A Different Perspective

My family loves Pete the Cat. Especially when he's wearing his cool, blue, magic sunglasses.

He's groovy, he's mellow, and best of all, he reminds us to LOOK AT THING IN A WHOLE NEW WAY.

It had been a while since I'd read this particular book to my daughter, (PETE THE CAT AND HIS MAGIC SUNGLASSES, by Kimberly and James Dean) but a few days ago, she pulled it out of the bookcase and handed it to me.

Boom. Couldn't have had better timing.

We read the book three times in a row because, three years old.

In short, the book is about what happens when Pete has a really bad day. His friend gives him a pair of cool magic sunglasses and - Presto! Suddenly Pete's bad day gets pretty fabulous. He sees the sun shining, hears the birds singing, and realizes life is still good. Are the sunglasses really magic? Or is it just that they help Pete look at the world differently?

As I read, I remembered my friend Cheri, who once told me that if I got stuck on a problem, all I had to do was brush my teeth while standing on the bathtub ledge.

Because, SEE THINGS IN A WHOLE NEW WAY.

Blue sunglasses, toothbrushing from on high, walk on the other side of the street, whatever it takes.

The reason this is so light-bulby to me this week is that I've been stuck. And sometimes, in spite of the obviousness of the solution, I forget to change perspective when this happens. Trying to move with agility and insight through plot points? Plodding character or scene arcs? Sometimes I feel like I'm boxing in a tub of molasses and the harder I punch, the stucker I get.

Often, all it takes is some time away from the work, or even just a good walk or run. I think really well when I am moving.

But when that's not enough, SEE THINGS IN A WHOLE NEW WAY. Maybe it's brushing my teeth on the bathtub ledge. Or with a cat on my head.

But it could also be taking a walk or a run when I am NOT plugged into my music and lost in my own head. Paying attention to the world around me to see who's doing what and why. Taking an hour at Starbucks without burying my head in a book or my phone. Watching faces and interactions. Listening - I mean, really listening - to the conversations around me.

Ok, yeah, invasive, but aren't all authors?

The point is, getting unstuck means getting out of your own head and out of your normal perspective.

How do you get out of ruts?

Query First, Please

It's true.
Writing your query first really is the best way to write a book.

For those who call themselves "pantsers", meaning "fly by the seat of your pants", the query may be the LAST thing you write -- because, well, pants.

Looks so lovely and carefree and spontaneous, no? And I love to be all those things, because, well, creativity.

BUT.

What if, in your splendid creative writing surges, you NEVER narrowed your vision of the actual plot because you were so excited by all the action scenes you were coming up with?
Or if you CAN'T ACTUALLY ARTICULATE your character's motivation?

My first book, which I love and am determined to publish one fine day, had those problems and more.

It wasn't exactly a pants book per say -- I'm a plotter. But, because first book and all, I didn't really know what I was doing. I was consumed by the story, by the relationships I was building, by the excitement of writing the thing.

But when query time came, I was lost. Drowning.

Partly because I didn't know how to write the dang thing, had never even heard of one when I began writing the book. But also partly because I didn't really understand the point of my book.

Now -- as a public speaking coach I have always told my students that they need to be able to summarize their speech in one or two lines -- if they can't, they really don't know what they're trying to accomplish and neither will their audience. Which means their presentations are doomed to aimless meandering in the desert. Yes, I've said that in my more dramatic moments.

I have sent students back to the drawing board a million times to distill and understand the essence of their words so they can be pithy and brilliant.

But alas, I listened not to my own advice. I couldn't give an "elevator speech" about my own book.

Lesson learned. Write the dang query first. Figure out what your character is trying to overcome, what the second plot point is, what the catalyst is, and why we care.

And lest we forget and begin to meander in query desert, it really only comes down to this:
Character, Conflict, Stakes.

Here are some terrific resources for helping you nail it:

QUERY HELP RESOURCES 

1)  www.michelle4laughs.blogspot.com
 Michelle Hauck (@michelle4laughs) has a semi-regular feature called Query Questions, which features different agents talking about what does and doesn't work in a query. Nice resource because you can also research agents while you iron out the query kinks!

2) chasingthecrazies.wordpress.com:
Amy Trueblood's blog features a weekly post called Quite the Query. Go read successful queries that landed agents - very helpful to see how others do it! (@atrueblood5)

3) literaticat.tumblr.com
Andrea Brown agent Jennifer Laughran (@literaticat) has an Ask Me Anything section on her Tumblr. She answers questions quickly and forthrightly.

Another Laughran resource is her blog, which frequently addresses query questions/issues:
www.literaticat.blogspot.com

4) Plus there's the master of them all, Query Shark, written by uber agent Janet Reid:
queryshark.blogspot.com
All you have to do is read the blog to figure out what you're doing wrong, but if you're brave, you can submit yours to see if she's willing to critique yours. She's tough, but that's what you need, right?

5) Finally -- an excellent workshopping option and the way I finally got really valuable feedback on that first disastrous query:
The Become an Agent contest.
@SC_Author features it semi-regularly -- next one is probably in January. Agents don't participate -- it's just a terrific chance for writers to pitch in and help each other figure out what does and doesn't work.

Check out his blog:
scwrite.blogspot.com


What do you think? Do you write your query first?

Writerly Tip #1: No Sledgehammers, Please

I am obsessed with clarity (perhaps a relic from the TV news days) - and thus sometimes I over share, over explain, overdo. 
Reveal, I must remind myself.
Too many facts all at once equals sledgehammer, not story telling.
I have to remember, and I think it bears consideration for others as well, that in real life we don't learn it all, all at once, right?
We reason step by step through problems - and don't always think of the right answers right away, or even come up with the right answers at all. We discover things about other people a little at a time.
Our lives happen one moment at a time, and while sometimes we reflect on past moments that brought  us here, most of us don't live in constant recap mode.
So, I say to myself and suggest to other writers, hold back a detail here and there - save it for later. Let characters and plots build block by block rather than laying it all out at once.

I love these writing rules from Elmore Leonard:

1.  Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
2.  Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
3.  Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

#writingtips, #cuewritingmuse