There sometimes seems to be an almost pathological masochism in the writing community at large. This undercurrent of “you need to suffer more.” It can't be too easy. No part of it. Ever. That rough draft? By God...you better spend hours staring at the blank screen, agonizing over every single word.
You are a serious writer now, dammit! Forget that it's a rough draft and you just need to get the damn thing written first so you can fix it. No, it should take all day to write 500 words. If it doesn't, then you must be a hack.
You should read every classic ever written no matter how dry or dull. You must make yourself read it because this is the flogging portion of your punishment. It's what makes you a contender. Didn't you know? If you can read everything any academic has ever deemed “literary” and STILL want to write...congrats...you can go on to the next level.
Your level of masochistic glee must be great if you wish to be able to add to the great literature out there already. You should spend months upon months doing research and maps and outlines, texturing a world that you probably won't get around to writing the rough draft of because you spent so long acquiring notebooks of notes now too large to sludge through.
How can you write a novel, a narrative, when you have that many notes? No wonder you just spent three hours staring at the blank screen. You can't top your research with your fiction. So go along little darlings...suffer some more.
Don't enjoy the process of creation, don't just let it flow, don't read things you enjoy. Make everything a “task” a “chore” a “punishment.” Because writer...you must be punished. That's what it comes down to right? You feel guilty for liking it?
There are women who can't reach orgasm because they've been raised with such guilt toward the sexual act. Is the writing act like that for you? Can you not reach the orgasmic release of creation because it's naughty for you to be doing this while someone else is working long hours in a factory developing carpal tunnel? (By that logic, you should stop enjoying your food due to the children starving in Ethiopia.)
This may be a bitingly sarcastic post, but I think you should think about it. Do you feel guilty for liking it, or like you aren't a real writer if you like the process too much? On the other side of the fence, are you a prima donna who just wants to look like they are suffering? Should we get you one of those fainting couches?
I'm not trying to downplay genuine difficulties with writing. I'm asking you to examine yourself and think really hard if this is some kind of psychological block brought on to you by the fact that the writers around you might be trying to “suffer.” Will you join the hive mind, or will you smile politely and say: “Oh, yes, it's so terribly difficult” while smiling secretly about it?
There is no shame in enjoyment. If you like a book, read it. If you like the Classics READ them, enjoy them, with my blessing. If you don't, don't force yourself to choke them down so you can “suffer for your art.” If you aren't enjoying the process of writing why are you doing it?
I'm not saying that some days aren't hard. I'm not saying you should only write on the days you want to. I'm saying if you don't love it, the process, the act, then find a way to recapture it. But for God's sake, stop punishing yourself.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Zoe Winters, Literary Heretic:
I'm a heretic. With very rare exception, I don't like the classics. I like Poe and I like Stoker. Not much else. I don't like Austin, or Dickens or any of their ilk. I know this makes me a heretic. It's practically shameful to say you aren't in love with the classics, that you don't idolize and bow down before them.
It's a bit like a high society woman admitting she's secretly been a whore for the past decade. But there it is, I said it. And now the world knows my shame. (Ok, not the world, just you five people reading this.) I can't sit and pretend to be engrossed by Charles Dickens, although I will admit that “A Christmas Carol” wasn't as dry to me as most of his stuff.
I can't try to be in love with something that just doesn't grip me so that I can seem more “literate.” Suffering through books you don't want to read is what you do in school, not life, in my opinion. Granted, it's been said that you can learn many things from reading the classics. This is true. Of course you also should guard against the one thing you don't want to do, which is “learn to write like a dead guy.” (or girl.)
In their time, most of the authors of the classics weren't writing something “literary.” They only became studied in ivory towers and whispered about in reverent tones, in most cases, after their deaths. During their lifetimes, most of them were writing for the common people. One of the most famous “commercial writers” of his time, was Shakespeare.
