roles as secondary characters.
I had finished the first book in what promised to be a good series. I polished it up, wrote a good query letter and synopsis then sent it off to agents. Rejection. Lots of them.
The problem? It was good. It was GOOD. Good. NOT great. Sure, it had many unique aspects to it, but it was another vampire romance in an ocean of vampire romance the publishing industry sees too often in this post-Twilight world.
So, I looked at it again. I LOVED my dragons. I spoke to a few of my beta readers. They LOVED my dragons. Was the world ready for shapeshifting dragons as the new romantic heroes? Oh, hell, I had no idea, but I am, my friends are, and everyone on my beta team is. We've read the vampires, the werewolves, witches, wizards, angels, demons, and whatever. WE WANT SOMETHING NEW!
That's when I took my good idea and taught it to do a handstand, made it interesting, gave it a new perspective, flipped the whole damn thing upside down. Secondary characters became main characters. Protagonists became antagonists. Antagonists became protagonists. Relationships that were simple became complicated. Complicated relationships became more complicated. The cast of characters saw many cuts. A 125k word first book of a six book series became an 82k word first book of a trilogy.
I even reorganized my beta team, added new members, ones who never saw the original version, weren't tainted by the original concepts of the same characters. The new beta team, old and new alike LOVED the new MS. They raved. They became avid, rabid fans. I polished it some more, tweaked it a bit here and there with their advice and feedback then went back to the process of query letters, synopses, and hit the agents/editors again.
At first, I met with rejections. This time, I was determined. This concept was different, possibly too different for some people. I needed to find the right home for it. Fairly quickly, I hit interest. Suddenly, five editors at different publishing houses had the full manuscript. I was in shock. People liked my dragons, not family, friends, or beta readers, but actual industry professionals!
Then it happened for real, for really really real. An offer for a publishing contract came from an editor who admittedly fell in love with it. She raved. Her excitement matched my own. It was a long process, and I had to take a good concept and make it do a handstand to make it a great manuscript, but in the end, my dragons found a home at Swoon Romance. Georgia McBride fell in love with my dragons, and they love her too. We all do.
As Nat said, your first idea is often cliche. Keep asking "what if". Teach that manuscript new tricks. As I learned, don't be afraid to break down the walls into new territory. Someone out there is bound to be bold enough to explore it with you.
~ Mel
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