What's on your Mind about Your Writing? June 2025 to...

[Nether]

Finally decided to go with Pirate Park YA (aka Hot Pirate Crab Summer) as the next editing project. I was looking at the most recent copy of the file and was kinda surprised I finished drafting the manuscript a bit over a year ago since I thought it was more recent.

Anyway, I'll do a quick-read first then go back to doing some edits on JDC since I want to keep things going on that.

 

[Unimportant]

What is on my mind is that I hate the query process this has been the absolute hardest part of writing for me. Why is it I can happily sit and write/edit a few thousand words a week (a good week lol) but a 250-300 blurb is kicking my butt??

Because

1. It's hard.

2. It's a totally different type and format of writing. It's a sales pitch, not a narrative. It's like trying to turn a novel into a poem. It takes a lot of practice, and reading and critiquing a lot of other people's queries, to really get a handle on it.

3. The author knows their own book almost too well, and it's hard to see the forest for the trees.

4. What the author thinks is most important about the book -- including theme -- is not always what is going to sell the book to readers.

 

[Mfraser]

I kinda feel like that one agent who req'd based on my pitch is probably wondering, "The fuck is wrong with this dude?", by now.

First, I upload the wrong file. Then today she sends me a link to upload a new file (noting that she didn't see the updated one -- which she wouldn't have, since I didn't know how to replace it) and, because QM apparently truncates the file name, I thought it uploaded the wrong one so I uploaded twice. (And I'm just hoping the system doesn't try to treat the file as the same as the original because their truncated names are the same.)

Good times, good times...

If it helps, we've all had those moments when the brain goes on vacation and we're still working (maybe I shouldn't speak for everyone. But I definitely have.) Sucks to have those moments when it's something you really care about, but maybe this will be something you and your agent laugh over drinks about.

What is on my mind is that I hate the query process this has been the absolute hardest part of writing for me. Why is it I can happily sit and write/edit a few thousand words a week (a good week lol) but a 250-300 blurb is kicking my butt??

Totally different kind of writing, which isn't what you've been practicing for hundreds of thousands of words (unless you work in marketing). Normal to feel this way. It's why it's a good idea to phone a friend/get outside advice. Also, I think it's why agents ask for 50 pages - so that if we only sort of flub the query, the actual book can save us.

Finally decided to go with Pirate Park YA (aka Hot Pirate Crab Summer) as the next editing project. I was looking at the most recent copy of the file and was kinda surprised I finished drafting the manuscript a bit over a year ago since I thought it was more recent.

Is your YA MS seriously called "Hot Pirate Crab Summer"? Because that's either brilliant or insane. I don't know which, so I will go have some whiskey and ponder the question.

 

[Nether]

Is your YA MS seriously called "Hot Pirate Crab Summer"? Because that's either brilliant or insane. I don't know which, so I will go have some whiskey and ponder the question.

I'm probably going to try querying it under that title. It's about... a teen who gets a job at a pirate-themed water park where there have been reports of a giant crab monster

 

[libraryofvalen]

I'm probably going to try querying it under that title. It's about... a teen who gets a job at a pirate-themed water park where there have been reports of a giant crab monster

Ya know what? I would be absolutely down for that, that would be such a fun summer read

 

[Mfraser]

I'm probably going to try querying it under that title. It's about...

Brilliant

 

[owlion]

What is on my mind is that I hate the query process this has been the absolute hardest part of writing for me. Why is it I can happily sit and write/edit a few thousand words a week (a good week lol) but a 250-300 blurb is kicking my butt??

Query writing is definitely one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, writing-wise. Trying to capture the right kind of information and make it still represent the story effectively is ridiculously tough! I still can't do it very well, but I mostly try to put the key selling points near the beginning as a hook.

Finally decided to go with Pirate Park YA (aka Hot Pirate Crab Summer) as the next editing project.

Genuinely a fantastic title - I would pick it up if I saw it!

