Search found 173 matches
- September 17th, 2012, 12:58 am
- Forum: Excerpts
- Topic: Literary Fiction - Untitled
- Replies: 5
- Views: 5497
Re: Literary Fiction - Untitled
I read this the other day and it interested me enough that I came back to leave comments. The dialogue is very good, but I think you might depend upon it a little too much because you know it's good. For me, this begins in the wrong place. It is your job as a literary writer to give me, the reader,...
- July 12th, 2012, 1:47 am
- Forum: Queries
- Topic: WILD SUNFLOWERS historical women's novel
- Replies: 4
- Views: 3880
Re: WILD SUNFLOWERS historical women's novel
Any help you could give me on the following query will be much appreciated. Dear xx: WILD SUNFLOWERS is a 75,000 word historical novel set on the South Dakota prairie in the 1940s. On a train platform, Mennonite charity worker Helen Janz meets the dashing red-jacketed (is the red jacket significant...
- March 20th, 2012, 1:27 pm
- Forum: Queries
- Topic: Any Better? Query: Bleamy's Corner
- Replies: 3
- Views: 3106
Re: Any Better? Query: Bleamy's Corner
I like the story, but the writing's a little rough. It could be that you're trying to fit too much information into too little space. And you must watch your grammar, some verb tenses are not correct. Might I suggest: During the drought of 1802, the crops fail on the Bleamy family farm in Kilmnark, ...
- August 8th, 2011, 12:29 am
- Forum: Writing
- Topic: Tell and Action
- Replies: 14
- Views: 5186
Re: Tell and Action
Interesting topic. When I was writing daily, which I have not been able to do for a while, I just felt when to tell and when to show. Frequently, the show came first, because I was identified with the character and putting their experience on paper. The tell would come later, in revision, when I rea...
- June 2nd, 2011, 12:21 am
- Forum: Queries
- Topic: Query - The Falling
- Replies: 12
- Views: 5283
Re: Query - The Falling
It is not stupid to not want to exactly follow a template; it might be stubborn, but that is your right. This is after all your query. You want to be creative/original and that is good. The template is merely a guide as to what needs to be included in the query. Nathan also had an excellent blog on ...
- May 31st, 2011, 11:49 pm
- Forum: Queries
- Topic: Query - The Falling
- Replies: 12
- Views: 5283
Re: Query - The Falling
Hi, rmorris: This is from Nathan's blog: Dear [Agent name], I chose to submit to you because of your wonderful taste in [genre], and because you [personalized tidbit about agent]. [protagonist name] is a [description of protagonist] living in [setting]. But when [complicating incident], [protagonist...
- March 31st, 2011, 11:07 pm
- Forum: Books
- Topic: Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe
- Replies: 13
- Views: 6824
Re: Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe
Congratulations, Nathan.
- March 31st, 2011, 11:05 pm
- Forum: Books
- Topic: Do e-books change the way you read?
- Replies: 11
- Views: 7792
Re: Do e-books change the way you read?
I love the feature on my Kindle that allows me to download a sample before I have to buy the book. The first four chapters give me a really good idea of whether or not I'd like to continue reading - especially a few books I found on writing. I found one that I knew wasn't for me after I got through ...
- March 18th, 2011, 10:52 pm
- Forum: Writing
- Topic: Your first Pargraph!
- Replies: 80
- Views: 43194
Re: Your first Pargraph!
CharleeVale: Perhaps it is just me who is confused. "Not many people can claim to be responsible for the death (s) of one-hundred and twenty six people on the day they were born. It is not clear to me from this sentence whether the phrase on the day they were born refers to the one-hundred and ...
- March 18th, 2011, 12:26 am
- Forum: Writing
- Topic: Your first Pargraph!
- Replies: 80
- Views: 43194
Re: Your first Pargraph!
"Not many people can claim to be responsible for death of one-hundred and twenty six people on the day they were born. I can. Nine who had been in surgery, sixty-two who had been on life support, eighteen who dropped dead when their pacemakers died, and thirty-seven from all the car crashes. I...
- March 14th, 2011, 10:50 pm
- Forum: Writing
- Topic: Your first Pargraph!
- Replies: 80
- Views: 43194
Re: Your first Pargraph!
So many good beginnings! Lovely writing in this: There is a rhythm to cutting peat. A slow cadence of sleán and fork, thrust and lift. April is the first month to welcome the cutting. A relief from the incessant winter winds that flatten the heather and bog grass of the Kerry hills. The land is wet ...
- March 14th, 2011, 10:18 pm
- Forum: Queries
- Topic: YA Contemporary Query
- Replies: 11
- Views: 4196
Re: Hooks for query
I think perhaps the hook is not the problem. I have not written a successful query myself, but I think this might be helpful. Try to distance yourself from the characters and figure out what are the key details in the story? Where does the story really begin? When she meets Kaden or when she discove...
- February 25th, 2011, 10:06 pm
- Forum: Writing
- Topic: An Unexpected Feeling
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2853
Re: An Unexpected Feeling
Interesting. I heard the great American short story writer, Richard Bausch, tell an interviewer that he had given up on three different projects, locked them away in a vault, and each time it was like an earthquake. He had spent three years on a novel, only to realize it didn't work. An earthquake. ...
- February 20th, 2011, 3:39 pm
- Forum: Writing
- Topic: I need a plot fix
- Replies: 25
- Views: 6630
Re: I need a plot fix
What he decides to do depends upon a lot of things. How does he know where the apartment is? What is the location of the apartment within the larger building? How busy is the street the apartment faces? What is the character of the superintendent of the building? lazy? friendly? suspicious? So, your...
- January 27th, 2011, 8:44 pm
- Forum: Writing
- Topic: Character Development Advice Needed
- Replies: 19
- Views: 6758
Re: Character Development Advice Needed
I think it might help to give him an internal conflict. If he's quiet, does he want to be boisterous? If he's awkward, does he long to be athletic? If he's cautious, would he rather be carefree? That might help make him more interesting to readers. Will he change or not? Use whatever might add to th...