Jessica Faust from BookEnds recommends going for the “no” when submitting query letters, because it helps narrow down the list of potential agents and helps gauge if something needs to change — either the query itself or the novel’s concept.
I admit, I sent out my first thirteen queries without considering this. The nos depressed me, especially the first one. But, eventually, I realized getting a no is better than not getting any kind of response and it takes a lot of nos before eventually getting a “yes.”
I’ve since stopped sending query letters so I can rewrite my novel according to beta feedback and my notes. I’m reshaping things to better fit what actually fits into the market, while still holding true to my novel and what I have to say.
Hopefully, I’ll be much closer to a “yes” when I send my next batch of queries with my fresh manuscript draft.
I’ve been thinking it was already September for the past week.
It’s that awkward time of year when it’s a high in the low 80s but a low in the high 50s, so should I wear a hoodie and be hot some of the time or go without and be cold some of the time?
My parents reference a lot of things from the 1940s and 1950s because of their parents, so I make the same references. It makes me feel simultaneously old and cultured. I grew up recognizing the impressions (at least the majority of them) on Looney Tunes. That’s the true litmus test for culturedness.
There are exactly three weeks between the two trips my husband and I are taking soon. That’s just under the amount of time I’ll have to check out a book on Libby and later return it. When I check out a book for the first trip, it’ll be due the day we leave for our second trip. I’m going to need two books. This upsets me more than it should.
I’m currently in the middle portion of my novel. The part I’ve seen writing advice YouTubers describe as “sagging.” It feels like a metaphor for life. It’s where all of the important stuff happens! But it’s also slow to write and hard to stay motivated.
Every time I hit the next big palindrome word goal, I feel like I could fly.
I took a week’s vacation, and it ended up being a vacation from writing my novel, too. Unplanned, but possibly good for my brain, in the long run?
Rewriting my novel has been a challenge, mainly because I’m trying to focus on what readers look for. In the process, I’ve discovered a new comp title — swapping out the one from 2019 that I’d been clinging to — and new avenues to explore and tighten in my narrative.
My goal is to finish the rewritten manuscript by September 30th and then begin the editing process. Then more betas and editing! I’m currently at around 38,000 words with the goal word count of 80,000. Hopefully, by the end of the year/beginning of next year, I’ll be ready to start sending fresh query letters to agents.
Of course, I also have a new idea I plan to start writing once I can focus on something new.
When I first started writing my current novel, it was in third person, limited, following the female lead as she flailed through the story (her words, not mine.) After receiving beta feedback, I switched it to first person, still in the female lead’s perspective so there was no illusion that I might go into any other character’s head. The story is Celeste’s.
It’s interesting to me how varied the opinions are on POVs in romance novels. I’ve read both that readers hate third person and that they love and expect it. I’ve also read that readers prefer first person because it allows them to feel immersed in the plot, but some say they dislike it because it limits things. First person has even been called “easy.”
In my experience, it isn’t easy to write in first person. I like being able to play with all of the toys in the box, so focusing on just the feelings and thoughts of one character is challenging. It’s more fun to write, though.
Third person seems like the more traditional POV. The classics generally use it. The story being told is presented clearly and all of the important angles can be reached. This can make a story a little more boring and distant.
First person, present tense is the devil, in my opinion. I don’t want to feel like I’m reading a choose-your-own-adventure story. I know a lot of people these days like it, but it feels almost too informal to me. I want my novels to tell me a story, not make me feel like I’m telling it. I don’t want strange men touching me.
I can imagine it if I want to, but when I read I feel him/his… in novels, it mostly makes me feel grossed out.
When I was a kid, I had a lot of hand-me-downs from my older sister. She was born in 1980, so it meant I had a lot of cool, older toys. I had Barbies with fun, eighties styles that hung out with my newer, nineties dolls. I had a Soda Shoppe playset that I used to pretend served the concessions for ‘drive-in’ movies in my parents’ den.
