IT

I decided I wanted to do a little something different, so, I am posting a poem I wrote. I will sometimes post them, when IDK but I enjoy writing poetry and figure I will share them. Some people who read this may have an opinion about the poem, it is okay either neg or pos-comment if you want. I am posting this one, as well as any others I end up posting along the way because I love poetry. It is a key to the soul of a writer, just like any other form of writing. Poetry has a depth to it, it is almost a piece of your soul, perhaps that is how the key is made. However, I find that there are many poems out there that really speak to me, maybe I will post one that speaks to you. Anyway-here is the first of many:

IT

IT is what you make IT
Everything you take from IT
Can make or break IT
Choices are evident
Decisions exclusive to everyone
And no one
In every second of every minute
Every hour of every day
Do your best, give, take
Laugh when IT is fake
Cry when your heart breaks
Scream when IT is too late
Shut your mouth when IT is at stake
Open your arms wide
Keep a guard on every side
Make your smile wide
Put your frown in your eyes
Escape at every chance
Drown if you can
Take IT all in stride
Nothing you do or say will matter, because IT is life.
　
Kerri Stepp

Writer's Block

Okay, I have recently been really trying to write my query. It is not working. I have lost whatever groove I was in. I wrote my entire novel, fairly smoothly and now have the WORST writer's block. I have tried everything I could think of to try to break down the wall, the VERY BIGGGGG wall. Nothing has been working, until tonight, at lest that is what I thought. All of the sudden I was sitting at my "desk" not even really messing with my computer, it was on and I was just looking at it, not even really thinking about my query. Then, BAM, my brain was like, open up word and start typing. Unfortunately, I did not get much, well I wrote the whole query and read it, it was not very good. I realized that, although i will never give up, there are so many things in my mind unrelated to my novel that i can hardly expect a good query to come through. I mean, my writers block is made up of bricks that consist of everything that has been happening in my life.

Just Sharing

I follow the blog, From The Write Angle, which is awesome. Their posts are helpful, informative, and contain a lot of really good advice for authors who are just starting out as well as those who have been in the game a while. So, for anyone who reads this who does not follow their blog, or who has not read this recent post, I am sharing it, Self-Publing? Use The Right Tools! by Pete Morin. I found that, although I am not planning to self-publish as of yet, it has a lot of great advice. Check it out!-The blog and the post.

That AHA! Moment

Last night I woke up in the middle of the night out of a good, deep sleep. The first thought I had was, DAMN! That's why I have been having difficulty with my query letter.

When I set out to write the story in my heart, I did not plan to write a romance novel, but I think, even though I was in denial, that my book is exactly that. I have been writing a query for an Urban Fantasy novel with just a little romance mixed in. I even told myself that it could work without the romance, I think I am wrong. I think the romance is what adds to the interest in my novel. Yes there are things happening that are good, but I really do not think it works without the romantic elements, at least not as well. I mean, if I take everything else away, it is a book about a woman who has been through a few horrible relationships and is jaded when it comes to men. She is not the normal gorgeous, thin woman that you find as main characters in books. She is pretty enough, a little on the heavy side, and is lacking slightly in confidence. Eamon is a vampire who has not had any real relationships because every relationship hes been in, whether it was with a human or vampire, he can hear their thoughts and it gets irritating. They meet and Sheena is already obsessed with the vampires she reads about in fantasy novels, so shes okay with learning vampires exist, and the fact that Eamon is deliciously sexy is a bonus. Then Eamon learns he cant read/hear Sheena's thoughts which makes her automatically attractive. The fact that they learn later is they are SUPPOSED to be together, made to be together. Neither could ever truly be happy without each other now that they have met. The relationship stuff is mixed in with other things happening, but these are main points of the story too. So, I think if I accept the fact that my novel is a Paranormal Romance, and write the query letter with that in mind, it will work better. Although I really do not want to write romance, even my next book in the series I have planned has romance in it. The series is going to have things happening, but a main thing that will happen in every book is that a man and a woman, at least one of them a vampire, will meet, find out they are supposed to be together and fall in love. Therefore, it is a romance novel. There is a good chance there will never be any detailed sex scenes, but there will be enough happening to make that OK, its just another difference in my vamp series. SO I just wanted to write about my AHA! moment because I am sure it will not be the last, probably isn't even the first and I am sure everyone of us gets them-and you never know when they will come or where they come from.

