Query Thoughts From a Serial Monogamist

I have been a serial monogamist for as long as I can remember. I got engaged to my first boyfriend at 3 years old. Our engagement lasted two years, until we started separate kindergarten classes and decided to part ways.

That’s when I got engaged to the boy I called “Mucho Macho Jason” who looked like a miniature prize fighter and who proposed to me with vows to guarantee my choice of any seat on the school bus and provide “a pile of candy”.

I have never, in my adult life or prior, dated more than one person at a time. I’ve always ended one relationship before moving on to the next. My brain just isn’t wired for dating several people casually until finding the right one to get serious with.

Which brings me to the query process… I’m not wired for proper querying. I’ve read that to effectively query, you should send out five to ten letters a week until you get a request for an exclusive read or an offer of representation. Granted, I’ve only just begun the query process, but already I feel disloyal as I send out 2 or 3 letters and then wait for replies.

I have to learn how to be a query player.

My revised beginning from a few weeks ago is up for review in the public queue on critiquecircle.com this week. Provided the revision is well-received (and early reviews are promising). I am committed to becoming a coquette when it comes to query letters.  No really.  I mean it.

Here’s hoping I uncover my inner Belle of the Ball.

Scene Together

I am so close to finishing I can taste it! I just finished editing Chapter 33, which was the major scene I needed to add. I’ve got to go back and review it later to see how it fits after a little distance, but I think it worked out well.

Seven chapters left on the second edit, and then one more quick time through for some minor things (I need to do some global document searches for words that I overuse. This includes my characters’ names, as I tend to identify them more than necessary).

I still need to add in a brief scene for the final chapter (and a detail I recently thought of to an existing scene). I also am considering an epilogue, or just extending the ending.

Either way, I am close to having a complete-enough manuscript to print my copy and mail out query letters. And that is amazing.

Also amazing is some feedback I’ve had recently from one of the people who is critiquing my novel. He has started to talk about the symbols and themes in my novel, which gives me loads of warm fuzzies. It is so exciting to have someone find the details you weave into your story.

Which reminds me yet again of how grateful I am to my awesome legion of test writers, whether they are Chitties or CC Critters. You guys rock!

Three is a Magic Number

Editing away. There are now three chapters yet to be edited.

I definitely have some reworking to do in these last chapters, though. Polishing for the ending.

Then it will be back through again for touch-ups and more descriptions. A very helpful writing buddy gave me a great suggestion for an extended scene, so I’ll need to do that.

But I’m close to being ready to see if anyone is interested in my book.

And that’s both amazing and terrifying.

Woo-frickin-hoo!

I Love It When We’re Cruisin’ Together

Editing is in full swing. I critique for my buddies and they critique for me.

I’m now through 25 chapters for my major edit. 15 left to go.

I’ve updated the status of my editing plan.

I’ve cut about 4500 words so far (well, I’ve cut a lot more than that, but I’ve added stuff in, too)

The more I do, the better I feel about this project.

I’m so grateful for all the help I’ve been given on this so far.

Special shout-out to my test reader peeps and the gang at critiquecircle.com.

God Bless Caribou!

I love Caribou Cafe.

Between the writing and the editing, I have probably done about 1/3 of the work on my novel there.

I should list them in my acknowledgments.

The editing is going gangbusters now. I’ve made some changes to chapter 7 that make me happy. I wasn’t really digging the whole journey thing; I think I’ve punched it up a good deal with some help from my Naperwrimo buddy Katherine.

I reworked the descriptions of the Edgewood house and it’s much more of the feeling I wanted there, so

I can’t wait to finish the major edit… I’m about 1/3 of the way through now, I think. Once that’s done, I think I’ll print out my test copy on Lulu.com. That way, I can read it as a novel and search out whatever extra tweaks I need to make.

I want to have my manuscript revised and ready to go by April for sure… on the off-chance that one of the agents/editors I meet at the writer’s conference wants to see it. So it is definitely buckle-down time for me.

Meanwhile, my second chapter comes up for public review on critiquecircle.com tomorrow, so that’s exciting.

Editing Away

I just finished the first plot edit. Wow, that was hard!

I am currently edited through chapter 8, and have completed the eavesdropping/confession edits I mentioned in my editing plan. The only other plot edit I have planned is the first big confrontation at the hospital. I’m still not sure how I will edit that. I guess I’ll find out in eleven chapters or so. 🙂

It is still too soon for me to know whether or not I am happy with the changes I’ve made; I will reread them in a couple of days and see what I think.

Things are still going well with my critiquecircle work, also. My second chapter will be up for public review on Wednesday. Meanwhile, I have submitted the first 6 chapters to a private queue for folks to read. I’m hoping I’ll have a few more critiquers join there once chapter 2 goes public.

All in all, things are perking along.

I hope all my awesome test readers know why I requested street addresses by now. If not, please tell me. 🙂

Keepin’ on Keepin’ on

So a few little things to report.

First of all, I’ve joined a critiquing website that was recommended by someone I did NaNoWriMo with a couple of months ago. And I have my first chapter up for review this week. I already have had 4 lovely reviews written– the most so far of anyone else in the “newbie queue”, so that is encouraging that my story is interesting enough for someone to start reading.

So, yay!

Also, I am working on a top-secret project for my test readers. So look for that to roll out sometime next week, I think. 😉

In other news, work has been crazy busy, so between that and the holidays, my husband’s birthday and whatnot, I have not had much time to edit yet. And it’s driving me batty. But I think that’s a good thing… I am really itching to work on it, and I feel like the changes I’ve made so far are really improving things.

For the record, I have revised the revision of the first 3 chapters, too.

I would really like to get through the major revision in the next month or so, and then maybe print my personal copy. I would like to hold it novel-sized in my hand and read through it again that way.

Overall, I am slowly plugging away.

If anyone reading this could comment on the alternate title options, I would appreciate it. 🙂