How I Got My Agent
Wow, friends. This has been one hell of a rollercoaster, and I’m acutely aware that this is just the beginning of my journey, and not the end of a rather long tunnel. Word of warning...
The Opening Chapter
There are so many posts circulating from bloggers and agents concerning the opening chapter of a manuscript -- cut the first twenty-five pages, start with conflict, no prologues, no tropes, no cliches...
Show vs Tell: A Guide To Writing
The phrase is everywhere. A simple Google search of 'How To Write A Book' will result in thousands of pages popping up in reference to it.What is it? The all cryptic, all powerful, Showing vs. Telling.If you happen to be a budding author, then you've most certainly heard the term. Hell, you've probably read blog after blog, and article after article, that attempted to explain what it means, what it should look like, and how to execute it.But you've probably...
The Dreaded Query: Part Three
Resolution. A decision, mental state, or determination to resolve.Resolve. To convert or transform by any process, through firmness of intent.Where is your book going? How does your protagonist develop? How will the conflict be righted?These are the questions you should ask yourself as you begin to write the third and final part of your query body.Let's re-cap the three elements to a successful query.The Hook - Why should the reader (in this case the agent) read on?The Conflict - What...
The Dreaded Query Pt 2 – The Conflict
Books are all about conflict. Think about that. In this sense, conflict can be anything that causes a problem for your protagonist - not just wars, or serial killers, or world ending asteroids about to hit the planet (I always tear up when Tea Leone squeezes her father as that gargantuan tsunami roars toward land. Her whispered plea: Daddy! You know the one!) Conflict can be found in a whisper, an unbidden memory as your protagonist spies a familiar face among the...
The Author Ego – Graveyard of Creative Potential
I wanted to put fingers to keyboard in order to lay out a few thoughts on something that can't, and shouldn't, be ignored. The Author Ego. Humans are selfish by nature. We tend to rationalize the world around us in terms of our own existence. How are we affected? How did this happen? Nine times out of ten, most people find themselves on the wrong end of a self accountability ladder. "It wasn't me." "I did everything I could." "I don't understand." ...
The Dreaded Query: The Hook
I thought we had ten seconds. We don't. In an interview with the 'Writer's Digest', Literary Agent Barbara Poelle stated:"Sometimes it really is only, say, four seconds;a first line can close it down for me...
A Novelist’s Nightmare: Revision
It doesn't matter if you write short stories, novels, poetry, or blog posts...
Rejection: Making Writers Stronger…Every Day
Take it on the chin. Never give up. Never surrender.These are the phrases pinned to our refrigerators and vanity mirrors, the words we share on Facebook...