Writing is all about getting close to the reader. Don't tell us how you're feeling, show us.
Don't tell us your hungry. Show us how your stomach is rumbling and your hands are shaking and it's been twenty four hours since that last danish, and how your mouth is salivating at just the thought of it. Show, show, show damn it!
Now you're Novel is written. It's been rewritten, and just for good measure you've made ten more passes over the next three weeks just to make sure you've shown the reader exactly what you are doing and feeling. The manuscript has been honed, tweaked, whittled and proof read. It's perfect. It's so perfect in fact that you want everyone on the planet to swoon and cheer as your protagonist falls in love, looses said love and wins love back in the most miraculous way. To do that you need an agent. To get an agent you need a query letter.
UGH!
For the last few months you've invited your reader to sit next to you on the couch as you show them what your story is about. Now you need to send them to the bar for a drink because they won't want to see what you do next.
You need to write a concise, letter telling an agent what your book is about. Yep, that's right. Every telling impulse you've about drilled out of your writing is invited back in.
Worse, condensed.
No it needs to be an overview.
Wait that's not right.
A blurb! Tag line. Call it what you want.
It sucks!
85,000 words boiled down to 200 words or less. Including house keeping. (Title, word count, genre.)
Repeat after me. Character goal, conflict, and hook. The mighty trinity. Goal, conflict, hook. So get to work and write that query, then set it aside go to the bar and have a few with your readers. Tomorrow try and tweet it to your adoring fans. If that doesn't work take a knife to it and cut out the fat. Set it aside and try again tomorrow and the next day and the next. Chances are, writing a good query will take you as long as it takes to write the novel. Maybe longer.
Don't even get me started on the pitch.
