Monsters to Slay

Another rejection! Hurray! It's not even news anymore, but I give the agent credit for getting back to me. Pretty much if they haven't gotten back by now, I'm figuring the answer is no.

A lot of writers really fret the no response thing from agents. I don't. I have no need to hear back from absolutely everybody. Moving forward. After a month or so, I already know.

So a friend of mine turned me onto a game called "Braid" yesterday and it has some gorgeous art and sound. A bit like a Mario Bros. game with Impressionist art and beautiful violin. The only thing that bothers me about this video game is that it is obviously an about a girl. The intro talks about how the main character, Tim, is off to rescue the princess from the monster. But the princess actually left of her own accord because Tim made a lot of mistakes. It then goes on about the culture of causality and the miserliness of forgiveness and how wouldn't it be nice if we could learn from our mistakes and that we'd be rewarded for learning instead of punished for making them.

A girlfriend of mine was over when I was looking at this and we both had the same comment. This was written by a guy. And I don't know anything about Tim and the Princess's relationship, but how many mistakes did the guy make? Did he just keep making them and only 'learn' after it became clear he lost her? And did he really learn anything at all? Because by making it about the miserliness of forgiveness, he's essentially saying the relationship broke down, not because of his mistakes, but because she couldn't forgive. It's her fault. (I am totally over-analyzing a game here, I know.)

So here it is: Just because you are forgiven doesn't mean someone let's you back into his or her life. They're not the same thing. And chasing after saying, "Forgive me! Forgive me! Forgive me!" is essentially saying, "Give me! Give me! Give me!" It's a self-centered act.

If I were the Princess's friend I would look at the game and say, "Awesome game. Really talented guy. Don't go back there."

If Tim had really learned something it would say, "I'm sorry. I did it. I know it. And the next Princess I meet I will be more giving to her." How many monsters do you have to slay to get the girl? One. Yourself.

Obsessions and Submissions

I'll get better at this blogging thing. Part of it is I usually want to make my writing perfect, to be witty, erudite, etc., etc. And that isn't exactly the nature of blogging. Not that people don't come up with brilliant and wonderful things, but most times it is the day to day, the little thoughts, and the unexceptional.

So here I am, endevoring to be unexceptional. So here are the updates:

Between May 13 and 15 I sent queries out to 21 agents. I got three requests for partials, all of whom rejected bringing the total to 15 rejections and 6 no responses. A number of the rejections were actually positive (if there is such a thing) and praised my story and my writing. So I consider that to be a kind of success. I'm wondering if the real difficulty is that nothing in my query mentions that I'm intending to be a little upscale. If you read my query you might be expecting it to start hard and fast and be tons of adventure. There is adventure and shootings and explosions. But the climax of the novel isn't when the bad guys are caught. It's more character driven. So if you are expecting high octane, you'll think it starts a little slowly. But I'm holding out hope. Some word nerd is going to look at this and connect immediately. It's out there.

In the meantime I've been working on another edit because did I mention the perfectionist in me? But I finally let go and am sending it to a few friends.

In the meantime, I've been to Iowa for a bit to be at my father-in-law's retirement party. And the husband and I reconnected to World of Warcraft. This is dangerous business.

We used to play Dark Age of Camelot together and then City of Heroes. We'd been on WoW but then gave up. I think we'd just burnt out after so many games. But we're back now and it's been full on obsession. Somewhere between helping with the massive church rummage sale and the trip to Iowa I lost my writing habit and it became harder and harder to get back into it, especially as the computer was enticing me with slaying beasties as my gnome warrior.

Yep, it's an obsession. And I went with it. Rather than trying to force myself and getting upset, I went with it. Obsessions can lead you into some interesting waters and as much as I'm a big believer in habit and putting my butt to the chair, I also know there is no point in forcing myself when all I'll do is drive myself crazy. So every morning I would make my tea as usual. I'd sit down with my journal and write some drivel. Maybe mess a little bit with the manuscript. And after a little time I'd go feed the obsession. It's feeding the fever and letting it burn itself out. It did. Not that I'm off WoW by any means. But it's taken its rightful place now as a hobby to be done after writing. And that is good.

About Trends

The other day, I was talking to someone about what to write next. He told me that I should consider putting my vampire idea on a backburner for now, because while vampire books have been pretty popular for the last couple years, the trend might be over by the time my book would come out. Which is a pretty valid point, on the one hand. Of course you should be aware of trends as you write and submit. On the other hand, however, I don't think that anyone should let trends dictate what they write, or when they write it. Writing a good, tight book with accessible characters and good pacing is way more important than what the trend is. If your book is amazing, it'll sell even if the trend is on the wane.
Any thoughts on this, anyone? Pro- or anti-trend?
An aside, specifically about the vampire trend: Vampires have been popular for a long time. Bram Stoker's Dracula, anyone? So I wouldn't worry too much about vamps ever becoming really unpopular. They've stood the test of time, I think!

Radio Silence

Well, sorry about that. I haven't been a very consistent blogger. I think it's just that I've been too busy working. And Internet at home doesn't happen often.
This week I've been dealing with author corrections for a particular book. The author wrote her corrections in with a pink highlighter pen. Now, really. It's often hard enough to decipher a stranger's handwriting as is. Did I really need the added difficulty of that? Sigh. Oh well. It's finished for now, that's the important part.
I'm behind on my writing. I really want to be done with my edits in about a week, but I'm a week or so behind. Still working on that work/writing/freelance/social life balance. It's quite the tightrope act! And I seem to be slipping . . . But that's really just the way it goes. Sometimes you're productive, sometimes not. Sometimes you're busy, sometimes not. I want to be less busy, so I can be more productive. But I do enjoy my job, and (usually) the freelance work as well. Anyway. Hopefully I'll be working on query letters in a couple weeks, and will put them up here for your perusal/entertainment.
I wish I had something more exciting to say, but my brain is mush at this point. (And it's only Tuesday. That, my friends, is a bad sign!) Have a good night. I'll try not to be such a quite coblogger.