Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Inglory: You are making it better imo. I am no expert, but I think you're very close with this version. Have you tried sending any queries out to see what sort of response you get? I think you could try that. REVISION # 2 Here's my third and final version. I'm not sure if I'm improving it, or just g...

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me. I've rewritten this query so many times, I can't wait until I get it just right! Tuccia awaits her trial knowing I dont' think she knows, would fearing be a better word? she will be executed for a crime she did not commit: losing her virginity. For ot...

This is what makes me good at what I do: my willingness to work as hard as necessary, my willingness to listen, my respect for my teachers, my fear of failing.

Mike: This is just my opinion, so feel free to disregard my comments if they're off base. I'm not familiar with your story, but only with the two examples you've posted here. From such a small sample it's difficult to know if the changes improve the story as a whole. There is a place for more distan...

“What have you dreamt about this time, little one?” she (her mother) asked. “My dreams are my fantasies, mother,” defiant and secretive the little girl said even though her soul yearned to share her strange, vivid dream with her, but not now, maybe later. Grace looked around the large room. The wood...

Hi, Linda307: First, good for you for keeping on. Doing a query is the hardest thing ever. Secondly, a couple of comments that I hope might be of help to you. Nathan has a post (sorry I don't recall the exact title) about specificity. In it he talks about being specific about the plot. I think it mi...

I don't know if I can really write it . A mentor once said to me that I was equating having to struggle with doubt about my talent. He assured me that 1)the struggling is the territory in which your best work is done and 2) I do have talent. Having the realization that something is wrong in the sto...

Yes, celebrate! Finishing your first draft the first time around is a major accomplishment. Congratulations.

This is an interesting discussion. I am not schooled at all in what a subplot is, but having thought about it after reading all the comments I think an example can be found in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men (which I think is his best work). At one point in the story some of the secondary character...

I guess it depends upon how you make your decisions. Do you analyze or go with your gut? A good test might be to do a trial run with the new voice, POV, etc. You won't get too far into it before you'll realize what you want to do. If you've only done a first draft, there's probably a lot of rewritin...

Your remarks on Grisham's narrative helped make it an especially interesting read for me, Polymath. POV slides from character to character, all carefully controlled. At one point we leave the room where the two men are talking and go to the POV of the character in another room (the Minister's wife)....

Interesting thread. I worked on-line with a great Amercian writer through a mentorship program who told me there is no template for good writing. Get it out of your head that you can just plug some information into an outline and it's going to work. At some point, I think everyone has to outline to ...

Mike: A word about disputes between farmers - they occur on many levels because someone feels that their survival is threatened by the presence of the other. Eg: Some farmers feel that environmentalists threaten their ability to make a living because they want to impose rules (it seems unfairly to t...

Thanks, Oldhousejunkie. There are not a lot of historical fiction writers on this site. You've chosen the correct verb in stumbled lol. He goes to the neighbours because everything he has tried to do has failed and he fears for his wife's life - it's definitely a hard thing for him to do as men in t...

Thanks to everyone. NOW I remember why I dislike writing queries. I cannot summarize to save my soul. Anyway, here goes another try: It's the spring of 1938. Gus Kelman lives with his wife, Rebecca, and their son on a remote farm in Saskatchewan, a Canadian province known for its extreme weather and...