In Reference to Murder

The Theory of Query

Are you a writer struggling with that manuscript query you've been agonizing over trying to land an agent or book deal? Here are some thoughts from recent agent postings that may be helpful:

Michael Boureet of Dystel & Goderich warns authors not to obsess about the little details. He's more interested in a unique idea and good writing in your query and links to one he thinks was particularly effective, written by Lisa McMann for Wake.

Nathan Bransford says to be careful about comparing your book to others, especially bestsellers.

And Jessica Faust of the BookEnds agency has the most bleak, but realistic insight of all — even if your query is serious, well thought out and well-written, if the subject doesn't excite her or she feels like she's seen it a million times, your query is toast. If you need more ideas and examples of what agents like and hate, check out PubRants and Query Shark.

Top Ten Excuses for Not Writing

After seeing many blogs and articles about the various reasons writers can't seem to find their way to butt-in-chair mode and start a project (or even continue an existing one), I decided to compile a listing of what appear to be the Top Ten such excuses (with a teensie bit of personal experience mixed in for good measure):

1. I'm not talented enough. If you feel uncomfortable with your level of talent, take a writing class. Also, take comfort in the knowledge that every author starts by simply putting word #1 down onto paper. After all, you never know if you'll be good at something until you give it a go. 
2. When I sit down to write, nothing comes out. Try making an outline, even a small one. Come up with character names and engage them in imaginary conversations in your head. Keep a small notebook at hand at all times (or audio recorder) to take notes when ideas strike you while shopping, exercising, in the middle of the night, etc.  Don't get into perfection mode right away; writers' block can happen if you rewrite every sentence before moving on. As Michael Crichton said, "Books aren't written — they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it."
3. My ideas seem terrific — until I try to write about them. See Michael Crichton above. That's what editing is all about. A perfect first draft is extremely rare (if not impossible).
4. Writing a book seems like an impossible dream. I'm too overwhelmed. One writer, Debra Koontz Traverso, compared writing to having a baby placed in your lap the moment you wanted one, for which you are totally unprepared. After all, conception is followed by nine months of growth, preparation and development, just as an author needs time to research, prepare and organize the many aspects of writing a book.
5. I'm too old to start. There’s no minimum or maximum age requirement. Authors like Harry Bernstein had their first book published at age 96. Although Alan Bradley had collaborated on a work of nonfiction, his first crime fiction novel, Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, was published when the author was 70.
6. There's too much competition. Audre Lorde said that there are no new ideas, only new ways of making them felt. Even with 275,000 new books published each year, you are a unique individual with a unique take on life. Work hard on developing your own style and your own voice.
7. I don't have enough money. All you need to start writing is a pencil, notebook and public library access. If you have your own computer, more's the better.
8. I don't know any literary agents. Very few debut authors do, at first. Check the acknowledgment sections in the fronts of books, go to conferences, check out agent blogs and search through other online resources like this listing of agent search sites.  After all, you probably didn't know a financial planner or plumber before you needed one. It takes research.
9. If the book doesn't sell, I'll have wasted all that time. Many authors don't sell their first book until after they've written book #2, 3, 4, or more. J.A. Konrath didn't sell his novel until he'd amassed more than 500 rejections searching for agents and publishers. Perseverance is the key. If that first book doesn't sell, consider it an exercise in learning to be a better writer. Write because you love it, because you're compelled, even obsessed to write.
10. I don't have enough time to write a book. Everyone has responsibilities and demands on their time. Many writers stay up late to write or get up at 4:00 am to catch a few hours. Some set goals of simply writing 500 words a day. If you truly want this, you’ll find the time and make it a priority. If you wait until you have a four-hour block each and every single day to pursue your writing career, it'll never happen.

As Annette Fix pointed out, here is only one viable reason for not pursuing your writing as a career:  someone is reading this blog post as a eulogy at your funeral right now. Don't let your life pass you by without pursuing your dream. Just do it.

 

What Makes a Good Mystery Writer?

That was the question asked by the Mysterious Matters agent after attending the recent Malice Domestic Conference and being asked—probably for the thousandth time—how to get published, deciding that a better question was how to improve your writing. Toward that end, seven tips were offered up, to wit:

1. A good mystery writer thinks first and foremost about the reader's experience.

2. A good mystery writer balances character and plot.

3. A good mystery writer thinks about the future.

4. A good mystery writer listens to and synthesizes the advice of agents, editors, and readers

5. A good mystery writer takes him/herself seriously, but not too seriously.

6. A good mystery writer pushes and challenges him/herself.

7. A good mystery writer understands the competitive landscape

The annotations provided on the blog flesh out the skeletal list with meaty tidbits which you can read more about here.

But if that advice isn't helpful enough, over at the Guide to Literary Agents Editors Blog there is a listing of the top 10 reasons agents stop reading a manuscript and/or throw it across the room (this time in reverse order):

10. Overdone description that doesn’t move the story forward

9. Spoon-feeding the reader what the character is thinking

8. Having the characters address each other repeatedly by name, as in, "John, let’s go!"

7. Introducing a character with first and last name, as in, “John Smith entered the room.”

6. Beginning a story with dialogue

5. Opening with a cliché

4. Yanking the reader out of the action with backstory

3. Not giving the reader a sense of place or where the story is going

2. Characters are MIA until bottom of the second page

1. Telling instead of showing

Wanna Be a Writer?

