Week in Review 12/13/15

Welcome to the week that was!

In last week's review I mentioned  I'd need to clone myself if I wanted to add to the workload around here.

Matt Adams asked:

 But if you do clone yourself, can she go by Janey? That way if my fingers slip on the keyboard, I won't end up offending either of you.

I was thinking more along the lines of Her Majesty, Queen of the Unknown Universe.

Dena Pawling added:

I definitely understand not wanting to add more work to an already-high workload and backlog of ms to read. And I'm not a fan of you cloning yourself. The thought of TWO sharks loose in the publishing waters is right frightening.

Three: Barbara Poelle, Shark #2 now,  is already swimming around sucking up preempts and boatloads of cash.

But it was of course 2Ns who has the last word:

To clone, or not to clone that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer a slacker’s reputation
The slings and arrows of outrageous workload,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
Clone and take a nap.

Yours truly,
BS

aka - Bill Shakespeare
He lives in Brooklyn too, in a tree.

I'd also mentioned unnecessary words like "on her face" [when talking about a grin -cause who has a grin on their ass?] and that prompted this from CynthiaMc

When I did Romeo and Juliet, our Mercurtio painted a smiley face on his fanny as an inside joke but it showed through his tights and he died onstage with his rear facing the audience. We thought we were doing the show for an audience of serial killers until he told us what he did.

"for an audience of serial killers" is such a great phrase!

Adib Khorram commented on my observation that I really hadn't seen NaNoMoWriMo novels in the incoming queries on December 1.

Interestingly, Scott Westerfeld's AFTERLIFE is about a girl who does NaNoWriMo, sends her MS off straight away, then lands an agent and a six-figure deal for it.

I don't think that's the source of the misconception, but rather a symptom. I wonder where it originated?

I know the answer to that: a writer who had just finished NaNoWriMo and was day dreaming about what would happen next!

On Monday, the results of thehelluva week writing contest were posted. Nate Wilson was our winner, but as usual there were some entries that really grabbed me (and y'all!)

Kregger is spot on with this observation:

For the most part, if you skim these entries it's easy to miss the jewels.

And sonja's comment was interesting:

    And Emi, that's a Miracle on 34th Street reference, right? Made me smile! (And cringe...)

because I did NOT get the reference to Miracle on 34th Street at all! (I've never seen the movie, which means I have to surrender both my claim to being a New Yorker and a movie lover.)

But this underscores the power of Emi's entry: even without knowing the reference, it was a sox knocker. The reference adds a layer to the story, but the story doesn't depend on the reference.

That's one of the things you  have to watch for in writing novels: does the joke, or the point of a  paragraph require the reader to already know something? Does the joke or the paragraph survive if the reader doesn't?

And this is different from the negative space I sometimes talk about in entries. Negative space (like the space between strands of a spider web) is filled in by what the reader can intuit. It doesn't require knowledge of a specific movie or cultural reference, just the reader's abilities to make connections.

If you look at CynthiaMc's great phrase in this comment:

When I did Romeo and Juliet, our Mercurtio painted a smiley face on his fanny as an inside joke but it showed through his tights and he died onstage with his rear facing the audience. We thought we were doing the show for an audience of serial killers until he told us what he did.

 A reader can understand that the audience laughing here with just a bit of general knowledge of Romeo and Juliet.  Appreciating the beauty of that phrase requires we bring something to the reading, but not detailed knowledge.


This is where people go crazy trying to figure out what's in The Canon: ie what people have to know to be educated enough to get the jokes. 

(And here you thought story telling was just putting words down on paper in the right order!)

 And to return to the actual topic at hand: Miracle on 34th Street:  Emi PdeS replied:

Bahaha! That scene in the movie was on when I read Janet's prompt words, and I couldn't help myself

… And you just made my day. I'm just a little overjoyed that someone caught it!

On the general subject of entering these contests Gabby Gilliam said:

Every time Janet posts one of these contests, I hesitate with my entry because they're all so freaking good. This contest was no exception.

I really encourage everyone to enter, even if you think you're not up to it. What's the worst that can happen? I promise you no one laughs at anyone, and no one shows up at your door to demand you turn in your "I am a writer" card. Besides, one of the rules for writers is BE IMPERFECT!

Lucie Witt agrees:

Gabby, I lurked forever without commenting or entering a contest because I was intimidated by the sheer talent on display. If anyone else out there is thinking the same, I strongly encourage you to give a flash fiction contest a try. It's great fun, improves your writing, and isn't nearly as scary as it seems.

