I was going to say, "So how's about a Pepsi?" But I can't have that either. (Or I'll stay fat.) Do you like tea?
Well, they're not out for review yet, but I've accomplished to major goals yesterday and today.
Finished my first draft of Quest yesterday afternoon. I was excited when I began, and then suffered several interruptions which threw me off the flow. Got worried Quest could become another unfinished work, so I began searching the music in hopes of drawing the Muses back for a refresher. It worked. The inspiration returned and I finished it forthwith. Now I've but to read it over and make whatever changes before sending it off to my Reader next week.
My other significant accomplishment was I finished my final read of Swords of Fire: Traitor. Although it took much longer to read than I expected, I must say the reading went well. For the first time in 35-years I was able to read what I wrote without making significant changes of any kind. I'm not 100% happy with it because I chopped some things I very much wanted in there. But it's still 136,000-words and that may still be too much. If so, then it's over. I've chopped all I can. Personally, I think this arbitrary ruling that first time authors can't write long books is a load of cr*p. But I don't make the rules. Neither do I always follow them.
It's query writing time now. That I don't know how to do. Fairyhedgehog referred me to Nathan Bransford's blog, where he is doing a contest with 50 real queries, three (3) of which actually made it to publication. The goal is to read the queries and pick five (5) you think an agent would accept. Personally, I didn't find five. Only found three. Hopefully, I will be submitting my query to Evil Editor by the end of next week. Maybe the week after.
Sailors on the Sea
Thursday, April 16, 2009
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10 comments:
Submitting a query to EE? My, that's courageous.
I heven't commented much on EE's of late, but I'll be sure to watch out for your submission...
I submitted once before. After that it was at least two months before I dared write again. (My query really was that bad.)
Now I've chopped 60,000-words, rearranged a few events, retitled it, and am ready to give it another go. Not looking forward to the roasting I am sure to get.
I quit critiquing back in February, I think. Too many people saying too many things better than I can. (Plus, I've gone from one to six blogs. Takes up my time.)
My best wishes for that...
Music can give you just the kind of inspiration you need in those down times. :)
Music is almost my master. It's a Pied Piper. I go wherever it takes me.
That's scary stuff, Bevie. Has reading NB's blog given you any ideas?
"Has reading NB's blog given you any ideas?"
Mostly of what not to do. I didn't comment on any as it seemed the contest had already passed that stage. Then I saw NB's post about people being mean.
For some reason people thing agents and editors are mean when they don't like something. They're not. They're indifferent. Hence the form letters.
I don't think being familiar works. Neither, in my opinion, does spending too much time talking about yourself, or comparing your work to a finished, published piece.
Two of the three pieces I chose gave a one-sentence hello and then got right into the guts of the story. In three or four paragraphs it was over.
My third pick was based more on the saleability of the subject matter than any personal interest in the story. The truth is, I had no interest in the story, but I know a LOT of people do have that interest.
What I'm going to try is the approach of the first two. I'm going to give a one sentence greeting and then provide two or three paragraphs describing the story, focusing solely on the main thread.
We'll see how that goes.
That sounds like a good idea.
Let's hope it work.
Do you like the wider borders, or is it too wide now?
The left hand one is a bit on the wide side for me but at least it all works!
I'll drop it by 100 and see how that looks.
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