Monday, October 3, 2011

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.

1 comment:

gcsalamon said...

As a fellow writer, I just wanted to say: I'm right there with you. I just finished my blasted synopsis last week (query was done over a month ago) and FINALLY got the query and synopsis out the door to my first batch of agents. And, yes, it took almost as long to get them both completed as it did the manuscript itself.

On my current work in progress, I started with a three page outline. I hadn't done that with my prior manuscripts, so I'm hoping that will help me with the synopsis when the time comes. I'll let you know.

Gina