Turns out all those agents, editors, writing teachers, critique partners, articles, books, etc. were right when they said you should let a manuscript sit for a while. And I don’t mean a week, either! Last June I sent my finished manuscript off to my agent (actually I finished it in March). We were starting with a different one, so this one has been sitting around doing nothing since then while I worked on other things. My agent told me recently that I should re-read it and brush it up some because she’s thinking about submitting it in the new year.

So I sat down with it and guess what? It doesn’t suck. It really doesn’t. It’s pretty good. Something I’m really proud of, actually. But either I’ve become a better writer (probably) or in the ten months since I’ve read it, I’ve gotten some distance from it and now I see how I can make it really good (definitely). I can see where it’s strong (it still makes me tear up in a spot or two) and I can see some extremely stilted dialogue that I’m pretty sure I thought was snappy ten months ago. So, while I really can’t commit myself to letting a manuscript languish around for ten months on a regular basis before I revise it one more time and send it to my agent, it does make me think I should give a manuscript 1-3 months. Can I do it? I think knowing what I do now from this experience, I have to.

The agent, Jennifer Jackson, wrote on her blog the other day that she is already getting queries from people who participated in NaNoWriMo (write a novel in a month), which was in November! At least I know I’m not that impatient.What about you? Are you quick to send things off the second they’re finished, or are you patient?