When your life goes off the rails

All too often (because never is the ideal) a client will share news of devastating developments in their personal life. A death. A divorce. Illness. A child in dire straits.

Sometimes that curve ball from Life hits them square on the Muse.

Sometimes the client can say "I just can't write."
Sometimes they can't

Sometimes writing through pain is the only thing that will save you.
Sometimes it isn't.


It's ok to stop writing.
I can renegotiate deadlines.
Life happens to all of us and mostly I just want to make sure you're going to come out on the other end of this. Or your kid is.

If you're querying and something dire happens, it's OK to write to the agents who've requested your full and say "Yanno, Life has thrown me a curve ball and right now I need to spend time getting up and dusting myself off." Sometimes you can't share the details. Sometimes writing the details down is too painful to even think about. That's ok. Just tell me you're in dire straits. I've been there. We've all been there.

All agents you want to work with will reply "I'm really sorry you're having a tough time. Get back in touch when you can. You're in my thoughts."

All agents you want to cross off your list will say something else.

She said no before but now said yes in a Twitter pitch fest

I participated in a twitter pitch event today to find new agents to submit to and received a request to send a query from an agent who looks like a good match.

The problem is, I submitted a query for this project to her about nine months ago and received a form rejection.

I am not sure if I should submit again.

On the one hand, as I've learned from your blog, there are many reasons an agent may pass on a project, such as workload or having something too similar to it out for submission right then. It's possible the agent saw my pitch, thought it was cool, and wants to learn more about it, having forgotten seeing it last year.

On the other, it's possible she just didn't enjoy my thing the first time around, and resubmitting it to her will make me appear foolish, as though I don't pay attention to who I submit to (I have a spreadsheet and everything) and get me blacklisted by her, others at the agency, and will become a funny story she tells to other agents leading to further difficulties finding representation down the line.

should I:
1) resubmit my query et all again as though it's the first time
2) resubmit my query again and say "I'm glad you're interested in my project, I remember submitting to you last year"
3) some third thing 

The answer is Door #3.
You say "I'm querying based on your interest from the Twitter Shark Infested Waters call for Queries on (date)."

You put that at the TOP of the query. (You might even have something in the subject line if so instructed by agent)

Then you have your query.

THEN at the bottom you write, "I want to be upfront that I queried previously with this project on (date.)"

If you have revised the query or the book since then, you add "the query/book has undergone revision since then."

If you have not, just don't say anything.

Do NOT write "and you rejected me"
You don't need to state the obvious.
You do NOT need to put the word rejection in your query.

If she passes this time, well, that's her loss. You've been upfront, and you've given her two bites at the apple.


As to this paragraph:

On the other, it's possible she just didn't enjoy my thing the first time around, and resubmitting it to her will make me appear foolish, as though I don't pay attention to who I submit to (I have a spreadsheet and everything) and get me blacklisted by her, others at the agency, and will become a funny story she tells to other agents leading to further difficulties finding representation down the line. 

That's just not going to happen. People double query often enough that I don't even notice much any more, and it's not really crazy enough to merit making up a good story. The only people I blacklist are the ones who are incredibly rude after a series of interactions (ie you can't get blacklisted by just querying twice unless you actually TRY.)

And the funny stories I tell other agents are hardly ever about writers. They're always about other agents.

Speaking of the Canon

The canon is what one must have read to be considered well-educated. There is the canon for Western civilization which is largely books that are non-fiction. There is the canon of English literature (the books you'd see in an English Lit survey class in college.) There is the canon for literature of the American West.

And of course there is the canon for whatever category you write (or in my case read) in. I mentioned the canon a few days back as something you'd need to know if you wanted to write something fresh and new in a well-trod category.

I hadn't heard the term "the canon" till I got to grad school when it was the subject of fierce debate. I mean fistfight debate. Of course that was just about the time a lot of people realized the literary canon should include people like Alice Walker, Margaret Atwood, Tillie Olson, and all those other people who didn't have the balls to be old white men.

