How Do I Know What I Think Until I See What I Say?

And here it is: Firebrand's Blog Read about Agent Ted (and the other people who work there)! Learn about things that the agents like and dislike! Wonder if their going to be updating more frequently! ~~~ * By which I mean the agency that represents me, not some mythical agency I just started up.

Agent Nathan Bransford is a nice guy and an excellent blogger.* But on Tuesday, Nathan posted a blog entry about how people who assume the "identity" of a writer are, in his words, on "a dangerous road." With all due respect to Nathan,** I just have to say this: BITE ME. Now, I understand that Nathan probably spends a great deal of his time dealing with the whackdoodles of the writing world. You know the ones--those women who introduce themselves at dinner parties by whipping out purple business cards with quill pens embossed on them and "AUTHOR" in big letters under the name. The tortured artist dude at the Starbucks*** who just happens to mention to the cashier that the book is going really well (or really horribly) every time he gets up to get his cheap refill. The guy who gets indignant at the open writer's group when someone suggests that having his science fiction novel set on the imaginary planet of Labia maybe isn't the greatest idea. ...

Writing query letters suck, okay? They do. I admit it. I spent, like, forever on every query letter I've ever written, and at some point in that process I've inevitably thought to myself "this is bulls***! I write stories not paragraphs about stories." I don't know of a single writer who's all "you know what my favorite part of writing is? The query letter!!!"* But you have to do them. Or, I should say, if you want to submit your writing to an agent or editor you have to do them. You can hate them all you want, but until an agent can read your mindwaves about what your book's about, she's going to ask you to write a query letter, so stop tilting at windmills and get it done. Here are some of the blog posts I've seen lately that talk about query letters: 1. Here's one from Jessica over at BookEnds that gives the two reasons your query is being rejected. Basically it boils down to either your query sucks or your book sucks....

Check out this fantastic video from Lara Zeilin, whose book I am totally going to buy now, because I heart her. My favorite part? -- even if I'm liking what I wrote? I'll get an editing letter. even if I've already got some notes? I'll get an editing letter. Congratulations, Lara, on being so cool that I don't even care what your book is about.* :) ~~~ * In fairness to Lara, her book sounds good, too.

I was reading some of the Fangs, Fur & Fey posts this week on their topic of the month, which is finding the beginning of the story. How do you know you're starting in the right place? This isn't really a problem for me--I usually start my stories pretty close to where they need to start--but it got me thinking about all of these posts I've been doing. They're all called "Workin' On It", but... I'm not actually working on any of these things. I mean...I am sort of working on the things I talk about here in a way, but...okay. It's not like I think to myself "Jay, you use 'suddenly' too much, so the next time you sit down to write, you're not going to use 'suddenly' at all," like I'm moving toward some Platonic ideal of writing the perfect first draft. It's more like "you use 'suddenly' too much, so make sure at some point you do a search for the word 'suddenly' and take out a bunc...

1. The Rejecter is doing an interesting series of posts on how publishing contracts go bad. As an attorney, I can tell you that one of the things you should always be thinking about when you enter into a contract--ANY contract--is what you're going to do when things go wrong. I know it's tempting to ignore those thoughts, especially when you're a writer and some publisher has smiled on you and said "WE WANT YOU," but resist the temptation and think about it.* 2. I'm training for a marathon** at the moment, and this morning I had to walk 10 miles. TEN MILES. That's a long ways. It was made better by the fact that we started out from a place that had a restaurant so when we finished we had brunch. It made the last couple of miles a little easier knowing that there would be mimosas at the end. Mimosas: The Marathon Trainer's Friend. 3. I read a blog that I'm not going to recommend here because a lot of the time I think to myself "why ...

Lynn Viehl had an interesting post a few days ago about failing at things. In addition to writing about a hundred books a year, Lynn also quilts, and apparently a fiber art quilt* she tried recently was...not good. In her words, this how bad it got: I now believe contemplating using glitter glue between the beadwork in another effort to disguise said hairiness is the art quilter's equivalent of hitting rock-bottom. I'm sorry, but that sounds just...horrible.** Hairiness and beads AND glitter glue? And Lynn is actually a pretty accomplished quilter and photos of the quilt in progress are quite promising. By the end, though? We have a quilt disaster. But the point is that she tried. She had an idea in her head about a project she wanted to do and she did it. It turned out badly. But she still did it. I think that's one of the most important things to learn about any sort of creative work: quilting, writing, visual arts. You should do the stuff you want to do, even if you do...