The rejection arrived on Friday, late in the afternoon, just in time to start drinking heavily.
Unusual, to get feedback from the literary agent, so there's no discounting the advice. The problem is, as I read the critique, I get a sense that I'm wasting my time.
There doesn't seem to be story arc in the manuscript I submitted. I know what the term means, but I thought I had a line I was following. If I'm that far off base, it's obvious that I just don't know how to write a novel.
Most of the characters are based on people I know, and most of the plot is taken from the events of a real person's life, but as I wrote about them, the whole thing came off flat.
How is that to be fixed? If incidents that I'm familiar with don't project some spark, then it's a problem with the way I tell a story.
Lack of talent. That sums it up.
Of course, if I can fix the issues, I'm invited to re-submit, but it would take a skilled writer to take my ideas and plump them up. Someone who has a better ear then me might be able to round up the different plot lines and get them moving forward instead of standing still like a tableau.
Time to step back from the manuscript and research books on how to write a novel, I suppose. Teaching myself by voracious reading isn't cutting it.
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