Writing and Reading

Okay, guys, let’s see who can say the title five times fast–

 “The quickest twitter pitch -

the quickestttitterpich - the clickesthitterbitch”

Oh, my GOSH, I got an aneurism doing that.

Okay, seriously, the REAL reason for this post is due to an interesting challenge by literary agent Colleen Lindsay. She can be a funny nut. And that’s what I like about her. It involved the infectious and completely addictive Twitter, by the way–which explains my title.

The challenge was to write the BEST query in 140 characters or less. Yes, folks. That’s CHARACTERS. Not WORDS. Do you have any idea how hard it is to write a query with just 140 characters? That’s akin to pulling each strand of your hair out one by one. With a tweezer. A tweezer designed by Twitter. Try saying that five times fast, too.

What I learned by that, though, is it’s an excellent way to sharpen your query and test just how much in depth you are in your project. How well do you know your work? How well do you know your story? How well do you know your characters? Theoretically, you can convey a very succinct idea in that kind of space–if you know exactly what you’re dealing with in your book. And if you know what you’re dealing with and you can communicate it to an agent or editor, chances are you have a solid query in your hands. Chances are, especially, you can show up to a conference, pitch an agent or editor without wasting that person’s time, sound confident, grab that person’s attention–

And guess what? You might’ve got that person interested in you and your work!

So give it a shot. It’s not as spoofy as Colleen makes it out to be. There is a whole lot of value to slimming down a query like that. 140 characters…SHEEESH.

Here’s my query that I submitted on her blog. See what you think.

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THE CAIN LETTERS is a 74,000-word thriller

about vampire hunter Alexandra Glade,

forced to protect Cain, brother of Abel, to save humanity.

Another segment of posts here that you’ll see from me from time to time . I have many wonderful friends who I care about a great deal–and they care about me as well. In a very hard and crinkly nutshell, I’m pretty blessed.

So I thought I’d immortalize them here, quoting them. This quote, to start off this series of posts, happened just this morning as I was leaving for work. I want to immortalize this specifically because the person featured in this quote did something for me that no one has EVER done for me before going to work at 6:00 AM. I was pretty psyched. So enjoy.

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“God had nothing to do

with this french toast

unless God’s name is Jeanna.”

- Jeanna Wood, Grand Rapids, Michigan

AND WE’RE BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!

Yeehaw, cowgirls and cowboys! (Wait a sec…. AH AIN’T NO COWBOY).

But ah could act like one, ah guess. Mebbe.

Seriously, folks, another edition on the Taco Supreme station, another helpful hint the Wretched Writer wants to get across when it comes to writing and working on projects–

BE UPBEAT!

Not always, though. But for the most part, smile, laugh, joke, lighten your life up (this goes in line with all these other activities you writers do such as chatting, gaming, blogging, eating, drinking and downright partying on the Dance Dance Revolution mats until you drop). You know what I’m talkin’ about. I mean, for Christ’s sake, Double W (I’m just gonna call him that from now on) always writes those damn MIC posts with Ryan Higa or some other retarded crap. They make him laugh! Get it?

So listen up. This song–this video–will make you amused. I guaran-freakin’-tee it. Check it. Word.