My memory sucks. For the most part. Every now and then, it throws something good my way...although, if I didn't forget everything, then the good parts wouldn't be necessary. But hey, I'll take the good with the bad, because it is what it is.
For months upon months, I've been agonizing over the query letter for my first manuscript. A few days ago, I woke up with some fantastic thoughts on the matter and, in my still groggy-state, grabbed the pen and pad off the nightstand and started scribbling. Then I fired up my laptop (all without leaving my bed - my laptop is literally that close to me at all times...almost) and started typing away in a blank document. And then...I opened up the letter's most recent carnation.
Wow. All that agony for nothing. The summary was better than what I had had in my head when I woke up, and the letter itself sounded pretty good. Or, at least it did to me - an agent might think otherwise and tell me stuff it. ^_^
So now that that is all taken care of and I've finished yet another revision of Confessions (and have a copy out for a beta-test - crossing fingers!), I've turned my attention back to The Arrival. It is finally time for the last critique and my thoughts to coalesce in digital form, and I must say, the manuscript is better for it. I'm noticing places where words should be changed, seeing redundancies in the action, and removing just plain unnecessary-ness. The result is cleaner and smoother, and frankly, easier to read. I've been pleasantly surprised. Not only by the results, but by how easy it's been to pick these things out. I truly thought this would be the most difficult revision to date, but really, it's been going well. I've removed nearly 300 words from the starting word count and I'm still in Chapter One.
So, that's where I'll leave it. I'm digging the trenches and don't want to stop. I may not be on a time crunch, but I do want to start querying some day, and some day will never come if I don't get the work done! Cheers!
3 comments:
It's nice to see good progress instead of the agonizing grind that you are sometimes subjected to by the writing gods.
Am I weird for saying the query/synopsis-writing process is the hardest part of writing a book? I can write ten books with less agony than it takes to write those three or so pages!
stephanie I totally agree with you. I still haven't done a synopsis. I dread it more than anything else. And even now, I still question my query letter. I don't think a query letter is ever prefect until an agent accepts. ;-)
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