I re-queried with first five pages to an agent who invited me to resubmit after revising my mystery ms. I came up way short on my word count (approx. 55K). The agent said she believed this indicated a probable structural problem and so she passed. She softened this with some compliments but, well, you know.
The thing is I’ve never had a problem with length. My first four ms, romances, are in the 100k range.
Because this is a mystery, I tried to keep the writing fast (the agent called my writing lively). I wanted to keep the writing tight, descriptions to a minimal, and I made every scene further the story.
I could buff up the word count by expanding on scenes or including scenes I deleted because they were character driven not plot driven, or I revealed through inner thought or dialog to keep the pace fast. Do you think this would address the agent’s issues? Did I strip it too bare?
Or was she concerned my clues and misdirects didn’t lead to a successful conclusion?
The thing is I’ve never had a problem with length. My first four ms, romances, are in the 100k range.
Because this is a mystery, I tried to keep the writing fast (the agent called my writing lively). I wanted to keep the writing tight, descriptions to a minimal, and I made every scene further the story.
I could buff up the word count by expanding on scenes or including scenes I deleted because they were character driven not plot driven, or I revealed through inner thought or dialog to keep the pace fast. Do you think this would address the agent’s issues? Did I strip it too bare?
Or was she concerned my clues and misdirects didn’t lead to a successful conclusion?