The Dreaded Query

Throughout my writing career I have met scores of writers and not a single one of them likes querying. I keep waiting to find that solitary individual who just loves curling up with a mug of hot cocoa and lovingly crafting that query letter, but so far I feel like I'm stalking Sasquatch.

Early in my career I studied a lot of queries and read a lot about them. In the end, I decided that each agent has what they say they like, and then what they actually choose. This was best illustrated by a book on querying I once read. It was written by a literary agent, in which the author went step-by-step through the makings of a great query letter and also listed things to avoid. At the end of the book were examples of queries that had caught the agent's eye over the years. None of them followed the structure the author had just outlined and most of them broke other rules.

The same thing happened at a conference, when a well-known agent based in L.A. (who amazingly, looks FAR younger in her publicity photo) went through her litany only to pass out a sample query letter that had no relationship to anything she'd just told us. I had the temerity to ask her what was up and she explained how, in this case, because of the story, what the querying author had done was appropriate. Er... right. This is why writers hate querying. We spend years crafting our manuscripts and then toss them into a randomizer.

The reason I bring this up is because I'm about to re-enter the query lottery. I am in the final stages of a dystopian, nominally YA manuscript that is, in my opinion, my best work to date. It is the fifth novel I have written and I have had two of those published by an independent press. While they've not sold thousands of copies, they do continue to sell and have generated a lot of positive reviews on Goodreads and Amazon.

While querying is always a high risk endeavor I am hoping that I have a few things going for me this time that I didn't have in the past. For one thing, as Clive stated in his last post, characters are important, and these are the best characters I've written. In modern fiction, as we all know, character is king whether that is right or not. In addition, despite the fact that I'm indie published I can cite that The Silla Project is a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Awards, Montaigne Medal. The Eric Hoffer Awards are 100% legit and represent an objective evaluation of my work. Should I actually win it will be that much better.

However, there is one factor that I am hoping will outweigh the others. All my previous novels were L-O-N-G. The Silla Project, while an adult novel, is over 140K words. Multiplayer is shorter than that but is YA and is over 100K. Sure, long debut novels do get published from time to time, and some authors say don't worry about length, but when I was querying those other novels, I always cringed when I wrote down the word count. For this novel I will be more than proud to write "85K words" even if it feels to me like a pamphlet.

So as I put the finishing touches on this manuscript I will be sharing my thoughts on queries and I'd love to hear yours. What structure do you think is best? Three paragraphs? Four? Does it make sense to tell the agent you're looking for representation or do I lead with a hook? How much do I say about my previously published works? What kind of synopsis do I include? Lots of questions to ask and to answer.

In the end, as I have learned previously, the structure of the query doesn't matter at all. But then again, as I also know to be true, it means everything.

Until next time,

John C. Brewer

John C. Brewer is the author of Multiplayer an MMOG YA SF novel, and The Silla Project, a North Korean nuclear romance that is a finalist for the 2013 Eric Hoffer Awards, Montaigne Medal. You can learn more about him and what he is doing at his website, JohnCBrewer.com

The Silla Project and the Montaigne Medal

As an independently published writer, I don't get a lot of accolades. Those of you who have taken the plunge understand what I'm talking about. You know your work is good but for whatever reason, it hasn't caught on with a large publisher yet.

Regardless of the reason you go with a small publisher, it means you're got a tough road ahead of you. As with a large publisher, the author is responsible for the bulk of the marketing. However, without a large publisher you don't have something that traditionally published authors do - cred. Short for, credibility. This is unfortunate since some of the best books I've read in years have been independently published.

At the same time, some of the worst books I've ever read are also independently published. Often, seemingly, without even running spell check. And that alone wouldn't have fixed the massive grammatical and continuity errors in the even the first few pages. Aside from the nonexistent plot and playing-card thin characters.

But being independently published, even if your work is good, the feedback comes slow. Getting reviews is hard. Getting reviews from established and respected reviewers is even harder. Getting the word out to buyers seems even more impossible at times. So each one of those positive reviews can be like gold to the indie-pubbed writer. But even those can get old when sales are lagging. You can get to doubting yourself and wondering if your work is any good.