I got some feedback from one reader on my MG fantasy plan (after I realised I needed to add another scene, which became a new chapter) and it seems to probably be okay? I'll wait for the other reader who has it to let me know if there are any major issues, but hopefully it'll not be too much. I'm currently making a very small change to another MG fantasy which is very light brain work (a nice change) which shouldn't take too long!

 

[Sweetwheat]

Week 1 of July: 6,202 words written!
Only 19,000 more to reach this month’s goal.

 

[Pedro Rivera]

Just finished by 4th ever novel. It was Book 2 in a series, and I already know the plot for most of the future books, so I can begin writing Book 3 whenever I want. However, I'm debating holding off on starting Book 3 and instead forcing myself to work on developing a few other ideas I have so that I can maybe write two novels at the same time, one of them being Book 3 and the other being a new idea I develop.

 

[CMBright]

Managed to get back into my main WiP again by weaving in the ceph's storyline. Then Spouse, Kid and Roommate's activity shattered my concentration, then the home health aide came and is talking with Roommate while she works and I'm probably not going to get any farther today.

 

[Chris P]

I'm finally done with three weeks of travel, and need to get back to my project!

 

[starrystorm]

Now that I'm pretty much almost done with LOCATE (my superhero WIP) I finally get to start outlining my next project. It's a enemies-to-lovers apocalyptic road trip. I've been doing a lot of research on guns, and by that I mean watch people play shooting games like Far Cry. I keep a little notepad while watching to write down anything I think my character will need.

 

[Nether]

I kinda need to get better about backing things up again. I had that same issue with my laptop as several months ago. (Bit of a hassle finding the post where I mentioned how I resolved it. First, I thought I'd look through the old Daily Writing Topic posts, but realized that was a bother (although it actually would've made things not terribly hard if I just checked my first and last posts). However, I realized I could use my progress spreadsheet to find it... and, while looking over that (which the saved copy on one thumbdrive stopped midway into LL1 for some reason), I finally remembered that the issue previously happened while drafting Pointy Hat, which narrowed it down... only to realize I didn't explain things in the Daily Writing Topic, but I had a day so I checked the previous What's On Your Mind topic and found it. (Although, admittedly, the solution seemed more like luck than anything -- after leaving it on for a while (after turning it off repeatedly), I pressed the power button off then on and it worked... which kinda seemed to work this time, too.))

Of course, there's no particularly great way to back up my editing, save either using One Drive or something like Drop Box (since the files get kinda large to email myself). However, I'm thinking I can probably just use a thumbdrive to back up the last few recent copies and, as I go along, get rid some of the back-ups on the thumb drive.

And, despite it being just a day-and-a-half's interruption, I have a lot of catch-up work on my hands since I was noting changes in Google Docs that I need to migrate to the normal document. I'd rather foolishly thought things wouldn't be a big deal since I'm just doing the quick-read (and spot-fixes) on HPCS, but I kept noticing things I really ought to fix just in case I missed them on the editing runs.

(On top of that, when I was checking one of my thumb drive back-ups, I realized that I didn't have a copy of STMHB on it. Kinda gets hard to keep track of all this.)

 

[Unimportant]

I kinda need to get better about backing things up again. I had that same issue with my laptop as several months ago. (Bit of a hassle finding the post where I mentioned how I resolved it. First, I thought I'd look through the old Daily Writing Topic posts, but realized that was a bother (although it actually would've made things not terribly hard if I just checked my first and last posts). However, I realized I could use my progress spreadsheet to find it... and, while looking over that (which the saved copy on one thumbdrive stopped midway into LL1 for some reason), I finally remembered that the issue previously happened while drafting Pointy Hat, which narrowed it down... only to realize I didn't explain things in the Daily Writing Topic, but I had a day so I checked the previous What's On Your Mind topic and found it. (Although, admittedly, the solution seemed more like luck than anything -- after leaving it on for a while (after turning it off repeatedly), I pressed the power button off then on and it worked... which kinda seemed to work this time, too.))

