Revisions, Revisions, Revisions

So I spent a day looking over my partial of my first YA, thinking about the notes that an agent gave me who wants to look at a revised submission. *Sigh* After reading it again, I really, really like what I've written, which is so unusual for me. Most of the time, I'm thinking about all the things I've gotten wrong. While I agree with some of the proposed changes, I'm not sure that I agree with all of them.

For example, I don't agree that one of the main female characters is whiny, but I think that because my first person POV voice is so strong, it might come across that way, or maybe it's this agents perception of what she herself was like as a teenager. After watching several episodes of My Super Sweet Sixteen, Hermione is so not as whiny as those beatches. However, switching to the third person might soften her a little.

I do agree that I need to move the paranormal element to the beginning of the book and have the paranormal character comment more on the action of the story and also bring in the fairies sooner than I do.

I hope to have the revisions done in time for Mercury to make it's way out of retrograde. I can then email them to her and see what her reaction is. If she likes it, I then have to go through the whole manuscript and change it to the third person.

In the meantime, I have several other agents interested in reading the manuscript. Part of my problem I think that I'm having with the revisions is that I'm not sure this agent and I are a good fit. She didn't seem excited when I told her that I envisioned this first book as part of a series. She seemed more focused on the fact that the book had a paranormal element and paranormal is hot right now. But that's not what the book is about, that's just one part of it.

I'm happy that this agent seems interested in enough to want to see a revision, but I don't want to just sign with an agent to be signed. I've seen that happen to friends, and that can set you back like a year or more in your career. I want an agent who gets my writing, gets what I'm trying to do, and can guide me a little bit. We need to be on the same page.

I also have to at some point finish my current YA manuscript. I'm on the first draft, and I need to beef up the character elements in it.

Thanks for reading!

EKM