From time to time I like to collect tips and advice from around the blogosphere for writers about the writing process, as well as publishing and marketing. Here's the latest roundup:

ON WRITING

Best-selling novelist Tess Gerritsen says, "Won't take advice? Good luck," adding that although persistence is key, blind stubbornness can spell your doom.

Sharon Wildwind discussed "Epidemic Narrative": although it's about real-life narrative (the swine flu), it also applies to fiction writing, especially in "knowing the reliability of the narrator."

Brenda Novak posted ideas for "Getting Unstuck" and breaking writer's block. I think my favorite is #14.

John Gilstrap wrote about "Bringing Characters to Life."  One of his caveats: "Think less and imagine more."

Are you ready to be a best-selling author? Jane Friedman posted a snippet from an Alec Baldwin movie where he plays a salesman, drawing 7 parallels between his speech in the movie and authors.

Jesaka Long had a two-part essay here and here on "Discovering and Developing Your Voice."

ON PUBLISHING

Literary agent Rachelle Gardner answers the question "What to do now that you have an agent?"

Alison Janssen gave a breakdown of a typical Bleak House print run.

The Mysterious Matters anonymous agent told how he can tell the hallmarks of pretension in writing.

Reader Review has a very detailed (and for some, eye-opening) description of the cost of physically printing a book.

ON MARKETING

Beth Groundwater gives some tips on how to handle a book tour on the cheap.

When Do You Quit?

Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent is a model for perseverance. Toni McGee Causey over at the Murderati Blog takes it a step further and talks about writers working through rejection and how to know when to call it quits, basically concluding that "You quit when you have another dream that means more to you."

Author blogs like Murderati can be a wealth of inspiration and ideas. Another is Type M for Murder which has a new posting about writing secondary characters taken from Donald Maass' book The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great. One excerpt: "Supporting players in manuscripts are too often forgettable. They walk on, walk off, making no particular impression. What wasted opportunities, in my opinion, especially when you consider that secondary characters aren't born, they're built."

Take advantage of these free offerings from writers who have been there, done that, are still learning, and quite happy to pass along some tips gained from their experiences along the way.

Fail Safe

If you're a new or wannabe author wandering around in a haze of confusion over the often inexplicable mysteries surrounding the publishing process, or even if you're an established author, you might find it enlightening to check out the recent QueryFail and AgentFail online "events."

QueryFail was the brainchild of literary agent Colleen Lindsay, who set aside a day for agents on Twitter to post their gut reactions in real time as they were reading queries. Although most of the examples were so obviously bad, they probably won't help the good writers out there, if you've sent out queries to dozens upon dozens of agents with not much in the way of response, you might want to check it out. Favorites include the likes of "Easily the boldest novel so far written in this fresh century of ours," and "43 years of toiling within my own mind have come to an end with this manuscript!"

In response, some less-than-happy writers struck back with their version, AgentFail, which Jessica Faust of BookEnds opened up to authors (who could post anonymously on her blog) allowing authors to vent their grievances with agents. Frequent complaints included comments like "How difficult is it to have an auto-responder so that IF you don't respond, I know you at least got the email and it was not a glitchy thing?" and "Making sure web submission guidelines are up-to-date. I've queried agents who say they rep my genre on their website, only to receive a rejection because... they don't rep that genre."

In case you missed the whole affair, Colleen Lindsay has announced the next Queryfail ("Queryfail 2: Queries Never Die"), scheduled for Friday, April 17th.

And for all the frustrated authors out there, agent Nathan Bransford is sponsoring a "Be An Agent for a Day" (actually a week) contest on his blog.

In a related note, literary agent Rachelle Gardner recently posted 10 Things to Expect From an Agent (hat tip to Janet Reid).

The End of Hollywood?

Screenwriting guru Robert McKee echoed something a relative of mine who works in the business said recently, namely that the best writing these days is not with film ("Hollywood films? The death rattle of a dying industry"), but in TV. McKee should know of what he speaks—the former actor, theatre director, script writer and consultant has delivered three to four-day seminars to some 50,000 paying students including such big names as David Bowie, Ed Burns, John Cleese, Kirk Douglas, Emilio Estevez, and Diane Keaton, and his best-seller Story is required reading for students at Harvard and Yale.  He says, "We're going through a wonderful period of television...In US television, the writers have all the power."

Some of his writing tips in general? 

• "Writers need to dig into their own past and knowledge, spend time reading and researching, and put down everything they feel, think and discover on paper."
• "Daydreaming is not research. Taking a walk along the river to be creative is s...." he said. "The idea that writing is a creative process is mythical. Writers who take the time to research see the story almost writes itself."
• "The world of a story must be small enough that you can become the God in it. If you have a huge canvas it's impossible to be the God of that universe and you'll write cliches."

Rejection is Not a 4-Letter Word

As one who is thinking of wallpapering an office wall with a quilt of rejection letters collected through the years, it's always refreshing (is that schadenfreude?) to realize I'm not alone. Here are a few other folks grappling with the issue around the blogosphere in recent days:

Dark Phantom guest blogger and thriller-author Pamela Samuels gives her Top 5 Tips on what to do when you're discouraged by rejections.

JA Konrath wonders why so many authors, even once-successful ones, give up so easily and join the ranks of the Where Are They Now Syndrome. As he puts it, "the harder you try, the luckier you seem to get."

Canadian science fiction and fantasy writer Edward Willett reprinted a snippet of something once included in a Kenyon Review article with one author's humorous response to a rejection letter.

And Alexander Spoerer over at Renegade Sanctuary likes to view rejections as a goal.

David Malki ! at Wondermark helps keep it all in perspective. But, ouch...