But enough of my misspent youth.

Recently, I was reading my requested fulls. One was a fresh take on the old familiar country house murder trope. I had LOVED those books as a kid. Not just for the murder but for the world they created. No surprise I grew up to love Upstairs, Downstairs, Downton Abbey, and my beloved Gosford Park.

Which brings us to The Secret of Chimneys which is an Agatha Christie novel. You might not have heard of it because the main character is Superintendent Battle not the world famous Hercule Poirot or Miss Jane Marple (who I think is the best character ever, and to hell with that walking Belgian mustache.)

But I digress.

I realized as I was reading the manuscript that it had been quite some time since I'd read one of the original country house mysteries. I popped online and sure enough, The Secret of Chimneys was right there in paperback and ebook. I bought the paperback (somehow I had the idea if I did, I'd also get the ebook, but that was my stupidity.)

I started reading the ebook only to discover it stopped about 20 pages in and I'd have to buy it to keep reading.

Now, writer fiends, here's the point of this blog post: I didn't wait till Tuesday, a mere 48 hours from that exact moment, when the paperback would arrive. I didn't wait till Tuesday to finish reading a book I've read at least five times before (admittedly some years back, but I knew whodunit, and I knew the ending.)

I bought the ebook so I could finish the book then and there. And I did. And it was as good, if not better than I remembered (although the racism and classism is just really hard to ignore.)

And that is the pudding proof of damn fine writing.

Thus my suggestion to you: list five go-to books for the canon in your category. Go read them again. See if they hold up. If they do, you know you've got an author to study closely. What they're doing has stood the test of time, changing fashion, changing tastes.

You might not be able to read 100 books in your category but you surely can read five.

If I were to pick five they would be:

The Mirror Crack'd by Agatha Christie
The Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan
The Key to Rebecca by Ken Follett
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
When the Sacred Ginmill Closes by Lawrence Block

And even as I look at this list I think of all my faves who are not here: Lee Child, Dennis Lehane, Michael Connelly, Catriona McPherson, all my clients!!!, Nick Petrie, Lou Berney, and a dozen others I'll think of in another minute.

But my point here is not to choose only five, it's to figure out what works in a novel that appeals to you for YEARS. A novel that you'd use to illustrate essential elements of a novel (I use Key to Rebecca on shifting POV all the time.) A novel that can be YOUR signpost for moving ahead.

When I go to the Met, I often see students painting copies of the great masters. By copying they are learning. It's not plagiarism to copy. It's plagiarism to copy something and pass it off as your original work.  Thus, I suggest using these authors as guideposts, but don't just change the names in The Secret of Chimneys and expect to have a bestseller.  Superintendent Battle and his sharkly fan will not be happy if you do.

Do you have some classics that have stood the test of time?

PS writer fiends is not a typo

Contest #100 looms

and we still need one more prompt word.

Aeriel surveillance commencing!

got a word in your sights?
Please, bombs away in the comments column.
The word is chosen. Of course, I'm not going to tell you what it is, I love to torment you!


And don't forget the prize for this contest is a damn good one!

My book is late to the trend

I recently received a rejection from my dream agent, who after requesting the full manuscript, had only positive things to stay about my writing. She explained that she really wanted to take it on, but as a YA crossover, dystopian set novel, she doesn’t feel confident enough because the market is currently flooded with this genre.

I've received some other positive feedback from agents about my writing, but haven't had any more manuscript requests and I'm wondering where to go from here. I've been told before to never write to the trend, and dystopian/sci-fi is my passion. The agent expressed interest in any other novels I might have in the pipeline, but the one I'm working on now, also happens to be a science-fiction, slightly dystopian piece. Should I wait for the market to change, or switch to small presses and persevere with querying other agents? 

Not writing to trend generally means don't try to write something you think will be popular because today's trends were acquired several years back.