Of course, there's no particularly great way to back up my editing, save either using One Drive or something like Drop Box (since the files get kinda large to email myself). However, I'm thinking I can probably just use a thumbdrive to back up the last few recent copies and, as I go along, get rid some of the back-ups on the thumb drive.

And, despite it being just a day-and-a-half's interruption, I have a lot of catch-up work on my hands since I was noting changes in Google Docs that I need to migrate to the normal document. I'd rather foolishly thought things wouldn't be a big deal since I'm just doing the quick-read (and spot-fixes) on HPCS, but I kept noticing things I really ought to fix just in case I missed them on the editing runs.

(On top of that, when I was checking one of my thumb drive back-ups, I realized that I didn't have a copy of STMHB on it. Kinda gets hard to keep track of all this.)

Maybe get a raid array, so you always have a duplicate of your hard drive?

 

[jamesnvc]

I’m almost done my current story, but time has been so hard to come by recently that I’m crawling across the finish line. I have an idea for the next one that I’m eager to start as well — I’ve been going directly from writing one story into another thus far — but this forum is making me feel like I need to be doing something more with my writing than just transcribing it and not looking at it again.

That process of moving onwards is a bit daunting though, even if just from a time perspective. With a toddler I have to be a bit fanatical to get my regular writing in and that’s something I know pretty well at this point. Where I’m to find time to edit and such, I have no idea.

And that’s to say nothing of what I’ve learned of how one needs “comps” in order to actually sell a work! Although I like writing science fiction, I like reading history and early twentieth century stuff (Woolf and Joyce in particular now). I did just read Elizabeth Bear’s “Ancestral Night” and really liked it, but just the reading list it seems I’d need to develop seems overwhelming. I suppose that’s not necessary to go the self-publish route, but I’m so averse to self-promotion and have such a negligible social media presence that seems fairly pointless anyway.

I’m starting to lean to just letting my estate handle what to do with my writing Although I would love to know if anyone enjoyed reading what I have to write…this non-writing part of writing is hard!

 

[jamesnvc]

I kinda need to get better about backing things up again.

It always vexes me that, although there’s very powerful software for this sort of thing (version control systems) that make it very easy to have multiple distributed backups, with a history of all changes, it’s some of the most user-unfriendly software ever created. Even though it’s a crucial part of the job of software development, like half of the inside jokes are about how inscrutable these things are to use and how no-one fully understands. Someday, I long to make a user-friendly interface for “normal people” to this stuff…but my backlog of stuff is sufficient to occupy me for many lifetimes, unfortunately

 

[Nether]

Maybe get a raid array, so you always have a duplicate of your hard drive?

That's something that can be done with a laptop? I'll look into it, I guess.

I’m almost done my current story, but time has been so hard to come by recently that I’m crawling across the finish line. I have an idea for the next one that I’m eager to start as well — I’ve been going directly from writing one story into another thus far — but this forum is making me feel like I need to be doing something more with my writing than just transcribing it and not looking at it again.

Nothing wrong with having a backlog of things to edit. Just that you might want to start doing that before you have twenty manuscripts lined up, even if those manuscripts came about quickly.

And that’s to say nothing of what I’ve learned of how one needs “comps” in order to actually sell a work! Although I like writing science fiction, I like reading history and early twentieth century stuff (Woolf and Joyce in particular now). I did just read Elizabeth Bear’s “Ancestral Night” and really liked it, but just the reading list it seems I’d need to develop seems overwhelming.

Given the nature of comps, you can actively read within a genre and not find something that's quite like what you've written... so apparently you're supposed to bend things a little. For comps listed with published work, I've seen a few things that made me scratch my head (but I'm guessing that was just a matter of the publisher or marketing team picking something that was new and hot, presumably without knowing much about the book itself, instead of pointing out that a novel might be eerily similar to Nevermoor (and I mean uncomfortably similar in some regards...))

