Writing Isn't My Problem

I’ve been reading a lot of tweets and receiving a lot of emails lately that are all about writing advice. HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL or 10 STEPS TO CURING WRITER’S BLOCK, for example. It makes me want to laugh. Sometimes I do laugh. Most of the time, I don’t.

I don’t have trouble writing a novel. I’ve written four. Yes, the first one was in high school and (as I said in a previous post) is terrible. Yes, the second one could use an overhaul before I’d think about putting it out there. The third, I’m querying. The fourth, I’m saving for if the third fails.

I write in my head all the time. It’s the main thing I do when sitting in traffic for an hour and a half every weekday on my way to and from my flavor job. It’s what I do when I see something out of the ordinary or something very ordinary. I’m always writing. I have a file on my computer of ideas for more books, ones I might write after I finish the sequels to novel four.

What I have trouble with, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, is hooking a literary agent. Why don’t these emails tell me exactly how to do that? Because the thing is, I write long. I have a hard time expressing what I want in very few words, which is what makes a query so hard. How do I craftily cram the most important, best parts of my novel into 100 or so words? How do I get an agent’s attention?

My current query stats:

1 partial request

1 full request

13 rejections

about 50 total queries sent

(which all makes me wonder...is this good? am I doing well? or is this horrible?)

My newest version of my query is the best, but that still doesn’t guarantee me an agent. I’ve written reasons why I might be getting rejected, but who knows. Twitter has helped with my inability to express myself well in so few words. With only 140 characters per tweet, I’m learning word economy and precision. I’ll continue to use what Twitter teaches me for the queries, I’ll continue writing, and I’ll keep hoping for query success.