With that in mind, and knowing that feeling only too well, I was delighted to get an email today from the Eric Hoffer Award for Books. They've been around for a dozen years now and have grown to be one of the largest and most respected indie book awards out there. Each year they get thousands of submissions and pick just a few for a variety of categories. The grand prize even has a $2,000 cash award. So hearing that my novel, The Silla Project is a finalist for the Montaigne Medal was quite a rush! 

In addition to the normal categories, the Eric Hoffer Award for Books gives out several medals for special categories. The Da Vinci Eye goes to the best cover art. The First Horizon Award goes to exceptional work by debut authors. And the Montaigne Award is given to a few books that best exemplify the ideals of the great, French Renaissance philosopher Michel de Montaigne, as works that illuminate, progress, or redirect thought. I can't be more proud and thrilled that The Silla Project is a finalist for this respected award. But then, I've known for some time that no one who reads The Silla Project comes away unchanged.

The Silla Project is not a normal book. It began as a dream. A way out of having to rely on engineering to pay my bills. I was going to write thrillers and be the next Tom Clancy! It was a twist of fate that led to my choosing to set the story in North Korea. It was the plight of the North Korean people that redirected my thoughts to telling their story.

After four years of intensive - some would say obsessive - study of North Korea and nuclear weapons, I had lost all interest in writing a mass market thriller. It became my mission to do what I could to bring the horror of that evil regime to light in a way people could relate to. To help the people trapped in that real-life Zombie apocalypse. So it is with tremendous hope that the honor of being a finalist for the Montaigne Medal might help The Silla Project achieve a wider audience and help others to come to understand North Korea for what it is. As my friend, fan, and inventor of high-temperature conductivity, Dr. Jim Ashburn said, "It may be the largest hostage crisis of all time."

Until next time,

John C. Brewer

John C. Brewer is the author of Multiplayer an MMOG YA SF novel, and The Silla Project, a North Korean nuclear romance. You can learn more about him and what he is doing at his website, JohnCBrewer.com

Tired Of Printing Out That Manuscript???

I'm a writer. That means I write. But there are a lot of other things that go into writing a novel. Sure, there are the long hours of typing it all in, but there is up-front work that comes before the writing, and back-end stuff that follows the writing. I tend to do most of this on my MacBook Pro making changes as I go.

One of the things I've found the most difficult, however, for reasons I don't fully understand, is reading my own novel cover-to-cover without fiddling with it. There are plenty of reasons that this is important. For one thing, doing all that editing tends to take your mind off the flow. Instead of reading it as a reader would, your mind is stopping and starting all the time, switching gears between editor, typist, and reader. It isn't how readers are going to ingest your stuff, at least you hope it isn't, and unless you read cover-to-cover you're never going to know if your product is really ready.

It is also important to get your work in a format close to what it will be in the product stage. When consumers read a book they turn pages, the size of the page is different than a manuscript page, and they aren't scrolling. All these things subtly change the way a story enters your head. There is even the fact that reading on a computer is a "lean forward" activity and reading a book is a "lean back"activity. After a lifetime of leaning forward to study, and leaning back for leisure activities, our body position cues our mind up for either work or play. For enjoying a novel, you want to press PLAY.

And then there is printing the darn thing out. It is expensive and time consuming. I must have printed out my first novel twenty times. I had stacks and stacks of paper and empty toner cartridges all over the place. And carrying around a loose-leaf manuscript is anything but convenient. Plus, when you're done it all has to be thrown away. But writers like to know their work isn't going to fall into the wrong hands. Do I shred it? Burn it? Wallpaper my house with it? It's just an inconvenient mess that does nothing positive for the environment.

I decided to try something new with my current work in progress. The title of this novel is Viridis and I feel it is my best work yet. It is a classic boy meets girl story except this one happens in a dystopian universe that is unlike any you've ever read. It twists and turns all the way to the end. I'm in the end game now but hated to print it out because of the expense and the waste. Maybe it is because the story is set in an ultra-radical eco-Utopia?

Having become adept at building eBooks, I decided to turn it into a quick .mobi file and use my Kindle for the job. That way I get actual static pages that 'turn', I get to lean back, and I am unable to do any real editing so I can just read. The Kindle does allow me to highlight words and make simple notes, so I can flag typos and inconsistencies, but that's much different than more traditional editing - which is impossible in this format.