Those tiny hot dogs and buns were frustrating to work with. The stools doubled as cups for human consumption of the soda.
My dolls didn’t live in the classic, pink Dream House. They lived in my sister’s version, from the 80s. It was yellow for some reason, but it was still eleganza.
Many a cat also lived in that house. Most probably not by choice.
One ‘new’ thing my Barbies had was a Porsche Boxter with a working convertible roof.
Whenever Barbie or Ariel or Megara (I had a lot of Disney dolls) wanted to go to the drive-in, she’d roll up in that beauty.
The Barbiemovie made me wistful.
America Ferrera’s monologue was the only part that made me cry, though it doesn’t have as much to do with Barbie as it has to do with society’s treatment/expectations of women.
I really liked it. I also liked Oppenheimer, but not as much.
Okay, so now that I’m replotting my novel (BIG thanks to my husband for essentially becoming my writing partner these last several months. ❤️) I’ve been thinking about comparative novels again. Comps are important when you’re trying to find representation for your book, and they need to be fresh if not immediately current. I’ve been trying to get my rewrite done in a timely manner since one of my comps is from 2023 (perfect!) and one of them is from 2019 (ehh… I might need to get a new one.)
I’m learning as I go, and though I hit a low point recently, I’m still excited by the process and the potential of my novel. Though I’m rewriting and restructuring, I’m keeping as much of my original writing as I can, as much as still works. I’m confident the muscle of my story is still strong, it just needs a sturdier skeleton.
Queries go on the back burner for now. Queries are currently not my friend.
In other non-book news, who’s excited for Barbenheimer? My husband and I are planning to see both this weekend (one on Saturday, one on Sunday.) Friends will see Barbie with us. That seems like a great movie to see with friends. Oppenheimer might be as well if you and your friends are more macabre. I’m fully expecting to cry during that one.
A lot of great things are planned for after this weekend, actually. I’ve been staggering toward August when the fun starts. Birthday parties and fancy hotel stays and concerts and Atlantic City and Lizzie Borden’s house…
Have I mentioned we’re going to Lizzie Borden’s house? Oh, don’t worry. I will write about the experience.
Oppenheimer makes me sad yet the Lizzie Borden case makes me giddy. Make no mistake, I am macabre. Perhaps just a more compassionate macabre.
Hip and with-it people reference Flight of the Conchords, don’t they?
After switching tracks with my novel, I submitted a new query letter to the query letter critique group I’m in. They seem to think that, because the novel focuses on the growth of the main heroine that it’s not romance. They suggested common romance tropes (like enemies to lovers, forced proximity, etc) are what make a book romance instead of women’s fiction. I’d argue that a novel doesn’t have to conform to (I’m sorry) tired plot themes in order to be a part of a genre. Plenty of romance novels show heroines going through stuff and the hero helps her out of it.
I’ve decided that I might submit my query letter as women’s fiction sometimes, and romance other times, and see what happens.
But first I need to finish revising it AGAIN. Don’t let it ever be said that I’m not a people-pleaser.
I’ve shared my query letter drafts with a few online groups as I struggle to describe my novel within only about three hundred words. It’s made me have a big think about what people’s reaction has been. Not friends or people in my social circle, just random strangers. After all, it would be random strangers who’d consider reading my novel once my devoted loved ones have read it.
It doesn’t feel great to be told that my lived experience of being a Millennial who graduated from college in 2009 and struggled to find a career for years after that isn’t realistic or interesting. I can’t tell if I need to really rework my selling points or the story itself.
So for this week, I’m mostly sad.
I’ve probably got a lot of revisions to do. Big, overhauly type ones. I hesitate to completely start over because I’ve worked on this story for the past three or so years. The query readers want more conflict, so short of introducing a monster in the third act, I have to come up with something more conflicting than being poor and practically frozen in time.
