The Brightest Thread // A Long-Awaited Update

IT’S ALIIIIVE! …The blog, that is. Come in, come in, take a seat! Don’t mind the dust. I’ve kept all my dragons at home today, since the last thing we want is a flaming herd of dust bunnies. (One of these days I’ll get around to doing a spring cleaning here.) Am I permanently back to blogging? Not yet. But for today? YES. And if you’re there on the other side of the screen, I am SO DELIGHTED to see you again!

The reason we’re here today (sitting amongst the dust bunny herd… *cough*) is because it’s been much too long since I shared an update on The Brightest Thread and the whole querying journey.

And this is a bit of a tangent, but if you’re wondering where the pancake-flipping heck Tracey has been all this time, the answer is: everywhere and nowhere. Life is both fuller and wonderfuller than ever these days, which means that I’m prioritizing people and the world away from my keyboard. At the same time, I’m in the process of rediscovering the joy of writing… which, over the last year or two, has meant ignoring the blog in favor of writing another few pages of a manuscript. Perhaps one of these days I’ll learn how to do BOTH again: keep up a blog/newsletter schedule WHILE writing and living life in the right measures. 😊

All right! On to The Brightest Thread! The last time you heard a big update was July 2021, when I figured out a new opening, finished “final” edits, and began querying agents.

Y’all should really stop believing me when I say “final” anything. #onlyhalfkidding

So where do things stand now?

Over the last year, I’ve queried 24 agents. I participated in a few Twitter pitch parties too and received a small handful of agent likes (aka invitations to send them a query). Of the 24 queries, I’ve received 12 form rejections, two partial manuscript requests, and one full request. From the requests-that-were-later-rejected, I received a smidgen of personalized feedback. The other half of the queries I haven’t heard back from at all.

But querying only two dozen agents in one year is really not that much these days, I’ve come to realize.

Word on the publishing street says agents and editors are currently swamped. Supply chain issues have wreaked their havoc on the book world, forcing publishers to plan even further in advance than usual—and that is drowning everyone else in work as they struggle to catch up. (At least this is what I’ve gathered from published authors and agents on Twitter. If you’re in the querying trenches with me, I’d encourage you to do your own research as well.)

All of this to say, the old advice to query in small batches, wait for feedback, and tweak your query package accordingly… isn’t working quite like it used to.

Not long ago, I realized a couple of important things.

1. I need to change my querying strategy.

Batches of 5-10 agents seem to be too small, so the new plan is to…

• query 15-20 agents in my next batch
• send out a new batch every 2-3 months
• cast a wider net
• stop disqualifying myself too early, thinking my manuscript wouldn’t be a good fit because of [insert specific little reason here]*

*Don’t misunderstand… I’m not saying it’s a good idea to send your sword-swinging, dragon-slaying novel to an agent who expressly says they don’t want high fantasy! Paying attention to an agent’s submission requirements and manuscript wishlist is a MUST no matter where the market is at. I’m just talking about stepping out of the vicious second-guessing that many querying authors fall into. You never know who might fall in love with your story!

But first, before more querying…

2. I need to revise The Brightest Thread… again.

“But TRACEY,” you might protest, “it’s been what, six years? Seven years? And The Brightest Thread been through at least that many drafts! WHEN IS ENOUGH ENOUGH?!”

That was my thought process at first too. And then I had a very humbling lightbulb moment and realized:

• The publishing world simply doesn’t care how long a book takes to write or how grueling its revisions are.
• The publishing world is not exactly a meritocracy. Authors don’t clock in and clock out and expect a weekly salary. They aren’t rewarded for hard work alone; they’re rewarded for the end result.
• And even if the end result (your book) is fabulous, there are still multiple factors outside of your control at play. Time and chance happen to us all (Ecclesiastes 9:11). The best you can do is write a darn good book, query smartly, and trust that God will help to position you in the right place and time.

That lightbulb moment burned so brightly it probably could’ve singed my eyebrows off. “WOW,” I thought to myself. “I think I’ve been a little proud. Clearly I have more things to learn than I realized! I wonder if The Brightest Thread is really as good as I thought? As good as it could be?”

So over a year after finishing my “final” revisions, I read it again, armed with a pen and colorful sticky notes. Turns out there are significant issues. Things I didn’t see a year ago, but do see now that I’ve gained some distance.

1. The beginning is bogged down by too much talking and background info. Time to kill some darlings.
2. Luci, the heroine, is too passive. Which you have to admit is an easy trap to fall into when your body is asleep and your mind is literally trapped in a dream world for decades. But unfortunately, her circumstances relegate her to filling a lot of introspective scenes, or else playing the role of a camera for the reader to view interesting things that other people are accomplishing. SO. I have some ideas in mind to amp up her involvement and character arc… which may or may not involve monster fighting. 😈

After alllll the revisions TBT has already been through, I’ll admit the thought of taking another go at it can be daunting some days. But I’m telling myself that I’m actually really equipped to do this. By this point, I know my story world, plot, and characters inside out. I can make adjustments to the ingredients and more easily figure out what that will do to the whole concoction. THIS IS MY PLAYGROUND, AND I CAN CHANGE THE RULES.

*insert war cry here as I charge into battle, brandishing a red pen*

So that’s where TBT is at these days—back on the cutting floor. Hopefully not for long! I’d love to get this revision wrapped up by the end of the year… because my other spooky little mess of a WIP, Welcome to Absurdity, is calling my name.

Let’s chat! Writers, any of you in the query trenches with me, or in the throes of yet more edits? Readers, have you ever had to go back to redo the thing you thought you were finished with??