I am happy to report that it worked beautifully. Very, very pleased with the results. Not only was I able to enjoy the story a lot more (and was happy that I did) I caught and captured those typos without cutting down any more trees. If anyone is interested I would be happy to follow up in a later blog post with my recipe for creating a quick and dirty .mobi or .epub. It takes less time than printing it out, produces no waste, and is highly portable. You don't even need a pen. Plus, it is totally secure and if you own a reader, costs nothing. While generating publication quality ePubs takes a bit more time and training, if you can write a novel, you can definitely do this and you'll be glad you did.

Until next time,

John C. Brewer

John C. Brewer is the author of Multiplayer an MMOG YA SF novel, and The Silla Project, a North Korean nuclear romance. You can learn more about him and what he is doing at his website, JohnCBrewer.com

Let's Make Some LSD! or Great Writing Is Where You Find It

And to think I actually read Mary Ann's "Time Management" post yesterday, only to find myself running short today! It was a great post, by the way. I'm intrigued by the idea of non-writing days and am going to look at my schedule and see what days make sense for me. I tend to either not write at all, or binge write. Both are bad habits that will have to be replaced by good ones if I'm going to go pro. Fortunately, for writers, getting a blog up should be as natural as raising taxes is for a bureaucrat. Just start waving your pen around and all of a sudden, you're there!

I tend to stay away from television. I've got probably, 300 channels. You probably to do. Or more. And let's face it, there's usually very little worth watching. The bandwidth is packed to the gills, but How It's Made is usually the best thing on. I watch some soccer on TV, but have no regular programs. And when I do, they've already been either cancelled or run their course and I buy the DVDs and watch them at my own pace. Firefly is a good example of that and proof that great writing doesn't have to be in a book. I didn't discover Firefly until five years after it had aired. Magnificent writing that my entire family enjoyed. Too bad there were only 14 episodes. It should have run for five years, like the show I discovered a few weeks ago. Of course, the final episode of that aired earlier this month so once again, I'll be buying the DVDs or watching on Apple TV.

The television show I'm talking about is Fringe that wrapped up it's five-year story arc two weeks ago. I had seen a part of the pilot at some point but wasn't in a situation where I could sit down and get sucked in. Maybe that was a mistake because they've been running them on the Science Channel in order. At any rate, I caught my first full episode about a month ago and was literally blown away by the writing. It was an episode from Season 2* that brilliantly used one of my favorite literary devices: having somebody make horrible decisions for all the right reasons and then having those decisions proceed to destroy everyone and everything around them. Except in this case, the entire universe is at stake. Other episodes I've seen since then have also been strong with well-developed characters, outstanding dialog, tight plots, and ample lines of tension running throughout.

As a writer myself I'm always looking for great writing wherever I find it. And since I tend to write thrillers that lean towards science fiction I felt it worthwhile to catch up on the series. So I sat down with my wife and a friend last night to begin our Fringe journey by watching the pilot. Were my history of never watching a TV series when it airs so solid, I'd say it's surprising that I didn't discover this sooner. Like all the other episodes I've seen it was very strong, well acted, well written, and well produced. And the acting is sublime, led by John Noble who most of us will recognize as Denethor from Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King. It was amusing seeing Denethor say with a big smile, "Let's make some LSD!" in a way that makes sense, isn't about getting high, and doesn't offend a conservative like me. That's the kind of writing I'm talking about! Surprising, creative, clever. The stuff we all try to get into our own writing. Too bad Fox did such a lousy job with advertising, then again, there's some history there too.

I'm looking forward to seeing all 100 episodes in order, though it is going to take me a while. Even though I like the show, I'm still not a big TV watcher. And, of course, I have my own writing to do, books to read, and life's other activities. I looked over the list of episodes on Wikipedia and am encouraged. The number of viewers goes down steadily as the show progresses, starting at a high of over 13 million in 2008 and ending in January of 2013 with less than three-and-a-half million. This is good news for me because it means the writing either stays strong, or improves. So why do falling numbers mean better writing? I think Hitler said it best: "To reach the broadest masses you must tell people the crudest and most stupid things." Fringe is neither stupid, nor crude, and demands that you pay attention. Good writing is where you find it, and it is always a joy to discover. Now if we could just get Joss Whedon and the crew of Serenity back together for four more seasons...

