A Near Perfect Query Letter

Dear Agent,

Surviving on her own comes naturally to sixteen-year-old Evangeline comma whether it’s squatting in vacant apartments, crashing on Charlie’s couch, or sleeping in a nearby tree. It has to be. If she’s not careful comma Evy will end up back in foster care—or worse, the nearest padded cell. The voices she hears aren’t just in her head. This. Is. Awesome.

After the murder of her only friend<I’d say that is was Charlie. I’d missed that it was him who’d died on my first pass. Also, add a comma. Evy is kidnapped, and taken to a covert research facility where an unbelievable truth is revealed: she is a product of genetic engineering, a secret soldier designed to combat an endangered human race with superhuman abilities known as the Gifted. Once worshipped as gods, then hunted as witches, the Gifted have assimilated into society by keeping their existence hidden…until now. This is so good. Seriously.

Chace, Subject Number Seven and fellow telepath, oversees Evy’s training as she reluctantly learns the skills necessary to defend humanity. Despite her developing feelings for Chace, Evy struggles with the suspicion that he is responsible for the death of her friend. The other children of her experimental trial are far less charming comma and the more she learns about the Chimera Corporation and the scientist who created her, the more she questions their motives and her real purpose in this conflict. Like, like. Building the conflict. All good here.

While investigating Charlie's murder Evy must separate fact from fiction, friend from foe, and decide where she stands before war breaks out. <This falls a bit flat for me. What exactly does she have to do, and what does she risk if she fails? 

THE THIRTEENTH SUBJECT is a YA science fiction complete at 81,000 words. It is the first book in a proposed trilogy, THE CHIMERA CORP CHRONICLES. <I would mention that it stands alone so as not to frighten poor agents. I am a pre-med student by day and an avid writer at night. This is my first novel.

Thank you for your time and consideration. 

Sincerely,

(Name redacted)

You will get full requests from this. It’s awesome. That is all. 

But I'm not creative!!!

There are a few questions that, as a writer, I get asked all the time. One of the most common ones is this: where do I get my ideas? When I answer, "I made them up", almost 100% of the time the next response is something along the lines of  'I wish I could write a book but I'm not creative.'

So here's the truth: I didn't think I was either. Before I started writing, I thought authors were these people who just naturally had a brain full of awesome ideas that just popped into their heads without any effort at all. And maybe that is true for some lucky writers. But the truth is (for me at least), coming up with ideas is hard work. It involves constantly thinking of the world in a different way, asking myself questions, actively looking for inspiration and not just waiting for it to come to me.

Let's do a quote, shall we?

"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."--Jack London.

It's brilliant because it's true.

So if you'd like to come up with book ideas, start paying attention to the world around you. Start asking yourself questions.

'What if' questions are helpful.

The inspiration for STARTERS by Lissa Price was born after she'd tried and failed to get a flu shot during a shortage--they were only giving it out to the very old, the very young, and the sickly. She asked herself 'what if this was a killer flu? Then all we'd have left is the very young, the very old and the sickly. What kind of a world would that be?'

Recently I did an interview with Lenore Appelhans, author of LEVEL 2. Lenore said her book was inspired by asking herself two questions: '1. What might currency look like in the afterlife--are certain memories more valuable than others? And 2. What might a dystopian afterlife look like.'

Another method: Think of a common idea, then think about how you could spin that idea in a way that's never been done before. Cinder by Marissa Meyer is a good example. Cinderella retellings had been done nearly to death, but Cinderella as a robot? Now that's interesting. Vampire novels existed way before Twilight. Sparkling, high-school vampire in love with a human? That's new. Author Ellen Oh says this about her inspiration to write PROPHECY: "The idea was about how everyone believes that the hero of legend is a young prince. But instead, it turns out that the hero is actually a girl. It came from that place in me that was so tired of being overlooked for being female. So tired of the sexism and misogyny in our world. I wanted a story where the girl didn’t need to wait for a prince to come and save her because she was the hero of her own story."