What he wrote was crass, baudy, vulgar, common. Although rich and poor alike went to see his plays, few would have elevated it at that time to the status of great literature. Today one of the largest examples of commercial success is JK Rowling. Right now she's “too commercial” in the eyes of most of the literati. In about 50 years she'll be elevated to that worshipful status. I can see absolutely no reason that the Harry Potter series won't become a children's literature classic.
If I like something, I like it. But I make no apologies for not liking a classic author someone else might like. When a piece of writing survives for a long period of time and becomes a classic, it must have some merit. And yet...as time goes on, the writing style and voice, while connecting with a certain segment of the population who love it, or try to, it won't connect with the majority of people in the way that modern fiction will. After all there is a reason why if you write now like they did then, you'll likely get a polite form rejection slip.
I guess my point is...now, today in 2007, this is your audience. These are your readers. Don't be afraid to be “common.”
It's a bit like a high society woman admitting she's secretly been a whore for the past decade. But there it is, I said it. And now the world knows my shame. (Ok, not the world, just you five people reading this.) I can't sit and pretend to be engrossed by Charles Dickens, although I will admit that “A Christmas Carol” wasn't as dry to me as most of his stuff.
I can't try to be in love with something that just doesn't grip me so that I can seem more “literate.” Suffering through books you don't want to read is what you do in school, not life, in my opinion. Granted, it's been said that you can learn many things from reading the classics. This is true. Of course you also should guard against the one thing you don't want to do, which is “learn to write like a dead guy.” (or girl.)
In their time, most of the authors of the classics weren't writing something “literary.” They only became studied in ivory towers and whispered about in reverent tones, in most cases, after their deaths. During their lifetimes, most of them were writing for the common people. One of the most famous “commercial writers” of his time, was Shakespeare.
What he wrote was crass, baudy, vulgar, common. Although rich and poor alike went to see his plays, few would have elevated it at that time to the status of great literature. Today one of the largest examples of commercial success is JK Rowling. Right now she's “too commercial” in the eyes of most of the literati. In about 50 years she'll be elevated to that worshipful status. I can see absolutely no reason that the Harry Potter series won't become a children's literature classic.
If I like something, I like it. But I make no apologies for not liking a classic author someone else might like. When a piece of writing survives for a long period of time and becomes a classic, it must have some merit. And yet...as time goes on, the writing style and voice, while connecting with a certain segment of the population who love it, or try to, it won't connect with the majority of people in the way that modern fiction will. After all there is a reason why if you write now like they did then, you'll likely get a polite form rejection slip.
I guess my point is...now, today in 2007, this is your audience. These are your readers. Don't be afraid to be “common.”
Friday, January 19, 2007
Persona
So, I have this blog. And while I have ideas I need to write down, it's not the only purpose. I have this blog to start to create a space for “Zoe Winters” to exist in. To network, to start some small scale promotion of my name.
So now I obsess. I have this horrible habit, which I'm working right now to break, of giving TMI. Sometimes to the point of alienating others. There is a time and space for everything, but dragging the persona I'm trying to gradually create through the proverbial mud is counter productive.
I see the writing loops and while many of them are closed and private for the most part, it's still “out there.” It's not totally private. You don't know every person who sees what you write. I'm at a cross roads. Do I murder Zoe Winters while she's still young and start over? Or do I keep going and try very hard to know what's “appropriate” to attach to my name and what isn't?
Because sooner or later I'm going to “make it” and then this paper trail I've been creating, is going to come to light. I mean unless I make it REALLY big, it's probably safe to say that most of the world won't know most obscure things about me that I've posted. Still...how many strangers is too many to let into any aspect of your private world, even if you operate under some level of anonymity with a pen name?
Something that I really admire in authors is emotional honesty. Someone who is real and naked as a person and not hiding. To me this displays courage and a level of “kickass” that I aspire to, because it's so raw and real. At the same time, sometimes it can alienate. I won't name names, (because it could come back to haunt me later...watch as I try to learn the fine art of diplomacy...yes...she can be taught!) but I've seen some author blogs where they are just catty and bitchy and whiny all the time and I think they are alienating their fans because in some way they are alienating me.
