An update on my agent hunt

I sent out 8 agent query letters on January 9th. I received on rejection and submitted to another agent, who in turn, rejected me as well. Both of these rejections were based just on the query letter. So I'm remaining positive for the other 7 query letters as they all include chapter samples. I can console myself in that the two rejections had nothing to do with my actual writing.

I'm resisting the temptation to spend any time tweaking the query letter. I compare my novel, Spirit Quest, to Jim Butcher's Dresden Files and Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid Chronicles. They're both urban fantasy series that are very similar, although I feel that my story and hopefully series will be a bit more rural fantasy.

At first I had compared my story to F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack as my protagonist would be going around and helping people with his spirit magic. Although we both wrote our stories in the 3rd person point-of-view, Spirit Quest, is also a kind of coming of age novel. That 3rd person point-of-view was important, especially with my strong supporting cast. Tara could easily be the story's co-protagonist, but I'm saving that for the sequel.

Butcher's Scene and Sequel

The scene and sequel concept is nothing new in fiction and is a great way to ensure structure in your story and to keep it moving. Jim Butcher has refined the process and provided a working frame to set up the scene and sequel structure.

Distilled from these notes: http://www.rkathey.com/94/jim-butcher-on-writing

SCENES
- follow a sub-pattern of stimulus-response: action-response
- where the action happens, where the conflict occurs, and where the consequences begin.

Point of View (PoV) – You tell the scene from the point of view of the person with the most to lose
Character’s Goal – What is the goal of the PoV character? The audience needs to know the goal. The goal is active, immediate, and important.
Conflict – What's stopping the character from reaching their goal? The antagonist should be the conflicting force as much as possible. You should be investing the antagonist's time.
Setback – There are four ways to end a scene: Will the protagonist succeed?
   Yes – BORING!
   Yes/But – Success but there are consequences.
    No – Fails and must get a new goal. Great for showing determination but often leads to hard plot stops.
   No and Furthermore – Not only does the character not succeed but there are new plot complications that arise as the result of the failure. Save this for critical points in the story.

SEQUELS
- happen after scenes
- show the character’s reaction in the following order.
   + Emotion – “Oh my God I’ve been in a car crash!”. Emotion is what you feel first after a traumatic event.
   + Reason
      - Logic – “Am I bleeding?” where the character activates his/her brain to evaluate the immediate situation.
      - Review – “Am I late?” A review of the things that got them to the point of the trauma and the immediate effect of it.
      - Anticipation – “What’s going to happen next? Will the car explode?” Anticipation is the character trying to figure out what might happen next.
   + Choice – What the character decides to do after the event.

The above reactions lead to a new goal and next scene.

Yes, I suck at updating this blog

While I certainly didn't keep up with my blog writing goals, I did meet my February reading goals with Sandman Slim and Butcher's Blood Rites. 

Sandman Slim was a very modern take on the urban fantasy genre. The protagonist was more of an anti-hero than your traditional occult detective. The author chose to omit chapter breaks in the story which was detrimental in terms of trying to stop at the next chapter, but at the same time it was instrumental in keeping me reading. I don't think I'd attempt that, but for this book it worked. I liked the Sandman Slim's character, but felt the book lost its uniqueness when we discovered a greater paranormal organization being run by the government. It seemed a bit manufactured to generate conflict as Slim wasn't exactly a team player. While I enjoyed the book, I'm not rushing to pick up the next volume.

Dresden Files book #6, Blood Rites was a fun read and had some great character moments, although I felt it was really two stories pushed together into one. The middle story didn't really seem to have any connections with the main story. Perhaps that's because his usual formula of having two distinct stories that suddenly have connections might be getting a bit overused, or perhaps he wanted to try something different. However, the main story was solid, but the middle one seemed slapped in there and was a bit forced. Overall though the ramifications of the events in this book made me put aside my other books and read volume #7.

Butcher's Story Skeletons

From Jim Butcher's LiveJournal page:

"The story skeleton is a description of the main plot of your book, broken down into its simplest elements: *WHEN SOMETHING HAPPENS*, *YOUR PROTAGONIST* *PURSUES A GOAL*. But will he succeed when *ANTAGONIST PROVIDES OPPOSITION*?"

For example, the story skeleton for his first novel, Storm Front, was:

"When a series of grisly supernatural murders tears through Chicago, wizard Harry Dresden sets out to find the killer. But will he succeed when he finds himself pitted against a dark wizard, a Warden of the White Council, a vicious gang war, and the Chicago Police Department?"

I've found this exercise useful when trying to sort out my plot ideas. Refining all the ideas swirling around in your head can be daunting, but using a model like this can help bring structure to it all. I feel that walking through this exercise helps not only focus your efforts, but rein in the scope of your story.

Two weeks before I leave for the Borderlands Bootcamp

Two weeks from today, I'll be on my way to Towson Maryland to attend the Borderlands Bootcamp. I'm a bit anxiously, especially as the date seems to be creeping up on me. I'm almost done my first pass at all 17 of the other attendees' stories. Ideally, I'd like to do two passes. Although, I've marked up some of them quite well. :)

In the wee hours of the morning, I finished G.R.R. Martin's Fevre Dream and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I devoured his fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire, and was happy to try another one of his books, even though it was a vampire tale. However, this story was first printed in 1983, way ahead of the vampire craze. In fact, I'd have to say he was a pioneer in the vampire genre with his unique take on the bloodsuckers. In Fevre Dream he captured the atmosphere of the deep south and the power of the Mississippi and the steam boats that rode its fickle surface.

As for my writing, I'm hoping to spend some time this weekend and really get refocused on my Black Knight project. I've been studying various urban fantasy stories and trying to breakdown their plot points. Especially series novels, like Kevin Hearne's the Iron Druid Chronicles or Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files. I'd like to see my protagonist, Trevor Galloway, in a series of novels that chronicle his adventures as an urban shaman.