Friday, September 29, 2006

Miss Snark

A while ago, FC turned me on to Miss. Snark. "It's a must read site for any author hoping and praying to someday grab the attention of a literary agent. "

FC you are so right. And yesterday the heavens opened and the angels sang as Miss Snark posted "Synopsis versus plot outlines in queries". On my desk I have stacks of example query letters, okay there's only seven, and three pages, handwritten of my attempts at cutting to the chase of my 49,976 word novel. In her post Miss Snark states the obvious areas that must be addressed in a query. I have paraphrased here. Please see the original post.

Who is the main character? I have that one answered.

Does what happens in the first 50 pages set up the story for the rest of the book? I believe so, but will continue to rewrite to tighten the plot.

Who is the enemy? This question has stopped me. On the surface, the enemy seems to be Sarah's Dad. After all he moves his family across the country for a job. Imagine that -- the selfish soul that he is. But is he the enemy? Me thinks not.

What about Jeff? Yes, he's the classroom bully. But is he the enemy?

What about the ghost? Or the thought that the house is haunted?

As I have been painting the porch (almost done!) I have been pondering over many a brush stroke on this query letter.

I need to list out who are the enemies and why.

And then I can go on to the last query letter criteria:

The twist in the plot is:

Thank God, for Miss Snark.

1 comment:

Idiot Cook said...

She is a goddess!!! Check out the archives, too--she has a ton of useful info on almost every publishing question/topic imaginable. And if she hasn't answered a question, e-mail her, and she might post an answer on her blog.