Q - Querying: The Faraway Milestone

The Query. The one page that can make or break your career. The one page authors dread to write.

It seems to be that on the blogosphere, the query is the despised, necessary step toward traditional publishing. The querying process is described as an emotional rollercoaster during which you will need all the cheerleaders and supportive friends you can go.

Scary.

But honestly? I’m looking forward to it. I can’t wait to write my first query, to have it critiqued, revised, critiqued again and revised once more, before I send it to the wild, dangerous world of literary agents. My guts clench at the idea. My head says I must be crazy to want this. But my heart? It’s clamouring for this milestone.

A querying writer has a finished MS. She has gone through half a dozen drafts, through months (or years) of polishing. A querying writer stuck to her story through the whole process. Writing, editing, rewriting, replanning, letting it cool, editing again, polishing. Endless hours of hard work.

Only when they are done can the query be perfected. Sending a query means moving on. Taking the next step. Asking someone to seriously consider publishing you.

My first query might be years away. It’s a faraway milestone still, a distant dream I hope to achieve. It promises pain, fear, false hopes and many horrible things.

But my glass is always half-full, and beyond all these things, the query is a step to success.

So, I say, long live the query! May mine one day find the crammed inbox of dozens of agents, and perhaps touches one of their hearts.

The Three One-Paragraph Pitches

Last Friday I remembered how much I hated the little blurb on WHITE ECHOES' page. I'd put a warning promising a better one once the synopsis was complete, and I decided it was time to live up to it. Besides, these are like (super) early practices for query letters, aren't they?

I decided to put a spin on it, however, and do one pitch for each of my POV character. It's amazing how hard Henry's paragraph was, compared to the two other characters. And Henry is the MC... I wish he was the one I found easy.

This is what I have at the moment. It needs tweaking, but reflects the project better than what was there before. 

Henry Schmitt lives on little more than dried noodles and dreams of flying his father's hot air balloon once more. He is forced to abandon the salty comfort of his routine meal when rebel leader Seraphin Holt crashes into his life. Henry discovers his father, gone missing a decade ago, was friends with a member of Seraphin's squad.

Solving the mystery behind his father's disappearance unravels the scheme behind the plague that killed thousands of citizens. In order to honour the collective memory of those who died, Henry must follow in his father's footsteps, expose the conspiracy and bring the culprits to justice.

 This is an exercise I recommend. Stripping a story to its barest bones is a great way to keep sight of what truly matters, and what is subplots and complementary. Yes, I'm irritated that two major characters are missing from these two paragraphs, but they had to go (well, okay, I still want to find a way to work Vermen, the third POV, in the final "query pitch" but I'll see about it later).

I discovered something else interesting doing this: when I was doing Seraphin's and Vermen's, I had to reach further back into the timeline for the incidents that dragged them into the story. This is one more proof that while the two are important characters, this novel is Henry's story. He is the one driving it.