Brilliant! Empowering! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Legend tells us Michelangelo’s words: “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”

This is how I feel about my storyworld. I feel the story is this great thing. But then I look at the ideas and I second-guess myself.

Today, I wrote a thorough overview of my series vision. 5k words. And I presented it to the following Patron Toolbox tools: Not a Literary Agent and Book Splitter

Here’s what happened:

Stage 1) Not-a-Literary-Agent.

Included: Summary of Book Series + Book 1 manuscript (almost done). Told me all the things wrong with the story. Not to market. Too strange. Too questionable. Cut out most of it. This first interaction persuaded me to shelve the entire project. “This book faces significant hurdles” 🤷‍♀️

Taking a risk, I tried again. It had ‘assumed’ I was trying to trad publish to the secular market. So I explained my vision. I explained my target audience and why I made the choices I had. At this point, the ‘non-agent’ did a 180. It highlighted why my idea was actually exactly to THIS market. “The concept is viable for the independent market. You have a clear target audience that is underserved.”

Now, I’ve learned that the tools in Patron Toolbox aren’t ChatGPT that tells you what you what to hear. It’s hard to please them. So this 180 encouraged me to not throw it out. But I still wasn’t persuaded.

Moving on to…

Stage 2) Book Splitter

Included: Summary of Book Series My summary included all the major events of the series. My initial question was where the most natural breaks would be.

Results: “As a developmental editor, I see a powerful, sprawling story here with immense potential.” (Maybe a bit flattering, but timely flattery) I was thrilled to see that where I intended to end Book 1 was on target. Then, the substance and focus of Book 2 and where to end it was BRILLIANT. EMPOWERING!

And THEN I got from the Book Splitter something I had not expected:

It rephrased my summary of story events, sorting it by Book and Story Act!! And added notes for what I should include/focus on where the plan lagged. More empowerment.

So glad for this resource, for these resources. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Now, God willing, to pick up my chisel again and find that angel…

“By sculpture I mean that which is fashioned by the effort of cutting away, that which is fashioned by the method of building up being like unto painting.” Michelangelo

Sculpture, like editing, is about chiseling away at the unnecessary, at the external, in pursuit of the truth and beauty within. Painting, like writing, is the process of adding layer upon layer to a flat surface until there is something where before there was nothing. SOURCE