And yet at the same time it's like a car wreck...I just can't look away. Who can really say that scandal has hurt most people's careers? Once you get big enough and well known enough for anyone to CARE about your personal scandals, it just keeps making you larger than life in the public view. There comes a point where there really is no such thing as bad publicity.
Then there's the issue of people saying you said things you didn't say or saying you are a certain way that you're not. Even the most carefully planned “persona” can still end up revealing things about you you don't want floating around. Some of those things will be true, some of them not. The more public you are, the less people think you have a right to privacy or feelings that aren't up for public scrutiny.
I won't kill Zoe Winters just yet. It could be a messy death and I'm not sure where I would hide the body. But I'll try to keep in mind when I post something, that someday the whole world could know it. And I'll try to remember that even though there are some things I don't mind being public knowledge now, that might not always be the case.
Beliefs change, views change, how we approach life changes. But once you're in the public eye, you're a static figure. If you said a political party was stupid 20 years ago, it'll stay with you, even if you're now a part of that party.
How do you feel about your public persona versus your private identity? How much emotional honesty is too much, and TMI? Is it all a matter of individual opinion? i.e. A case of...you can't please everyone?
By the time anything near “fame” happens to me, if it ever does, the things I've shared that may be “TMI” will likely already be assumed about me, just by reading what I write. Fiction is fiction, and yet people often assume certain things about authors based on what they write. I'm not sure one can write “anything” for publication while still insisting on being totally private.
You're often out there pretty naked, even if you don't think you are. Some people will always read between the lines and be able to separate what's fiction from what's fact. And even if they're wrong...that won't stop the gossip.
Wow...cheery huh?
So now I obsess. I have this horrible habit, which I'm working right now to break, of giving TMI. Sometimes to the point of alienating others. There is a time and space for everything, but dragging the persona I'm trying to gradually create through the proverbial mud is counter productive.
I see the writing loops and while many of them are closed and private for the most part, it's still “out there.” It's not totally private. You don't know every person who sees what you write. I'm at a cross roads. Do I murder Zoe Winters while she's still young and start over? Or do I keep going and try very hard to know what's “appropriate” to attach to my name and what isn't?
Because sooner or later I'm going to “make it” and then this paper trail I've been creating, is going to come to light. I mean unless I make it REALLY big, it's probably safe to say that most of the world won't know most obscure things about me that I've posted. Still...how many strangers is too many to let into any aspect of your private world, even if you operate under some level of anonymity with a pen name?
Something that I really admire in authors is emotional honesty. Someone who is real and naked as a person and not hiding. To me this displays courage and a level of “kickass” that I aspire to, because it's so raw and real. At the same time, sometimes it can alienate. I won't name names, (because it could come back to haunt me later...watch as I try to learn the fine art of diplomacy...yes...she can be taught!) but I've seen some author blogs where they are just catty and bitchy and whiny all the time and I think they are alienating their fans because in some way they are alienating me.
And yet at the same time it's like a car wreck...I just can't look away. Who can really say that scandal has hurt most people's careers? Once you get big enough and well known enough for anyone to CARE about your personal scandals, it just keeps making you larger than life in the public view. There comes a point where there really is no such thing as bad publicity.
Then there's the issue of people saying you said things you didn't say or saying you are a certain way that you're not. Even the most carefully planned “persona” can still end up revealing things about you you don't want floating around. Some of those things will be true, some of them not. The more public you are, the less people think you have a right to privacy or feelings that aren't up for public scrutiny.
I won't kill Zoe Winters just yet. It could be a messy death and I'm not sure where I would hide the body. But I'll try to keep in mind when I post something, that someday the whole world could know it. And I'll try to remember that even though there are some things I don't mind being public knowledge now, that might not always be the case.