Steve Forti does too:

A hearty seconded on Lucy's comment about this improving your writing. It really helps make clear how to get your story told in the fewest, most powerful words you can. And shows you just what parts are truly important to the story, and what can be cut because it's mere fluff.

and Her Grace, The Duchess of Kneale, has a very cogent comment here about the value of contests:

    Gabby, don't let the quality of other entries deter you from entering because there's really two contests going on here:

    Contest #1: Impress Janet with your mad writing skillz for fun.

    Contest #2: Improve personally as an author. If you can notice an improvement in your contest entries over the course of a few months, you're winning Contest #2.

    I never place in Contest #1, but by watching others' skills and attempting them on my own, I'm improving in my mastery of the craft at sentence and paragraph level. The hundred words is constraining me to write tightly. (Hey, I managed to cram an entire month into a hundred words yesty.) I'm also learning the value of subtext and supertext.

    Give it a go. While trepidation may niggle in your guts, be bold, be mighty and post something. This is one of those things that you have absolutely nothing to lose.

And as Kastie points out, it's not just about winning!

Holy crap. I completely forget that I entered this. An exquisite sentence mention?! Turns out I don't need a win to bounce around the apartment with joy.

Timothy Lowe had me reaching for Amazon with this comment:

These contests set the bar! BTW, a bit off topic, if anyone wants a read that sets the bar almost impossibly high, try A Free State, by Tom Piazza. A runaway slave pretending to be who he is?? Holy hell! - and the writing is absolutely exquisite.

On Tuesday the topic was using italics for more than a word or phrase: (for those of you interested in this kind of data: this is the blog post that garnered the most comments this week!)

I said don't do it!

Lisa Bodenheim asked:

And I'm puzzled by one part of the Shark's response. Is it because I don't have enough caffeine? I'm not getting the sample the Shark gave of 12/7/15 with the To and From. I notice the TO is completely capitalized. And I notice there's a space between the From and the next line. Is that the point?

Use a completely different line to create emphasis?

Here's what Lisa is referring to:

12/7/15

TO: SharqueForBrains@thereef.comic

Fr: WriterWhoHasQuestions@perplexed.com

One of the (many) reasons I value the comment section of the blog is that it often reveals when a post has not been written well enough to be clear.

What I meant is that instead of using italics to separate a  section, such as email text, you'd use the heading above to show it's an email. 

NO:

Felix Buttonweezer finished the email draft with a flourish. He was fairly certain Janet was sending him to Carkoon for this one, but no matter.

Yo SharkForBrains, you incompetent coral sniffing reef killer. How about you quit muddying up the waters and provide some clarity on use of italics?

YES:

12/7/15
TO: SharqueForBrains@thereef.comic
Fr: WriterWhoHasQuestions@perplexed.com

Yo SharkForBrains, you incompetent coral sniffing reef killer. How about you quit muddying up the waters and provide some clarity on use of italics?

Does this help?

nightsmusic asked:

My question then is, if it's third person omniscient and you're in someone's dream, how do you differentiate that? I don't want to read huge blocks of italicized text, but I want my readers to know this is not the norm that they're reading, that there's something going on with the character that isn't a normal waking moment.

This is exactly WHY you do not use the crutch of italics. If I, as a reader, can't tell from the writing, it's the writing you'll want to tinker with. Since I can't see the actual paragraph (or section) in question, this is the place for those second sets of eyeballs on your manuscript, and the very important crit phrase "when did you get confused?"

And Donnaeve makes a good point:

So, there's this book of mine, you know, the one that's going to be published? :) And it has italicized sentences throughout. Got example, each chapter ends with my little character (Dixie Dupree) writing in her diary. Those entries are italicized. As to the rest of the book - which has now been seen by a copy editor, and I've gone over it and made the suggested corrections, etc. etc., there are italicized sentences - and the copy editor even added a few.

So, no paragraphs or whole chapters, but yes, italicized sentences.
…

Did I just hear teeth snapping?

Well, no, but only because you're right. There IS a place for italics in this world. I'm not suggesting they be banned from use. But, using them sparingly is better than using them as a crutch for what should be clear from the writing itself.

As for entire chapters in italics, which Donnaeve mentions here,

Then I think about the book DESCENT, by Tim Johnston, and I believe I used this book before as an example when a different discussion about italics came up - because this book has WHOLE chapters italicized. I read the book a year or so ago, but if I recall, I believe it was to differentiate between POVs.

