Writing Update: Pesky Characters

Listening: Storm, by the Yoshida Brothers

Do you ever have a character you absolutely love, and you've enjoyed showing small glimpses of in scenes, but the second you need to sit down to write their first big chapter your mind goes blank and the character refuses to talk?

Yeah...

While I send out queries for my first novel, The Eternal Queen, I've started working on my next book, Mist Walkers: Book One - Knight. I'm very excited about my new novel, and I feel I've written a strong opening. So far, I've written three chapters. Technically four. The story is going to be told through three point-of-views: the antagonist, Erin (the main protagonist), and Matthew (the second protagonist). I had a lot of fun with the first chapter told from the antagonist's point-of-view, and after some rewrites and stern conversations, Erin has proven to be more fun than I planned - I was worried she was going to turn into a dark, little, rain cloud. But Matthew, dear Matthew...

Matthew has had some great scenes. But he's been very peripheral. He's only now becoming a part of the story. But he refuses to cooperate. I suppose it fits his character, but still, -_-. I've got a deadline to meet.

That's my writing update. I've heard back from two agents, both rejections, and I know I'll get many more. I'm taking my time researching who to send too, and getting up-to-date with the publishing world. I admit, I haven't read nearly as many books the past few years as I should. That's another perk of reading these new publisher/agents/writer blogs I've found - being introduced to great new fiction to read!

I recently read Malinda Lo's Ash, an amazing retelling of Cinderella. It was gentle, and somber, and poignant, and many many other things. I don't want to give away too much, but I'm hoping I'll write up a slightly more detailed review this weekend.

My last update for this post is that I've joined TheNextBigWriter.com with a reviewer profile (for now). So far, I've reviewed one chapter for an urban, paranormal story. I figured if I use the site consistently, I might upgrade my account and start posting my short stories. It would be nice to get some feedback. Does anyone else post there?

PS - Good job, Castle. The end of Ryan's episode was much better than the beginning. But that doesn't mean you can take it easy. I expect a really funny episode next week!

Query Update

My first rejection letter. It was very polite, and probably a standard format, but even if it is a standard format I'm going to take the words to heart.

A lot of agent/author blogs I read talk about how it's a matter of catching that agent who will be do more than like your work - you want someone just as enthusiastic in your writing as you are. You want an agent who cries at all the moments you cried, and laughed at all the moments you laughed.

So agents who reject my letter without expanding on reasons why the letter itself wasn't that great, I'm going to hope it means they liked my work, but just weren't as enthusiastic as they could have been. And that's ok. It's part of the business. I'm not going to panic because of rejection letters. But I am going to take any advice that's even hinted at in those letters and follow it.

But at least for these first couple of batches of agents, I'm sticking with my current query. Not to say I won't be editing it to see if I can make one that's stronger, because editing and tweaking and making sure the words I've chosen reflect my novel the best, well, that's part of the business too.