250 words

It takes you weeks months years, but you finish your manuscript. You double and triple check all 70,000 - 80,000 words of it. You send it to critique partners and hold your breath while you read their comments. Okay, not so bad – just need to revise the whole thing! And you do one, maybe two revisions. You can recite the first chapter from memory. You dream about your characters at night. You’ve done everything you can do - it’s finally ready to go out in the world.

And then you start writing the Query Letter.

You’ve heard of this thing but how hard could it be. I mean, you’ve already written 70,000 words – what’s another 250?

It’s the 250 words that will sum up the essence of your carefully crafted baby. It will be informative but not boring. It will be fresh! And exciting! It will entice an agent to request the full immediately!

It will be the hardest 250 words you ever write.    

There are entire websites dedicated to helping you get it right. (Great posts here, here and here) You read every Query Shark post and make a pact with yourself that you won’t make those mistakes. Or wind up here. You scour agent’s websites looking for their pet peeves and hope to find a fun fact to throw in that shows you really did your research.

But there comes a time when you just have to go with your gut. The query letter that got the attention of my agent broke a few of the hard and fast rules. I wrote it from my protagonist’s point-of-view. My query gave the protagonist’s backstory leading up to where the manuscript starts but doesn’t mention what happens next. Two big no-no’s.

But it worked. My query did its job. Sarah requested a partial, then a week later asked for the full. The offer for representation came a day later. Within a few days, I had four offers! (If you really want to know what that feels like, check out this)

My best advice - query widely. An awesome query is not awesome to every agent. Make a list of agents you love. Do your research. Send out a personalized, well-crafted email per the guidelines of each individual agent. 

And then get ready for the fun part...The Wait! (and you thought writing the query was hard!)   

Boy vs Girl

Anytime a new idea pops in my head, I always think, “Should this story be from a girl’s point of view or a boy’s?” Obviously, a girl’s perspective comes naturally. I was once a teenage girl myself. On the flip side, I’m surrounded by hubby and three sons so everything around me screams BOY! My oldest son is eleven and you would think after all these years I would have some insight as to what goes through a boy’s mind.

And then this happens:

They’re covered in mud, if you're wondering what's all over them. That is oldest son, middle son and a cousin. It’s incredible how often my boys show up at the back door looking just like this. And no amount of time spent with them makes me understand why this happens. Or why they love doing it so much.

So I end up sticking with what I know. Which is writing about girls who don’t always understand why boys do what they do.

The Unexpected

When we go on vacation, I always have a plan for family pictures. I spend a ridiculous amount of time picking out our clothes, making sure we’re not too matchy-matchy and generally making everyone in my family crazy. We leave for the beach and among the sunscreen and sand buckets is a bag of perfectly thought out clothing and all my camera gear. I get everyone dressed and plead for them to cooperate with promises of candy and ice cream. Anything to make sure everyone gets to the beach without a mysterious stain appearing on their shirt. Chaos ensues even though my bribes now include new video games and trips to Disney World. I get a few shots, telling myself they’ll look better when I get them on the computer, and we head back to the condo. Exhausted. But when I get home and look at all the images on the SD card, I’m surprised. I have an incredible image of my boys. It’s perfect! (to me at least which is all that really matters) Here it is:

But wait, you say. “Where are the cute outfits?”

Exactly. This shot was taken as we were walking to the beach. To play. The boys were ahead of me and I asked them to turn around. They stopped. I clicked. No primping, no fussing about the shirt being itchy, the shorts looking dorky. And it’s my favorite picture.

And this is how it usually works out with my writing. I can clean my desk so everything is neat and in its place. I can make elaborate outlines and think for hours on the perfect name for my main character. But it’s when I just sit and write when things really start to work. When I’m writing just for me.  

Whole New World

When you get to be (cough, cough) years old, you’re bound to experience a few changes in your life. I got married. I gave birth to not one, not two but three baby boys. (Thankfully not at the same time!) I took a terrifying step early in my married life, leaving a safe nine to five job to open a small photography studio specializing in brides and babies.

And now, I’m a writer.

Well, I’ve always been a writer, just never said it out loud. Goofy little short stories and poems in high school and several novels started in college that for one reason or another never made it past chapter two. I’ve spent a ridiculous number of hours hunched over my keyboard, late at night and in the spare moments that my boys were otherwise occupied, but it was something I kept to myself.

I was the silent stalker on every writer’s blog looking for advice and then every agent’s website and twitter page searching for some sign that they wanted what I’d written. 

I’m one of the few people left in the world that’s not on Facebook. Or Twitter. Or any other social media. 

But this week something changed. I got an agent. And a pretty fantastic one at that. I signed with Sarah Davies with Greenhouse Literary and I could not be more excited.

And so now *deep breath*, I’m ready to enter this wonderful, scary, exciting, new world.

Now, let the fun begin…