Don't know if I'm cut out for this...
Went to the DMV today to register the Willys so we'd actually have something to, you know, jeep in, at Moab this weekend. And that was fine. I took along my little notebook to scribble notes for my hook/query letter/what-have-you for when I start sending the not!kkbb/im novelthing out. Got the first paragraph done, and it's...okay, I guess. At this point it's thoughts on paper and me wibbling over not!Harry and the fact that the poor guy really does get the shit beat out of him both physically and emotionally in this thing. Over and over and over again.
The problem is that I've got a lot going on, with a lot of characters. I've got not!Harry, who is the main protag (not that he was supposed to be, but when a character grabs me by the scruff of the neck and says "MY story!" who am I to say no? It is their story; I'm just writing it down), but I've also got not!Harmony, his girlfriend. I've got not!Tony, who hired not!Harry's boss to look into the industrial espionage that's the catalyst for the whole thing, and the Bad Guy, who's terribly worried about his Sick Wife. Not to mention not!Pepper, who is also a pretty major player here.
So I've got at least six characters (alas for not!Perry getting short shrift in this one) I should mention in this thing. And I'm pretty sure that the query should be, like, a page. And I have the terrible feeling that I'm confusing a "hook" with a "query" and am thus Doing It Wrong. And then I look at the back of a paperback like "Bloodlist" by the lovely and effulgent p_n_elrod and say "Whoa, that's a cool hook, why can't I do that?" and come away with the idea that my story kind of sucks because it doesn't have that One Overarching Thing That Holds It All Together. How in the hell do Doorstop Fantasies do this?
I mean, it gets from Point A to Point Z pretty serviceably, and there are twists and turns along the way that I hope are unexpected, but I'm not sure the One-Sentence Summary really works, y'know? I mean, "You can hunt down your own murderer" is a REALLY COOL hook, right? I don't know if I have that. And if I do, I'm not sure I'm the one to noodle it out.
I'm going to have to think more on this. Apropos icon is apropos.
In other news, Lost continues to captivate (oh, god, I love Ben So Very Much, and what's with all these cool characters and people named "Ben"? Am I channelling something in the Great Subconscious?), and The Unusuals has caught my attention. I mean, come on, look at the cast. Two JossVerse alums and Michael from Lost? They had me as soon as I recognized Penn.
The problem is that I've got a lot going on, with a lot of characters. I've got not!Harry, who is the main protag (not that he was supposed to be, but when a character grabs me by the scruff of the neck and says "MY story!" who am I to say no? It is their story; I'm just writing it down), but I've also got not!Harmony, his girlfriend. I've got not!Tony, who hired not!Harry's boss to look into the industrial espionage that's the catalyst for the whole thing, and the Bad Guy, who's terribly worried about his Sick Wife. Not to mention not!Pepper, who is also a pretty major player here.
So I've got at least six characters (alas for not!Perry getting short shrift in this one) I should mention in this thing. And I'm pretty sure that the query should be, like, a page. And I have the terrible feeling that I'm confusing a "hook" with a "query" and am thus Doing It Wrong. And then I look at the back of a paperback like "Bloodlist" by the lovely and effulgent p_n_elrod and say "Whoa, that's a cool hook, why can't I do that?" and come away with the idea that my story kind of sucks because it doesn't have that One Overarching Thing That Holds It All Together. How in the hell do Doorstop Fantasies do this?
I mean, it gets from Point A to Point Z pretty serviceably, and there are twists and turns along the way that I hope are unexpected, but I'm not sure the One-Sentence Summary really works, y'know? I mean, "You can hunt down your own murderer" is a REALLY COOL hook, right? I don't know if I have that. And if I do, I'm not sure I'm the one to noodle it out.
I'm going to have to think more on this. Apropos icon is apropos.
In other news, Lost continues to captivate (oh, god, I love Ben So Very Much, and what's with all these cool characters and people named "Ben"? Am I channelling something in the Great Subconscious?), and The Unusuals has caught my attention. I mean, come on, look at the cast. Two JossVerse alums and Michael from Lost? They had me as soon as I recognized Penn.