 

[k_leigh517]

It's great reading through everyone's thoughts on their own writing.

I am getting really excited because I have been working through a lot of plot holes. Working through how certain things work as I'm creating my own fantasy world.
I do offen wonder if I'm out of my depth as I don't feel my actual writing is good enough but it's just so much fun at the moment.

 

[TulipMama]

It's great reading through everyone's thoughts on their own writing.

I am getting really excited because I have been working through a lot of plot holes. Working through how certain things work as I'm creating my own fantasy world.
I do offen wonder if I'm out of my depth as I don't feel my actual writing is good enough but it's just so much fun at the moment.

Hey, it's true of a lot of folks (artistic types especially) that you're your own worst critic. What you're making now will in all likeliness be better than what you wrote a year ago, and what you write a year from now will probably be better than what you get on page today.

The important part is to do the work, get your writing down, practice, and learn. The ultimate hope is that, at the end of it all, you have something you can be proud of. That 'something' can be anything from a bunch of short stories you put on reddit to a book, to just the personal growth and experience of making it through a project you set your mind to.

Also, I'm glad to hear you're excited about your writing! That's something like 60% of the hard part sorted out XD

 

[Pedro Rivera]

Been doing a lot of brainstorming lately as well as trying to develop a few different ideas for potential writing projects. Right now, I'm working on developing a potential dark fantasy. I have a premise and most of my cast of main characters, but now I need to start figuring out how they all mesh together and what kind of plot we might be looking at. So far, I think my premise is interesting, the characters are strong, and the concept as a whole is promising. It will need a lot of work before I can even consider actually writing it, though. But hey, I'm having fun exploring new ideas, and that's what writing is all about.

 

[darrtwish]

Reminding myself that the first draft is telling myself the story. But good grief it is painful. Right now I have more ideas on tone and framing than actual words. Which is helpful if I know I want to set up the story in a particular way, but does not actually get the words on the page or help me get to my target word goal for my first draft.

 

[TulipMama]

Reminding myself that the first draft is telling myself the story. But good grief it is painful. Right now I have more ideas on tone and framing than actual words. Which is helpful if I know I want to set up the story in a particular way, but does not actually get the words on the page or help me get to my target word goal for my first draft.

Are you a pantser or a planner? You may wanna try switching things up on your method if you're having genuine trouble getting things on the page.

 

[PamelaC]

Reminding myself that the first draft is telling myself the story.

I needed to read this. Thank you.

 

[owlion]

There's a heatwave on in the UK right now so my brain is mush, but I've managed to complete all the first edits from betas for the MG horror and sent it off for a second round of betas, finalised the MG fantasy outline, and finished making those little changes to the other MG fantasy (where I also managed to cut 1k words). My next move is to either start the changes to the MG fantasy, make any more edits to the MG horror that second betas suggest, rework a short story, or start planning a new story. It's too hot to think about that now though, so I'll just focus on prepping for a D&D session over the weekend.

 

[Mfraser]

It always vexes me that, although there’s very powerful software for this sort of thing (version control systems) that make it very easy to have multiple distributed backups, with a history of all changes, it’s some of the most user-unfriendly software ever created. Even though it’s a crucial part of the job of software development, like half of the inside jokes are about how inscrutable these things are to use and how no-one fully understands. Someday, I long to make a user-friendly interface for “normal people” to this stuff…but my backlog of stuff is sufficient to occupy me for many lifetimes, unfortunately

If you ever create it, let me know. My software programmer spouse tried to get me set up with some version control system, I can't even remember what. I could not begin to want to deal with learning it just so I could write. I just use Dropbox and random notes files. It's inefficient, but I have backups and don't use my writing time to learn something opaque and boring. It would have been nice to actually use a real version control system, but taking the time to learn it? Juice wasn't worth the squeeze.