Tuesday, April 3, 2012

C ME


Each letter of the alphabet begins a story
Today it's "C's" turn...
When I first began writing...
It was bliss...
I did anything I wanted to...
Used Colorful adjectives...
Strew the pages with driving adverbs...
And I didn't know what backstory was...
Or P.O.V., or plotting...
Or the difference between literary...
And commercial fiction (really)...
I just wrote.
Then one day I learned about query letters...
And I submitted. And believe it or not...
An agent requested the full.
Woo HOOOOO!
Within a few weeks though she blasted back a rejection...
"Your manuscript is unedited, we don't have time, yada yada...
OUCH!
But after the shock, came the writing seminars...
And books and books and books on Craft, and...
Ah ha! Got it!
Well...almost...
"D" will have to tell you the rest of the story. 
How about you? When did you learn the craft of writing?

Always, Em-Musing

 


12 comments:

Anne Gallagher said...

Probably right around the same time you did. And why did we learn to write such fantastic queries, and obviously not such fab books. I mean not that our books aren't fab, but why was it drilled into us that the query had to catch an agent' eye. And then to get rejected later, that's like saying, you can have all those presents for Christmas -- April Fools. Hate queries.

farawayeyes said...

Not sure I have.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Ah, the beginning of writing, when it was all in fun...

S.A. Larsenッ said...

It seems we all had similar early beginnings. Most important is that we learn from them and continue to progress.

Gossip_Grl said...

I am just beginning, but I definately love reading blogs like yours that hopefully I can learn from thanks for sharing :)

Francene Stanley said...

Great little ditty. Yes, the acceptance part of writing is the hardest. And yet, it forces us to improve.

Sara Hill said...

Just re-read some of my early stuff. In a way it's lots better than the latter because it's fresher. And I've been suffering from a loss of confidence lately.

Dawn Embers said...

Nice. It's great you got a request and learned a lesson. Sometimes we have to learn the hard way, by taking that fall off a short cliff. Dust off and keep working. ;-)

stu said...

Sometimes, the thing for me is unlearning the craft of writing so it doesn't get in the way so much.

Julie Flanders said...

I'm still learning and have a long way to go! But the process is fun.

I can't wait for "D" to continue the story tomorrow.

Deniz Bevan said...

Great idea for an A-Z theme! I feel like I'm still learning the craft, every day...

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

A full request is nothing to snooze at thought. That's just awesome. And very encouraging. All you need is an editor and a couple of months and bam...you are the next Suzanne Collins.