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Basic Writing questions is not a crit forum. All crits belong in Share Your Work
What's On Your Mind About Your Writing?
- Thread starter Undercover
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Maybe, if you're specifically writing to one agent who you feel can best deliver value. However, if you were going that route, you'd probably want to go all of their clients' opening pages to see how much of a difference there is between what they say they look for and what winds up getting selected.
To that extent, I see agenting like dating -- a lot of guys and girls will SAY they're looking for one thing yet they consistently date people who don't fit what they claim to be looking for. So, looking at their clients will help to tell you how much those elements align. Granted, that still only helps so much because you can't see what's going on with the clients they haven't sold, which could provide insights as well (on top of the impact that unsold clients have on work that agents might consider -- ie, if they have two unsold projects within a specific niche, they might not want a third)
But, in general, my issue with agenting conferences is I always wonder how busy an agent actually is if they have all this time for conferences and other stuff (and whether they're making more money from selling their clients' books or from providing services to writers). However, I'm also incredibly cynical.
That said, obviously conferences have value to the extent that participant can get 1:1 time with individuals. Granted, if you really wanted to play the game, there are probably countless ways to network instead of relying on cold querying.
I think that advice is based on the assumption that you (the you, the writer, generic person) are also a normal, average, bog-standard reader. So the book you want to read is the same book that thousands of readers just like you want to read.
Which I'm not sure works, because so many writers I know are not..... average, shall we say? Bog standard? (ETA: Let's admit it. Most writers are not normal. In fact, most writers are weird AF. Not a bad thing, though.)
OTOH, I think it's great advice because it encourages people who aren't of the bog standard variety, and who can't find books about people like them (e.g. not white, not male, not heterosexual, not privileged, not cis, not able-bodied, not xxxx), to write books about folks who do fall into their niche category. I love reading those kind of books. And I love if/when/that they exist to validate young readers who fall into those niches.
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Adding: the first (only?) fan-mail I ever sent, admittedly decades ago, was to Lee Lynch. She's an excellent writer overall with a long, rich authorial history (I learnt belatedly), but what sent me into paroxysms of delight was that the book by her I read was about not young! not gorgeous! not rich! not bog-standard! not straight, not male characters!! (Sweet Creek, in case anyone wants to check it out).
I'd never in my close-to half-century of life written to an author, but I went all squeee! on her like some mindless adolescent performing seal and did everything short of ask her to marry me. (More to her credit, she was absolutely lovely and generous and kind in her reply. And someone else beat me to marrying her. I hope that karma continues to rain blessings down upon her head.)
Write what you want to read may only apply to a small subset, but that subset is dying to see your story.
I'd never in my close-to half-century of life written to an author, but I went all squeee! on her like some mindless adolescent performing seal and did everything short of ask her to marry me. (More to her credit, she was absolutely lovely and generous and kind in her reply. And someone else beat me to marrying her. I hope that karma continues to rain blessings down upon her head.)
Write what you want to read may only apply to a small subset, but that subset is dying to see your story.
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Very responsibly, I wrote myself a note after finishing my last scene yesterday containing all the information that needs to come across in its sequel. (Yay, no re-reading/doom-spiraling!) But now, I'm spiraling in a different way. "Alright, so I shouldn't just tell the reader that six people just died - how shall I show this? A funeral! Yes! Worldbuilding opportunity! Wait - but what is a funeral like in this world? What do these people believe about death and the afterlife? Should I already have introduced their spiritual beliefs by now?"
The joys of writing SFF....
The joys of writing SFF....
Yeppers. I had to invent funeral customs for one of the cultures in my WIP. Kinda fun--in a heart-breaking kind of way. (looks at the ground, scuffs the dirt, turns red, mutters) totally made myself cry.
And don't you like it when something like that pops up--a need to add more of something to your world? That means it's alive!
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Inventing aspects of culture is a pain in the butt when they weren't part of your fun worldbuilding thoughts from the start isn't it
I kept writing stuff like "Good God" into the manuscript, and only once did I think "...which god? One god? What does this even mean here," but at least I made a note. Unfortunately, I later deleted it, along with all my other notes, because the "delete comment" and "delete all comments" options occasionally look the same to me in LibreOffice, apparently...
(I've deleted all my comments to myself three times. Only the last time did I catch it in time to undo it...)
And I've only just remembered about it. Thanks for reminding me
Suppose I have to go invent a religion or find a different noun to invoke...
I'm right now debating whether to keep a part of a scene or not. I edited in into the story in an early edit, because I felt I needed this plot detail, but now I feel I might not need it, but is that just because I'm too familiar with my story, or have I added other things that makes it void even for readers?
Was watching a trailer for Subliminal (a game), and was again struck by the limitations written horror has vs visual, particularly games. A show or game can do in 30 seconds, just right off the bat, what would take an author a lot of time to build the mood to create.
I have a very simple question for myself: what's next?
I have two words for you: Murderous outhouse. Do with them what you will.
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Omg...but you still prefer LibreOffice?? I think this would've made me lose my mind. Notes to self are everything to me.