Beliefs change, views change, how we approach life changes. But once you're in the public eye, you're a static figure. If you said a political party was stupid 20 years ago, it'll stay with you, even if you're now a part of that party.
How do you feel about your public persona versus your private identity? How much emotional honesty is too much, and TMI? Is it all a matter of individual opinion? i.e. A case of...you can't please everyone?
By the time anything near “fame” happens to me, if it ever does, the things I've shared that may be “TMI” will likely already be assumed about me, just by reading what I write. Fiction is fiction, and yet people often assume certain things about authors based on what they write. I'm not sure one can write “anything” for publication while still insisting on being totally private.
You're often out there pretty naked, even if you don't think you are. Some people will always read between the lines and be able to separate what's fiction from what's fact. And even if they're wrong...that won't stop the gossip.
Wow...cheery huh?
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Sometimes all you need is a solid plan
So I'm doing this whole "novel in 90" thing which I've mentioned enough times for you to want to beat me with a stick. And I got a bit overwhelmed. There are some things I need to do before moving on to the next draft of this novel. But it all seemed overwhelming. I'm a bit of a weirdo because I outline before writing a rough draft but I don't do character sketches or tons of research (just bare basics) until the second draft. Because the first draft is where I figure out who my characters are as well as what it is exactly I need to find out. Basically I bullshit through the first draft and act like I know what I'm talking about.
Anyway I was a bit overwhelmed because there is always the danger of stalling out at this phase for me and not actually getting into the rewrite portion because I have to access a different part of my brain here.
Turns out...all I really needed was a deadline (which I already had) and a solid plan. So I took all the things I had to do and made specific lists. Exactly WHO do I need character sketches on? Place sketches (maps and descriptions)? What EXACT things do I need to research...list them. Then divide and conquer, reasonable chunks a day and micro-deadlines.
Now I'm back on track and not feeling so overwhelmed by it all. In fact in the overarching original deadline chart, I'm only going to be one day behind if I stick to this plan, which I'm sure I'll catch up at some point. It feels doable now.
Another thing I did today was start the rough draft of the next novel, which I'll be going at a slow and steady pace of 750 words a day on. Getting back into the creative space, I think is helpful to keep me in this whole "writer flow." Plus, by the time I finish revising this novel and send it out into the world, I've got the next thing to revise, I'm already on my way to the next thing.
I was a little hesitant about starting this next book. I know there are dangers to working on too many things at once. And yet I think working on one "rough draft" and one "edit/revising process" isn't overkill, because they are two fairly different processes. Some days i will have to write new scenes on the edit draft so I will likely not write new stuff on the rough draft on that day...I'm just going to play it by ear. But I figure if I ever get published I'm going to have to learn to switch gears like this to keep forward momentum and I think I can do it.
You never know until you push yourself.
Anyway I was a bit overwhelmed because there is always the danger of stalling out at this phase for me and not actually getting into the rewrite portion because I have to access a different part of my brain here.
Turns out...all I really needed was a deadline (which I already had) and a solid plan. So I took all the things I had to do and made specific lists. Exactly WHO do I need character sketches on? Place sketches (maps and descriptions)? What EXACT things do I need to research...list them. Then divide and conquer, reasonable chunks a day and micro-deadlines.
Now I'm back on track and not feeling so overwhelmed by it all. In fact in the overarching original deadline chart, I'm only going to be one day behind if I stick to this plan, which I'm sure I'll catch up at some point. It feels doable now.
Another thing I did today was start the rough draft of the next novel, which I'll be going at a slow and steady pace of 750 words a day on. Getting back into the creative space, I think is helpful to keep me in this whole "writer flow." Plus, by the time I finish revising this novel and send it out into the world, I've got the next thing to revise, I'm already on my way to the next thing.
I was a little hesitant about starting this next book. I know there are dangers to working on too many things at once. And yet I think working on one "rough draft" and one "edit/revising process" isn't overkill, because they are two fairly different processes. Some days i will have to write new scenes on the edit draft so I will likely not write new stuff on the rough draft on that day...I'm just going to play it by ear. But I figure if I ever get published I'm going to have to learn to switch gears like this to keep forward momentum and I think I can do it.
