It’s hard writing around the Christmas season. Besides being pulled in a bunch of different directions, I’m in a bit of a transition phase. Replaneted‘s submission package is done being prepped. But I’ve been disappointed in the response. Essentially speaking, IT’S FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE TO WRITE A QUERY LETTER AND SYNOPSIS. You leave out so much. In a novel, it’s not big events that lead to motivations. It’s subtle stuff. For example, one critique that’s really bothering me says that my protagonist doesn’t sound like she has a lot of volition. That’s a fundamental problem, but it’s a fundamental part of the story. Because she’s a victim to her circumstances. But…
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How Much Do Editors Care About Length?
I wonder how much of a problem I have with length. Not going too long, as a lot of writers do, but going too short. I used to have a problem with going too long. But ever since I’ve been actively self-improving (and using the macros, which reinforce the “eliminate needless words” fundamentals), my novels are clocking in between 80,000 – 90,000. The only one that didn’t was Black Hole Son, which is really two storylines anyway. Before that, my last serious novel was Blood 2: The Chosen and that ended up being 120,000 words (first draft was 150,000 I think). Too many unnecessary words, too much thinking, and oh…
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Finished Terraforming Romance
Three weeks ago I finished my next try at getting published. Its project code is “Terraforming Romance”, but it has a title. I don’t want to reveal it yet because it’s too clever, but I didn’t think of it until about 90% through. Unfortunately, I don’t remember when I started this draft. After I finished “The Mudbow Sisters” but before I started “Naga Story”, I took a little break to do some writing exercises and fiddling around. I had three stories that I couldn’t decide which to make next, so I wrote the first 8,000 words of each to see which one felt right. That still didn’t help, so I…
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Field of Dreams is Stupid and You’re Stupid for Liking It
Boy I’m getting all my controversial opinions out, aren’t I? Field of Dreams is on everybody’s “Best Movies” lists, but it’s a stupid movie and no one understands why. I guess because it makes them “feel good”. Which, I guess, is fine — art is supposed to make you feel something. I suppose it’s satisfying to see a jerkass yuppie blowhard get his comeuppance or an affirmation that the life choices you made weren’t mistakes or to see a grown man get a second chance to bond with his father. And it all hinges around baseball. That god-given, American-as-apple-pie (suspiciously-similar-to-English-cricket) sport of kings and peasants. It’s Hollywood’s go-to pastime and…
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Out of Work and No Place to Go
So it’s been about two weeks since I lost my job. Well, I didn’t lose it, my contract ended. The problem is, this is December, the worst time for job-searching, and I’m only getting paychecks until this Friday. The company I’m working for had me under a Salaried Professional System, but they can’t find a job for me and they haven’t been trying hard. So it’s been up to me to search for a job, with only two weeks notice before I lose my current one. And it’s not looking likely I’ll find one before the end of the year, but we’ll see. My point is I haven’t done any…
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Trends in the Queries
Here’s two trends I’ve noticed when doing my queries: One) a lot of agents are using QueryManager, which is good. Online forms make it easy, make the formatting more universal. And QueryManager’s changed their interface so it’s more formlike. Two) the agents want to know about your platform. I still can’t really explain what a platform is, but the short answer is: how many followers do you have? Do you have people following you on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Who are your fans right now? Are you on the social media 24/7 instead of writing? What kind of audience are you intending to reach? What books is your book similar…
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Should I Reup my Duotrope Subscription? (a.k.a. The Year in Writing)
Right now, I’m thinking no. Just from a cost-benefit analysis, it’s not worth it. The subscription costs $50. I sent out twenty-five submissions and got only one acceptance. It seems like response times are getting longer, guidelines are harder to find, and more frequently I need to poke editors to find out where they’re at. The whole process is annoying (not to mention my workplace blocks half the sites behind their proxy for no goddamn good reason). Not to mention, I’m not writing many short stories. I never have been. Never been interested. I thought they were a way to fill a resume, but no one seems to care. I…
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What We Mean When We Say You Can’t Break the Rules Until You Can Follow the Rules
One of the pieces of advice I often hear about writing is that you need to learn to follow the rules before you can break them. All writers do it. Choppy sentences, passive voice, fragmented sentences, consistent point of view, infodumping, starting with a character waking up, use of adverbs. Bestsellers and classics like Jane Austen, James Joyce, John Green, Suzanne Collins, Stephenie Meyer, John Scalzi, J.K. Rowling, Stephen King. There’s no work where at least one of the basics isn’t twisted. Now one could say that it’s because, in any art form, there are no rules, only guidelines. Suggestions. Good advice. They’re smart plays, but not written in stone.…
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The Books I Read: May – June 2017
The Book of Goodnight Stories by Vratislav Stovicek(re-read) I got this book a long time ago because I had it as a kid and I wanted my kids to have it. There are 365 stories, one for each day of the year, although a lot of them are multi-parters, and each day is only about 250 words. I have fond memories of this book, but on the re-read, it started becoming hard to get through. The stories I remember as a nine-year-old weren’t as full of whimsy and wonder. The tales weren’t diverse and magical. They started getting samey (right around August, I believe) and it’s not as much a…
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How I Plan to Answer the Common Author Questions
“How do you become an author?” You become a writer when you first start trying. You become an author when you get published. When your words are on pages and those pages are between two pieces of cardboard, then you become an author. Authors evolve from writers. Writers are the Pokemon who fight the battles, one at a time. And if they keep working, they get to become authors. At first, they just press the A button over and over. Attack, attack, attack. And that’s fine. Because as you go on, you learn new things from the other Pokemon–tackle, quick attack, scary face, hydro pump, dodge, sand gust, psychic, sleep,…
