Okay, hold on to your hats, guys, because this is gonna be a long one: a deep dive view of my process and thoughts as I went through my WriteMentor subs (spoiler free as to the actual choice, of course). If you want the behind the scenes demystified, well, here we go!
First off, wow! These subs were pretty much amazing. Each one was unique and bursting with creativity and a passion for the story it was telling. It’s become a cliche to say you wrote a book so celebrate so I’ll add something new: you wrote damn good books. Thank you for making the choice so hard!
So…how did I make the choice? First, for each entry, I read the opening pages first to see if it grabbed me, then read the query. Then I went back and re-read at least the first 5 pages/first chapter and made notes in a spreadsheet plus marked Yes to the second round or Maybe. I didn’t rule anything out on that first read. I also didn’t read any synopses at that stage because I didn’t want plot spoilers for whatever fulls I read.
So, what made me say Yes or Maybe? Not quality, I can tell you that! Everything was too good! Rather, it was more other factors that ruled subs out. Another mentor instantly fell in love with one, so I took that off my list. Quite a few seemed much more New Adult or Middle Grade than YA, so my main comment would have been “have you considered aging this up/down,” which isn’t the best use of a YA mentor, and also something I couldn’t really help with. Quite a few other mentors also mentioned seeing stories that seemed to be pitched as the wrong age range given either the character ages or the themes, so that’s definitely something to be aware of.
A few had elements too similar to my own work, one seemed pretty much query ready, and one seemed to only need a polish, not a 4-month intensive mentorship–again, nothing to do with “quality”. There were also a few where the authors seemed like they’d benefit from sweating the basics of storytelling a little more, but that doesn’t mean bad—I loved these premises so much, and if I had more time, I’d have been tempted. But we have 4 months, and spending 2 of them going over basics of show versus tell or what is or isn’t a scene isn’t the best use of a mentor. They seemed like they could make more progress on their own or with a crit group/beta readers, and I was looking for someone who’d really hit a wall. Again, absolutely nothing to do with quality! Having less technical mastery is a step on the journey and in NO WAY indicates a bad writer.
So after sorting my Maybes into Nos and Still Maybes, I re-read all the queries plus synopses of the remaining Maybes. Here’s where subjectivity really started to come into play. Some simply didn’t grab me in a way that meant I could crawl up inside the story, want to live in it, that I could not only see its flaws but also fixes, and be excited about it. A few Maybes got bumped up to Yeses at this point, for an updated longlist of 10. I then reread the first pages and winnowed that down to 8. Interestingly, these were all ones where I instantly had started making comments in the margins and big picture notes.
I then sent emails to those 8 asking for background info on the book and some more details. And then I read. Five fulls and three partials, which gave me a final shortlist of 5. And again, it wasn’t so much a case of saying No than Yes, But Not as Much as Others.
So what was the deciding factor here? Again, not quality or “talent.” I wasn’t looking for perfection, to start, and while each of the books at this stage had something that made it sing, they all also had “big” issues that meant I thought it could actually benefit from 4 months intense revision with a mentor. So the factors I looked for now were less to do with prose or technical skill than arc and stakes and pacing, so as I read, I was asking “What items are underutilised here and could be developed more to heighten tension and deepen character and create plot complications?” and “Is the arc wobbly vs non-existent?” and “How well does the author seem to understand the story they are trying to tell, all its moving pieces, and which are they struggling to control or letting drop?”
Thus, my assessment here again wasn’t about “good” but totally subjective: me looking at stories whose premise and characters stood out to me to now see (1) what help it needs and (2) if that is something I can help with. The emails helped here in terms of giving a sense of what the author saw as the issues and their roadblock in bringing it to the next level, and if my perception matched. Not a dealbreaker if it didn’t, but it gave a little more insight.
But it was also important how pulled into the story I got. The final 5 were all ones where I started making notes as I read, but then got so pulled into reading that I pretty much finished the fulls in one sitting and stopped making anything but the barest notes.
Then I went back and rechecked all my subs, even the original Nos and Maybes, in case they hit differently a week later. I came away confident in my choice of my final 5, and set out to come up with my top 3 to enter on the spreadsheet.
I knew I wanted to take on a book that could need a fairly big overhaul, so here again, the answers to my emailed questions were really helpful in terms of understanding working style as well. But in the end, the top 3 were ones where I simply loved the characters and voice and premise that little bit more, and my vision for the fixes were that little more clear.
So final 3…and in terms of ranking, my top one… I not only inhaled it on my first read, but then instantly wanted to scroll back up and read it again. I hopped right on the mentor chat to see if anyone else was considering it. I could see so clearly what could be developed more to make the most of the amazingly cool and unique premise and the characters. According to their answers to my email for more information, my diagnosis of the issues seemed to fit with the author’s own intuition, but they just don’t know how to solve them–but I know they have the skill and technical ability and talent to take my comments as a springboard and starting place to come up with the best fixes for their story. I’m so excited to help in that brainstorming process. I’m fizzing with energy and excitement over the world they created, and it’s so cool to think I get to help shape the next stage of this amazing story. So in the end, it was the one that grabbed me from the first read but also fit in so many other ways as well.
I hope this helped demystify how at least one mentor approached the process–and highlight how rejections really are subjective in so many ways. That’s something a lot of mentors were saying behind the scenes.
I truly loved so many (okay, pretty much all) of my subs, and I could have happily worked on any of my top 3, top 5, or top 8… This one just…had my heart, and my vision for it felt really clear. But that doesn’t mean the others were rejected. We were all sharing our “near misses” in the mentor chat, and one of my top 5 found a home with a different mentor they hadn’t applied to because I kept screaming about how hilarious it was it, which again goes to show how subjective it is.
Please keep writing, keep getting feedback, keep submitting. With three different manuscripts, I applied to Pitch Wars three times, got asked for fulls twice. Never got in. I applied to AMM three times, also got asked for fulls twice, never got picked. I applied to WriteMentor twice, got in once, and now two years later, here I am, agented, getting ready to go on sub, and a different book out with a small press. All it takes is one yes, and you never know which time will be the one where your work is the one that resonates that extra bit. So please, keep writing! I want all of the stories in my inbox to be shared with the world!
Four Green Squares 