Sometimes You Have To Backspace and Try Again

I am revising the latest query I was all set to send out. I have officially decided that I need to start with a completely blank slate and re-read my novel yet again. I know it is worthy, I just need to get it across better in my query.

So, I am doing a complete do over, just glad I didn't start sending it out. POINT-Sometimes we get anxious and want to get the queries out there. We write/revise/write/revise and so on, but then after a few we decide, OK I am done revising-I want an agent so I am sending this latest revision.

I am setting a goal, at some point in November(by the end of November) I will have my query and synopsis complete, polished, and ready to go. My reason for this is-that will make it four & 1/2 months of working on the query letter and synopsis and that is how long it took me to COMPLETE my novel.

Many may say, four & 1/2 months?!? That's it!?!? But let me say, I was immersed in writing. When I forced myself away from it, it was like when you are reading that great book that you hate to put down, and every time you have to, you cannot stop thinking about what happens next. I may have been writing the story, I even knew where it was going, yet every time I was away from it I could not stop thinking what's going to happen next?

Therefore, I spent MANY MANY VERY VERY late nights working on my book. There were nights that I, sadly, could not stop and ended up being up ALL NIGHT, never even going to bed. I wasn't even that tired because I was loving every minute of the story. So, i wrote, edited and polished it in four & 1/2 months. I figure since i wrote my novel in that amount of time, that is how long I will spend on my query and synopsis. So, by end of November I plan to be sending out queries. Sometimes you have to just clear everything out and start over. I already made notes for my query, but I think if I just re-read the novel and make new notes i will have that AHA! moment that my query is missing.

Query Critiques

Well, I ended up not taking the latest query and using it...I revised. I actually like my revision best of all of them. I am pretty sure I will begin sending it out starting tomorrow. It gets to the point when you have to just get out there and give it a go. If I continue getting critiques and revising who knows when I will really send a query. This takes me around to the topic at hand....

QUERY CRITIQUES:

So many writers(that I have noticed), especially just starting out, get so nervous about everything. Is my novel really ready? Maybe I should add this, or take this away, or maybe even rearrange. Is my synopsis right? Is my query letter good enough? Is it the right letter to get the agent I have been longing for? Point being, we get nervous and paranoid and then we begin to question everything we are doing. Sometimes the thing to do is just sit back and think-why am i doing this? Why did I just spend X ammount of months writing this novel? Why did i just spend another however more months(or years) reading through it and editing?
Personally I write for one MAIN reason-I love to do it. I know there are people out there who decide they know how to write and they do it well so why not just write a novel or five because they can. Those people may sell a book, hell they may even make it for a few more books, but they will never be a true AUTHOR, its impossible. There will come a book that, although it may be well written and thought out, they will not be able to write a compelling query or synopsis. The reason is this

Agent Research

Well, I was all geared up last night to post but then I did not. The reason is because last night would have been the same post as Thursday-I love my fellow authors. Any aspiring author-or even one who is established but still in the query/agent research game-should definitely get out into the social network for authors. There are so many of us out there, and so many of us are just really great people. So many great people who are willing to take time from the long process of writing a novel, editing and polishing that novel, writing a query, editing and polishing that query, researching agents, querying agents, and everything else that goes along with being a writer. So, I just wanted to say another thank you to any one who reads this who is one of these great people, someone who is willing to extend a hand.

Next thought for tonight- I have posted on Query Tracker and on AQ Connect (my query) I was getting a little feedback on AQC but then nothing, nada, and even what feedback I was getting was only coming from a few people. On QT I got feedback from only 3 people, but it was sooooo helpful. I was really hoping that i would get some more advice from my peers on AQC but I think I am going on to sending out queries. I could sit around and wait, hoping I get more feedback, but I really think I should just go with what I have. I like this query(not that it says much because I liked all the others) this one is improved compared to some of the others, so I am just going to go on and begin the querying process. I figure if i get rejection after rejection after rejection-and so on- then i will repost the query and hope that even though it will be in an older topic, that people will help me out. Tomorrow begins the journey down query lane and we shall see where it leads...