How is your summer going, friends? I am having a great time researching a shiny new idea while simultaneously having a not-so-great time revising marketing materials for a finished book.
After a long chat with a CP who encouraged me to start my query from scratch, I realized something. I've been channeling my frustrations with query letter writing into how I conceive of my character. This is a very bad thing. One's query should always convey a sense of excitement about the project. Yet the more drafts I wrote, the more judgmental of my MC they sound.
I had a long talk with my girl this morning. I apologized to her for losing the love, for not listening with a truly sympathetic ear. Answers to common query questions--What does she want? What must she do to get it? What's in the way? What happens if she can't get it?--must come from within her and her story. She is what makes the story have heart, not my (stumbling) attempts to cleverly describe it.
Writing from a place of love isn't just for the book itself--it's for everything surrounding it, queries and synopses included. If you find yourself genuinely perplexed about the marketing end, it's time to get back to the basics and love your characters and their world.
Have you dealt with query/synopsis struggles? What helped?
After a long chat with a CP who encouraged me to start my query from scratch, I realized something. I've been channeling my frustrations with query letter writing into how I conceive of my character. This is a very bad thing. One's query should always convey a sense of excitement about the project. Yet the more drafts I wrote, the more judgmental of my MC they sound.
I had a long talk with my girl this morning. I apologized to her for losing the love, for not listening with a truly sympathetic ear. Answers to common query questions--What does she want? What must she do to get it? What's in the way? What happens if she can't get it?--must come from within her and her story. She is what makes the story have heart, not my (stumbling) attempts to cleverly describe it.
Writing from a place of love isn't just for the book itself--it's for everything surrounding it, queries and synopses included. If you find yourself genuinely perplexed about the marketing end, it's time to get back to the basics and love your characters and their world.
Have you dealt with query/synopsis struggles? What helped?