*Season 2, Episode 16: Peter

Until next time,

John C. Brewer

johncbrewer.com

Intentionally Misconstrued: The Art of Argument

Writing is tough. If nothing else, there’s the will that makes you keep doing it amid constant rejections from the literary industry and the occasionally bad review from a less than adoring fan. Books are bad enough, getting 100,000 or more words all perfect and making sense. Novels are even harder since the writer has to basically make everything up.  You have to literally be each person in the story with their different personalities, desires, and motivations.

A common mistake of new writers is creating characters that all sound the same. Each of them acts and thinks exactly like the writer. And why not? That’s the only person the writer can really say he understands. It takes a lot of practice, skill, and awareness to create individual characters with depth and it doesn’t happen by accident. But even when your characters begin to stand on their own two feet, you can find the interaction between characters coming across as flat. This is especially true when you are writing arguments.

Arguments are especially tricky. Above all, arguments must have a point. Then they can’t be too long. But they can’t be too short either. There has to be something to get the argument going. And then it should escalate as the characters become emotionally invested. At some point, depending on the needs of the story, the emotions and the disconnect should become so great that some kind of crisis develops. Perhaps a fist fight ensues. Or maybe one character walks out on the other, vowing never to speak again. People say things in arguments that they can’t take back. Things that can carry throughout the rest of the story. Good fodder for the emotional havoc you aim to visit upon your characters (and indirectly, upon your readers.)

Regardless of the reason you need an argument, and there are many, it is supremely important that it begin convincingly. Many is the argument I’ve read that just didn’t do it for me. I see this in screenplays all the time and it comes across as terribly forced.  Suddenly characters are at one another’s throats and you’re thinking, “What? That didn’t make any sense.” The argument isn’t convincing and whatever emotional stake it was to provide, is lost.

The reason this happens so often is because arguments are usually started by an irrational response. The problem is, it is hard to think irrationally when you are writing. Writing is highly linear based on cause and effect. But in the case of irrationality, the effect doesn’t relate to the cause in a typical sense. There is a relationship, but it is different than we would normally expect. Such an irrational and yet related response can be very tough to write. Fortunately, there is a very handy trick for getting that relationship just right; related, but in a way that you can use to start that argument off just right.

Our nation is deeply divided at the moment. As deeply divided as I’ve ever seen it. The recent presidential election rubbed salt into already festering wounds. Just as the dust was beginning to settle, an insane man went on a shooting spree in a elementary school kicking off yet another gun debate. Looking at the way people are responding to these incidents is highly illustrative in learning how to write the initiation of an argument. You just do what people do every time they discuss politics.

Let me give you an example. Barack Obama says that we need to get guns under control. Someone who opposes him interprets this statement as being aimed at turning all Americans into slaves. On the flip side, someone declares that abortion should be illegal. Someone from the pro-Choice side interprets this statement as meaning that women should not have control over their bodies. Both cases can, and do, start whopper arguments. But what really happened?

While he may disagree with the President, does the pro-gun advocate really think that Barack Obama wants to turn everyone into slaves? Does the pro-Choice advocate really think their foe wants to take away all of a woman’s rights to her own body? Or, in both cases, are the statements intentionally and willfully misconstrued? Think about your own response to these statements. How did they make you feel? How did you want to respond? We do this all the time in our daily life, and you should do it all the time as a writer.

Next time you need to estrange two characters with an argument, look closely at what kinds of ‘people’ they are. How can one of them intentionally misconstrue the statement of another?  Consider what they are passionate about and you will very quickly find them in conflict over something. Use that, just as our political leaders do, to have one character intentionally misconstrue a statement and drive a wedge between the two characters. Not only is this one of the most powerful ways to start an argument in fiction, it is also one of the biggest problems in our nation today. So, I will leave you with a question: Where do we tend to see this more than anywhere else?

ANSWER

Until next time,

John C. Brewer

johncbrewer.com

Thought Provoking Fiction, An Underserved Market

Today's guest really struck a chord with me as I read his blog post. This is someone I hope to hear more from soon! Be sure to check out his books, too!--Mary Ann

First off, I’d like to thank Ms. Loesch for giving me this guest spot on her blog today. With the number of literary blogs out there now exceeding the magnitude of the national debt, I am tickled to death to be on a good one. All Things Writing is one of the few that I keep coming back to. In time, maybe my own blog will rise to this level but in order for that to happen I’d have to replace myself with guest bloggers. Hmm… Now that’s a thought.

