Cooking Ideas

Hi everyone,

Okay, so today I was supposed to write my missing scene, but I’ve decided to take a tiny break from it for a couple of reasons.

First, I know the vibe I want for the scene. Positive, inclusive, full of friendship. I want my MC to have a moment of joy, of acceptance, of being just ‘her’ and liked and understood. It’s not something she’s used to. Not a hard scene to write except…it might be boring!!

Where’s the conflict? Where’s the micro tension?

I don’t want the scene to present conflict for her, so I’m left with micro-tension and conflict between other characters. I have an idea for the conflict with the secondary character, but I need to let it percolate in my brain a bit before writing it.

I’ve no idea for the micro-tension but I suppose it should come from the other character’s conflict. It’s effect on her. Or something else.

So basically, I don’t want to write a happy, everything is right with the world scene except I want to write a happy everything is right with the world scene. Sooo…yeah, I need to let the idea cook in my brain for a day or two. See what ingredients I can add that will make it taste better. Make it a culinary delight. I’ll keep you posted on what I come up with.

Instead, I’m preparing to send out another set of query letters. I’ve sent out five so far. I was holding off sending off another set because I was worried there might be something wrong with my query letter or synopsis since they were my first. That maybe an agent might write: OMG, this query letter is appalling. Please see these resources below on how to write a query letter. Some agents are nice enough to do this. Phrased nicer, though :-)

However, I got my first query response back today and while it is a ‘no’, the letter said ‘we found great qualities within your query and synopsis,’ so I think it’s safe to fire off a few more. I didn’t commit some terrible query faux pas.

Yipeee.

I’m not worried about my sample pages, because agents say no far more than they say yes, and they have to really love your stuff to request more. I’ve also submitted my first pages to a number of courses and got very positive feedback from very qualified people.

From what I’ve read it’s a matter of patience, thick skin and perseverance before you get a yes. And if all my responses say positive stuff about my query and synopsis, but pass after reading the sample pages, then I’ll re-look at my opening.

But until then, I’ll persevere and keep working on The Search For Magic. Maybe that will be the one to get a yes.

To sum up, today I looked at agents manuscript wish lists, read sample pages of books they have represented in the past. I don’t want to query someone who would never want to represent my work. It’s a waste of my time and a waste of theirs.

This is slow research. I’ll continue it tomorrow and go back in time a bit and let you know how I tackled my query letter and query process in general.

Until then,

Happy writing,

Joanne.