Notes on FREAK

That's awesome! Congrats.

Congratulations, Snoink, it must have been so cool to complete your novel!

Rock on Snoink. It's always great to complete a novel and never give up on the publishing!

(I'm so gonna buy this too )

So! The specs, since some people have asked...

In manuscript form, it's about 640 pages. In word count, it's 120,360. Fun? Fun!

So... what have I done with it? Not much.

I'm sort of trying to figure out the summary for the query letter. It's bizarre actually... the story is 120,360 words and I can rant about it all day and all night if I was asked a simple question about it, but to write a simple summary? Hahaha... yeah right.

The problem lies with the way FREAK is set up, I think. It has three parts to it, each which is important in its own special way. So... what are the purposes? Without spoiling...

The first is mostly setting up the setting and the characters. So you find out that the freak is coming to this house and that she meets an unlikely family that baffles her exceedingly.

The second is about what happens to the characters when something terrible happens. So they react and keep on reacting, struggling through the respective conflicts.

The third contains the breaking point of the conflict and then how it is eventually decided... and redecided... how it will be solved.

So yeah.

Perhaps I'm thinking too much about it. ><;;

YAY! And I'm on the query thing as well Snoink, we can do it together XD. it's a serious pain in the ass. But congradulations! Finishing the novel is the best feeling in the world I think!!! #1=done, #2 ? That's another thing that you can work on in the process. GREAT JOB! *screams!*

..........sorry about that. lol

Hey Snoink! I wouldn't break up the story into three parts in the query letter if you were planning to. Since those three parts are kind of how most novels are set up, it might look unprofessional. I would write a summary as detailed, yet succinct. It's hard yes, novels are never easy to blurb. I would say that I would offer more advice, but I haven't finish section two!

do a one liner then a paragraph.

Ive tried to give an example but I cant.

Well Done!

I have never got to that stage myself, but I'm hoping to over the next year!

Hope you get it published!

~ Roxy ~

One suggestion I've heard for writing summaries is to write a great big long one. Then to take it and cut out everything you can, and rewrite it so it makes sense.

Then you take that, cut out everything you can and rewrite it. Continue until you have one short enough to send off, with only the most essential points to it.

YAY!!! I haven't said congraduakfjsdkjions (I forgot how to spell the middle for some reason) here yet! So congra ... congrats! YAY!!!

Eh ... but I know zilch about publishing. So I'm no good for giving advice.

Wait a minute? You mean FREAK is your book?
The one you're writing? It's not out yet? I heard you talk about it on your blog and got hooked. I ran all around three B&Ns looking for it. I even check the library, Amazon and bn.com! Searching for a book yet to be...
In any case, CONGRATS!!! I can't wait for it to be published! YAY! Hurray! Great job!

Dreamer wrote:Wait a minute? You mean FREAK is your book?
The one you're writing? It's not out yet? I heard you talk about it on your blog and got hooked. I ran all around three B&Ns looking for it. I even check the library, Amazon and bn.com! Searching for a book yet to be...
In any case, CONGRATS!!! I can't wait for it to be published! YAY! Hurray! Great job!

XD

Oh, that is too funny! Now I have to wonder what entry you saw. But I'm glad you liked the sound of it! I'll tell you when it gets published too.

But yeah. It shall be out soon, and when it is, it will be a happy day! It is a lovely story.

I have some of the summary written, as far as summaries go, and I'm somewhat pleased with the results. I don't think any of you would want to read the summary because of huge plot spoilers, so I'll just struggle with it myself, but soon!

And then... the horror of query letters. So basically I'm going to write a somewhat personalized letter to each of my hope-to-be agents. This requires research though, so it's slow. But oh well.

And another thing that's frustrating me! The experience. Usually, in the sample query letters that are for display, they're for people who are not totally new to the publishing world. Guh!

I'll get through this. Otherwise... haha. I'll probably be killed by my adoring fans?

Sadness! I forgot to put the manuscript of FREAK on my new computer, so currently it is FREAK-less. And I'm too lazy to put it back on! Sad... or pathetic. Actually, probably the latter. *muses*

And it also has my query letter attempts there... haha.

ANYWAY.

Before it flew away, I did critique it a little bit. Or... um... edit it anyway. I took away a passage that just... um... yeah. It was basically the teddy bear things. When I wrote it (about five years ago) I thought I would try my hand at symbolism with teddy bears. But after reading it, I cringed and deleted all the metions of teddy bears. It... doesn't add anything interesting to the story. I would rather have the purple room, and that's it. I don't think Sadie would be able to stand such a childhood reminder.

Yep.

So yay! I think!

I also gave the (revised) story to two people who have been particularly helpful in the past, and I've been bugging them somewhat. Hehehe...

Hahaha. I am so lazy.

Hahaha... okay. This is the best summary I've come up with so far, which is kind of lame, but whatever. At least I did something.

SUMMARY:

When a freak living in an overcrowded slum is sold to a wealthy politician to be a maidservant of his teenage daughter Sadie, she expects life to be easier. But when she tries to talk to the family, she quickly realizes she’s been put there to keep the family from speaking openly with each other. At first she tries to ignore this and continue her job in peace, but when she gets involved in an affair with the politician, the family, already divided, is torn apart. With politics becoming even more intense and Sadie’s impending marriage, it’s up to the freak to bring the family back together, if she can.

...

*Sadness* -Why didn't I come to the site before you took FREAK off? Huh, why? Why, why, why?

???

*Sadness again* The book had better be out quick, lol.

-elein