Mischa Fox

Sing the Bones Manuscript

This one is still in the query process with agents. So far I’ve gotten four rejections.

Remember, this is NOT a bad thing!

It’s a normal part of the publishing process. (I created a great video on TikTok where I discuss the first one and why I think rejections are GOOD. If you haven’t seen it, watch it! It’s a healthy take instead of beating ourselves up!)

One came back with some positive and unexpected feedback. The others were the traditional form letters. I really loved getting the positive one–it was a great reminder that sometimes it’s truly NOT you or your work that’s getting rejected.

Sometimes, the agent can’t devote enough time or has a client that’s too similar to you and feels you are a conflict of interest for the other writer. Sometimes they have enough writers in your genre for right now, and need more of something else in their interest to round out their list.

None of these are bad things. You WANT your agent to be able to focus the time and energy on fighting for your book that it deserves. You want them to love the book as much as you do. You don’t want to feel like you’ve got sibling rivalry under your own roof.

I only sent out 17 query letters in the first round. The average rejections for great books is still around 20-30 queries. I will honestly be surprised if I get a yes from ANYONE on this round.

So I still count these as 4 no’s closer to YES!

Sequel to Sing the Bones (Untitled) Manuscript

If I use my usual rough draft target of 80,000 words, I’m 20% complete.

I’ve loved experimenting with the ideas of “write as many vignettes as you can in 2 hours a day” as well as having characters interview each other. I’ve sketched out several scenes I knew had to be in the second book, or answered questions that didn’t fit into the first but fit better with this one’s theme.

I’ve also learned more about some of the characters who will get bigger roles in this novel, which is always a delight. They’re adding some subplots and twists and turns I didn’t foresee. I’ll have some interesting conflict to work with going forward.

I’m pausing this weekend so I don’t burn myself out further. But 20% isn’t shabby!

Under the Dragon’s Wing (Working Title) Manuscript

Tonight I pulled out my very first manuscript that I finished at 22, because I need to revise it to a version that matches my more mature outlook. Perhaps I also felt guilty telling my best friend earlier this week, “Oh my god, that one is old enough to drink now–I finished the draft in March of 2004.”

I had a great laugh opening it back up–it’s over 270,000 words.

That… is… not going to work! 🤣

(Fantasy target length is 120,000 words max. You have to be a big name to attempt to convince them to gamble on longer.)

Recently I encountered a fascinating approach while reading Annette Marie’s epic urban fantasy (which I love, got addicted to, and plan to re-read them all multiple times. Go get them now, especially if you enjoy interesting heroines, magical realism, epic urban fantasy, and/or light romantasy).

She separates her complex storylines by granting each character her/his own series. Then, between the books she creates an identical scene to link them. The dialogue is identical, but the every word outside the quotations is told from a different character’s point of view in first person–which gives a completely different spin on the same scene, specific to that character’s plotline.

It was a brilliant solution, and it worked like a charm! It was also a delightful way to learn more about how each of the characters viewed one another with their own limited information at different junctures in the larger storyline.

I definitely want to try her approach with my massive epic fantasy to see if it works. That piece has been my baby and been worked off and on and matured with me since I was 10.

This piece was supposed to be the first book in an epic series… but now I realize it would be over 1000 printed pages for installment one… and needs maturation and an editing overhaul.

It’s been the real hang up over the last two decades. I had no idea how to split it down further… got overwhelmed by it… and shelved it. I will be ecstatic if Annette Marie’s approach of the shared scene works for this piece!

Because of the experimentation and massive overhaul I know this one will take, it will stay shelved another year, until after graduation.

Sorry, old friend. You might be the age I was when I wrote you before I can revise you. Forgive me.

The Sacrifice (Working Title) Manuscript

Next, I pulled out a horror manuscript that I began about a decade ago and shelved due to other obligations at the time. I think it might be time to start brushing it up, as I’m now understanding the kind of story it wants to grow into. I was surprised to find I’d completed over 12,000 words of it–which was a bit of a shock.

Considering that most horror novels fall between 70,000 and 90,000 words, if I use the middle of 80,000 as a target, it’s already 16% complete as a rough draft, and I hadn’t realized it at the time.

This was a manuscript that popped up in a mentoring discussion in September, because I was having trouble even defining what it was… which kept me from working on it further. Now I’m starting to get a feel for her. It might be good to put this one into rough drafting rotation.

Between Death and Dreams (Working Title) Manuscript

This is the newest stand alone piece, which fits in speculative fiction, possibly leaning towards urban fantasy or romantasy. I wrote a fury of ideas in January on a short break from my final revision for SING THE BONES (the dark fantasy novel in agent query status currently). I put the document in a folder, forgot about it, because I wanted to focus on BONES and wrap it up before diving too deeply into something new.

Second surprise of the night: it’s 21,000 words already. Using the same general goal for a rough draft (I usually use 80,000 words as my goal for a rough draft, then go back to flesh out the world, the characters, which depending on genre may build it up beyond that)–this one is 26% complete, and I didn’t realize it.

I really enjoying working on this one, because it’s the oldest main character I’ve worked with. She’s sassy, she’s fierce, she has zero fucks to give, especially in the middle of a hot flash, and does not have time for this magic crap OR menopause. I love her. I’m giving her a lot of my funniest thoughts going through the transition, and I think women over 40 will love reading her and feel as relieved as I do writing her–FINALLY! A heroine who isn’t in her 20s!

Untitled New Dystopian Novel

I apparently don’t have enough to crowd my brain already.

Tuesday or Wednesday this week, a whole world and plot fell onto my plate while I blearily poured my morning coffee.

It RARELY happens like that.

Usually I kick around an idea for weeks, months. Years (did you read Under the Dragon’s Wing’s update above?) Either the character forms first, or the setting, then the other… then the plot is born out of the two. Occasionally I’ll have a plot pop up first and the character fills in second.

But this mostly dropped into my head entire.

I wanted to call into my day job to work on it. I didn’t, because I like food 🤣

Tempting, though!

Until I become a full-time writer, however, that daydream needs to wait.

Final Thoughts

I keep feeling guilty for not working on The Sacrifice, Between Death and Dreams, the sequel to Sing the Bones, and the new dystopian work. The harder I try to stick just to the sequel, the worse I feel haunted by the other three.

I’m going to experiment with rotating them instead of trying to rush a first draft of the Sing the Bones sequel before school. This approach already isn’t working–as in, it’s affecting my health acutely, which I don’t need, even if the writing is coming along at a decent pace.

I might try these ideation exercises on each manuscript for a week (writing as much as I can in a 2 hour period each night or having characters interview one another for 2 hours a night). This could be fun.

I’ll also try to work on my self pacing and personal work-life balance. I do not need to burn out again as fast as I did this week. More rest and recovery time!