Search found 173 matches

by GeeGee55
September 17th, 2012, 12:58 am
Forum: Excerpts
Topic: Literary Fiction - Untitled
Replies: 5
Views: 5434

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,...
by GeeGee55
July 12th, 2012, 1:47 am
Forum: Queries
Topic: WILD SUNFLOWERS historical women's novel
Replies: 4
Views: 3848

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...
by GeeGee55
March 20th, 2012, 1:27 pm
Forum: Queries
Topic: Any Better? Query: Bleamy's Corner
Replies: 3
Views: 3070

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, ...
by GeeGee55
August 8th, 2011, 12:29 am
Forum: Writing
Topic: Tell and Action
Replies: 14
Views: 5110

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...
by GeeGee55
June 2nd, 2011, 12:21 am
Forum: Queries
Topic: Query - The Falling
Replies: 12
Views: 5191

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 ...
by GeeGee55
May 31st, 2011, 11:49 pm
Forum: Queries
Topic: Query - The Falling
Replies: 12
Views: 5191

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...
by GeeGee55
March 31st, 2011, 11:07 pm
Forum: Books
Topic: Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe
Replies: 13
Views: 6787

Re: Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe

Congratulations, Nathan.
by GeeGee55
March 31st, 2011, 11:05 pm
Forum: Books
Topic: Do e-books change the way you read?
Replies: 11
Views: 7667

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 ...
by GeeGee55
March 18th, 2011, 10:52 pm
Forum: Writing
Topic: Your first Pargraph!
Replies: 80
Views: 42700

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 ...
by GeeGee55
March 18th, 2011, 12:26 am
Forum: Writing
Topic: Your first Pargraph!
Replies: 80
Views: 42700

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...
by GeeGee55
March 14th, 2011, 10:50 pm
Forum: Writing
Topic: Your first Pargraph!
Replies: 80
Views: 42700

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 ...
by GeeGee55
March 14th, 2011, 10:18 pm
Forum: Queries
Topic: YA Contemporary Query
Replies: 11
Views: 4129

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...
by GeeGee55
February 25th, 2011, 10:06 pm
Forum: Writing
Topic: An Unexpected Feeling
Replies: 7
Views: 2815

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. ...
by GeeGee55
February 20th, 2011, 3:39 pm
Forum: Writing
Topic: I need a plot fix
Replies: 25
Views: 6600

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...
by GeeGee55
January 27th, 2011, 8:44 pm
Forum: Writing
Topic: Character Development Advice Needed
Replies: 19
Views: 6694

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...