When I embarked on a writing career I knew that certain milestones were inevitable. Beginning the first novel that is never finished and beginning the first novel that is. Ending the first novel. Editing the first novel. I have passed all of these, along with several minor markers along the way.
Today I reached another one. I received my first rejection letter. I sent out a polite query to an agency and after several weeks of waiting I received an equally polite e-mail declaring their disinterest in my project.
It hurt for about one minute. I had to remind myself in that minute that the most I had been hoping for was an invitation to submit a manuscript, realizing that even that would be an achievement. The manuscript is nowhere near ready to be sold.
The bright side of the matter was that it reminded me of why I am writing: because I want to make a career out of it. If I am going to do so, today's rejection will be the first of many. If I want to succeed I need to improve my query letters, improve my novels, and never give up.
I came home and decided to pick up Basein again for the first time since changes were made. I have finally given it chapters (you're welcome mom) and it is now composed of a prologue, epilogue, and 47 chapters stretching over 310 pages. I like small chapters. They're easy to read. I also added page numbers and a title page.
While I was adding the title page I decided a change in title was in order. "Basein" didn't accurately reflect the nature of the story. The world is not the story. I pondered and I couldn't find anything that I was excited about. In the end I settled on "Brother's Journey." This will probably change during the next rewrite, especially if I find a particularly salient phrase in the text that will serve the title role.
I didn't touch the text except for a few cosmetic changes that I noticed as I was scrolling through the pages to find chapter divisions.
For those of you who have been waiting for these changes to read my book your wait is over.
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