Under the mentoring scheme I have 6 sessions with Miranda, each session comprising work of up to 10,000 words. Now this creates a challenge as the novel I have written is somewhere around 120,000 words so even my O’ level maths tells me that during the course of the mentoring scheme Miranda will see half of the novel. As I’m just about to send me second session across the quandary comes in selecting what to send (except it doesn’t because I know what I’m going to send, but for the purposes of dramatic effect let’s pretend I don’t).
I could simply send the first 6*10,000 words of the book, or the last 6*10,000 words, or I could mix it up and select alternate batches of 10,000 words just to keep Miranda on her toes.
My first extract was simple: the first 10K of the novel, that was a no-brainer. When it comes to trying to find a publisher/agent they’re only going to want to see the first three chapters so it stands to reason that my first session needed to include them. It also made sense because it was about setting up the scene and the characters which seemed an important subject to be focussing on.
For my second submission I’ve eschewed the 10K and 10K and 10K routine until I’m halfway through the novel and run out of sessions. Instead I’ve focussed on one of the principal relations within the novel (between Reverend Jenk and Agatha; this means nothing to you now but stick with me and it might make sense eventually) - and one I was aware was weak in my original draft. In the second draft the relationship has been considerably developed so I’m keen to see what Miranda will make about the way the characters interact.
So that goes off within the week. I’ll let you know how it goes down and whether Miranda thinks such an approach is madness itself!
