Back to Buckleburg

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve sent out a Creative Sunday. But I have a pretty good reason for popping back into your inbox.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve received feedback from three literary agents who read The Summer We Started a Robot War. And while none of them are quite ready to take it on yet, all three encouraged me to make some changes and resubmit the manuscript.

And if you understand the process, that feels pretty great. That is because the feedback was thoughtful, incredibly helpful, and, most importantly, it made sense.

Sometimes feedback can send you spiraling into “Do I really need to change that?” territory. As a graphic designer, I deal with this on the regular. But this wasn’t that. As I read through their notes, I found myself nodding along and already thinking about how I could make the story stronger. How do I connect with the reader in the parts that are important but not action packed. I don’t want to hook people early only to lose them a few chapters later.

It was encouraging criticism. Getting one agent to take the time to offer feedback is meaningful. Having three see enough in the story to encourage me to rework it and send it back feels like a pretty good reason to keep pushing.

So, that’s what I’m going to do.

A Fall of Rewrites

This fall, I’m heading back to Buckleburg.

I’ll be spending the next few months revisiting Ember, Ollie, Sully, Fenwick, Dubya and the rest of the crew, pulling apart chapters, tightening the story and hopefully making The Summer We Started a Robot War the book I always thought it could be.

That also means something has to give. For the time being, Creative Sunday is going monthly.

I love writing these posts, sharing projects and giving myself an excuse to create something outside of the day-to-day. But right now, I want to give the book the time and attention it deserves.

So I’m not disappearing. I’m just trading a few Sunday mornings for robots, talking animals and probably a ridiculous number of rewrites.

And hopefully, sometime on the other side of fall, I’ll have an even better story to share.

Back to work.