You never know until you push yourself.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Awakening
While I don't think I'm freaking Buddha by any stretch of the imagination (observe my inability not to engage in argument), I've recently had an "awakening" of sorts.
I don't know exactly when it happened. I was in this big ole non-writing slump. I could call it writer's block, but I don't believe in writer's block unless you lose a hand or something. You can write...it just might be crappy. The universe never promised more.
But I started writing again. It started with fanfic. Yeah, I know, go ahead, mock. But it got me going again. Then I was looking at my other novels and planning to edit one of them, and then Nano was here. And out of nowhere I got this great idea for a novel, so I had something for nano.
Then I actually overachieved for nano...93,000 words in 29 days bitches! Then I got ready to start revising and there was this novel_in_90 comm and I'm like KICKASS. So I'm just rolling along.
At some point in all this, I woke up one day and it just struck me, "This is it, this is what I want." I mean yeah, I've always thought this in the back of my head...probably since I was about eleven. It was just always a "pipe-dream" like a nice thought but not realistic. Suddenly I'm like "Why the fuck not?" If the mystical "They" can do it, I can do it. Hell, my mama didn't say: "You can be anything you want to be" for me to waste it on a "safe and sure" goal.
It's just...until that moment of clarity I was floundering trying to develop "other goals." Sure I've gotten passionate about other things. Other ideas, other businesses, etc. But nothing has been a constant companion in the same way that writing has been. So suddenly I'm more serious.
I don't know if I'm getting to an age where I'm just ready to buckle down or what. Maybe it's not an age thing. I'm just ready to be completely fucking honest. I want to write. Desperately. That's what I want to do, it's who I want to be. This is me.
In all my permutations, nothing has screamed more loudly than the writing thing. I just woke up one day and I "wanted it more." I started getting in gear, setting deadlines, KEEPING deadlines (that's a big deal cause I used to set goals and deadlines and not finish them.) The earth just shifted on it's axis and I was like: "Oh crap, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. I better get busy."
When did you wake up?
I don't know exactly when it happened. I was in this big ole non-writing slump. I could call it writer's block, but I don't believe in writer's block unless you lose a hand or something. You can write...it just might be crappy. The universe never promised more.
But I started writing again. It started with fanfic. Yeah, I know, go ahead, mock. But it got me going again. Then I was looking at my other novels and planning to edit one of them, and then Nano was here. And out of nowhere I got this great idea for a novel, so I had something for nano.
Then I actually overachieved for nano...93,000 words in 29 days bitches! Then I got ready to start revising and there was this novel_in_90 comm and I'm like KICKASS. So I'm just rolling along.
At some point in all this, I woke up one day and it just struck me, "This is it, this is what I want." I mean yeah, I've always thought this in the back of my head...probably since I was about eleven. It was just always a "pipe-dream" like a nice thought but not realistic. Suddenly I'm like "Why the fuck not?" If the mystical "They" can do it, I can do it. Hell, my mama didn't say: "You can be anything you want to be" for me to waste it on a "safe and sure" goal.
It's just...until that moment of clarity I was floundering trying to develop "other goals." Sure I've gotten passionate about other things. Other ideas, other businesses, etc. But nothing has been a constant companion in the same way that writing has been. So suddenly I'm more serious.
I don't know if I'm getting to an age where I'm just ready to buckle down or what. Maybe it's not an age thing. I'm just ready to be completely fucking honest. I want to write. Desperately. That's what I want to do, it's who I want to be. This is me.
In all my permutations, nothing has screamed more loudly than the writing thing. I just woke up one day and I "wanted it more." I started getting in gear, setting deadlines, KEEPING deadlines (that's a big deal cause I used to set goals and deadlines and not finish them.) The earth just shifted on it's axis and I was like: "Oh crap, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. I better get busy."
