Welp. Futurescapes 2022 has officially come and gone…
AND IT WAS AWESOME!
It was three days full of workshopping, Q&As, and presentations that opened my eyes more fully to the world of professional writing and breaking in to the scene. The members of my writing group were all incredible authors already (which was more than a little intimidating), but they were also the nicest and most hopeful people. They all essentially had at least a little previous experience, with several already having self-published several novels and queried countless agents.
As a quick breakdown of the main aspects of the workshop, we provided an excerpt of our novel (up to 3,000 words) along with a draft of an agent query letter for the book. We were then given time allotments to work with each other as well as several different industry professionals (like agents, authors, editors, etc.) to go over our submissions and improve them while answering questions and providing feedback of our own. It was pretty intensive, but overall provided priceless experience. Again, I can’t thank my group and the faculty we worked with enough for the help they provided with my query letter and chapter 1 of Soulformer.
I also came to another conclusion as the workshop wound down. I have been working on the first draft of Soulformer book 2 for some time. I haven’t really made it much of a secret that I’ve been struggling to find the motivation and desire to consistently plug away at this story.
My initial reasoning for moving on to book 2 when I knew book 1 still needed work was because I felt I needed to flesh out the overarching plot of the duology. In that sense, I was definitely right. Outlining book 2 and tying up threads I didn’t realize I needed or hadn’t realized hadn’t been tied up correctly or satisfactorily before was immensely helpful. However, after this weekend and the work I was able to do with my writing group (along with the epiphany I had several months ago), I now think I’m ready to go back to book 1 and revise it.
I honestly did not expect to come to that conclusion at the end of this process. I hadn’t realized how useful it would be to be forced into explaining and summarizing the various aspects of Soulformer’s plot and the nuances of the main characters to those who had only heard a basic elevator pitch and the first chapter. It helped me realize where each character’s motivations lie and how that should influence the flow of the book and the problem scenes I’ve been wracking my brain trying to fix. I’m not saying that I suddenly know exactly how to revise each and every scene, but I do feel like I understand my characters that much more to a point where I (hopefully) can suss out the right things to put on the page.
That’s the main crux of this month’s blog post. Essentially, I’m putting down book 2 so that I can go through and revise book 1 and get it to a point where I feel comfortable enough to submit it to literary agents. After that? We’ll have to see. I may want to do a standalone novel/novella/short story to refresh my creativity and give these characters a chance to breath. (Besides, I’ve got several great ideas stewing in my mind I would love to try out, including a sci-fi horror pitch I’m particularly excited about).
Before the conference, I was able to get some work done on book 2, though not quite to the level I was hoping from last month’s post. I wrote chapter 17 and started in on 18, so roughly 2,000 words total. This time I’m not so discouraged though, because I have a new plan that I’m hoping will jumpstart the process again.
I’ve never really attended anything quite like Futurescapes, and I would happily recommend it to anyone interested in pursuing writing even somewhat seriously. The people I was able to connect with and the personalized feedback and help I received was invaluable.
Here’s to a new month of expectations and possibilities!