Care factor? Zero

I’m normally a postive person, even in trying circumstances.  And yes, my mother did teach me that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.  But I mean REALLY!  Am I the only one who doesn’t give a damn about Sex in the City?

I remember that I was having a moan about it on our “meet the Rule of Three” page.  That was some two years ago when our blog was born and the first movie was released.  Now we’re faced with the release of a second movie and again I seem to be the only woman I know who couldn’t care less about it.

I’m putting out a call to all you other women (and men) who are abstaining from Sex in the City – lets stand together and give the whole thing a big collective yawn.

Feedback on my first three chapters

I’m happy to report that the feedback from my friend Jen was positive.  In fact she said she ‘loved it’.  She’s the first person to read the new and improved version of the first three chapters. 

Jen said: “I thought it was witty, savvy, well observed and heart felt.  A story one can relate to and a main character to empathize with.”

She did say that maybe I could increase the pace slightly, which I will have a look at.  Other than that, I feel ready to make the couple of edits she suggested and start querying.  I have a plan B for this round of queries. 

Given that some of the story takes place in the UK and then most of it in Spain, I’m going to query the English market.  This is a brand new market for me so I’m excited and feeling really positive about it.

Now, to get my query letter right. 

Re-querying

Is re-querying even a word?  I strongly doubt it.  Nevermind. 

I’ve been doing a bit of research on the net regarding re-querying and I’ve come to the conclusion that there are only a couple of widely agreed upon rules around the idea.  For example, I have noticed that re-querying is frowned upon if an agent’s website specifically asks people not to do it.  That’s fair enough.  As well as that, there is some suggestion that it’s a good idea to leave a minimum of six months between the two queries.  Also a good idea I think.

This week, rather than blogging extensively about my thoughts on re-querying (which are basically….what’ve you got to lose?), I’d like to know about your opinions and guidelines for re-querying.  Do you do it?  If so, under what circumstance?  Do you tell agent’s you’re requerying?  Has the process worked for you?  What type of response have you had? 

Thanks in advance to the generous souls who respond. 

Have a lovely day.

Organising my queries

I’m an organised person by nature, but when it came to  my queries – forget it.

My only plan of attack when I started querying was to verify that an agent/publisher was accepting queries and that they represented the genre I had written.  That was it.  At one point I was firing off e-mail queries randomly and at an alarming rate.

Hence all these months later I had a lot of e-mails sitting in a folder marked “queries”.  This system (or lack there of) was not useful at all considering I’m about to start a fresh round of queries with the new and improved version of my manuscript ( almost ready now…I think). 

What to do?

First of all I had to accept that the reason I hadn’t organised my queries before was because it was too painful.  All that disappointment and despair in one e-mail folder….it was hard to handle.  Then I had to deal with the fact that I’d left it so long that I now had a big job on my hands. *sigh*

Then it was time for action.  So, I highlighted all the e-mails in the folder (I use Outlook), copied and pasted them into an Excel spreadsheet.  I added a column called agent/publisher name and one for the country and then set about deciphering who was who in the zoo.  With that done, I colour coded the e-mails which achieved a response, a different colour for partial requests and yet another colour for agents who I think I should resubmit to.

Does this mean I’m any closer to landing an agent or a book deal?  It feels that way because now I feel clear and in control of what I’m doing.  I can create a query strategy and execute it.   

At the very least I can make the most of every query by ensuring that I’m sending my queries to agents I haven’t contacted.

 How do you organise your queries and do you have a magic number that you’re willing to send on a project before questioning if the project is ready?  (I’ve heard that some people set a number like 100.  Once they reach that number they reassess.)

Adding in

That was an interesting and timely blog by Karen. I’m going through the process of evaluating what I’ve written right now. 

In fact, just yesterday I finished the new ending to my novel.  Since editing (*slashing and burning*) and rewriting the ending, I’ve found that my word count is down to about 59,000.  So, I’ve started back at Chapter 1 and am doing another sweep through. 

With each paragraph or section of text, I’m questioning :

*  Do I need to expand on that? 

* Do I need to create a new scene?

* Can I write that in a better way?

* Do I need to delete that?

Karen’s advice to about asking yourself what your reader would like to know/read is a great one.  I suspect that I need to expand on the beginning because I kind of start in the middle of a scene.  This was an intentional move because the beginning I had before was far too long and quite frankly, it was boring.  I’m just wondering now whether my reader would like a little more back story?  I don’t think I have a clear enough perspective to be able to answer that question effectively.  So what I intend to do is to push on with the re-reading process and expanding parts of the novel as I see fit.  I’m also thinking of  roading testing the beginning on a couple of friends.  Hopefully they will give me some honest feedback which will be helpful.

I’d love to hear any editing/expansion hints y’all have and would like to share.

Moving forward

For me, if I open my laptop to find a wrapped up scene or chapter, I can flounder around for a little while unit I get back onto my train of thought (pardon the train pun).  So, I like to finish mid scene (I did that this morning as my train pulled into my destination) so that when I start again this afternoon my brain has a “oh, that’s right….” moment and I’ll be up and running again.

I also have a list of highlighted dot points at the bottom of my manuscript which are a combination of ideas and reminders.  The reminders are there to prompt me about what needs to happen in the story -  loose ends if you like.   I add to these reminders and ideas all the time when I’m writing and I review and update them regularly.   If I’m on a roll I get an idea about a previous chapter, I’ll do a quick key word search, highlight the chunk of text I want to revisit and then pop back down to where I was.  That way I don’t lose the flow but I’ve made a note of what I want to revisit.

