Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Hi Nathan. Not sure you remember me with all the people you probably meet, but I queried you a few years ago. I took a break to work on college and just do some writing for fun and practice. Now I've recently started a new project, and think I'm going to look into self-publishing. It's not something...

Actually, I've decided I don't want to do this, because I don't really like them. I can find a better way to hook the reader. But I'll leave the question for discussion.

What's the opinion on paragraphs before the actual story begins. I'm thinking about doing it to increase the hook, but I'm not sure if it would be a turn off for agents. It wouldn't be a full blown prologue, just a simple "I am blah blah blah. This is blah blah. This is my story." (Minus t...

I thought about why I couldn't keep any bit of voice in my original query, and I realized I was trying to add too much. So, this new attempt is with a clean slate, completely from scratch, all that stuff. I'll leave out the greeting and what not, it's just the synopsis I want looked at. And one hund...

First of all, hi everyone, I'm back. I had a very stressful two months, but I'm jumping back into the query process with both feet. And hitting a solid brick wall. I know I have a good story. I've edited and rewrote. But my query letter just doesn't translate that. So, I'm wondering, does anyone hav...

Claudie wrote:Is the periphery of your vision black and white?

What's black and white and red all over?

Does anyone know what they are going to work on? For Nano I don't usually plot the ending, just the first half or so. If I try to stick to a plan the entire way through the ending seems forced. I've already done more world building pre writing than I've ever done before, and I'm extreamly excited. I...

1667 words a day, to be exact.

You add people to your buddies list, and then from your homepage you can see their word counts. You can send encouraging emails to people and stuff like that. But I agree that the write ins are most helpful, and most fun.

Not sure if this belongs here or all things writing.

The 2010 Nanowrimo site just went up. Anyone else a wrimo?
If you want to add me as a buddy, my username is fantasyfreak_18.

here is a first attempt at a query for a new story. A strange woman tells Gavin Preacher his missing sister is alive and needs his help before it's too late but before he can get more answers she commits suicide. I would break this up if I were you. It tool me a few reads to figure out what it was ...

I think this is a good start, but it could be a lot stronger. Right now it seems like its biggest weakness is vagueness. Why does she need to cope? Wouldn't being a sorceress be cool, especially if there wasn't anyone else to pose a threat? Why is she searching for her father? What happened to him? ...

Thanks for the feedback. Here's my new attempt at the query. I chose to keep HEROS rather than H.E.R.O.S. because I think it looks better, and thingss like FBI, NATO, and AIDS don't have periods. I tried to show the reason behind the title, how he doesn't fit with either the humans or the Fey, thoug...

Okay, I'm just going to jump in with it. This is my first real attempt at a query for any project and for this one especially. Dear [insert agent’s name here], The day that Derek Steventon wished on a shooting start sar to get into NASA, he had no idea that shooting star was wishing on him I agree ...

New query below.