When did you wake up?
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Writing REALLY Offensive things...
I'm not talking about writing sex that might make Grandmother Lulu blush...I'm talking REALLY offensive, politically incorrect things. At some point, the question arises over whether or not it's irresponsible to write fiction that might cause a group of people to look bad.
For example...
Let's say you write about a priest that's a pedophile. This has become a pretty stereotypical example, and yet it happens. Does writing about a pedophile priest make the entire Catholic church look bad? Does it cast a negative light on ALL priests? Religion in general? God? It's a slippery slope.
Another example...
The Neo-pagan community has at various points gotten in an uproar over the fictional depiction of witches because supposedly it makes them "look bad." Despite the fact that I don't really think anyone confuses a "hollywood witch" with a "Wiccan." I mean really, I don't know anyone who shoots lightening bolts out of their fingertips, do you?
What about kinky erotica which explores various sexual fantasies like the "rape fantasy?" By writing the fantasy itself instead of a "real life" BDSM treatment with safewords, are you making an entire community of kinky people look like rapists and abusers? Do people understand that nonconsensual kinky stories explore a fantasy and don't condone a reality? (i.e. Can it really be argued that the world of Erotica would be better off without classics like "Story of O")?
One might be deeply disturbed by the writings of the Marquis de Sade, and yet we wouldn't even have the word "sado-masochism" if not for his literary contribution.
Anything you write is going to piss someone off. Forget Grandmother Lulu. We live in a "Politically Correct" climate where many people feel they have the inalienable right not to be offended. Rather than just choosing not to read certain types of books, there are those who will insist you are doing something "wrong" by even writing them. They might not out and out condone censorship but they'd be thrilled if you quietly sat in your corner and stopped writing things that upset their sensibilities.
No group's PR image should override the free expression of ideas. Nor should it, IMO make a writer hesitate to write about things which might create controversy.
Writing requires courage on many levels. If you only write about things that don't upset anyone, are you really writing anything worth reading? I don't want to be controversial for the sake of it, but I'll be damned if I only write what's "PC."
Fiction is a safe space in which darker things can be explored. Concepts and ideas too dangerous to explore in any other way. What happens when people decide the fictional expression is too dangerous as well?
Is the problem that fiction makes certain groups of people "look bad" or is the problem that the general population seems to have increasing difficulty separating fiction from reality?
For example...
Let's say you write about a priest that's a pedophile. This has become a pretty stereotypical example, and yet it happens. Does writing about a pedophile priest make the entire Catholic church look bad? Does it cast a negative light on ALL priests? Religion in general? God? It's a slippery slope.
Another example...
The Neo-pagan community has at various points gotten in an uproar over the fictional depiction of witches because supposedly it makes them "look bad." Despite the fact that I don't really think anyone confuses a "hollywood witch" with a "Wiccan." I mean really, I don't know anyone who shoots lightening bolts out of their fingertips, do you?
What about kinky erotica which explores various sexual fantasies like the "rape fantasy?" By writing the fantasy itself instead of a "real life" BDSM treatment with safewords, are you making an entire community of kinky people look like rapists and abusers? Do people understand that nonconsensual kinky stories explore a fantasy and don't condone a reality? (i.e. Can it really be argued that the world of Erotica would be better off without classics like "Story of O")?
One might be deeply disturbed by the writings of the Marquis de Sade, and yet we wouldn't even have the word "sado-masochism" if not for his literary contribution.
Anything you write is going to piss someone off. Forget Grandmother Lulu. We live in a "Politically Correct" climate where many people feel they have the inalienable right not to be offended. Rather than just choosing not to read certain types of books, there are those who will insist you are doing something "wrong" by even writing them. They might not out and out condone censorship but they'd be thrilled if you quietly sat in your corner and stopped writing things that upset their sensibilities.
No group's PR image should override the free expression of ideas. Nor should it, IMO make a writer hesitate to write about things which might create controversy.
