Belletrinsic

Who: Writers struggling to perfect their query letter and synopsis

What: Query and Synopsis Workshop

When: Saturday, June 12, 2010

10 am–12:30 pm

Where: Fire Petal Books

386 North Main

Centerville, UT 84014

Why: To tame those beastly queries

How: Reserve your spot by clicking on the PayPal link at the bottom of this post and paying the $45 workshop fee. Then email michelle .witte @firepetalbooks .com with your contact information.

Questions? Contact Michelle:

michelle .witte @firepetalbooks .com

801.992.3776

Note: Bring multiple (at least 3) copies of your query and your 4–5 page synopsis. We will be discussing and critiquing the queries/synopses you bring.

No question that writing a book can be hard. Even worse is writing the query and synopsis. Without a great query, however will you get an agent or editor to take a further peek at your story?

To help writers with this seemingly daunting task, Fire Petal Books is hosting a Query and Synopsis Workshop, taught by owner Michelle Witte. Seating is limited, so reserve your spot early for the workshop.*

During the first 45 minutes, Michelle will teach the principles for writing a good query followed by a discussion on crafting a synopsis. The rest of the time will be spent workshopping queries and a few synopses.

Learn the art of the query and synopsis. Your book will thank you.

Michelle is the owner of Fire Petal Books, a children’s bookstore opening in Centerville, Utah. She has worked as an editor for the past 6 years, first with the Deseret Morning News and then 3 years with Gibbs Smith, a national nonfiction publisher located in Layton, Utah. In addition to helping writers craft better books and stories, she writes books for young adults. Working in multiple aspects of publishing—from editing, publicity, writing, and sales—has given her a better understanding of the process a book travels before a reader cracks the book open for the first time.

*Depending on demand, we may schedule another class either this week or next.

Saturday I attended a local writing event* hosted by a slew of authors from my area. Now, these aren’t just any writers—they’re well-known, popular writers who each have a different story on how they got published. But the thing with each of them is that it took many years and a lot of work before they got to that point.

The thing I noticed, both in their stories and in the questions asked by the aspiring authors attending, was that writers always want to get published NOW. We write what we think is a great book, do a few rounds of edits, and then send it off well before it’s ready. It’s a common theme.

Now, not everyone may follow this pattern, but I’ve noticed it time and again. I’ve even done it myself. That’s part of the publishing process, really. But don’t let yourself get hung up on it.

Most of the authors who spoke about getting published mentioned that it was their third, fourth, even eighth book that was the first published. Not the first one they wrote. There are always exceptions, but for the most part, it takes a good eight to ten years from the time you pick up a pen until your book hits the shelves. I’ve been at this five years already, and I’m still waiting to be accepted for publication.

The reason I bring this up is that the most talked about thing at that conference was getting an agent. The question that was brought up again and again: How do I get an agent? Who is your agent? Agent, agent, agent.

Honestly, if this is the first writing conference you’ve attended and you haven’t done research yourself on the intricacies of finding an agent, you’re not ready. You need to focus on your writing and revising a bit more. Then, after you’ve exhausted all of your own efforts, maybe it’s time to start googling to find out a bit more on agents and how to get one.

But until then, focus on the writing. Getting published will come in its own time.

*If you’re curious about the event, it was Writing for Charity, and the authors included Shannon Hale, Brandon Mull, James Dashner, Sara Zarr, Jessica Day George, and many others.

I have a lot of them. Honestly. But sometimes these ideas turn out to be good in the end. Like when I decided one day that I wanted to study abroad in England. It was one of the most wonderful experiences I’ve ever had.

So my latest hare-brained idea involves going back to school. I’ve sworn I wouldn’t do that, but then things changed in my mind. I’m actually the kind of person who enjoys the classroom atmosphere. Hate the homework and grades, but I love being in a place where intelligent debate happens. And I love learning new things more than anything.

It was a dream I had the other night, though, that kicked this into gear. Strange, I know, but maybe my subconscious was trying to tell me something. I dreamed I was moving away to go back to school for my masters. Not too complicated, but when I woke up, I instantly decided to look into going back to school for a graduate degree in writing.

I looked into it, and the best solution for me is the low-residency MFA programs that many universities offer. Spend ten days every six months in intensive writing classes, and then the rest of the time you write at home while still working at your day job. And the program I really like is in beautiful Oregon. What could be better?

Now, an MFA is probably not for everyone. I’ve heard some people tell of it ruining a writer’s creativity. But for me, I really think it could focus my writing efforts and take my storytelling to the next level. Besides, having a Masters opens up a lot of doors.

Maybe my hare-brained idea isn’t so hare-brained after all.

I sometimes have to tell myself that, and frequently. Why? Because I get easily distracted.

Ooh! Shiny object!

So what were we talking about? Oh, yeah. Focus, as in, I need to focus my energies and not go beating about trying to do everything at once.

My problem? I have so many interests and so many ideas buzzing around my head. By the time one gets planted in there, I have another even shinier idea that comes along, supplanting the first.

Lately, though, I’ve been learning a little about focusing my energies. That’s been an essential topic for me these past few weeks. I have three great projects I’m in the middle of right now, but I had to chose the one I find most pertinent to complete. I’ll finish this one, and then move onto another. Simple? Not always, but it works for me.

I’ve also learned the importance of setting goals to help in accomplishing that task so I don’t burn out too quickly before the task is completed. My latest goal? Completing Fractured by the time my next writer’s conference happens in late August. (And if you’re in the Utah area, you can find the deets here.)

So tell me, how do you focus your writing?

