Staying out of the slush pile: Cover / submission letter hints

I've been going through submissions to both Fish Creek Press and Wolf Willow Journal this morning in anticipation of doing a bit of reading over the weekend.  If you're like me, you've done a bit of reading about covering letters, synopses, and the like before submitting your work.  Or maybe you've ignored convention altogether.  Regardless, I'm quickly beginning to see why some work doesn't get read, and a lot of it has to do with covering letters.

Just like a job application, for many editors and presses, the cover letter (or email) is the first thing we read.  In a job application, the purpose of the cover letter is to get your resume read.  In publishing, there's little difference, because your cover letter's entire purpose is to get us to read the first page of your submission.  So please, put a bit of effort into it.

Personally, I don't particularly care what your publishing credentials are, what you've published, where it's been published.  These are nice to know, but because I'm an editor by trade, I'm not even as concerned with polish as some other editors and publishers might be.  What I am looking for, however, is a spark of *something* that I just can't define, that little *pop* that makes me want to know more about your character / topic / whatever.  Without that, a work falls flat and, as an editor, there's only so much I can do, which is why a slightly rough manuscript with verve has a far better chance, at least with me, than a perfectly polished one that's lifeless.

I'm digressing a bit, but it's because I'm passionate about books, about writing, and about stories, above all else.  So how does this help you write a cover letter?  Well, you'll need to make sure you've covered the basics (the who, what, why, etc.) of your submission.  Then edit your letter.  Please?  I received one the other day where the word "editors" hadn't even been spelled correctly.  Then give me a reason to keep reading.  Just as with a job application, I want to know what's in this for me as an editor, as a publisher, and most importantly as a reader.  Why should I read your manuscript?  What's there that I won't find anywhere else?   

Look at examples (and there's lots of those available), but make sure that yours is uniquely ... well ... yours.  Put some personality into it, and don't (heaven forbid) just copy and paste something from the Internet.  Editors do know when that happens.  Really.

Best of luck with your submissions!

Self-editing for writers: Don't edit while you write!

You've got an awesome idea, and have only to get it down on the page.  So you sit down, pen in hand (or fingers on keyboard) and you start writing.  Only you don't like the look of your first sentence, so you go back and revise it.  Then you look at the next two, which aren't stellar either, and revise them.  You write another sentence, then discover another error with your *first* sentence, so you go back and revise that, then an error leaps out from the sentence that you've just written, so you fix it.

STOP!  This kind of writing leads to two things:  a perfect first paragraph, page, chapter ... and nothing else because you haven't written anything else.  Too busy editing, you've forgotten about writing.

I know it's difficult.  We all want our writing to be perfect, but that doesn't mean it has to start out that way.  Words on a page (or series of pages) first, then revise and edit.  Please, please, don't edit while you write.  That way lies madness (and a heaping pile of unfinished manuscripts)!  So don't forget about your writing.  Do it first, and fix it later.  There'll be plenty of time for that when your manuscript is complete.

Introducing Wolf Willow Journal

It's been busy around here for the last month.  In addition to beta-reading for Tricia Ballad's Daughter of Oreveille, editing the sequel to Eric R. Asher's Days Gone Bad, and editing for Raymond Douglas Chong's latest book of poetry, I've had a few other things on the go.  And, surprise, surprise, these other things include more writing and editing.  ;-)

After more than a few minor delays (life happens, eh?), my publishing company's newest publication, Wolf Willow Journal, has its very own, brand new website and is now open for submissions for its Fall 2013 edition.  

Are you ready?

I'm inching toward the finishing touches on my spring project, which got delayed when the youngest broke his arm and needed a *lot* more care and attention than normal.

Things are slowly falling into place, and I hope to be able to make the official announcement by the middle of the month.  In the meantime, I'll admit that I'm getting excited to see this project come to fruition ... and am even more excited that there are still two more to come this year, as editing and publishing become a larger part of my writerly life.

Self-editing for fiction writers: Starting over

Have you ever had one of those moments, when a manuscript gets rejected for what seems to be the umpteenth time, with a short form letter, and you think:  but I *know* this is good?  I think most of us have, and if you haven't, you're pretty damned lucky ;-)  Yes, there are famous writers whose work was rejected many, many times before it was published, but there are also those who went back to the drawing board, redrafting their work time and time again.  And that's where I'm going to suggest that you start again, from scratch.