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No, I nearly shelled out the money for MS Word after this, but then realized I didn’t know if it was actually much different
(I did download OpenOffice but it looked to be much the same situation to me…)
(I don’t know of other word processors for Windows that I can export into common file formats but am open to suggestions
)
I think you may have read my mind. I mean, not an outhouse but a murderous house. Still percolating the idea rooted in a nightmare that had me waking up breathless, and it’s probably completely unmarketable, but murderous house...
I'm currently struggling with Schrodinger's Transition Scene.
In order to get from A(already written) to B (the major Event of this section of the book) something has to happen. And there are 2 alternative paths to get from A to B that exist in my head, that cover roughly equivalent ground in somewhat different ways. Pieces of both exist in scraps & snippets -- I like bits of both of them. At some point I have to collapse the wave-form and will one of them into text-life, dismiss the other forever. But which will live and which will die? At the moment I have no idea.
Maybe I should just black-box that section and move forward with What Happens After. Which I know pretty well, at least in broad strokes. None of that part has been drafted yet, and it includes a Big Battle.
In order to get from A(already written) to B (the major Event of this section of the book) something has to happen. And there are 2 alternative paths to get from A to B that exist in my head, that cover roughly equivalent ground in somewhat different ways. Pieces of both exist in scraps & snippets -- I like bits of both of them. At some point I have to collapse the wave-form and will one of them into text-life, dismiss the other forever. But which will live and which will die? At the moment I have no idea.
Maybe I should just black-box that section and move forward with What Happens After. Which I know pretty well, at least in broad strokes. None of that part has been drafted yet, and it includes a Big Battle.
I'm trying to rewrite my first chapter. This is complicated by Life Events, but I thought I'd take a shot at it.
I'm trying to put it all in one character's POV. The thing I liked about switching POVs, at least for this first chapter, is that the two characters don't know each other, so the viewpoints are very limited and information doesn't fall out in big chunks, and there's still lots to be discovered.
Keeping the POV to one character, I feel like I'm giving more information than I want to right off the bat.
Maybe I'll try writing it in first person to narrow the focus and hopefully keep back some info, then try rewriting it in 3rd.
I'm trying to put it all in one character's POV. The thing I liked about switching POVs, at least for this first chapter, is that the two characters don't know each other, so the viewpoints are very limited and information doesn't fall out in big chunks, and there's still lots to be discovered.
Keeping the POV to one character, I feel like I'm giving more information than I want to right off the bat.
Maybe I'll try writing it in first person to narrow the focus and hopefully keep back some info, then try rewriting it in 3rd.
Wondering if I went too much, too early with a reveal about a character.
Also, I'm going too long without a scare. Sigh.
Also, I'm going too long without a scare. Sigh.
Got 150 words written yesterday, whoop-de-do. Sat down about 9:30 this morning after taking River out to play, with my coffee and playlist, all set to write. Moved half a sentence. Rewrote another sentence. Decided I needed more information about what's really a tiny detail, spent 90 minutes looking stuff up. Okaaaay. After lunch then, right?
I'm about to kill someone.
Well, I don't know who to choose or who my MC will cry over the most but then, that's it. Somebody has to go.
Apart from that, I almost forgot how to spell the word 'spirits' for a split minute. I wrote 'sprites' and corrected it two to three times before recalling that 'i' comes before the 'r'.
Well, I don't know who to choose or who my MC will cry over the most but then, that's it. Somebody has to go.
Apart from that, I almost forgot how to spell the word 'spirits' for a split minute. I wrote 'sprites' and corrected it two to three times before recalling that 'i' comes before the 'r'.
Added another 150 words. Hate it. It is so stinking awful. I'm going to give it one more chance, try starting further into the story, and if that doesn't work, I'm tossing it and then I'm going to sulk for several months.
I don't think first person is my natural writing voice. Or maybe I don't know FMC as well as I think I do. Not well enough to write in her voice, anyway. I've written 1st person successfully a time or two. So maybe either I'm not close enough to FMC, or I'm too close.
I don't think first person is my natural writing voice. Or maybe I don't know FMC as well as I think I do. Not well enough to write in her voice, anyway. I've written 1st person successfully a time or two. So maybe either I'm not close enough to FMC, or I'm too close.
Have you tried zooming out as a writing exercise, or is there another POV you can switch to?
I'm sort of playing with the idea of maybe trying 1st person with MMC. It's not that I don't know him well--I think I do--but he's--difficult. But then it couldn't be much worse than 1st person FMC, which isn't working at all.
I'm at a club scene with my MC, except she's 18, so not supposed to be there, but since she's a celebrity and humanity's "hero" no one has even looked at her ID. I'm worried, though, that it's a bit too old for YA, and if I should age up my novel. Her love interest is also 21... anyway, that's a decision for later, when the book is complete.
That's entirely up to the rules in your world. The US is much more restrictive in this regard than many places. In my country, you're an adult at 18 and allowed to drink alcohol.
I totally forgot how the rest of the world have more relaxed drinking regulations. Seems like I shouldn't worry about it as much. Well, that's a relief.