What I Meant to Write Yesterday

I wrote my concession speech the day before. I was prepared to be all thoughtful and magnanimous.

Then I made the cut, and pretty much went out of my mind for the day. I expect to be finding mistakes I made at work while thinking about the contest for the rest of the month. God-willing, they'll be small.

I have told you before I do not make snap judgments. That is sort of correct. I do have a default setting, if you will. When confronted with a completely new situation, something I've never encountered before (or don't recognize as something I've encountered before), I freeze. Caissa from Star of Justice shares this quality with me, poor girl. It's not a good reaction to have when dragons want to kill you.

I do absolutely nothing until I can figure out what to do. This is not a right or wrong response. It is just my response.

When I believed I would be eliminated, my first response was to do nothing. Yes, I've lost things before, but not quite this type of thing. I would wash Star of Justice's hands of MLS and move it on to other pastures as is, and write another book for MLS (still a good plan).

Then my brain started working. I realized I was missing an opportunity to really look at the writing I submitted and consider how it could have been different. I've said before I was aiming for accuracy, but it's a big book. It could be accurate in a lot of ways.

Marketing is about knowing the audience. What kind of blurb would catch the attention of this audience? What parts of my book would appeal to them?

I believe truth is absolute. Truths are true all the time, for everyone, without exception. This belief about truth can cloud my thinking sometimes. Just because absolute truth exists doesn't mean my back-cover blurb must capture it.

I'm not saying I should lie about what's in the book. I'm not saying I should rewrite the book to please this audience. I am saying if I'm serious about being a published author, I should try to think of explaining my book in different ways for different audiences. Yes, this is a new thought for me. No instincts, remember, and very little real life experience.

The truth is Star of Justice won't appeal to everyone. I don't expect it to. It's not the Bible. But it does appeal to a wide audience.

I just need to figure out how to communicate that.

So that's what I was going to write yesterday, and it's still true today. I'm going to fiddle a bit more with premises and cover blurbs, and even the synopsis, keeping in mind that truth, in this instance, can be reflective instead of absolute.

And if Star of Justice doesn't make the next cut, I will post a thread and ask for advice and take it like a real woman. While crying into my java chiller.

Oh, and I've added my website link to this blog. It's a little rough, but feel free to hop over there, check it out, and sign my guestbook! You can also email me from that site, if you wish.