I'm not sure I'd actually be able to read it. Which may say more about me than italics.

Colin Smith always likes to raise the stakes:

Like Steve, I was about to jump in and say, "But no, wait--what about first person inner dialog?" e.g.:

I approached the body. It was still. Dead? Remember the last time, you idiot! I glanced at my prosthetic hand...

Without the italics, it might seem a bit disjointed:

I approached the body. It was still. Dead? Remember the last time, you idiot! I glanced at my prosthetic hand...

But with quotes, it seems a bit clunky to me:

I approached the body. It was still. Dead? "Remember the last time, you idiot!" I told myself, glancing at my prosthetic hand...

So I can see some value to using italics, but certainly not to overuse them. Indeed, if half the novel is inner dialog like the above, perhaps the POV or voice of the novel needs to change, not the font style?

I had a long paragraph here on how revising that would eliminate the need for italics, but Leah B said what I was thinking:

In Colin's example, "dead?" for me reads as internalization. Nature knows if the body is dead or not; the one doubting its status is our narrator. So then of course it's going to read a little wonky, having both thoughts next to each other, one set off and the other not.

I've been deep in the revision trenches while on holiday from FO4, so I took a stab at how I would revise Colin's example with no italics:

I approached the body. It was still. Dead? I glanced at my prosthetic hand... Remember the last time, you idiot.

There's a slight difference in meaning here from what Colin posted. When the thought triggers the narrator to look at his hand, it feels more like his instincts are yelling at him, DANGER WILL ROBINSON DANGER. When he looks at his hand and then has the thought, it feels more like he's chastising himself. Maybe a little regretful too.

Which version our author would go with would depend on what type of character our narrator is and what else is happening in the scene.

My 2 caps, anyway.

My revision was slightly different:
I approached the body. It was still. Dead? I glanced at my prosthetic hand. Remember the last time, you idiot!

I think when you're tempted to use italics, the first step is to see if the sentence can be re-written to avoid doing so.

Dena Pawling hearkens back to old-school rules on italics:

When I was first starting out, I was advised to underline everywhere that I wanted to show up in the finished product as italics. Then I learned [from a few publishing types who comment on this blog] that this is “old-school” thinking and to use italics.

I remember those days too (and they didn't end all that long ago. For YEARS everything we subbed to Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine required underling in place of italics.)

I think it's cause old typewriters didn't have italics keys. If you underlined, the copyeditor knew it was to be italicized. On the other hand, how you showed just plain underlining I do not know.

There was a wail of despair heard all the way to Brooklyn from Susan:

Oh, this is not the answer I wanted to hear... *headdesk*

My current WIP is a non-linear novel with three timelines for one MC (Present, Past, and past through letters). I finally figured out a structure wherein I'm combining snippets of the letters with more story (set further in the past) in third-person POV, separating the two with italics. I hope that makes sense--it makes my head spin and I'm writing the damn thing.

Thus:

" Dear Character:

Remember when I learned that italics were bad news bears...

She always thought italics were useful as a writing tool, not only for emphasis, but to differentiate between writing conventions and format. She thought wrong. Now, her whole world was turned upside down, and she didn't know how to fix it."

I did the same for my first book, which used journal entries at the beginning of each chapter: the entries were formatted in italics. Like Donna, and based on published books I've read, I thought this was standard.

So, do I continue with this WIP as is or figure out a way to restructure the novel to remove the italics? This makes my heart sink and my head hurt.

Journal entries at the start of a chapter don't need to be italicized. The format alone (centered, indented twice) with a credit line does the job of italics here.

This is what a correctly formatted journal entry at the start of a chapter looks like:

                        "The day started like all other days. I cleaned up the blood from

                        last nights Open Mic Query then turned to the incoming mail.

                        Surprised to find an outraged letter from the Italic Love Society.

                        Cheeky buggers!

                                                                                                ---Sunday, 12/13/15

There's a lot to be said for the very simple strategy of captioning location/date changes with the subheader that shows the shift: Paris 1910. (or whatever)

Kara Ringenbach asked:

My WIP is written in close 3rd person. I used to have the main character's thoughts in italics until I realized the above issues. I removed as many as I could but there are a few spots where it wouldn't flow (as in Colin Smith's example). I wonder if it is OK to have some italicized and most not? Or would an agent look at that and think, 'sloppy'?

If it distracts from the story I'm going to think "add this to the revision notes." None of this stuff we're talking about is going to keep me from reading a good story.  I may re-format your ms if you insist on blocks of italics, but I have Cntrl A, Cntrl I and I know how to use them!

