A Little Learning (A Dangerous Thing?)
For now at least, I’m still too stubborn (and stingy) to break down and register for an online writing course. But I did find a good compromise between all and nothing: a recent “webinar” [what an ugly word], in which I spent 90 minutes listening to a book agent chat about the market for kids’ and teens’ books, while following her simple PowerPoint presentation on my computer screen.
She gave some basic tips on writing for those markets. Perhaps her most valuable contribution, though, was her offer to critique the first 500 words of each registrant’s current book draft.
Back in the early ’80s, a close friend took the “est” training and felt it was worthwhile. I called that organization to explore the possibility of trying it myself. I told their phone rep, “I’ve heard that the training really starts as soon as you sign up for it.” He corrected me: “Actually, it starts when you think about signing up.” I mention that because I benefited from the book agent’s offer even before I had sent her my work. I’d thought these first couple pages of my novel-to-be were fairly good … but when I looked them over before submitting them, I found lots of rough edges that needed smoothing. I must have spent close to an hour just editing that excerpt so that it would be good enough for her to critique.
I should hear back from her within the next month or so. Oddly, this process has actually put up a temporary barrier to my writing. I don’t want to add any more to the story until I find out whether a pro feels that I need to approach it any differently. Oh well! I’ll find other creative outlets in the meantime.