Comments on: What’s the story

By: Sara Hood

Sara Hood — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 01:41:15 +0000

In the past few months (it seems to be a new thing?)I have been constantly advised that as an unpubbed writer I should remember how important it is to include the emotional journey in the query/synopsis, but maybe some folk are taking this well meant advice too literally and are forgetting to also include the story … or given a word count are opting to use those precious words for the emotional journey (because it’s so important, they keep being told) and not the story …

By: V Lynn Burgess

V Lynn Burgess — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:05:40 +0000

In researching how to write a query letter, the instructions were to be brief (concise). Only a few sentences otherwise, any longer, and the query would promptly be discarded! *Smiling*. Thank you for clarifying with an actual example. Very helpful.

By: Kristin Laughtin

Kristin Laughtin — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 23:46:20 +0000

I wonder how much of this is due to our schooling. For my book reports, at least, we sometimes had to do a summary, but it was always more important to look at themes and so on. I’ve made myself relearn the art of summary since starting to research the publishing industry, but the practice of looking for tropes and themes still haunts me a bit (especially when I’m trying to think of comp titles).

@Tamara: That is a really good suggestion! That, or just ask, “what happens next?” and throwing out everything that isn’t a plot *event*.

By: Tamara

Tamara — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 22:38:23 +0000

By “writing the book as a fairytale,” I meant writing the pitch as a fairytale.

By: Alli Sinclair

Alli Sinclair — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 22:24:41 +0000

Thank you for this post! Distilling a book into one or two paras is a challenging task, but just like knowing how to spell and write cohesively, a pitch is part of our tool kit (even though I’d rather stick hot pokers in my eyes than write a pitch some days).

Tamara, that sounds like an interesting way of doing things. I think I’ll give it a try next pitch I need to write!

By: Tamara

Tamara — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 20:39:24 +0000

You know what really helped me in writing a pitch? First writing the book as a fairytale. I’m not even joking. It made me simplify and essentialize this thing that was hugely complex in my mind. “Once upon a time in a place far away there lived a good-hearted girl whose evil father tried to force her to marry her off to his equally snidely younger partner.” Etc.