A Substack Sabbatical

It's time to finish my manuscript!

Hello friends,

I’ve returned from my two-week stint in the Midwest, and I am thoroughly enjoying the lack of humidity here at home. While I love traveling and often miss my former big city days, cool mornings in Idaho are not to be taken for granted!

Today’s post will be on the shorter side. I want to give a writing update, announce a little Substack sabbatical, and ask for your prayers.

As mentioned in my previous post, I had the opportunity to attend the Write to Publish conference in Wheaton, Illinois a few weeks ago. While there, I was able to meet with a literary agent about my current work-in-progress, and I was also invited to meet with another agent via Zoom (which happened last week). Both situations were lovely—the agents were kind, generous, and helpful.

But…

For fiction manuscripts, debut novels in particular, finished manuscripts are required by literary agents for full consideration. Every agency works a little differently, but generally the process looks something like this:

An author sends an agency a one-page query letter about their project. If the agent is interested, they write back and request a book proposal which consists of multiple items including the first three chapters (or first fifty pages) of the novel. If the interest remains, they will then ask to see the full manuscript.

Currently, my novel is about eighty to eighty-five percent complete. Knowing this, when I went to the conference, I didn’t really intend on doing a full pitch. Rather, I met with the agent to get her feedback on the novel premise, advice on platform building, etc. However, I was encouraged by our conversation and ended up asking her if she would be willing to look at a book proposal. She said yes.

I wasn’t expecting to ask the question, nor was I expecting a yes. So, not wanting to let too much time pass, I went ahead and prepared a book proposal—which went out last week.

While I’m certainly holding that loosely (most queries and proposals are rejected), if by the off chance a full manuscript is requested, I am currently not in a position to send one! Like the rest of my writing journey, seemingly, I’m now trying to play catch up.

What’s more, between traveling for two weeks and working on the proposal, I made zero progress on my manuscript in June. The bottom line? Whether there is continued interest or not, I need to finish this book.

And so, friends, I have decided to take the month off from all other writing, including Substack.

My personal writing rhythm is one in which I write a chapter, edit a chapter. I also have a friend who has been following behind me and giving feedback—thank you dear friend! So, between my edits and her suggestions, the manuscript is already fairly clean. I will need to go through it all again once completed, but I don’t think it’s unrealistic to have a final draft ready by the end of July.

I’m excited to see this to the finish line!

Before signing off for the month, could I ask for your prayers? I have no idea what lies ahead for this story—that is in God’s hands—but I want to finish well and produce the best possible manuscript for where I am today as a writer. If you think of me, send up a little prayer for diligence and excellence. I’d be ever so grateful!

I hope your summer has been filled with wonder and fun and rest. If you have your own prayer requests, send them my way. It would be my privilege to pray for you as well—truly.

Until August!

Tiffany