So, I totally blew my self-imposed deadline of March 23rd to have finished all edits and send out my first query letter. Death, taxes, 6 feet of snow, and the Olympics...all things totally unrelated, yet all things I've allowed to stray me away from my goal.
Therefore I'm imposing a more SANE deadline of "by summer", and this gives me time to polish and shine my query letter. A few weeks ago I polished and shined my "one sentence" pitch of my novel, and I am happy to say that I LOVE IT! No need to edit any further. Next step now, is to start with the paragraph synopsis of what happens in the novel, beginning to end, leaving nothing out...
How the hell?!?! The whole book, explained in detail, in one paragraph!?!?!?
Enter, the query letter...
Whether you snail mail or email an agent, you need to formulate one hell of a kick ass query letter to not only GET their attention, but also KEEP their attention.
I took a quick crack at swallowing my entire novel into one horribly written paragraph, just to see if I could manage to get all the major points in there (NOTE: there is much work to be done on this...the following is just for fun). But I did manage to capture the darkness of the novel, and then show that it all turns bright by the end. I think for me this will be my biggest challenge. I can't leave out the fact that my MC is a bit of a nut case in the beginning (of course 'nut case' by normal standards. I think she's fine, just needs a little TLC...we've bonded ;)
So, without further delay, here is one horribly written query for my amusement only (and yours too, I hope ;).
My novel opens with a past rape scene, moves forward to the present, where you see my MC living with the after effects of an abusive past, she goes to therapy, you are inside her head, see her odd living style, hear voices, all sorts of strangeness, until she breaks free from it all and finds a way to heal, finds her courage again, finds herself again...then she meets someone, falls in love, has a normal life, albeit there are still triggers from her past, some of which threaten to suck her back down into that deep black hole...but she's a new woman now, has tools to help her stay in her present and deal with her past, and she moves on and up and it's great at the end!
Phew!
That is one long run-on sentence ;)
Yet, somehow, I feel one tiny small step closer to my goal...Feel free to leave a link to your own horrible one paragraph synopsis!
;)
1 awesome comments!:
This was mine for my novel :) Sorry no parabreaks..couldn't get them to take :) What do you think? I was very proud of it and it worked so...
It is a common belief throughout humankind that the universe operates as a coincidental mechanism without reason and that all of mankind wanders aimlessly, helter-skelter with no particular path. Yet all the major world belief systems speak of a force, a divine plan, some mysterious energy source that makes sense somewhere in infinity. What if they are all right? What if all of our lives are predetermined in the heavens and we simply get to live in the details. What if the stars, the moon, the sun all shine in perfect rhythm with our lives, counting our days, watching our nights, determining our every step while we count it as random and accidental. What if there are no coincidences?
Christianna Cormack and Joe Indigo meet and their connection is immediate and profound and well beyond their understanding. After they are ripped apart by his misguided choices they attempt to move forward without each other. When Christianna moves to Rare Moon Tickle, Newfoundland, she is informed that there are no secrets in a small town but she proves this adage wrong when destiny colludes with nature to ensure her inevitable reunion with Joe Indigo. Their love is now forbidden and one lie leads to another. As if suspended from cosmic puppet strings, Christianna cannot escape the web of secrets and though she tries to live a normal happy life, she discovers that fate has other ideas in The Secrets of Rare Moon Tickle.
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