You have a different problem: you like to write what's currently very trendy. And yes, that seems like a good problem to have but it's not.

I'm seeing this with thrillers right now. The market is glutted with terrific writers. Finding what we call "space on the shelf" is increasingly difficult. (It doesn't help that authors who are dead continue to churn out books.)

Your challenge now is to twist the conventions of your category. I have no idea how to do this since I don't read enough dystopian/SF to know the tropes.  This is where your knowledge of the category is essential. If you've read the canon (ie the books that are considered classics of the category) and the books that are selling well, and the books that are winning prizes, you'll be able to see what's NOT there.  And that's what you write.

These are the books that everyone hears about and says "aw damn, why didn't I think of that!" and crawls off to the Tears of Writers Saloon and Synopsis Hall.

R&R? Reject and retreat!

What is the proper etiquette for a querier who receives editorial comments and R&R from a literary agent, but after careful consideration, decides not to proceed with the revision? Polite email explaining why? No response? Ignore R&R and query the next book when ready? None of the above?

While "You're a dunderhead for suggesting this" is probably not the best choice, it's also true, even the polite version of that - "Thanks but no thanks"- isn't going to get you anywhere.

You're under no obligation to follow an agent's advice.
Some of us them give terrible advice, it's true.

But no one, not even dunderheads, likes to hear our pearls of wisdom are being discarded as worthless trinkets.


Thus "thank you for your notes; I appreciate your time and insight" is all you need to say. That their insight made you realize they are idiots, can go unsaid. Or that you don't intend to implement their suggestions.

If, at some point in the future, the agent gets in touch to ask whatever happened to your retelling of Casino Royale with dogs,

that's when to say "I decided to go in a different direction." Unless they ask, you don't have to tell. 

But just one more little trinket of wisdom: before you write off editorial comments and revision suggestions, let some time pass.  Some of our advice is better after it sits awhile. Yanno, like novels.

Query strategy in the face of looming life changes

My latest manuscript is almost ready to query. Yay! Next to shopping for swimsuits, there's nothing I enjoy more. But...I've been accepted to law school and plan to start this fall. I have four kids still in elementary and middle school. I fret, as writers always do.

What if I am fortunate enough to find an agent who loves the manuscript as much as I do? What if he/she thinks it needs more revision than I  have time for? Will he/she wait until I do? It might be a year or more. Or should I even bother sending out queries right now when I've got this other endeavor looming on the horizon and threatening to take over my whole life?

What would you advise?

You know yourself better than I do (at least I hope you do!)
My plan would be to focus on law school right now.
You don't know how much time it's going to take to keep up with your classes and the assigned reading yet.

And your kids are going to need some attention unless they're the kind you can hang in the closet till Christmas vacation when you need them again to be cookie bakers and tasters. (My friends who are parents have horrifying tales of children who expect to eat at least three times a day! And want to talk to them! It's the stuff of nightmares.)

On the other hand maybe you're one of those people who can do three things well at the same time. Certainly there are examples of people who write novels while in some form of graduate school (medical school, law school, clown school)

As to the actual question: I put manuscripts/projects on hold for people regularly. I'm happy to wait, BUT generally it's about a year.  You're undertaking a three year law school adventure. Then you're going to study for the bar.

Even if you've got a manuscript that requires NO revision, you do need to be available through the editing and production process. Copy edits generally have a very firm two week turn around deadline.

And this doesn't begin to address the problem of promotion. Promoting a novel is a long term process but it requires regular (as in daily) effort.  Will you have the time to do that? You don't know yet.

And there's another thing you don't know about yet: your legal writing class. I have no idea if you can write a novel while also trying to master the art of writing a legal brief. And you don't either.

I suggest waiting to query until you have a better sense of what kind of time law school requires, and more important, how much of your brain space it needs.

The really good news is there are a lot of people who went to law school who ended up writing some pretty terrific books later.