LynnRodz said:

Dare I go against the QOTKU? Well, what worse thing can possibly happen when I'm already in the slush pile? Italics are necessary for distinguishing foreign words which I use throughout my WIP. It's also important to show that I didn't make a mistake in misspelling a word, but using the spelling of another language. Ex: I use quai instead of quay throughout my ms. My understanding is, the foreign word is suppose to be italicized the first time and thereafter it's not.

As others have said, it's subjective. Some agents/editors mind and others don't as long as it's done in moderation.

I agree that foreign words and phrases should be italicized. Thus when speaking to my shark pals we italicize nice and sweet since they are not found in the Language of Chomp. D'accord?

Well I agreed until I read ProfeJMarie (Janet Rundquist)'s comment!

Craig, LynnRodz, and Jenny C (and maybe others that I missed) brought up the issue about foreign language. I used to go with this until other authors educated me. Basically, their point was that when we italicize "foreign" words, we are assuming our reader is solely an English speaker. I think editors/publishers are not in agreement with leaving "foreign" words in plain text, but I know of one author who negotiated successfully that the Spanish words and expressions used in his novel should not use italics. (Daniel José Older).

Sacre bleau!

And Robert Ceres points out another use:

Dammit. I'd been using italics to indicate song lyrics sung. Happens a lot in a book featuring music, but I'm realizing lyrics are already evident from the indentation.

Yup, song lyrics in italics is no problemo.

Janice L Grinyer has a very interesting question:

In  my Forestry outdoor mystery novel, I have a Deaf character who plays an important part in the storyline. When anyone signs or converses through writing, I italicize (and describe the sign language hand motions at times, non-italicized) so you can differentiate between speech, writing and signing. She also uses speech, which I don't italicize.

Having worked in the Deaf community, this happens quite frequently, Deaf persons speaking, writing and signing with hearing persons - three forms of communication. Since this is American Sign Language (ASL, I've got 32 hours credited), it is a language of its own (like French!:). BTW one of the cultural aspects of ASL is that you never eavesdrop by watching/staring at a private conversation - that's considered rude - just like eavesdropping on a vocal private conversation. Also, if you do understand ASL and someone signs to someone else in front of you, it's considered rude of you not to let them know you understand I can HEAR you! Makes for a great mystery however, that nasty eavesdropping bit :) Anyhow...

Is it okay to use italicization to differentiate languages in this circumstance?

This is a really interesting question, and I think it will depend on how much italicizing is used. I wouldn't worry about it at the query stage. If it's a problem, it's something that's easily fixed in revisions.

And Robert Ceres further said:

I like the way Jane Austin (the best author ever, BTW) used italics in the dialog to indicate a slight emphasis on a particular word, sometimes not always the one you would expect, to subtly convey alternative interpretations.

That's exactly why you want to use italics sparingly for other stuff. Sometimes it really is the right tool for the job.

This comment from Stephen Kozeniewski cracked me up:

Seems like good advice. Italics lack that certain...je ne sais quoi.
                                                         

As did this from Dave Rudden, who is, I hope, pulling our collective leg:

Which reminds me of why I love some of the non-standard punctuation symbols. Like this one, which Dave Rudden could have used above!

The Percontation Point is used to raise awareness of another layer or alternate meaning in a sentence - more often than not an ironic or sarcastic one.

My favorite non-standard punctuation mark is still the interrobang:

And Adib Khorram is correct:

My understanding was that most imprints have their own style guidelines and that those guidelines would cover the use of italics, too.

And really in the end, do what works. Know the rulez, sure. But this is your book, and your vision, and there are a lot of people who will be glad to undermine your confidence by telling you that you MUST follow the rulez, but pay them no mind.  If you need help remembering this, here's our own Julie M. Weathers in fine form:

A few years ago I sent my query in to one of those helpful online places where the stud duck held court and the minions piled on with all sorts of "helpful" comments. Mainly the minions tried to see who could be snarkier than the last person, but I felt I might get some good advice if I waded through the duck doo.

Stud Duck (TM) shreds my query, which I really thought was pretty close, but might need just a bit more polishing. The crew at Books and Writers had generously helped me with it.

Stud Duck took particular delight in tearing apart one passage with a sentence he hated. Then he gave me a lesson in writing. He explained how to write a sentence correctly and demonstrated what nouns and predicates are.

The minions piled on. Ha ha ha! She's querying and doesn't even know what a sentence is.

