The Second Book

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Goodness! Having the boys at home for their summer vacation is draining every ounce of energy from my mind. I meant to blog more often, but whenever I get a break, I just want to sleep or lie on the sofa and stare at the ceiling. Three year olds are loud, energetic, and attention suckers. I do hope you'll forgive me if my blogs seem a bit detached. Two more weeks to go...which means a month to go for Uni. Yup, that's right: I'm leaving a well paid job to go back to University in hope of pursuing my dream of becoming an author.

Since I've already had a two week break from the querying and writing, I've been re-thinking things a little. When the boys go to kindergarten again, I'll have two weeks until Uni starts (majoring in English this time, already have a bachelor's in marketing and administration). I could do what I was doing two weeks before the boys had their vacation: sit at the computer and read articles etc. and keep dreaming, or I could start writing the second book of the series. I think I'll go with the latter.

I'm both curious to see how the second book unravels, and I also think it's important to start writing it so that a) I can say that I'm already well on my way with the second book if I do get an agent interested, b) writing is fun and it's important to use the little time I have left to cram in as much writing as I can (I wrote the first manuscript in a month, so I should be able to get at least half of the book done in two weeks), and c) if I can't get a deal, I will feel more optimistic about e-publishing, because I've already started on the second book.

There's one other thing I haven't considered much, and that is to query publishers. There are many writers who query publishers first and then find an agent if they find an interested publisher. The other way would be more ideal, since the agent can negotiate the deal, but I think it would probably be easier to find an agent if you already have a contract ready to be signed from a publisher. Once I'm back at Uni, I'll probably spend some time compiling a list of publishers -- ones who consider unsolicited material. There's the problem, really, and the main reason writers try to get an agent first: not all publishers will consider manuscripts if the writers have no agent. This has put some unfair shift of work on the agents. Now it is they who have to sieve through the query letters, which seems more logical work for the publishers.

Anyway, as soon as the boys are back at kindergarten, I'll sit down and draft the second book. I already have readers related to me who are waiting for the continuum.

My Query Synopsis

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I have decided to finally reveal a little about what I‘m writing. I‘ve finished my query synopsis, and it is posted below, but I‘ve snipped out three sentences that would be too revealing. Agents/publishers need a more detailed synopsis that would be spoilers for readers.

--> Tell the agent what your book is about, revealing the end if you have to, and don‘t leave the synopsis with only a clue.

Wishes really do come true! At least for sixteen-year-old Eva Jones, who lives with her obnoxious foster parents in New Jersey and wishes for nothing more than to escape to a different place. What Eva does not wish for, however, is being chased by ghosts, having eerie dreams, and waking up with a nasty spider with wings on her face.

Stuck in the fantasy world of Mira Fir, Eva encounters a deviously handsome and evil young man of the deadly Myrkvera race. She is presented with two choices: help the Ljosvera, casters of light and life, obliterate the few remaining Myrkvera or help the Myrkvera defeat the Ljosvera empress and take over the world.

Snipped out are two final sentences and one and a half in paragraph two.

The names Myrkvera and Ljosvera are Icelandic (Being of Darkness and Being of Light). I started jolting down ideas for the book in January 2006 and up until the summer of 2009, I still didn‘t know what to call the two races. So I chose these names while my brain was hurting, but I like them now. They describe the races perfectly.

I had five words describing Richard, but then I ended up cutting him out of the synopsis entirely. Yes, he‘s a big deal to Eva, but I found that mentioning him was unnecessary.

--> Choose only one to two characters for your query synopsis. It can get a little confusing if you have more.

There‘s obviously more to the whole novel, but this is the essential plot of this book (first of three...at least, I‘m sure I could write more from this world). I had a lot of fun with the world in the very first version of the manuscript, but then I had to chop out a lot to make the book more to the point (supposedly that‘s what publishers want). It‘s not a big deal though, I can always write a series of short stories later.

So, knowing that there are three sentences removed from the synopsis, what do you think? Does it grab attention? Is it confusing? ...Is the punctuation correct?...

Task for the day: Send out some query letters and take ten deep breaths!

Stumped by the Story Question

Which Way?

Randy answered my question about placing the story question in the novel. My question was:

I followed the Writing Fiction for Dummies book to the letter after I wrote my novel, all except the part about a scene list. I thought it would take too much effort. I realized yesterday that I need to shift the scenes around, and I so regret not writing that list.

I’m going mad with trying to figure out how it all connects if I move two of my scenes earlier (so that the REAL story question of the book is in the first quarter, and not closer to the middle). There’s ton of things happening in the first 1/3 to keep the reader occupied, and I’ve been dropping clues left and right, all carefully concealed to the best of my ability.

The real story question is basically if the kids should choose between good or evil, but up until then the reader will have thought that the story question is how to get home, since that’s what the kids have been doing up until about 1/3 of the story.

How to get home is the ultimate goal, and the story question of the whole trilogy (this is book one).

How important is it to have the true story question of the book in the first quarter as opposed to nearer to 1/3 of the book?

Thanks in advance. I’ll appreciate help with this.

