Matthew S. Rotundo's Pixeltown

Continued my read-through of Petra Released.  Another five chapters, and I’ll be done–at which point, I’ll need to figure out a game plan for the rewrite.

I’ve been suffering a crisis of confidence.  By the end of last week, I had grown quite despondent about this novel:  a poor showing in the Codex novel contest, a depressing situation in the publishing industry, and worst of all, the realization that I had no idea how to fix the problems I saw plaguing the manuscript.  A couple of rejections (about which more below) did nothing to improve my outlook.  I seriously contemplated setting the project aside for now, and writing a new novel, one completely unrelated to Petra.

Another part of me nagged that if I abandoned it now, it would be much harder for me to pick up the thread later–which was true, but not very helpful.  That little nag also reminded me that I’d considered abandoning other stories in the past, only to persevere, and turn them into works I was happy with–also true, but not what I wanted to hear.

Such was my unsettled and unhappy state of mind when I hit the shower on Saturday.  And that’s when I got an idea for fixing one of my problems with a particularly difficult story line.  See, I had this character who really wasn’t pulling his weight.  I realized I could just get rid of him, remove him from this novel altogether, and maybe introduce him in the next one.

And just like that, I felt better about the project.

That seemed to break a mental logjam.  Another idea occurred to me that would spice up the limp story line.  And then I realized that maybe I don’t have to get rid of Do-nothing Guy, that I might have a place for him, after all.

So now I’m back on board with Petra Released.  Maybe I should shower more often.  (Whaddya mean maybe, pal?)

Write Club updates:

Personalized rejection from Neo-opsis.  Response time, thirteen and a half months.  Karl had a backlog to work through.

Tier one reject from F&SF.  Response time, 4 days.

Outta here.

Finished reading the Codex Novel Contest excerpts, then went back to my delayed read-through of Petra Released.

Some feedback on my own excerpt is filtering back in.  Turns out it’s . . . well, less than universally loved.  I knew on an intellectual level that this would be the case, but now I know it on an emotional level, too.  My initial suspicions that the opening is too expository have been confirmed–no great shock there.

As I embark on this read-through, I’m coming to realize the truth of something else I had suspected–that this is a more complex novel than its predecessor.  Petra was a simple story–so simple, in fact, that I almost dismissed the idea when it first came to me.  But then I realized that simplicity had its own attraction.  

With Petra Released, I’m expanding in both scope and ambition.  And you know what?  It’s hard.

But then, it’s supposed to be, right?

Anyway, I need to get back at it.

And speaking of not being universally loved, here’s a Write Club update:  two tier-one rejections from agents on queries for Petra.

Right.  I’m out.