I have decided to rename my first novel. Originally, it was THE SECOND ONE. I had hoped the reader would want to know who or what was the first and second ones, and that would engage their interest. There were lots of hints and misdirection in the text. Is it the second daughter? The second set of strategies for Ashley to find her identity? Ashley’s second plan to recover her life? NO! It’s the second story explaining what happened–the focus was on the stories we tell and remember when confronted with tragedy.
But why would anyone care?
I imagined standing in my local bookstore in front of the Fiction shelf (we’re too small for Suspense, Thriller, Horror, etc.). There are so many great titles and covers, why would this one grab attention? Answer: it wouldn’t, or at least wouldn’t hold it.
So I renamed the novel TO BURY LILLY. That’s much more evocative (Who’s Lilly and why are we burying her?). It made a nice theme, too. The action in the novel revolves around different people trying different things to put Lilly’s death behind them–mostly making things worse–especially Ashley, who is at the age where we try to define who we are.
So, I went through the manuscript looking for ways to punch up that slant. During this process I realized that the book still needed a lot of line editing. (make that “A LOT of line editing”). And some of the secondary characters came to life, begging to help increase the stakes and heighten the psychological tension.
So I have done a complete re-write. Maybe that’s what over 100 agent rejections (mostly crickets) should have told me in the first place. But hey, I’ve never done this before. Now, what I thought was a GOOD novel feels like a GREAT one. Even if I never find an agent to represent this book, I will be proud of it.
OF course, in the meantime, I’ve continued work on short stories, poems, and two more novels — all of which are better for my experience with THE SECOND ONE — uh, make that… TO BURY LILLY.