I am back!

Well, I never physically left (although a few months traveling around the world sounds pretty good right about now) but my mind and heart had been absent from the creative world for a while.  I had set my novel-in-progress aside, almost afraid to touch it for some reason I still cannot identify, hardly any reading, and no writing at all.

 

But I turned on my computer last night, opened my writing folder, and there I was!  The dread lifted and I am going through the final edits - and have dropped three books on my coffee table. 

 

What was the source of my problem?  Fear of failure and rejection, lack of time, and "unripeness."  While I might fail at this art, will certainly receive rejections, and definitely do not have time for this pursuit, I know one day I would regret not trying.  And the time that passed has allowed the work to sink in and become ripe for the final review.

 

But now back to the more important and interesting things!

 

As I read my query letter again for the first time in months, it almost felt like I did not write it, allowing me to read and digest it without emotional involvement.  I was able to determine whether it worked or not and why.  In the process I thought about what should and should not be on a query letter.

Of course we all have exhaustive lists of what we should have on our query letters (and I will not bore you with more of that) but what we omit is equally important.

 

Here is what I have learned NOT to do on a query letter:

 

- Address it to "Sir or Madam" or provide other general salutation.  Pick an agent and know his or her name.

- Be reasonable and try to avoid any comparison to other authors, especially bestsellers like Dan Brown etc.

- Mention or explain things about you that in no way or tangentially relate to your writing and the novel you are submitting.

 

Do you have any to add?

 

Out With The Old, In With The New

The golden masks were aglow under the chandeliers,  the smiles were genuine and enchanting, and the feet were sashaying to Strauss' Blue Danube.  And the company was exceptional, as only family can be. It was New Year's Eve 2006.

It was a different life for us, the closing year of a decade of fancy New Year's Eve Balls in old capitals of Europe.  Before my child was born, before I switched jobs, before my father passed.

I was thumbing through photo albums yesterday, bringing back the years that passed so fast.  And they were good years.  I was lucky and I knew it.  They will stay with me forever.

But things change, some for the worse, inevitable.  Others change for the better, always welcome.

May this new year bring only the good (and so far so good).

Have a happy and healthy 2013!

Does writing affect your mood - or does your mood affect your writing?

Or maybe both? 

 

As I was reading through various blog entries over the last week it struck me, plain and simple, that we as writers become either gloriously miserable or inexplicably chipper as we write, re-write, or try to fit writing into our lives, already crammed to the brim.

 

I am, as many of you know, always suffering, not so much during writing but rather trying to find the energy and time to write, at times almost dreading it.  The anguish the process causes for me inevitably spreads through my mind as I put thoughts to paper, affecting what I say and how I say it.  A chapter a month is a miracle.

 

Then there are those writers who can write a novel in a month, full of energy and optimism, seemingly without effort.  Is it their positive attitude that turns the pages out or do the words create their sunshine?

 

Which one are you?  Is there a group I am missing? What is the biggest impediment to your happy writing?

Sitting on My Laurels

But at least I am ahead of Julius Caesar and know exactly where they are.

Which makes it worse - resting, perhaps content of having finished it but definitely petrified of having failed.

I have not looked at my novel in weeks, not since I received a rejection.  Naturally, I expected that I would get one (well, a lot more actually) but the automatic five-minutes-after-I-submitted rejection was annoying nonetheless.  What I did not expect was the effect it had on me - not upset or sad or indignant or whatnot, just hit with a surge of self-doubt.  Normally I regroup within minutes and move on, so by all accounts I should have sent a query to the next agent on my list within a few days.  But nothing, which is why I have also neglected this blog and writing in general.

Anyone else experience this sort of inability to move ahead?  Somehow uncertainty, filled with possibility, was so much kinder.

The relationship between work and talent

I was reading Nicole's latest post about conquering our writing weaknesses.  Inside her post she had a quote: "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard."

I love quotes and words of wisdom and this one stayed with me after I closed the browser.

When you are an accountant (a subject I majored in), working hard can compensate for initial lack of mathematical talent - all you have to do is practice and practice some more.  Or when you are a lawyer (like me), drafting and redrafting an agreement or a submission will make you better - it is not that hard to pick up the mechanical skills.  All you really need is patience, time, and hard work.

But when it comes to creative writing, can hard work really compensate for lack of talent?  Can someone with just a good measure of talent get better by working consistently?  Or is the resulting novel or story going to be only as strong as that person's underlying talent?

I understand how hard work can improve one's writing if that person does, in fact, have a way with words that is combined with an impressive imagination.  But what if all you have is good language and grammar skills but not enough imagination?  How can you improve that?

Imagine a story where the words sign, but the story goes nowhere because of lack of imagination.

Or am I looking at this from the wrong angle?

Ready to Query

My first novel, which I have titled In The Shadow of Honey Locusts, is finally finished.  It took five drafts and 19 months, many sleepless nights and countless lunch breaks, a good number of hopeful days and hundreds of others when all I wanted to do is quit.

But I did not and, for better or for worse (I hope the former!), it is now done.

I have also crafted a query letter and a synopsis, and made a list of agents.

Yes, I know, there is always that what if I go over it just one more time and change a few more words but I think I am now satisfied.  At last.

But now comes the silly question - is there a best day and time to send the query?

Do some of the unwritten rules of business apply to querying?  That is, don't really send an email / query on Monday, especially early morning, because everyone is too busy focusing on the must-get-this-done tasks, and certainly don't bother to send one on Friday because everyone is in weekend-mode and won't really pay attention.

Any thoughts or experience with this - or am I going too far?

Thank you!

On the Move

The shuffling of folding boxes.  The screeching of packing tape.  The towers of books and the mountains of dishes.  And the gentle wave of dust that inevitably settles on everything.

The pains of packing and unpacking are many and are topped by several sleepless nights as we move through the process.

Yet there are a few unexpected highlights.  The long-forgotten articles I saved from old magazines. The mementos from childhood, thought lost for years.  And the letters written by family and friends almost two decades ago.

Letters.  Yes, words written by hand on neatly folded crisp sheets hidden inside pretty envelopes decorated with kind words or pretty stickers, and, occasionally, an ink spot or two.  It must be years since I last received one and seeing the yellowing papers and faded ink I realized how much I miss them.  But I am just as guilty of resorting to the faster and cheaper email as the persons who I wish still wrote real letters to me. By hand.  With a pen and a paper.

Do you still write and get letters?  Do you feel it is a lost art?