Congratulations! You've done it. You've finished your manuscript and are ready to query literary agents. You've got the perfect query letter, a great synopsis, comparable titles, and a list of literary agents that will want your manuscript.
However, when literary agents start replying, they like your story but don't like you're writing style.
When it comes to querying, don't take it personally. This is a business. In fact, publishing is a business, no matter if you are traditionally, independently, and/or self published.
Literary agents sometimes just send a generic "thanks but no thanks" email, but something that I was getting often was the "I'm not a fan of your writing style." My writing style cannot be described as "lyrical" or "atmospheric," and when literary agents have those on their manuscript wishlists, I know that literary agent isn't for me.
However, when repeatedly getting the same feedback and knowing which authors my writing style is like, it's time to take a look at the manuscript again.
Before querying literary agents, I edited at Witches of the Waves fifteen times. I had done read throughs, developmental edits, beta edits, and copy at a line level, picking each word with care to have as much concise and directness as possible. I wasn't wasting a word. But what if that "polished" manuscript literary agents are looking for actually came off as sterile?
When literary agents want something "polished," the answer may want to be something that makes sense, has been read over multiple times, and sticks to what is said in the synopsis. Most literary agents (that I've seen) don't care when there are minimal copy editing things (missing a "to" or misspelling a word) because even traditionally published books with a bunch of people to edit will miss things; we're only human. Literary agents are mostly looking at predominately the first fifty or so pages to see if the pacing is good, how the story sets up, and if the story is interesting.
While each literary agent will ask for a different number of pages, the first fifty pages of any fiction novel needs to be the best in the whole novel when querying. The first step in querying is getting the literary agent to read and want the full manuscript.
What I realized when I was writing and rewriting, editing this manuscript to an inch of its life and then deleting everything and starting over is that the manuscript had become sterile. Perhaps generic. I was making it too much like writing a "how-to" list instead of immersing the reader in the story.
On the other side of that--and it's a fine line to walk--is when a story isn't polished, perhaps missing the qualities to lead the reader without telling them, the world building elements without scaring people away, and getting to know the characters quickly (especially when not in first person point of view (POV)). That's not asking for a lot, right?
Many querying writers will ask themselves, is this polished enough to be sent out? (If you are not asking yourself this, you may want to take a step back from your manuscript and come at it with a new perspective.) Also, there is that back and forth, confidence and imposter syndrome that comes with querying agents and if the manuscript is ready to go out.
In my case for the "not liking your writing style," it was time for me to take a step back and figure out what was making it not "likeable." It was time to delve into my manuscript again, resorting to some of my older work that was less polished but had more personality. Because I was writing in third-person close, it also meant getting more in touch with the characters and doing a deep dive into the interiority of the character. That interiority has now allowed me to change up wording, phrasing, and play around with their perspective more.
Another way to see this sterileness of the polished work was to reverse outline what I had written, going chapter by chapter to write out the plot points, characters, etc. It broadcasted two things. One, I had gotten into a groove at the beginning of the book that I didn't replicate throughout the story but also made the reader reliant on it. Two, I was so focused on spacing things out and not overloading the reader that I didn't move the story efficiently. It wrecked the first few chapters.
The last way to see if a manuscript is too polished is to put the manuscript away and read it with a new vision, detaching yourself as the writer. If you picked up this book, would you continue to read it? Perhaps it isn't the writing style but certain story elements that turn you off.
While incredibly difficult, authors need to take a step back from their work and decide if it is objectively working. Writing is what authors do for themselves; editing is what we do for other people.
When I took a step back from my manuscript, taking into account what literary agents were repeatedly saying, I then saw how my story wasn't living up to their standards or mine.
Unfortunately, there is no right or wrong answer or full-proof advice I can give. Writing is an art, and art is subjective. I could ignore what the literary agents say, but am I doing justice to my work and to their time? Will I become a better writer if I don't consider their feedback? Would I continue to read this book after the first page?
If the answer is no to any of these questions, then it's time to look at the manuscript from a different lens, deciding if the story is polished, needs help, or has become sterile.
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