Labotomy of a Writer

For this round of Fantastic Friday Writers, we're talking about query letters. It was my original intention to share my recent query letter, but since I did that for the A to Z challenge in April, I'll just talk about how to write one.

Now, I'm no expert at this by any means. I'll be honest and say I totally suck at it. But, I do know how it's SUPPOSED to go.

Query letters give the agent/publisher/editor a look at your book in a very short amount of time. It needs to draw them in and make them interested enough to read your whole book. Obviously right?

Well just how do you do that? You just wrote a 75,000 word story (or more!) and now you have to talk about all the wonderful things in just a few paragraphs!?

Where to start? Well what I do is write the synopsis first. After all the synopsis is longer than a query but shorter than your novel. But, how to write a synopsis is for another post. Also, I write the synopsis and query soon after I'm done with 'final' edits. Why? Because the story is still fresh in my head.

Some say that you should describe your story in only three paragraphs, others say five is okay. The one thing all my research agrees on is the entire query letter shouldn't be longer than one page - including your signature at the bottom.

To get your huge novel down to three to five paragraphs, start with writing down the major plot poitns in your story. The MAJOR ones mind you. This is the hard part for me. Figureing out the plot points that are the most important. Also, during the preplanning phase here, list a few side plot points or character plot points (used to fill in the gaps).

Also, try to stick to mentioning only one or two characters, three at the most. (Three would cover the hero, heroine/sidekick and the villian.)

So here is what the process looked like when I wrote the query letter for Cleanse Fire

Major Plot Points:

1. The teams Commander tried to kill them
2. The team discovers the Commander is only the beginning.
3. The wizard is trying to kill them all for revenge.

Character Plot Points:

1. Dearc's wife died in a terrible fire and it haunts him
2. The wizard's wife was murdered in front of him
3. Derac is falling in love with Kie.

Character's to Mention

1. Derac
2. Kie
3. The wizard
4. The commander (possible)

So you have your three or four major plot points, two or three character plot points, and two or three characters. Now comes the time to write the information out in complete sentences. You can read my finished query letter here if you like.

Of course, after you write it, I highly recommend getting someone else to read it over for you. It is a good idea to have suggestions come back from both people who have and haven't read the full story yet as they both will have vaulable insite for you.

There are many other things to think about when writing a query letter, like word usage and such, but I think I'll save that for another post on another day! I hope this post at least helps you get started and headed in the right direction!

Hop to the other members of Fantastic Friday Writers and see what they say about Query Letters!

A few weeks ago, I followed a link from twitter to the most amazing article EVER! Jael McHenry talks about how The Princess Bride and Publishing match up! You really should read it because this article just continues to prove that The Princess Bride is one of the best movies ever!

You can log-in to the Intrepid Media site to leave a comment on the article or just leave one on here too if you like! (I always like comments anyway!)

"Publishing and The Princess Bride: What Aspiring Authors can Learn from Florin"

THIS IS MY 100TH POST! **throws confetti** Thus the 100th strike there in the title. But it does still go with the topic of this 100th post! *sigh* 100 posts and almost 100 followers! YAY! I feel so famous! Okay enough of that...

All this month I have been attending a workshop about writing a 2-page synopsis for a novel. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do! Take my 90K word novel and smush it into 2-pages - are you serious!?

Oh yea, and I fought tooth and nail about it too! Poor Frankie! (Frankie, if you're reading this, I want you to know that I do appreciate everything and I am satisfied with the result even if I hated the process!)

Then yesterday we had the wonderful Logline Blogfest by Bryan. What? I just squeezed my 90K manuscript into 2 pages and now you only want one line!? *screams* I tried my best and thanks to wonderful comments I am trying this again!

I am also including the 30-second pitch here that I learned about through Bryan. When he explained about Loglines and Hooklines for the Blogfest, he linked to an article about writing the One-Sentence Pitch. That one led me to another article for the 'Elevator Pitch' which is about 30-seconds long! So after reading - and re-reading- these articles, I figured I'd give it a shot. I'll need these someday anyway right?

You can read the 5 hooklines I came up for the blogfest here - and there is one more in the comments as well. But here are a few more that I thought up after reading everyone's great suggestions!

1. An ancient prophecy that promises to unite the kingdom once again, throws Rosyani into an epic adventure to save her parents, her husband, and her own life. (This one I put in the comments but I wanted to post it again - because frankly, it's the best one I had yesterday so...)

2. An ancient prophecy promises to unite the five faery kingdoms of Diesquia once again throwing Rosyani into an adventure around the world to save her parents, her husband, and her entire world.

3. Traveling across the world to save her family and her world based on the promises of a forgotten prophecy, Rosyani learns the true meaning of unconditional love.

4. Rosyani must gain control of her powers in order to save her parents, her husband, and herself as she journeys to the human lands to fulfill a prophecy that will unite the faery lands once again.

What do you think? I think they are much better then yesterdays at the very least. I do like #2 the best but I think #4 is good too.

So, on to the 30-second pitch. This one was REALLY hard to do but please be honest! I typed it up and read it outloud (with a stop watch) to make sure it was 30-seconds!

1. (This one is a shortened version of the back cover blurb I wrote for the novel. So I cheated a bit, but I did write a new one too.) Princess Rosyani Celter ached to belong. Little did she know, she'd find that in the Prince of an enemy kingdom. As soon as she finds happiness however, she is thrown into an epic journey to rescue her emotionally detached mother and distant in-laws.

With her new husband by her side, and four other companions, they trudge forward to fulfill a prophecy promising to unite the faery kingdom of Diesquia once again. The obstacles ahead seem insurmountable. Rosyani fears it will destroy them all. In truth, they hate each other based on old laws and myths and that alone is cause for absolute failture. (29 seconds)

2. The humans kidnapped the faery Kings and Queens from five small kingdoms that once fought under one banner. Princess Rosyani Kestar travels with her husband and four other companions to fulfill an ancient prophecy that promises to unite their kingdoms once again.

The obstacles ahead seem insurmountable. Hatred reigns surpreme because of old laws and myths. Their new allegiance is fragile and it seems they will destroy each other before the prophecy comes to pass. All hope is lost for the faery world if they cannot learn to trust each other. (28 seconds)

I think the second one is best as it focuses more on the plot than Rosyani's character. What do you guys think?