Author Tracy Hickman (best known for the Dragon Lance books) gave a speech tonight as part of the BYU writers conference I’ve been attending this week. His words struck me so powerfully that I want to share the message with you as well as my thoughts on what this means for me and my writing.

Creative Reading 201:
An exploration of the reader as the author’s partner in creation.

Story=meaning

No book lives until it is read. The reader partners in the experience in creating the written word. How that works is that the writer places symbols on a piece of paper, and the reader later comes along and interprets those symbols and make them come to life.

The meaningful experience in all literature takes place in the white space between the words. Minds connect the dots and fill in the blanks. It is what the reader interprets the words to mean, how they are personal, that creates a meaningful experience.

Literature is an art form where the final performance takes place while the original artist is not present. He cited an example from Stephen King’s book On Writing. The experience of reading is like time travel back to when the author sat down at his desk and wrote it. They are experiencing the same things in one moment, even though those moments may be separated by years from when the author first wrote the book.

*It does not matter if you are published. Anyone can be published by ordering a copy of their book off Lulu. What matters is that you are read. It matters that your words come to life. Your words are dead until they are picked up by someone else.

We all read the same words, but what we bring to the story from our own experience makes it unique. It is the reader not the writer who creates the meaningful experience of the written word.

The only constant in the world is change. We’re always moving forward, backward, or staying stagnant, but we are always moving in a direction. If we aren’t moving forward, we are regressing and losing some of the knowledge we had. What we experience while reading a book cannot but help us change.

*Creation is more than knowing. It’s doing something with what you know to change the world.

Tracy then shared a story about a soldier in Afghanistan who had read the Dragon Lance books and loved them. He took them with him as he was stationed so far from home. One day while on duty, he was shot in the back. The young soldier thought in that instant of what one character in the books would have done and he decided to act accordingly. Standing up even though his back was shattered, he warned his comrades and saved twelve lives that day.

I can’t imagine that I’ll ever have such a dramatic experience, but it still struck me that writing and books and stories can be so powerful when you touch a reader’s life with your words.

Now for what this means to me. Today I was having a little mini crisis with my writing. Even though I’ve had close to 75 glowing comments from people who’ve read the first few chapters and loved the voice, and even though I’ve had two people read the whole thing and tell me they absolutely loved it, I started to doubt myself. I won’t go into the reasons why, but let’s just say I was feeling really down about my ability to write a book that I can actually get published.

And then I sat down to listen to Tracy speak, and I realized how selfish I was being. I was thinking of myself as the writer and not thinking of the reader. All I have to do is my very best with this book, and then I hand it over to the reader who will take that and create. There is something so incredibly powerful about that.

Really, that’s why I started writing. I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives—even if for just one person. I wanted to touch them, however briefly. But in all the hustle and bustle of “getting published” I forgot that.

So I am incredibly grateful for the lesson I learned tonight: I’m not in this by myself. It’s a partnership I have with the readers. It doesn’t matter if only two people ever read my whole book as long as it affects them, even if only for the entertainment value.

I don’t know that I’ll ever affect anyone’s life so powerfully that they chose to save others’ lives at risk to their own, but I hope that someone somewhere is better because of reading something that I write.

Up late tonight for reasons I won’t go into (other than to say my mouth loves Indian food. Other parts of me . . . not so much). Anyway, while I’m sitting here wide awake, I was thinking about the first day of my writers conference. And the biggest feeling I have from it is that I’ve graduated.

Not in the traditional sense with a cap and gown, but more that I’ve moved on from the beginning stages of being a writer. A year ago, I’d never been to a conference and didn’t know much about finding an agent or even how to edit my book, really. However, this has been an intensive year for me in many ways. I’ve put myself through my own writing boot camp.

It started with a conference last August put on by author Shannon Hale, and it really opened my eyes to what it meant being a writer. Before that, I’d been working on my book for nearly four years and was only halfway done. After getting a taste of the writing life, though, I was addicted. I wanted to know more and do more.

Within a month I found out about Authonomy, a writing peer review site (among other things). I made some wonderful friends and received invaluable feedback on my first manuscript. That gave me the impetus to finish the dang book so I could go on to editing the thing.

Then came another writers conference in November, this time with SCBWI, and this time also involving agents and editors from New York. I got some one-on-one time with an agent and received more valuable feedback.

Soon after I finished several rounds of edits on my ms and began querying. I went through another boot camp of sorts learning about agents and the querying process. I should say I was rather successful for a first book that took four years to write considering I’m still waiting to hear back from four agents who’ve requested the manuscript.

And now, six months later, I’ve written another book, this one in three weeks. Through the laborious process of writing that initiall took me four years, I learned some incredible lessons about how to write. Or, more importantly, how I write.

So, that brings me back to the writers conference today. As I sat there listening to the presenters going over information I’d learned nine months ago, and people asking the editors questions I knew all the answers to, I realized I’ve graduated from the stage of beginning writer. Oh, there are still plenty of things I’ve yet to learn, but I really feel that I’ve gained enough experience that I can’t call myself a beginning writer. I’m moving well onto intermediate, even possibly toward advanced.

The moral of this story: writing and editing are about the doing. As Martha Mahalick, editor at Greenwillow, said today, editing is something you learn by experience. You gain knowledge by working with a mentor who shows you the ropes and guides you as you move along. Writing is exactly the same. First you have to write, and then you can get needed feedback on your writing. But you will never learn unless you start doing.

So writers, get out there. Learn by experience and from the experiences of others. Keep moving forward and someday you’ll get to the point where you feel like you’ve graduated from being one tinkering with writing to being a real writer. And that is a wonderful realization.