Pay attention to the world around you. Suzanne Collins was flipping channels between a reality TV show and news coverage on the war when the idea for THE HUNGER GAMES was born.

Stephanie Meyer was famously inspired to write Twilight after a dream.

You might find inspiration in your own life experience. Author Tracy Holczer was inspired by a decision she made in childhood that she regretted. She wrote a story where the main character chooses differently.

Sometimes a picture is inspiring. Sometimes a word or phrase. My sister, who is also an author, was going to write an adult historical and planned to call it THE WITCH HUNTER'S BIBLE. She changed her mind and never did write that book, but the title inspired me. I used that inspiration to write a book about a popular cheerleader whose perfect life is threatened when a stranger tells her that the family bible just stolen from the attic of her mom's occult shop could mean the end to witches everywhere.

Sometimes I brainstorm ideas with my sister. Sometimes, I brainstorn with my husband. His suggestions?
-My main character should contract a UTI. The climax of the book is a fraught journey to the clinic.
-My main character should have three nipples
-The secret to getting to an alternate dimension should be to fart three times in a row.
(In case you were wondering, those ideas are still up for grabs :D)

Anyway, the point of my rambling is this: just because an idea didn't pop into your head without effort, doesn't mean you're not creative. You just have to try.

"You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice we're doing it." --Neil Gaiman.

Writing tip of the day

Disclaimer #1: I've grown to dislike giving writing advice. Everyone's opinions differ and I don't believe there is one "right" way to do things. 

Disclaimer #2: I am not an expert. I only just dove head-first into the writing business three years ago, and my book has yet to hit shelves.

Having said that, I do think that I’ve learned a lot in the last three years. And one of the things that I consistently notice when critiquing work for others is overwriting. I did it myself (and probably sometimes still do), before someone wisely pointed out that I was way explaining things that the reader would and could easily surmise on their own, which often times made the writing clunky. When I put an end to that bad habit, I noticed much cleaner, more professional writing.

Some examples, yes?

I reached up and brushed the hair out of my eyes.

If I’d simply said: I brushed the hair out of my eyes, the reader would know that I had to reach up to do so. I didn’t need to tell them that.

Another:

I bent over and picked up the book.

I challenge you to pick up a book without bending. Okay, smartass, so you crouched. Still, who cares whether you bent or crouched? The point is that the book was picked up.

Another:

I put the key in the ignition and twisted, starting the car.

We all know that in order to start a car, a twisting motion is necessary. Why not then just say: I put the key in the ignition and started the car. Or even simply: I started the car.

Here are a few common ones:

I nodded my head.

I shrugged my shoulders.

Can you nod a body part besides a head? Shrug anything but a shoulder? If I’d just said: I nodded, or I shrugged, the reader would instantly know which body parts were used.

This is just one aspect of overwriting, obviously. There’s also the issue of over-explaining (Just in case the reader didn’t get that, I’m going to explain the exact same thing in another way!), going overboard on the adverbs to really drill home a point (“He dashed hurriedly across the parking lot”—adverb, totally unnecessary as dashed mean to run quickly), using multiple adjectives where one more could be more powerful, etc. But the point is: trust your reader to draw some of their own conclusions. They’re pretty smart. You needn’t hold their hand!

How to have a successful writing day: I cracked the code!

With NaNoWriMo in full swing, and many people (myself included!) getting burnt out by the push to reach the daily word count, I thought it might be useful to put together a few tips to help my fellow writers forge on through what I call ‘the saggy middle’, when it’s no longer exciting, the finish line is nowhere in sight, and the urge to google kittens doing cute things is almost overwhelming. Here they are:

-Do not check your email on a minutely basis even though you’re not expecting anything, ‘just in case’.

-Probably if you want to get work done, you shouldn’t write in bed with an electric heating pad on high.