At any rate, my name is John C. Brewer, physicist, craftsman, and the author of several books published with the micropress PlotForge, Ltd. I grew up reading fantasy and hard science fiction, and then moved into techno-thrillers. I even went through a Louis L’Amour phase there for a while, but who hasn’t? My favorites were Tolkien (of course), Eddings, Brooks, Anthony, Asimov, Bradbury, Clancy, Coonts, Crichton, Follett and perhaps my all time favorite, which you’ve probably never heard of, James P. Hogan. That guy could write some hard science fiction. All these authors crafted stories that were well-researched and deep. Except for Clancy, they had strong character development and usually a subplot that made you think. Clancy was always just... Clancy.

But in college I stopped reading fiction for the most part. Between books on particle physics and astrodynamics (partly inspired by those great Hogan stories), I was hoping to make science fiction a reality rather than just words on paper. It took a dozen years as a rocket scientist to realize that my employers didn’t share my enthusiasm and were primarily interested in making money, not creating cool stuff. So somewhere along the way, I started writing and reading again and recovered most of my brain. Still searching for a few bits and pieces.

Hogan inspired my decision to become a physicist and he’s still inspiring my penchant for melding scientific advancement with social impact in my writing. But in those years when I was absent from the literary world, this kind writing seems to have fallen out of favor. I don’t see the thought provoking kind of fiction one used to find at my local bookstore. Where are the Asimovs, Hogans, and even the Clancy’s? Who is filling Crichton’s massive shoes? In large part, the literary world seems to have been taken over by sound bite inspired marketing - books that offer little in the way of intellectual challenge and appeal primarily to a crowd that Tweets loudly and often.

I understand why this is true. With a bulky, expensive century-old business model, the remaining large publishers simply can’t afford to take a loss. By catering to the sensational whims of the social media crowd they can quickly recover enough of their investment to keep the whole operation creaking forward, or at least sideways. However, this business model does not produce much thought provoking fiction - an underserved market that I am convinced still exists. 

Regardless, I’m not really capable of writing anything else. That is why I ultimately went with PlotForge, dedicated to publishing and marketing thought provoking, intelligent fiction. Plus, they had a cool name and logo.

It is also one of the reasons I like Mary Ann’s blog. She, and her guests, understand and respect this emerging business model. In today’s world, it is a common misconception that publication by one of the big six (or soon to be big five) validates a book. A lot of book bloggers and reviewers fall into that same trap. That’s unfortunate, given the quality of storytelling coming from the major publishers. While it isn’t universal and, in fact, The Darlings, Mary Ann’s latest reviewed book, sounds pretty cool, it is a trend that can’t go unrecognized by a serious reader. So if you are looking for the kind of fiction that makes you think, then small presses and even some self-published authors have the upper hand. And checking out these alternatives isn’t much of a risk these days. The prices for ebooks are lower than their big publisher counterparts, and if the book has mostly four and five star reviews on Amazon or Goodreads you’re safe giving it a look. Most of the time you can even read the first few chapters online so there’s no risk at all.

Fiction is meant to explore the world of ideas. That is its power and my passion. Publicly traded companies with antiquated business models are stifling those ideas in pursuit of quick profits. Fortunately, technology has come to the rescue giving authors a way to get quality, thought provoking fiction into the hands of readers. So, if you’re like me and have been looking for a great story with ideas that stick with you, check out some indie authors. You might like what you find.

- John C. Brewer

Bio:

John C. Brewer grew up in a navy family and has lived all over the United States. He has worked as a physicist, rocket scientist, cabinet maker, carpenter, soccer coach, submarine driver, auto mechanic, video game designer, gunsmith, and his favorite job, author. He is happiest when devising elegant solutions to problems, whether it is crafting his latest novel, building bookcases for a customer, or just learning something new. His hobbies and interests are no less varied ranging from writing, science, motorcycles, martial arts, spirituality, soccer, history, wood working, fitness, astronomy, explosives, shooting, and pretty much anything that goes bang!

John has always been fascinated with the natural world and our place in it. Like his boyhood heroes, the scientists and explorers of old, the basis of John’s insatiable curiosity is his belief in a knowable, divinely-inspired creation filled with order and chaos, good and evil, darkness and light. It is these timeless themes that drive his personal ethos and pursuit of excellence in all he does.

John currently lives in Huntsville, Alabama with his wife and sons, where he is at work on a new novel, a set of high-end book cases, and his BMW motorcycle.