He gave me a very long, elaborate answer with examples of the five pillars of fiction; Storyworld, Characters, Plot, Theme, and Style.

Basically he said that if the story is plot-driven, as mine is, the story question should be clear very early in the manuscript. This had me sighing a little, but then I figured that I'm introducing a whole new world, and I felt that I couldn't go right into the story question (good or evil) until after I'd done some fair introduction. One of Randy's readers, Timothy R. Greene, commented and said that he likes to push the story question back for as long as he can. He thinks that it makes the story more of a mystery and keeps the reader interested.

I checked my manuscript and the story question is literally spelled out on page 112 of a 254 paged story. That's more than 1/3'd way through; it's closer to the middle. I honestly don't think that moving it forward will improve the story, since the ultimate goal is to get home and that's clearly obvious in the first 30 pages, but in order to get home they have to choose a path. They only get that information after having traveled the land, seen the evil race, and discovered and trained their different abilities. I tried moving the question closer to the beginning, but it just didn't work and didn't feel right, so I think I'm going to listen to my gut on this one.

I think that if I were to try again, I'd have to rewrite the whole thing from start. I'll have that as a backup plan if I only get rejections from both agents and publishers.

Task for the day: Read two chapters and fix in the document.

Staying Focused

I just finished reading the 50 pages, and found that the changes I made really work. The story is more to the point now and even has more action in it. I've only read through about 1/3 of my book, I'll read the rest over the weekend. At least I won't have to do any more serious changes to the manuscript.

--> Read carefully through your manuscript before querying. Then read carefully through it again.

After I finish correcting the little changes, I'll read through the manuscript yet again (for possibly the 15th time - as I said, perfectionism can be a curse). Then, hopefully it'll be ready. I had a freelance editor read over the old manuscript, but I don't think I'll have her read over it again, since I only changed one chapter, because it costs a lot of money (especially since the Icelandic Krona plummeted in 2007 and hasn't recovered much since).

--> Have someone read over the manuscript for mistakes (grammar or structure-vise).

--> Have the manuscript polished and ready before querying.

Last night I was feeling a bit pessimistic about ever getting this book published, because I keep working on it, over and over, and I never seem satisfied. The story, writing and everything is great, and much, much better than a lot of what I've read, but I see this difficult task ahead of getting an agent, and reading about all the trials and horrors of trying to get one. One starts to wonder why one would be the exception. I think that ALL new authors must be intimidated by the process, so I don’t think I’m alone here.

In my agony, I visited Publishers Marketplace and very easily found 10 possible agencies, in case my chosen one refuses. I'll look for more (already have some bookmarked that I haven't written on my list yet), because I expect to have to query a lot, just like everyone else.

--> Compile a list of agencies to query - a lot of agencies.

Reading comments on the agencies’ pages kind of lifted my spirits and encouraged me to just stay focused on my project, finish polishing the manuscript (and I won't - I repeat - won't read over it again after I've finished reading through all of it as a whole after my changes), finish writing the full proposal and polish my query letter to the chosen one.

--> Keep focused on one thing at a time and try not to be overwhelmed by what's ahead.

Then, since my book is the first in a series of three, with the possibility of more if the publisher would be interested, I'll have to make a synopsis for the other two books, which should be easy since I know exactly what's going to happen and have most of it noted.

I read somewhere last night, that publishers were going for single books now, instead of series, and I was disheartened by that. But then this morning I read on Randy's blog that publishers often want to sign new authors who have series, because the marketing cost will stretch over a series of books instead of all of it on a single book. That made me feel better. Whichever is true, I'll have to stick to my project, which could by no means fit into one book, and stay positive.

--> Make a synopsis for the next book(s) in the series. Include this in your full proposal.

The one thing I'm dreading a lot (if I allow myself to think of the things ahead) is comparing my book to other books. Most of the books I like to read are vampire books, and my book isn't vampire-based, although it's paranormal. I know that many writers probably say this, but I don't think there's another book quite like mine. The magical creatures are unique - I haven't heard of or read about any that are similar, and the world, I suppose, is a bit Lords of the Ring'ish - and yet not at all the same. I can hardly compare my book to the masterpiece of J.R.R. Tolkien - I've read warnings about comparing your book to anything hugely popular (I think it was Randy that advised against it in his book).

--> Find books in the same genre, make short synopsis for them and compare them to your books in a few words. Include this in your full proposal.

I thought I could use Eragon, Twilight maybe (although it's vampire based, and hugely popular), The Mortal Instruments series (definitely) and ehm... Any ideas anyone? I could hardly go for Harry Potter, since that was beyond huge. Still, I suppose I could compare it - it is another world, and although my series is for teens a bit older than the first Harry Potter book was written for, the later books were for older teens, I thought. I suppose these books are the most commonly chosen to compare ones YA fantasy with.

Task for the day: Type in the little changes into the three chapters I read this morning, pick up my twins form the kindergarten and go to my parents for the weekend!

Task for the weekend: Read the rest of the chapters and check for any mistakes and try to put the book out of my mind for just enough time to enjoy the celebrations.

Have a nice day!

Tessa Quin