Writing requires courage on many levels. If you only write about things that don't upset anyone, are you really writing anything worth reading? I don't want to be controversial for the sake of it, but I'll be damned if I only write what's "PC."
Fiction is a safe space in which darker things can be explored. Concepts and ideas too dangerous to explore in any other way. What happens when people decide the fictional expression is too dangerous as well?
Is the problem that fiction makes certain groups of people "look bad" or is the problem that the general population seems to have increasing difficulty separating fiction from reality?
Monday, January 15, 2007
But...mine is different...
I was reading one of my favorite blogs the other day, Magical Musings, and the topic was about “Beginnings” by guest blogger, Carolyn Jewel. She was talking about finding the real beginning, and maybe the beginning you think is your beginning really isn't. Novels really start somewhere in the middle according to her, and I agree. It's finding the right place in the middle that's the key.
By some weird magical blogging serendipity, on the same day, the illustrious Miss Snark posts the beginning sample pages she requested from the “Crap-o-meter.” I love it when everything in the universe seems to converge like this.
Over and over again, about these first pages she says: “this is all set-up” Almost everything sent in spent pages setting the scene rather than just getting into the story. Three guesses what is going to put you ahead of the competition once you get over the query hurdle? If you guessed a kickass, strong, in the thick of it beginning, you guessed right. You get a stuffed teddy bear.
Over and over again people in the industry tell writers what they're looking for, and over and over, writers, even savvy ones, give them the exact opposite saying: “But....mine is different...”
This is true of query letters also. Several times I've heard agents say: “keep it short and to the point.” They cite repeatedly how rare it is to get a SHORT query letter. And yet...despite these blatant instructions, writers still send in long letters. I mean sure, the query letter has to be good, but don't you think you might stand out by being concise? (Yes, this will be a hurdle for “the zoe” clearly, but I'll still do it...and freaking hell if *I* can be concise, I don't want to hear that you can't.)
Same with if they ask for a partial...If you know that most people give too much set-up in the beginning pages and don't get right into it...don't kid yourself that yours is some kind of exception. Give them what they ask for. Be the rare writer that gives a good and concise query letter, and then the even rarer writer that gets right into the story instead of giving five pages of set-up.
It'll put you in the top ten percent, and that ups your odds considerably. If you persist in believing that publishing is a big lottery...look at your query letters and sample chapters. Do you find yourself saying: “But...mine is different...?”
By some weird magical blogging serendipity, on the same day, the illustrious Miss Snark posts the beginning sample pages she requested from the “Crap-o-meter.” I love it when everything in the universe seems to converge like this.
Over and over again, about these first pages she says: “this is all set-up” Almost everything sent in spent pages setting the scene rather than just getting into the story. Three guesses what is going to put you ahead of the competition once you get over the query hurdle? If you guessed a kickass, strong, in the thick of it beginning, you guessed right. You get a stuffed teddy bear.
Over and over again people in the industry tell writers what they're looking for, and over and over, writers, even savvy ones, give them the exact opposite saying: “But....mine is different...”
This is true of query letters also. Several times I've heard agents say: “keep it short and to the point.” They cite repeatedly how rare it is to get a SHORT query letter. And yet...despite these blatant instructions, writers still send in long letters. I mean sure, the query letter has to be good, but don't you think you might stand out by being concise? (Yes, this will be a hurdle for “the zoe” clearly, but I'll still do it...and freaking hell if *I* can be concise, I don't want to hear that you can't.)
Same with if they ask for a partial...If you know that most people give too much set-up in the beginning pages and don't get right into it...don't kid yourself that yours is some kind of exception. Give them what they ask for. Be the rare writer that gives a good and concise query letter, and then the even rarer writer that gets right into the story instead of giving five pages of set-up.
It'll put you in the top ten percent, and that ups your odds considerably. If you persist in believing that publishing is a big lottery...look at your query letters and sample chapters. Do you find yourself saying: “But...mine is different...?”
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