I have a couple of short stories floating around in the moment, both of which were finished at the last minute (yes, even I don't follow all of the rules all of the time), which did manage to get shelved for a few days before that final edit, but something about each doesn't quite sit right with me, even now.  The one has issues primarily with the final scene, so I'll revisit that one another day, but this week's major writing project is the revision of second of these two stories.

This second story's premise is sound, the plot line is good, but it doesn't quite strike home the way I'd like it to.  My solution?  Rewrite the whole thing, from scratch.  I've got my notes, there's no dithering around about what happens, but I need to tell this story in a different way.  I'll likely keep the perspective the same, telling things from the point of view of the protagonist, but there are other details that I think should change, and which will change, if I can keep myself from referring to the original draft.

It sounds a bit odd ... after all, you've already written the story, so why re-write it?  But it can and does work.  You may not keep the second draft, but you may find that there are elements of that second draft that, when pieced together with the original, make a much, much better whole.  Sometimes it's just a change in perspective, other times it's a change in tone, different details ... the myriad ways in which the human mind works.  So try it out.  See what happens.  You just might surprise yourself with the results.

Self-editing for poets: Kill your darlings

Okay, okay ... I know it's a cliche, but sometimes they're the best thing to use because they epitomize what you're talking about, so it makes sense to embrace them, at least once in a while.  I've been doing a lot of poetry editing of late, of both my work and my clients' work, and the one thing I'm really noticing, at least in my own, is that sometimes (okay, to be honest, it's most of the time) those lines that you think are just perfect ... they're the ones that have to go.

I'm not sure why this is, but sometimes I suspect that these lines are meant to be the behind the scenes essence of the poem, something that needs to be written, but which shouldn't remain on the page.  Sometimes, I'll write a poem that's darling-less, but not often.  Usually there are one or two (or more) lines that I look at and say to myself, "This, this is just perfect."  Then I cringe, knowing full well that those are the very lines I will likely need to cut.  It's amazing, too, the impact that these cuts will have.  Somehow, other lines and words that were good, but maybe a bit flat, spring to life.  Then, with a bit of pruning of the remaining lines, the poem shines just a bit more brightly.

So give it a try ... take those darlings and push them to the side, and see where your newly bereft poem takes you.  And if you can't quite bear to part with your darlings entirely, you can always save them for another day, another poem.  I have an entire section of my poetry journal that's devoted to poem-less darlings.  What I'll do with them?  No idea.  BuUt at least they're not entirely gone.  ;-)

Writing in circles

I actually had a bit of quiet writing time this morning, courtesy of a new Skylander the boys got yesterday.  I had some recent research sitting in an Evernote folder, my list of upcoming theme deadlines on my desk ... and a very blank page staring back at me.  It's times like this where I end up writing in circles, or so it seems, but those circles can certainly bear fruit, although not always in the way you expect them to.

The I'd chosen to work on this morning was, ironically, work.  I had an idea half formed in my head, one I'd been kicking around for a few days.  But once I put the character on the page, she just sat there like one of those chipboard figures.  Static, not moving, and very, very stock.

So, after a glare at the page, I poured another cup of coffee and sat down to write circles around her.  Questions emerged, like why she was stock, what things could I change about her, about the situation, about the story in general?  I wrote about work, about women's work, about perceptions of work, of differing valuations of work, of paid and unpaid labour, and many, many other things.  I didn't exactly get the short story I'd sat down to write written, but I did end up with a lot of material I'll be able to use for other projects.  I got to thinking about what I didn't like about her (she was too much of a wimp, no backbone) and what I didn't like about her husband (seemed to have been teleported into existence from the 1950s).  I've got a pretty good idea of where I'm going to take this story (and character) from here, and have some pretty extensive notes, but I'll come back to her later.

This kind of writing feels odd at first.  The easiest way to describe it is "brain dump," where every single thought that comes into your brain gets written onto the page.  No editing or censoring allowed.  You'll be amazed at the weird directions your mind goes, but when you go back through what you've written (which I don't recommend doing for a day or two), I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at what's lurking there.