AVOID REJECTION
By Carole J Greene

Imagine this: you open an email from me and find—hold onto your iPad—I want to review your manuscript. It means your query letter intrigued me, persuaded me your story hasn’t been done to death, your characters are fresh and fully developed, and your plot involves plenty of page-turning action involving the characters in significant decisions. You might even have tossed in a world view that convinces me you might just have a CAREER as a novelist destined to illuminate the human condition. Congratulations. You’ve scaled the first hurdle on the path to agency representation. Celebrate, because you are in rare territory and deserve to hoist a tankard of ale, a flute of champagne or a cup of green tea—whatever means “celebration” to you.

The next step presents a huge challenge: you must make sure your manuscript meets the professional standards that publishers expect. In fact, you should accomplish this BEFORE you query me. But if you had not yet read this article, it’s not too late to review your manuscript and check things off the list of do’s and don’ts. If it’s not READY FOR EDITORS when you send it to me, I’ll reject it. Is that clear enough?

Here’s the checklist:

• Impress me with your expertise with the English language. That means observing such tedious details as varying your sentence structure, writing coherent paragraphs, knowing how to spell and punctuate according to accepted standards. Eschew adverbs. Make vivid, vibrant verbs the workhorses of your expression.

• Copy edit your own work. If I find “discrete” when you mean “discreet” or “diffuse” when “defuse” is called for, I’ll reject. If you write J.C. Penny instead of J.C. Penney, I’ll reject. Yeah, I know, I’m being really picky. But what this tells me is that you didn’t do your homework. A publishable novelist is careful to get such things RIGHT.

• Tighten.

• Show me you are an expert with fictional technique. I’ll be looking to see how many times you use a tag (“he said”) when you could have done without. I much prefer seeing a bit of action to denote the speaker. Example: Carole opened the door, saw who was there and banged it shut. “Go away!” Any doubt who spoke those words? Do you need “she said”? If you must use a tag to clarify who is speaking, use “said” ninety-nine percent of the time. Readers slide right over it, so it doesn’t interrupt the narrative flow. Using words like “interjected” or “retorted” mark you as a novice. Don’t. And for God’s sake, don’t say “she chirped” unless your character is an actual bird.

• Another fictional technique I’ll look for is telling the story through the point of view of your characters, rather than an unidentified narrator. Where possible, put the words of dialog and the description of action in the pov of your characters. But be careful; switching point of view too often can confuse readers. I’m a reader. Don’t confuse me or I’ll reject.

• If you want to preach, get a divinity degree and a pulpit. No sermons in your dialog. Yes, characters can and should have strong opinions. They can and should have meaningful ambitions. They can and should agonize over options. But there’s a way to do this without creating a harangue. Find that way. Hint: no ultra-long speeches. Insert some appropriate action. No one blah-blahs along without some kind of activity: your character might cross/uncross legs, gaze out a window, pace the floor, or just take a deep breath. You can come up with lots of other actions. You can also break up long stretches of dialog with questions or alternative ideas from other characters present in the scene.

• Ever watch a movie and notice that in the early part of a scene, a character pushes peas around on a dinner plate then, later in the scene, the peas seem to have multiplied or have been joined by carrots? Obviously, the person in charge of continuity failed to catch that change when the interrupted scene was set up again. You are in charge of continuity in your plot. If on page ten the bad guy shot a revolver with only six bullets, make sure on page eleven it’s not a pistol with a magazine. You know what I’ll do if your plot has holes like this? Yep, the “r” word.

• Your manuscript has one chance to make me salivate to represent it and you. I will read the entire manuscript before I make my decision. A lot of writers polish the first few chapters of their material but fail to carry through to the end. Sometimes I’ll discover that the late chapters are so unedited and unpolished and have so many holes that I almost think a different writer penned them. Do NOT waste my time. If I get cranky, that “r” word will slam its way into my brain, not to be dislodged.

With this checklist in hand, you are ready to develop, revise, and polish your manuscript to eliminate the need for that “r” word. Believe me, I’d much rather find WOW books that have a good chance of attracting publishing contracts. Then all your work—and mine—will be worth the effort.