I finally got irritated and lost my southern charm. "Well, thank you for all your help and demonstrating how to write correctly. I'll pass this on to Diana Gabaldon who is the one who actually wrote that passage for me."

Stud Duck ™ may just be my new favorite description. And given I've been guilty of saying noun, verb, clause, simple sentences over at QueryShark (and more than once!) I'm really hoping I didn't say that when the sentence actually works.

How the blog turned blue that day I do not know:

On Wednesday I posted my list of ten plus one

(not to be all picky, but your list is ten plus two, Ms. I-Can't-Number-Lists).--kdjames

two outstanding  books of the year.

JennyC mentioned her list included (as did lizosisek's, and Adib Khorram):

MORE HAPPY THAN NOT by Adam Silvera

which is my colleague and libations consultant Brooks Sherman's client! Adam is tearing up the place with accolades and it couldn't happen to a more deserving guy!

and further said:

So happy to see THE DRIFTER by Nicholas Petrie on Janet's list! It comes out in January. The author lives here in Wisconsin and I'm looking forward to seeing his book do really well!

I hope it does well too. It's a fabulous book and I'm a rabid fan of the author now. I hope he's busy writing the next book!

Susan reminded me of a book I've been meaning to read:

The other most recent memorable read is Brooklyn by Colm Toilbin. I feel torn about this book. On the one hand, I really loved it. It was exactly the kind of book I love to read--loved the setting, loved the story, and I read it easily in one sitting. On the other hand, I felt like the MC was a bit one-dimensional. It's been a couple of weeks since I finished this book, and I still feel unsettled by my opinion of it--I really want to love it, but I think I just merely liked it. Blah. It's such an uneasy feeling.

I know what you mean by unsettled in my opinion. I had that same feeling about City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg. I desperately wanted to love that book, but I didn't. I think it's a monumental effort but not a monumental achievement. It took me a solid week to read the whole thing (900+ pages) and it was time I don't regret, but still, it's not on my sox knocker list.

Craig asked:

For time immemorial, or at least since I have been following her, My Queen has said no to Sci-Fi. There are two books on her list, Orphan X and Station 11, that I would identify as Sci-Fi. I would probably also call Patrick Lee Sci-Fi.

I have to wonder if it is just the name Sci-Fi that she doesn't like and why?

Orphan X isn't sci-fi at all. Station 11 got put in that category, but I don't think of it as that, much as I don't think of Patrick Lee as sf at all either.

However, there are books I've read and loved that ARE sci-fi, as there are books I've read and loved that are romance or women's fiction.  I just don't rep them because I'm not knowledgeable enough in the category to be doing so.  Sure I've read Dune and Anne McCaffrey and Ursula LeGuin and Robert Heinlein, but I don't know enough about the CURRENT market to be an effective advocate for a writer.  I like to be good at my job so I try to avoid taking on things where I don't know what I'm doing. That way, if it turns out I don't know what I'm doing it's a nice cold shock, not a foreseeable one.

Stephen Parks consigns himself to the kale-only section of the Shark Café with this revelation:

Well, I had some real problems with Station 11, so I guess it’s official that Janet and I can’t be friends. I found the writing to be evocative but the storytelling to be weak. Too much of the story happens off page, including a very important event which is glimpsed on the horizon. (Sorry to be vague, trying for no spoilers)

The interesting thing is that Stephen makes valid points, ones I can see in hindsight. However, when I read the book I was so immersed in the story I didn't care about some of the details that now, after reading Stephen's blog post are much more apparent.

A client of mine and I are in discussion about his work in progress. The discussion is exactly like this: some of the plot just doesn't "make sense." As we finally realized, his job as the author is to write the story so I don't notice.  That was a major epiphany for both of us.

For me, because I've always thought of myself as someone who notices when things are "wrong." I've yammered on at length here on this blog about getting dates/names/places right in books. Yet clearly I've overlooked things that are "wrong" in other books.

My job requires a delicate balance between reading as a "just a reader" and with a more critical eye "is this going to be publishable today?"

Many people involved in law enforcement can't watch cop shows on TV cause the shows have so much "wrong", while the rest of us are devoted fans of Law & Order. I have to turn off my inner cop sometimes to just see if I enjoy the story. That's a whole lot harder to do than you think.

So while Stephen is munching his kale cookies, and I'm not inviting him to share MY Mallomars, he's  not out on his ear…yet.

