“The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.”
Albert camus
Now that’s hard to live up to. Especially at the present moment. It’s hard to look at the world at the moment and not feel that it is just as Yeats wrote:
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
and even more accurately:
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
I wonder if I even have time to write. If it is already too late, and all the writing of those currently pursuing the craft are just chaff in the wind.
Regardless of this, I am continuing to write.
I had an interesting week this week – two Zoom pitches to publishers. It is funny how things can be so encouraging and disappointing at the same time. Both publishers said I had a great pitch letter. Both praised numerous aspects of my writing and one used words such as intrigued and asked a lot of questions to find out more, said I wrote excellent dialogue. One said I wrote extremely well for the age group and it was engaging. Just so much great feedback.
This is obviously the encouraging part. Writing into a void where most agents and publishers aren’t even acknowledging your submission existed, much less saying anything about it, is hard. It was wonderful to hear actual publishers say they liked my writing and both said they hoped to see me in print in the future as I had a lot there.
But it is hard not to notice that neither of them asked to see the full work. Now, I knew that my work was not ideal for either publisher at the time. One was not requesting YA submissions, the other had specific themes and formats in their children’s books that mine did not meet. I get that, and my main aim was to look for feedback on pitch and writing style, which I got.
But… and this is important…neither of them explained WHY they were not making a full request, given the amount of praise I received. So, it’s hard to know if my work just didn’t meet their format or needs or if they thought it was ‘good’ but not ‘good enough’ or if they hated the themes or anything.
Writing is so difficult in that way. I am, of course, happy with the feedback. I just wish the reason for the no was included. Maybe it’s too uncomfortable to explain in person.
Anyway, it was an interesting experience, if slightly disappointing. I did get some good notes to go on with, so that’s a plus. They gave me some issues to consider and some possible paths to take, and both were extremely pleasant people. Overall it was positive. It’s just that writing is such a limbo until someone really engages to work with your manuscript. I keep wondering if a paid editor is worthwhile, but if I end up going the route of self publishing, I may never make that money back!
Anyway, I’m still writing. Almost finished my book of short stories now. I make no promises about it keeping civilisation from destroying itself. I am too busy hoping civilisation will still exist when my books are finally ready for publication – via whatever method.