If you haven’t heard the phrase “the book of my heart,” it’s a manuscript writers talk about when they are referring to a story they felt they just had to write, one that means more to them than anything else they’ve written. Some of these do get published, but many languish unloved except by their creators. I have one of these. It’s gotten no love from editors and agents have been lukewarm on it. I might revise it some day and try again, because I’ve realized a few important reasons why I’m the only one who thinks it’s special in its current form
I chose to put in things in that were important to me, but I derailed the story with some of them. Their importance doesn’t shine through in the overall picture, and in some cases they drag the story down. I broke my own rule of ‘Focus on the Story’ not on myself.
These stories in particular need some very critical readers to weigh in on readability. If a story is that close to you, it’s very hard to look at it with an editorial eye, no matter how good you are at editing your own work. And if you get critiques you don’t like on it, you have to take a deep breath and really consider what’s being suggested. It’s often tough to cut and slash at a manuscript like this but if your goal is to get it published, it can be a necessity. If the story is important to you the way it is, then of course it’s okay not to change it. The desire to be published often conflicts with the desire to write a particular story. It’s up to each person to decide. And my story? Now that I’ve written it and it’s been put away for a couple of years, it will be easier for me to go back and edit. I’ve moved on, you might say. Like an old love, I still am fond of it, but there are many more stories to focus my heart on.
Dee Garretson 