We Interrupt To Bring You This Comic-Strip Rant (plus bonus Writer Angst!)

[rj_anderson]

I've just read today's FBOFW and it made me want to scream. How disgustingly obvious is it that Warren McPlotContrivancePants is going to fly Liz up to Mtigwaki in his helicopter a day early so that she can stumble upon Suds and Chipper in all their faithless glory, and flee tearfully back to southern Ontario to throw herself into Granthony's wimpy

Comments

[tybalt_quin]

:takes all sharp objects away from RJA:

You can write. You're one of the very small number of fanficcers who I think writes well, writes originally and has the creativity to be successful in producing their own work. Your biggest problem is that you care too much about what you write and it makes you look at everything too critically and doubt your own abilities. Ease up on yourself and stop second guessing.

What are you planning on using the hook for? What are you looking for it to do? What do you want someone who hasn't read your book to get out of it?

[rj_anderson]

The hook is meant for the eyes of an agent (thus the info on word count, POV/narrator, and my inspiration for the book -- this is information that agents and sometimes editors like to know when reviewing a query letter). It's meant to grab their attention and make them sufficiently interested in the plot of the book that they will then request sample chapters or possibly the full manuscript.

A good hook has to be 250 words or less, and include only the most vital and interesting information about the main character(s), the story goal, antagonist/conflict, and the resolution of the story. It is not meant to be a summary or synopsis, just a teaser -- rather like jacket copy on a published novel. So that's what I'm trying to come up with.

[tybalt_quin]

Ah - okay. What a bloody convoluted process.

[__kali__]

My brother-in-law did part of his art disseration on synaesthesia want me to find out what sources he used for research?

[rj_anderson]

That would be smashing! Thank you!

[izhilzha]

Kind of like I'm currently tearing my hair out over the fact that I cannot write a 250-word hook for Knife that doesn't confuse the heck out of people who haven't read it and give them a totally wrong impression about the story.

Bleh. Hooks, log lines, all these useful but extremely frustrating tools we have to use to get published/produced.... I hate them. Yes. And while I don't think I'm a bad writer (and you are better than I am), I know full well that I stink at writing the little summaries that are supposed to grab a prospective agent/reader. And most of the people in my writer's group feel the same way--we spend a lot of time figure out how to help each other come up with succinct pitches and hooks.

You'll get it.

[rj_anderson]

Yeah, that's the thing -- promotional copywriting is a totally different skill from writing fiction. Thanks for the encouragement.

[dolorous_ett]

I can't not write, but...

Not that I don't sympathise or anything, but you do realise that one sentence puts you in a tiny and much-revered (not to say envied) minority, don't you?

I might add that in the end yours seems to be the kind of mind that gets you places in the creative world - not just the desire to create, but the compulsion to get it perfect. Unfortunately, this feeling can leave people being tremendously harsh on themselves - I've seen it and experienced it.

I'm not helping, am I? Sorry - I'll get me coat...

[rj_anderson]

LOL -- no, you are helping, actually. Thanks.

[hedda62]

Use long-grain rice, it's easier. :)

And I am with you on the obviousness of the FBOFW contrivance. I always kinda liked Warren, actually, so we can hope he steals Liz away in his helicopter to Tahiti and gets all possibility of Anthony out of her head. Kid needs to get out of town.

[rj_anderson]

I am so disappointed in Liz for following her "dream" of teaching Aboriginal kids in Mtigwaki only to turn around and leave the north the next year because she's homesick. And then her parents have the nerve to make it seem like it's Paul's fault they have a long-distance relationship and that he's to blame for not being there for her?

The worst thing about it is that if Liz doesn't marry Paul, then the message I'm getting is that it's okay to date someone from a different racial/cultural background, but when it comes to getting married you need to choose "your own kind". Which in this case appears to mean Grandpa Anthony with his creepy dollhouse in the basement. Feh.

And I actually liked Warren, too -- but really, he deserves better.

As for the engraving, I'm thinking maybe I'd get good results with basmati?

[dichroic]

I htink she should end up with Warren too - she'd get to live up North, but with handy helo transport home to help with the missing her family issue.