Jessica Scott

When I first started writing, my fabulous mentor Candace Irvin said go to the bookstore and figure out what you’re like. You need to know the market before you can start to see where you fit.

So I went. I read Joann Ross, Cindy Gerard, Suzanne Brockmann, Marliss Melton and others. I read Robyn Carr after Roxanne St Claire said maybe you’re more like her. After all, I’ve got military heroes, I’ve got to be like one of these great ladies, right?

Oh how wrong I was. Here’s the problem and its not one I’m sure I can overcome. I’m not romantic suspense. So my War’s Darkest Series is not like Suzanne Brockmann’s Seal Team series where there’s a cast of eight or so strapping men to pick a story from. None of my characters are Special Operations Forces.

My characters are also not prior military like Robyn Carr’s heros, who have all gotten out and headed up country to Virgin River, hoping to find a new life away from their military experiences. My guys are the Everyman, my women spouses, nurses and warriors themselves. No Special Forces, Navy Seals or Black Ops. Just regular soldiers, fighting the good fight.

So my books don’t fit. They aren’t small town based like Robyn’s and they’re not suspense like Joann, Cindy or Suzanne. In short, there’s nothing out there that I can compare to because everyone has either written prior military characters or Navy Seals.

When I wrote military romance in a query letter, little did I know I was speaking in code for romantic suspense. When agents are reading it, they’re looking for suspense. Fast pacing, action, action, romance, action. And that’s not what I wrote. I wrote a character based, contemporary romance with men and women who are all still in the military. I wrote books that were not suspense except that by putting military in the query, I was telling agents that’s what they were.

I screwed myself, apparently. I feel like when I sent out this last round of queries, I should have put in big bold letters, THIS IS NOT ROMANTIC SUSPENSE. I don’t know that it would have helped. I’m reasonably certain there are other issues in my current WIP but I’m also reasonably certain that the main problem agents are seeing is that they’re reading for romantic suspense and putting the book down when it doesn’t live up their expectations, wrong or not.

So, bluntly, I think I’m screwed. How do you pitch a book that doesn’t fit into a nice neat genre? Especially in this market? You can pitch to your hearts content but if you can’t get past the gatekeepers, you can’t get sold. I’m not complaining about agents, mind you. I’m simply stating that I think I pitched my books wrong to the fabulous agents who asked for the full manuscript and ultimately passed with great comments.

So that’s the end of this, for now. I’m revising once more because I’ve got a song in my head that is making me work on this book, even though I’m pretty sure it’s a dead end. I’ve learned a lot, but the one thing I don’t know how to fix is how to query the next project correctly. Maybe I’ll put in the query: this is not suspense.

Maybe not.

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I’ve been working on getting published since 2007. Late 2007 to be fair, but 2007 nonetheless. It is now 2010 and I remain not only unpublished but unagented as well.

We’re talking 3 years now that I have been working toward something I have yet to achieve. While I had an agent for a brief smattering of time and it was a huge learning experience for me, I still remain essentially where I was in November 2007 when I first wrote The End.

This is not bad. Frustrating? Yes. But not bad.

Repeat after me. Not being published for me, at this point, is not bad. Looking back on everything I have learned in the last 3 years, the amount of change I have undergone as a writer is phenomenal. I know I am stronger today than I was in January 2008 when I had my first partial request (thank you Stephanie Evans). She was the very first agent who said send me your stuff and oh by the way, its not quite there yet.

I am glad she and the others have passed. I know this sounds like sarcasm but it is not. To be honest, I would not want to look back on that first book and see it in print. It was beyond terrible. I had no business querying it but I couldn’t see it.

The second book I queried, I see much improvement in. But I still have much to learn. While I would like to see this book in print because I believe in the story and the characters, if it does not happen, I’m okay with that.

I look at my writing career as a bit of self torture. The more brutal the critique, the harder it is to look at it and say, okay, what’s really going on. But being able to look at those comments, when you’re fortunate enough to get them, and learn from them is a key piece of growth for any writer. So no matter that comments are brutal, are they true? Being able to determine not if they are but why they are or are not is the key lesson to learn.

