Mistake learning can be interpreted a few ways: to mistake learning for something else, learning about mistakes, learning from mistakes, and I’m sure we could come up with others. I named my post ambiguously in honor of my most recent BIG foul-up. I’m a big believer in learning from other’s mistakes in order to diminish my own, so I’ll offer up my new number one writing rule for your evaluation; Never, EVER, submit a document within twelve hours after making ANY changes without carefully reviewing those changes.
Case in point; I thought my second sentence in my manuscript might sound better if I added in a short action phrase. So, “Greg stopped pacing across the living room carpet and threw up his hands.” Um…yeah. Initially, some people might think this sounds fine, like I did. I have to really watch myself, because I tend toward these types of phrases. Unfortunately, if you approach the words in the same way you can approach this blog title, you might imagine some kid barfing up appendage bits onto the living room carpet. My story just went from an urban fantasy to a fairly twisted and bizarre horror. And yes, I sent that to two prospective agents. No surprise-the rejections showed up in my email within days.
Other potential mistakes to watch for:
*Don’t take too seriously a review of your manuscript from someone who doesn’t read any of the same books as you-Take criticism, but use discernment.
*Be nice to everyone everywhere you go. I once met one of Baen’s acquiring editors in an elevator, but even when he told me he was an editor I didn’t realize he had so much clout. Thankfully, when I met him through an introduction the next day, I could mention having met in the elevator without embarrassment. I’d been nice, polite, and hadn’t tried to shove a manuscript into his hand.
*Don’t get drunk at a convention, at least not when you have a book to pitch. I watched a man trying to apologize the next day after his over-zealous, drunken pitch to an agent at the party the night before. She was gracious in accepting his apology, but I guarantee you his book didn’t stand much of a chance unless it was incredibly brilliant. He’d already left a bad first impression.
Of course, there are many more. Feel free to post comments and add to the list.
UBI’s: Current Reading: Paper- City of Bones by Cassandra Clare; Ipad- Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson; Educational-Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King
Upcoming events: LepreCon May 6-8 in Tempe, AZ http://leprecon.org/lep37/, WorldCon Aug. 17-21 in Reno, Nevada http://www.renovationsf.org/
“Threw up his hands” – love it, Colette! I can’t believe you deleted a gem like that.
Yes, I know. Can you believe the agents rejected my beautiful prose?
I’ll add – Don’t submit to several agents at the same time. If one of them generously gives you feedback on some flaw and you can see they are so right, you will have room to fix that before sending it on to the next rather than getting the same feedback more than once and burning through agents you really wanted.