-Do not download episodes of Entourage for ‘L.A. research.’ Similarly, do not spend hours watching music videos on Youtube for ‘pop culture research’.  

-Do not engage in lengthy twitter conversations about peri areas and panties.

-Ignore the urge to clean the toothpaste smudge on your shower curtain until after November 30th. Or at the very least, get someone else to clean it.

-Do not stand in front of the mirror for half an hour contemplating whether your wrinkles are Botox-worthy

-Do not google kittens doing cute things. Just don’t. (Oh fine, if you must have a kitten fix here's some kittens watching tennis.) 

-And for the love of god, don’t blog.

I think we can all agree this has been a very helpful post. You’re welcome. 

Overused words and fun times ahead

I recently started revisions for The Witch Hunter's Bible after having not read the book in quite some time. This break allowed me some much-needed perspective, and with this perspective came the realization that I'd really abused the crap out a few words. Take snort, for example. 33 snorts in my book. And huff. Over 40 instances of angry/annoyed huffing in a 300ish page book. Which is weird, because I didn't even realize I was doing it. Also, I don't particularly like either word. But I'm happy to report that there are now fewer than a handful of huffs and snorts in The Witch Hunter's Bible. The book is better for it.

Fellow authors, do you have any clutch words/phrases that you tend to abuse?

On a related note, I'm off to L.A at this very moment for book research! Also, to initiate Plan Locate and Stalk Ian Somerhalder. 

Bad Writing Advice

A few weeks ago (I'm behind on the times! I blame the revisions cave), author Colson Whitehead wrote a hilarious article over at a little magazine called The New York Times on the subject of writing advice. If you haven't already read it, you should do that now.

Done? Great.

So Colson's advice is obviously sarcastic. But as I read (and laughed!) at this article, I got to thinking about some of the bad writing advice I've been the recipient of in the past, which sadly wasn't sarcastic:

-This sounds too conversational. Avoid narrating like how a teenager actually speaks and save that for the dialogue (This in reference to The Witch Hunter's Bible).

-Agents don't like first person present tense. It's the mark of an amateur (Also in reference to The Witch Hunter's Bible).

-Readers don't like scene-jumping. They find it jarring. Try to think of something interesting to say about everything the character does throughout the day. (This was advice Ruth Lauren Steven once got because she hadn't described the character's shower or something else really boring. Seriously.)

Okay, so these are some prettty extreme, stand-out examples. I've received plenty more advice through the years that was only moderately dubious, along with way more that was fantastic and completely invaluable. I suspect, though, that for some newer authors it might be pretty hard to distinguish the good advice from the bad.

So now we've come to the portion of the evening where I share my thoughts on writing advice.

Writers are like parents, in that anyone with a lick of experience thinks they're an expert (Okay, so maybe that's a gross generality, but whatever. It's my blog :D). Someone will always be there ready to tell you what you're doing wrong and how you can do it better. Perfect strangers feel compelled to offer you advice. Often times this advice is conflicting with what others have already told you. Sometimes this advice is good, and sometimes a mom tells you to wake your seven-month-old baby up at least twice in the night until they're a year old or else they'll become dehydrated and fail to thrive.

So where am I going with this, you ask? Should you ignore all the advice and just flounder about until you maybe or maybe not get it right? (whatever that is).

No, definitely not. Like with a new, inexperienced parent, advice can be very helpful and welcome at a time when it seems there's just so much to learn and everything is very daunting. It's simply a matter of taking it all in and, as you learn and grow, choosing what works best for you. No one knows your baby (book or otherwise!) better than you do.

Aside from that, be cautious of 'You must do this or else' types of advice. Writing isn't black and white; anything can be done if executed well, and what works for one person might not work for another. Good writing advice takes gray areas into consideration.

And lastly, if you're the recipient of bad writing advice through a critique, please remember that that person still took their precious time to read your work and give you their thoughts. That alone is worth a big thank you.

(Fun fact: my son's hydration status is just great, thanks for asking :) )