As I dig into revisions on my 3rd project that I’m going to query, I find myself looking at huge chunks of text and saying, I really don’t need this. Its cool info but it does nothing to advance the plot. Cut. This, I could put into dialogue and show. Revise. This makes my character look like a coward but I need the scene. Fix.

Being able to look at my manuscript and not love everything about it is a huge lesson for me. Major. Culling 30 pages is not easy but in my case as I found with the first 100 pages, necessary. Being able to see that it’s necessary without my fab critique partner Julie thumping me over the head with the printed manuscript, even better.

So in the 3 years since I decided “I’m a writer” I’ve learned a ton. I’ve had an amazing amount of support from fellow writers, offering advice, guidance and, quite often, a shoulder to cry on. I will continue to learn and grow. And in the event that an agent decides to take me on, neuroses and all, I will endeavor to keep learning.

At the end of the day, that’s all I can control.

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As a mom, nothing pushes my freak out button faster than a cry baby. I don’t know what it is but a crying baby triggers my mom reflex to where I need to pick it up and try to sooth it. This is a gut reaction that is seriously intense for me. Today at the gym, there was some movie on about a concentration camp in WWII. There was a baby that people were trying to hide from the guards. I was nearly in tears before I asked the gym personnel to change the channel.

Why such a strong reaction to a movie?

I think in part, it has to do with being away from my own kids. Knowing that there are times when my daughters are upset and I’m thousands of miles away is incredibly frustrating. It’s hard not being able to hold my kids. So there was that. Combine that emotion with the emotion of being unable to protect my kids which was triggered by the movie and we’ve got a recipe for a strong emotional reaction.

What’s this got to do with writing?

As a writer, I want to inspire strong reactions in my readers. I want them to care deeply about my characters to the point that when they laugh, my reader laughs. When my characters are hurting, I want my reader to hurt. So as a writer, this reaction I had intrigued me. Being able to analyze where the emotions came from will enable me in the future to pull from that emotional base and put it on paper. It might be in a future book, but knowing where my emotions came from will help me in the future.

If I’ve inspired a strong reaction in my reader, I will have connected with them in a way that all writers dream of. How often have you read a book that you just don’t care about the characters. Finding a way to connect deeply with your readers is a challenge for every writer because if the reader doesn’t care, they are less likely to pick up your next book or worse, not finish the current book.

So the next time you have a strong reaction to something, sit back and try to figure out why. The answers might surprise you and it’s something you can put in your writers’ ruck sack for future use.

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Writing is a challenge. It is so much more than simply words on paper. It’s making those words into a coherent story that people care about.

Why on earth would I write, when I’m a full time mom, full time army officer and full time wife, house keeper, veterinarian (all of our pets are another story)? Why would I add one more thing to my already full plate and then go and try to sell it so that it becomes something that I have to do if I want to see a dime of it?

I write because I have to. Because at the end of the day, the stories are in my head and this is something that I can do down the road for years to come.

Coming to Iraq has impacted my writing. Foremost being that I’ve had more time to write this year than I’ll probably ever have again. I’ve used that time wisely (I hope) by practicing my craft daily. This has enabled me to develop certain practices, such as writing every day or editing my stuff in Word rather than Scrivener, where I write. Of the year I spent here, I can honestly say that there was only about a month total where I did not write every single day.

I refuse to believe that I won’t sell. For me, it’s a matter of when, not if. While that may be wishful thinking, I choose to look at it as positive thinking.

I have a new company commander now and it feels like that fresh start when I first start a new project. Clean slate, able to do what needs to get done to tell the story. There will inevitably be rough periods, just like the process of writing a new book, when I step back and try to figure out what the heck happened to get me where I am right now. But that is all part of the process.

I’ve felt smothered of the last few months in my professional capacity. This was part due to my own stubbornness and feeling that I knew what right was supposed to be but also due to lack of communication and a lack of a willingness to communicate. Writing is communication between me and my characters. When I don’t listen to what they’re telling me, I stagnate. When I’m not willing to push the boundaries and challenge them, the story stagnates.

So here’s to new beginnings and fresh starts. In writing and in life!

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