The Daily Rejection

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Roxxsmom

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Re: the POV changes, I have four POV's in each of my books in this series, and it's fun, like Tri said, to come at the story from different perspectives. HOWEVER, I dislike reading rapid POV changes and never do it. It has to be a new chapter or after a hiatus before my characters switch. It's probably a personal thing, but I really hate reading "head hopping" stories.

Almost everyone does. That's probably why head hopping (as opposed to writing in omniscient or in limited third with pov changes at scene or chapter breaks) is roundly discouraged. I've heard some say there are ways of doing a true pov change within a scene without being confusing, but I've never been clear whether or not these are really people misremembering an omniscient narrative as limited third or not. Easy to do this, as narrative pov is probably one of those things that gets blurred by time and distance. I've even reread books and been surprised to find that they were in first person when I remembered them in third, (or in present tense when I remembered them in past). With good books, it's the stories and characters who stay with us, and the technical details tend to fade with time (as should be the case).

Okay, thanks guys, I guess I'll definitely consider it a partial! Sometimes it feels like reading tea leaves. :)

Congrats, and best of luck to you! It'll probably be a quiet weekend here, as the latest batch of agents I've queried seem to have average response times of about a month.
 
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HoldinHolden

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Thank you everyone SO MUCH for the feedback on POVs! I truly appreciate it! I'm having a lot of fun with this little project (though I am STILL having issues with fleshing out chapters to be more than a few hundred words. Ack! I admire all of you for all the time you spend adding detail to fiction works! It's hard!)
 

Australian River

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Hurrah! Finished reading my R&R draft aloud--a full day earlier than I'd planned. Kind of strange with the cutting and adding I ended up with the same word count I had originally.

Am I the only only one who edits by reading my manuscript in my head in David Attenborough's voice? He's is so much better than mine
 

angeliz2k

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Hathor, I agree with CCC. I know you've had some back-and-forth with the agent and you've discussed the changes, but in my experience it's always helpful to reiterate what you agreed on and what you did (briefly) just so everyone's on the same page. It'll also helpful if in several months you want to be reminded of exactly what changes you made.

Noranne, good luck with your race, and I'll be cheering you on from afar!
 

angeliz2k

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Thank you everyone SO MUCH for the feedback on POVs! I truly appreciate it! I'm having a lot of fun with this little project (though I am STILL having issues with fleshing out chapters to be more than a few hundred words. Ack! I admire all of you for all the time you spend adding detail to fiction works! It's hard!)

One not particularly useful anecdote: Based on a suggestion from my agent (yep, still weird to say that!), I knocked out four chapters new from two points of view I hadn't written from before, and it really was a BLAST to get into their heads and tell a bit of their stories. It almost made me regret not making them central POV characters instead of giving them a collective four chapters that may not even end up in the ms.
 

Nova Odyssey

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I definitely plan to include a letter to agent telling her how I addressed changes I made for the reasons you guys are telling Hathor- to show I possess listening skills and respect her requests. And then to humbly note the one little thing I left in she suggested I cut and why, wondering if it works better for her now with all the other changes with an openness to revisit it again if it doesn't.

But I'm jumping ahead with that future letter-I just read my chapter one and have concluded it's barely English, never mind good writing. I think this is the stage where you think your book is crap after being convinced it's great.
 

WendyN

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Ah, a new week! And tomorrow begins a new month! Which means I'd better finish up my read-through of MS5 to meet my May goal! (Although I did notice, Hathor, that you didn't bother to drop back in to call "time in" again :tongue)


Second batch of merenges turned out much better. The kiddos call them "cloud cookies" :)


Nora - How'd the race go?
 

Hathor

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Ah, a new week! And tomorrow begins a new month! Which means I'd better finish up my read-through of MS5 to meet my May goal! (Although I did notice, Hathor, that you didn't bother to drop back in to call "time in" again :tongue)

Well, I said it was time out because I was going to watch a baseball game. They do end after a few hours. So you didn't do any reading again until after I posted many, many hours later, huh? :tongue

However, I suppose our non-race race is still on. I read my draft completely today (not aloud) and found a few things to change. I want to be able to read it and not notice anything that needs to be fixed before we trade MSs. We may still have a tie. Not that we're keeping track of order of finish or anything.

********************************

I have a draft letter to the agent now. I'm uncertain about whether to mention I've polished the language. I thought it was polished before, of course. But given more experience with and reading about writing, plus new editing software, I found I could do a better job. She never said anything about my MS needing polishing.
So IDK :Shrug:
 

triceretops

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I'm having a bit of trouble with the YA dialogue and inner monologue. It's either stilted, too highbrow or both. I'll have to check it all out in the first round of edits when I have some more distance from it. More cussing isn't going to cure it. I need to simplify it more. It seems a bit philosophical for some reason. Too much adult in it.

tri
 

Calla Lily

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*puts on Mod hat*

Hey, gang. 20K posts is where we close threads and start the next volume, for AWers with slower connections, as 800 pages of thread takes a long time to load. Fasten your seat belts and return your tray tables to their upright and locked positions, we're landing in Volume 2 shortly.

ETA: Here's the Link to Volume 2. I'll close this thread now.
 
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