I'm still gobsmacked from this by Megan V

 This was too darn difficult. I almost didn't bother. And then I thought, you know, I'd hate for others to miss out on something fantastic just because I was too lazy to put together a list. The trouble is, I've got a list of 493 books I read this year, thanks to last years New Years resolution— I resolved to read two books a day(one reread, one new read). I'm well below my goal, but it's still a lot of books to choose from! So I picked a few from varying genres and age categories

493 books?

HOLY FUCKAMOLY!

And Luce Witt mentioned a book I have on my list of books to give to anyone on your Christmas list and know you've gotten them the perfect thing:

Tiny Beautiful Things - Cheryl Strayed (advice columns/essays that are gorgeous, raw, loving, hilarious, true, sad)

I love this book with the passion of a thousand suns. You will too.

John Frain asked

How do you guys keep track of these? I swear, some of y'all must get more than 24 hours in a day and I'm jealous.

Library Thing!

And Julie M. Weathers pointed out why keeping track of books is so important:

While I was doing research for RAIN CROW, I ran across the story of an interesting soldier who later became an editor and novelist. Out of curiosity I looked up one of his books. They are very obscure, but I found one and was able to read a sample of it. My stars, what gorgeous writing. I thought I'd get it just to fix the language and speech patterns of the time more in my mind. I'll remember him.

I didn't. No idea who he was or what rabbit trail led me to him. I can't find him and I have searched.

Don't trust your memory if you run across an interesting book.

Kae Ridwyn agrees:

@Julie - this is SO true! For decades now, I'd been trying to find a novel I read when I was 13-ish (didn't write down title or author; just remembered the plot) but this year, I discovered Jane Yolen's A PLAGUE OF UNICORNS while reading comp titles for a book I wanted to start querying. I absolutely LOVED her writing style; so I bought another book of hers several weeks ago when browsing the second hand titles at my local Op Shop. It turns out, this book A SENDING OF DRAGONS, was number three in the series of the novel I had been searching for since forever! It's hard to describe the rapture I felt on the re-discovery.
Moral of story: ALWAYS write down the title / author! Memories just don't cut it!

On Thursday the topic was debunking the oft-heard advice to write your query like flap copy:

nightsmusic asked:

This is an interesting example to me because the first two paragraphs of that flap copy give me all the basics of the story. So if the third covered the stakes involved, would that still not be good body to send? I'm not explaining this very well, but by the third paragraph, I would expect to see the; The attack and consequent imprisonment halts Stahl's chance to pass on information that could bring a swift end to the war. The cat and mouse game that ensues at the prison camp while he makes his plans to escape...yada yada.

Potentially, yes. The problem with using 2/3 of your real estate to establish time and location is you don't need to. It's enough to know it's Paris 1938. Any agent worth her salt is going to know what this means.

Bookstore readers might not, that's true, but your audience for the query is the agent. Even young agents will know what Paris 1938 means. They may not be as well-read in it as someone with more years (harrumph!), a degree in history, and a shelf of books on the topic, but that's why you query me first. And by ditching all the pretty description you have room for the plot. And plot is what distinguishes your book from Alan Furst's and all the rest of the novels set in Paris in 1938.

Jenz nails this perfectly here:

We've all heard this dust jacket advice and most of us were puzzled when we also heard not to take it literally. The dust jacket tip is often given in response to the lament "but I can't sum up a 100K book in 250 words!" It's a demonstration that, yes, in fact, you can be that concise.

But the dust jacket is aimed at a reader while the query is aimed at an agent. Two distinct audiences with different goals and views. It's like the difference between an advertising firm pitching an ad campaign to the seller of a product versus what that campaign will look like in the actual ads.

Mark G cracked me up with this:

'Now, can you tell me what the plot of the novel is?'

As I read this I got a mental image of Faye Dunaway leaning over me holding a wire hanger

and Jerle made me a tad sheepish here:

Well, in my writing career I've been rejected by the best (JR once stopped reading and passed on the 25th word of my query). No sour grapes; that's how we learn.

really? yikes! I think you  might need one of these:

and here is the perfect end to the entire post + comments:

because of course, Friday was  the announcement of the next writing contest.

I love it when a plan comes together!

Tomorrow we'll have contest results, and then some suggestions on things for people on your gift list this holiday season!

Have a great week!


Blog subheader noms:

And now we know: the etymology for "query" comes from the Latin for "burned at the stakes."--DLM

"Entice" and "engage" two words which always establish relationships, be them ancillary, skin-to-skin or eye to page.--2Ns