In this series of articles, I draw from key excerpts of my textbook on how to write fiction The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! whose 26 chapters go from A to Z on the key aspects of writing good and meaningful fiction.

Q is for Queries & Other Quests

A query letter is your letter of enquiry to a publisher/editor or agent regarding the possible publication or representation of your work. “It’s a writer’s introduction, our calling card and, hopefully, our foot in the door,” says Lynn Flewelling, author of Luck in the Shadows. “Some agents and editors glance at the letter but read the chapters first,” she adds. “Others read the query and reject the chapters unseen if the letter doesn’t sing. You never know, so write the letter like it’s the one thing standing between you and success. It just might be.”

In her book, The Sell Your Novel Toolkit, Elizabeth Lyon dissects the query into:

• Lead: using a creative hook (direct immersion in the story; discussion of the period, setting or milieu; or presentation of the theme of the book) or business hook (with particulars about the book, comparisons with others, and author’s credentials and awards)
• Body: short synopsis, either story- or characterization/theme-focused; brief biography with credentials, etc.
• Conclusion: closing sentences; the “handshake”

Polish and be professional:

• Ensure that there are no spelling or grammatical errors
• Make sure your editor’s name is correct as well as the publication name and address
• Use standard letter format and standard paper (keep it simple and professional) and stay away from fancy patterns or coloured paper
• Keep the letter to one page if possible
• Include a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) for mailed queries
• Include your name, postal address, email address and phone number

John Hewitt provides a good list of what NOT to do in a query letter. Here are a few:

• Don’t mention who has rejected the piece before
• Don’t apologize for any weaknesses
• Don’t ask for advice, comments or criticism/analysis
• Don’t gush about how excited you are about being published
• Don’t go on about this being your first
• Don’t include a lot of personal information about yourself
• Don’t provide several projects in the same query, unless they are related and part of a series
• Don’t query the same editor twice
• Don’t discuss copyright information, or payment
• Don’t include inappropriate off-subject samples

R is for How to Reject Rejection Letters

In a 1999 article in Writer’s Journal, Dennis E. Hensley, associate professor of English at Taylor University Fort Wayne and author of Writing for Profit, told the story of when his writing teacher in college tried to console him after a short story of his had been rejected for the umpteenth time. “Listen,” she had said, “you weren’t rejected, your manuscript was.” He didn’t quite see it that way. “It was my title, my lead, my characters, my plot and my ending,” he’d responded. “No one else had anything to do with it. If the story was rejected, then let’s face it: as a writer, I was rejected.” Rejection is still rejection. Thirty years later, Hensley adds that he still gets rejection letters and he is still not overjoyed to receive them. As time goes on and you become a more seasoned writer, you develop a business-attitude and an objective way of viewing rejection letters. The irony is that it is the beginner writer who is more likely to get rejections.

Think of rejection as part of a road to success. The bottom line is that if you have never been rejected then you haven’t really tried, have you? Rejection really is the first step toward acceptance. With anything that is worth doing, there is risk and there is vulnerability. So too in writing. In order to publish, you have to risk being rejected. In fact, count on it. YOUR WORK WILL BE REJECTED. The good news is that at some point your work will also BE ACCEPTED; count on that too.

My Bus-Terminal Approach: One way to see your way through rejection is to find ways to distance yourself from your story once you’ve sent it off and to see the whole process of submission-rejection-acceptance as a business. The very best way to do this is to submit lots of stories and to keep submitting them. With novels, this is a little harder to do but you can certainly be working on the next one once you’ve submitted the first. When I was writing short stories, I kept a list of what and where I submitted, along with the most important item: where to submit NEXT. At any given time, I made sure that I had at least x-number of submissions out there and each story had a designated place to go if it returned. As soon as a story came back from magazine A, I simply re-packaged it and sent it to magazine B. The critical part of the list was to have a contingency for each story: the next place where I would send the story once it returned. I was planning on the story being rejected with the hope that it would be accepted; that way, a rejection became part of a story’s journey rather than a final comment. I ran my submissions like a bus terminal. A story was in and out so fast it never had a chance to cool off. And, since I had five other pieces out there, I could do this with little emotion. I was running a fast-paced “story depot”, after all. All my stories had to be out there as soon as possible; if they were sitting in the terminal, they were doing nothing for me. This approach really worked for me.

S is for Get Sensual  

Writers can provide readers with a rich spectrum of sensuality such as what a place smells like, the texture of an object, the taste of a food, as well as the nuances of light and sound. Readers don’t just “watch” a character in a book; they enter the character’s body and “feel”.

So, how do writers satisfy the readers’ need to experience the senses fully? Description, yes. But how cold is cold? What does snow really smell like? What colour is that sunset? How do you describe the taste of wine to a teetotaler? Ultimately, literal description doesn’t quite cut it. To have the sense really sink in and linger with the reader, it should be linked to the emotions and memories of the character experiencing it. By doing this, you are achieving several things at the same time:

• You’re describing the sense as the character is experiencing it—emotionally

• You’re revealing additional information on the character through his/her reaction

• You’re likely creating a more compelling link for the reader’s own experience of the sense

There are several tools a writer may use to achieve this. Here are a few:

• Use metaphor to describe the sense

• Link the sense to memories

• Use synesthesia (cross-sensory metaphor) to describe the sense

• Link the sense psychologically to an emotion or attitude

• Relate to the sense in a different way (e.g., a visual scene from the point of view of a painter)

The use of metaphor when used to describe an object or place through one or several senses adds a dimension of emotion, tone and direction. While all five of our senses can be linked to memories, two of them stand out. Smell and taste let us sample the chemicals around us for information.

 “Memory lies coiled within us like a magician’s trick handkerchief, and a simple smell or taste can pluck the tiniest corner and pull out the world,” says Fitch. “Smell is different from all the other senses in a very special way. A smell from your distant past can unleash a flood of memories that are so intense and striking that they seem real,” says Dr. Karl (Kruszelnicki), author of Great Moments in Science (1984). “This kind of memory, where an unexpected re-encounter with a scent from the distant past brings back a rush of memories, is called a ‘Proustian Memory’”.

Ironically, smell, along with taste, is often neglected in our own overt observations and in writing. By consciously attending to these two senses alone, the writer is assured of engaging the reader’s more deeply rooted sensuality.

“…Like the good Doctor’s Tardis, The Fiction Writer is larger than it appears… Get Get Published, Write Now! right now.”

David Merchant, Creative Writing Instructor

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