When I’m not in front of my computer, I’ll make a note in my mobile phone, write something on a piece of paper (although these tend to get lost) or, in the case of last night when I was in bed, I promise myself that I’ll remember in the morning (this is the most risky of my methods but it worked today).

All in all though, I try to keep (or at least transfer) all my notes into my manuscript and leave myself halfway through a scene.   That seems to work well for me.

This week…

I just had an “oh shoot, I haven’t written my blog” moment.  Yes, we all have them I’m sure. 

Anyhow, I’m happy to say that my caffeine withdrawal is just about complete and I’m working on the end of the novel.  I must admit, there have been moments in the last few days when, sitting on the train heading for work, I’ve wondered how I’m going to make it through the day without my caffeine security blanket.  I wouldn’t say I feel panicked at these moments, more like slightly alarmed.   At these times, I remove my attention from the scenery whizzing by and look back down to my laptop screen and press on.  One foot in front of the other so to speak.

While it’s far too early to tell if quitting caffeine will help with my writing, I can confirm (even at this early stage) and the absence of coffee has severely decreased my ‘foofing’.  I used to waste time in the mornings dithering.  In I fact turned dithering into an Olympic sport.  The coffee (over) stimulated my brain but that  stimulation rarely resulted in anything worthwhile.  

So, not a lot to report this week, certainly nothing life changing or revolutionary, but it is nice to be back at work, therefore on the train, therefore writing again.   Happy.

Detox apology

Anyone who has slept under the same roof as me will tell you that the first thing I do every morning is suck down a pot of plunger coffee.  Ok, some days I only get through three of the four cups but I give it my best shot.

Having quit a number of nasty things over the years – including cigarettes, I vowed never to give up my beloved coffee.   However, given my health hiccups in the second half of last year, I think my adrenal glands can do without the daily hammering of caffeine overload.  So, it looks like the time has come to say goodbye (for now at least).   

The reason I’m sharing this with y’all is because I’ve had a splitting headache for the last two days since I stopped drinking coffee and to be quite honest, I can’t think of anything else to blog about.  My sole focus at the moment is how much better it will feel when this monster headache goes away.

So, excuse my lack of creativity this week but I’ll be back on my game next week – caffeine free of course.

(PS. I can’t help but wonder if going caffeine free will have some positive impact on my writing and creativity? Wouldn’t THAT be a bonus !)

New Year goals

I wish I could say I’m publising this a day late because I want to make sure my New Year goals post is timely (it’s NYE here in Sydney).  Truth is, I lost track of the days and forgot to do it yesterday.  The luxury of holidays…

So over the last week and a bit, I’ve noticed that i’ve been processing all that’s happened this year.  It’s been a pretty challenging one for me personally and I think it’s important to acknowledge that.   I’m hoping that after tonight’s blue moon, I’ll feel a little more able to let go of 2009 and all its challenges. 

Jenny Henkins (on behalf of a Yahoo writing group) e-mailed some ideas for letting go of 2009 and starting 2010 with purpose.  

EVALUATE:
What were your GOALS for 2009?

Writing goal was to land and editor/publisher.

Personal goal was to secure a new job.

 

What did you accomplish in 2009?

Secured a new job (dream job in fact).

Edited novel.

 

What did you attempt but didn’t work out so well?

Unable to secure an editor/publisher for non-fiction MS.

 

What changes do you need to make?

Continue editing fiction, start querying on that.  Take another look at the non-fiction – might need to change the tone.

DETERMINE:
What are your writing goals for 2010?

Finish the fiction MS and non-fiction text to a level where they are HOT and sell themselves.

Start writing my (crime) novel.

Select an overall target goal for the year.

Secure a publishing deal for either or both works.

What steps do you need to take to accomplish these goals on a daily, weekly, monthly basis?

Daily:  Keep editing and be open to new ideas.  Keep striving for greatness in my writing.

Weekly:  Researching and create a list of target editors/publishers for the work.

Monthly: Send out queries and keep sending them out.

How about you?  What has 2009 brought and what are you looking to achieve in 2010?

 

Brainstorming

Sometimes I’m a bit uptight about getting things ‘right’.  This uptightness strangles my creativity.  There is a simple solution.  Brainstorming.

Mind you, I can easily transfer my rigid thinking to brainstorming but I’m slowly learning to catch myself and let go.

So yesterday, I finished editing my novel.  The edit was successful in that I’m loving the story as it stands but it’s now about 20,000 words short.  What to do?  Brainstorm new endings of course.

Here is a list of my brainstorms of possible endings.  They appear in the same order they came out, note how ridiculous and short the first couple are…an indicator of a good brainstorm session in my opinon.

Emily could jump off a bridge

Emily could get pregnant

Chantal could lose her mind

Eduardo might get called away

They might meet up in Los Angeles, go to Jan’s and then Emily gets pregnant

They could meet up in New York, go to the Jay Leno show and Eduardo proposed on TV

They could meet up in San Diego, go to a ball game and Eduardo proposes.  Emily says no, they go their separate ways and then meet up in Sydney and get back together. 

Of course, I’ve not included the actual ending that i’m going with – that would be telling.