Being a writer is so isolating sometimes, isn’t it?
A lot has been said about Millennials. Too much, probably. We just want to live, but every time we turn around, we’re being blamed for something by Boomers or looked down upon by Gen Z (so the articles would have you believe anyway… what generation is writing those articles, though, hmm?)
As a card-bearing Millennial — it’s called an I.D. card — I can assure you that we’re hard-working, stressed out, and kind of done with the whole generation debate. We graduated college and entered the workforce at a terrible time. Most people I know who got jobs after college were working retail or waiting tables, or both. Being able to afford things was a constant struggle. Living with one’s parents, though not great, was the only way to stay afloat, and moving out of their houses was no walk in the park either. Unless you live in a place with low rent or mortgage rates.
But this post isn’t about complaining. I just wanted to start with some perspective.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the changing landscape on the Internet. Homestar Runner and StrongBad were bickering. Badgers and snakes were badgering and snaking around. When I first started using Facebook, it was only available to people who were currently in college. MySpace was a serious rival, with its customized profiles and annoying autoplay music. I started using Twitter in 2006, back when it was used for people to share their inane, random thoughts. YouTube was random and silly. Things were fun back then.
It’s not surprising that things have changed. Everything has become discussion-based. Argument-based, more like. Even the memes have become a lot more cynical than they used to be. Remember Charlie the Unicorn? That was just dumb; it didn’t have any underlying social commentary.
Please don’t tell me it has underlying social commentary.
I suppose the Internet is just a day-to-day example of the way things change, and how fast change happens. It feels strange to be nostalgic for something so goofy that didn’t really matter, but I suppose every generation has their version of that.
I leave you with this song. It’s about MySpace, played with a ukulele, and it’s on old-school YouTube. You’re welcome.
Everyone’s talking about the Titanic now because a tourist submersible apparently got lost trying to explore it in the depths of the Atlantic (not exactly a surprise.) Rich tourists are gonna rich tourist… It boggles my mind that people actually want to go down into the deepest ocean to look at the wreckage when a) there are photographs of it, b) it’s slowly breaking down and becoming one with the ocean floor*, and c) it’s creepy as heck.
I was ten when Titanic came out and the big 90s craze happened. There have been many other Titanic crazes since the sinking, because people are fascinated by catastrophes and frivolous wealth and death. But when I was ten, I read a picture book about it and watched a made-for-TV movie about it (starring Tim Curry!) and I. was. terrified.
I had nightmares about my bedroom actually being a stateroom aboard the ship, sinking and drowning me until I woke up screaming. I dreamt about drenched ghosts in my bedroom doorway. Then I watched some TV documentary about finding the wreckage and the nightmares continued.
Suffice it to say, I didn’t see the James Cameron movie in theatres until years later. Oh, I saw it though. I owned it on VHS and watched it like a true masochist. Occasionally, I’d only watch the first half, saving myself from seeing those poor, dead, frozen mannequins.
So, you can imagine it’s been an interesting time for me this past week, with all of this new Titanic news. I made the mistake of googling photos of the wreckage while on my lunch break on Monday. One of the things that most stayed with me from the documentary I saw in around 1999 was that the clock on the wall was reduced to a yellow circle where the clock used to be. I don’t know why that gave me such heebie-jeebies, but it did. I couldn’t find any photos of that. It might not even be a yellow circle on the wall anymore.
The wall may not exist anymore.
Eventually, all of the wreckage will be gone. Especially if people keep joyriding down there to see it like it’s not a giant, rusted gravesite.
*such wonderful tings surround you / what more is you lookin’ for?
[Edited 6/22/23 to add] They found debris that indicates a “catastrophic implosion.” The 5 people in the submersible are dead. The silver lining, I suppose, is that there’s no mystery. They were technically found.
I’m probably not going to sleep well for a few days. Gahhh. Rest in peace, people. I disagree with what you did, but that’s a horrible way to die.
