Query Letter Crusaders

Writing a 50,000 word novel: easy peasy (Well, not exactly).  Writing a one page query letter: Impossible.

Anyone else feel this way? Have you  spent hours and hours perfecting your query letter, only to get feedback that it’s boring or too much like a summary or too gimmicky?

Yeah, it happens to the best of us.

I’d say don’t stress about it, but your query letter might be your only chance to make a first impression for agents.

So do we panic now?

Of course not (Okay maybe a little).

I’ve started a new yahoo group to help with the querying process. Basically, it’s a bunch of people serious about their query letters and serious about helping others with their query letters.

While we might not have any query experts, we have eyes. Eyes to see and evaluate queries. We have several people set up to be mock agents. (You can sign up to be one too!) Basically, you send your query package to them and they evaluate it. It’s sort of like sending it to a real agent, but

a.       none of our mock agents can represent your work and

b.       the mock agents give feedback.

Here’s the link:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/querylettercrusaders/

Join us!

Scary!

Writing isn’t in itself scary. But there can be rather worrisome moments. If you don’t believe me, check the heart rate of any author who has just sent out a bunch of queries. Or even worse, when the query response has come back and it’s sitting in your e-mail inbox, unopened, waiting.

Rejection can sting, so perhaps that’s why it’s so scary to submit.

One day nearly five years ago, I was walking my dog (This will connect back to writing, I promise). Anyhow, Lucy, in her excitement to smell some awesome aroma, stuck her head into a shrub. This particular plant had a branch that stuck straight out—which poked Lu in the eye.

She was fine, but to this day (Note: five years later), Lucy refuses to walk past that particular stretch of shrubs.

Moral of the story?

Sometimes things (rejected queries) hurt, but it’s foolish to let something like that paralyze you. Keep sending.

Second moral of the story?

Chihuahuas never ever ever forget.

Happy writing!

How I Feel About Querying Right Now

I'm the cat . . . querying is the banana peel . . .

GUTGAA Blogfest

I’m participating in a blog hop. It’s the GUTGAA Blogfest. When I first saw that acronym, I thought of DNA, but then was confused because DNA doesn’t have Uracil (the U), but if it was RNA, there wouldn’t be the thymine (the T). (Okay nerd girl moment over).

What GUTGAA stands for is Gearing Up to Get an Agent. Pretty self-explanatory. And awesome--very very awesome. What better way to get excited for querying than to polish up your novel's pitch.

For more information about the blogfest, go here: http://deanabarnhart.blogspot.com/2012/07/sign-up-time-for-gearing-up-to-get.html

It’s not too late to join the fun!

For the first week, we are having a meet and greet to get to know the other participants. Here are my answers to the get-to-know-you questions.

Questions for the Meet and Greet

-Where do you write?

I write anywhere. The living room. My bedroom. Outside. In the car. At a friend’s house.

-Quick. Go to your writing space, sit down and look to your left. What is the first thing you see?

My phone. On most days though, it’s either my cat or my dog.

-Favorite time to write?

I can write anytime. I tend to write a lot at night.

-Drink of choice while writing?

Water. It’s boring, but it serves its purpose.

-When writing, do you listen to music or do you need complete silence?

I usually need some sort of sound or visual distraction to keep me focused.

-What was your inspiration for your latest manuscript and where did you find it?

For my latest manuscript my inspiration came from listening to a song on the radio while driving to work. The song lead me to think, “What if . . .” and the story idea blossomed from there.

-What's your most valuable writing tip?

Never ever ever give up. If this is your first time writing a story, know that it is difficult. If it’s your first time editing a story, it is difficult. If this is your seventeenth time editing a story, it’s still difficult. Giving up is selling yourself short. Of course, your first draft is going to be awful. But you can’t edit something that isn’t written down. Just finish it. Then worry about making it better.

Happy writing! Hope to see you all participating in the blogfest!

Who in the World is Narrating this Story?

You want your readers to get to know your characters. That’s crucial for establishing a reader-main character connection. If that connection is not there, your reader might not continue reading.

But you can’t make a laundry list of who your character is. No one wants to sit through even a paragraph of: Character A loves the color green, has an irrational fear of puppies, and not so secretly wishes her sister would clean her half of the room. Bored yet?

In my last post, I mentioned using details to show things about the characters. But how do you do that?

Think about the color green. What is your reaction to someone giving you a green shirt? If green is your absolute favorite color, you’d see it and be excited. If you loathe green like no other color, you’d note it and perhaps be annoyed. If you are completely indifferent to the color green, then you might not even think about the color.

Or with puppies. Someone who is deathly afraid of puppies will describe a great dane puppy galloping towards them entirely different from someone who adores dogs. With that detail and how you describe it, you wouldn’t necessarily even have to tell the reader that Character A is scared of dogs. If the reader sees the sharp toothed, glinty eyed beast charging and the character nearly peeing themselves, then they know that Character A is scared of dogs.

In my last post, I asked if you should describe tattered, stained carpets. How would the carpet be described by the following characters:

A young couple walking into the house they just bought.

A little kid who has lived there his entire life.

A frazzled mother whose in-laws are coming over in an hour.

A hostage.

Each of these characters would describe the same tattered, stained carpets entirely different. I’m not completely certain the kid would even notice or describe the carpets unless a. the stains were shaped like Mickey Mouse or b. In the very very recent past, they caused one of the stains.

Any other thoughts on letting the details work to show your readers your characters?

Happy writing!

Lessons from Angry Birds: Details

How many details do you put in your novel? Do you describe the textured walls or leave that out? What about the tattered, stained carpets?

No reader wants to spend page after page reading about the room, but then again, they also don’t want to feel like they are in a white box with nothing around the characters.

Details give the reader a sense of where the characters are. The way you describe things can show things about the characters based on what they observe and how they describe it.

But how much is too much and how much is not enough?

The answer can be found in Angry Birds. If you’ve ever played the game (or even just seen the game), you’ll notice that the birds don’t have any wings. That would seem to be a crucial detail that is missing. They’re birds after all!

But really, they have slingshots. Are the wings necessary?

And that is the answer to how much detail to add.

Put in only what you need. If something isn’t doing work for your story, then you don’t need it. Meaning, if the description isn’t showing the reader something important that they need to know about the setting or showing them insight into your character, then it isn’t doing anything for you.

In Angry Birds, the wings aren’t needed. The birds have a slingshot to fly. Nothing changes about the game because the birds don’t have wings. It isn’t important.

So remember with details, put in only what you need and make sure it is doing work for your story.

Happy writing.

Where in the Heck Have I Been?

Wowzers! It has been forever since I blogged. Hmmm . . .  well, partly I’ve been busy and partly I’ve been lazy. It happens to the best of bloggers. (At least, I’m hoping it happens to the best of us. I’m not alone here, right? Right?).

So what do you do when you fall off of the blogging horse?

Silly question really. You get back on.

Oh and don’t be too hard on yourself. Think of all the other things you accomplished, whether it’s in your personal life or in your writing you’ve gotten a lot done.

For me during my blogging hiatus, I’ve managed to write a whole new book and edited Bonded two more times.

But I’m back to blogging now. What you been up to since I was gone?