Amalie/A. R. Frederiksen
@ARFrederiksen
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she/her 🇩🇰 author (rep: CAA), copyeditor, creative writing teacher 📌 MA English (EFL) & Cultural Studies 🎓 factorfour | CrowKeys | HavenSpec | Shortwave ✒️
Denmark
Joined July 2014
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I'm officially a published author today! This seems like such a hopeful time, for once, and I just wanna allow myself to bask in it, but I'm terrible at doing that, so let this be my public accountability that I am at least *trying* 🔥
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A-Query-Tip-I-Wish-I-Had-Been-Given-Earlier:
You are selling a ✨️character✨️
Not a story. Not a book. Not a world. Not a setting. Not a concept. But a person (or several, for that matter). That's what you're selling.
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I've queried many, many books for many, many years.
And I'm telling you, if you're not querying right now, you don't know how bad it is right now.
Any advice/experience older than a few months (ish) doesn't count right now. It really doesn't.
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I'd like for adult standalone sci-fi and fantasy to become more of a thing, please & thank you
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I recently compiled a list of how I approach line editing my own stories, and I figured I might as well share. Pls bear in mind that I'm no professional editor. I'd never dare call myself that.
So, a 🧵 on line editing your own stuff 🧵
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It feels weird announcing this right now, with everyone fleeing from here, but…
I’m now repped by CAA!
I sent my first query in 2012, 10 yrs ago, and have written many books since. My allegorical, genre-blending Snow Queen retelling had a request rate of 7%. I got real lucky.
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One of the ways that you're guaranteed to catch me as a reader is if you *open* your book with a strong narrative question. Authors talk about this all the time, but I never understood it myself until this year.
As usual, I thought I'd share, so...
🧵 THE NARRATIVE QUESTION 🧵
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When I was 25, an airport lost my luggage for 4 days.
I called them every day. Twice. Thrice.
On the 5th day, my dad called (without me knowing)...
... and they found the luggage within the hour in a random room where it had been waiting for 3 days.
In this essay, I will----
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Can we normalize fantasy novels that are "only" 100k, pls?
Depending on your writing style, the genre-bendiness, and honestly just *the story itself*, then sometimes brevity does the job. Even in fantasy.
I've read too many fantasies lately that've felt unnecessarily bloated.
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When I got a request, I stared at the email for 30 seconds, unable to pinpoint what confused me, until I realized there were none of the standard rejection words in the message. It was, in fact, a request. That was my confusion. This is gonna be an existentialist day, I can tell.
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Sometimes a filler word isn't actually just a filler word. Sometimes it's really a way of showing voice and developing characters. Just tossing that out there, this morning 🤙
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🧵 A thread on STORY IDEAS 🧵
I recently taught a class about this, about how I approach developing SFF story ideas specifically, and thought I'd share it with y'all, so here goes...
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The thing is, though, novelists are novelists because they actually like the act of writing. So promoting software to and by writers that is meant to do the writing for them seems incredibly counterintuitive and shortsighted. To me, that's the biggest fallacy here.
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I think a lot of ppl don’t understand how valuable a resource this site was for international writers trying to break into the US/UK publishing industry. That’s why it’s hard to see it crumble; b/c I know others like me won’t get that chance now (& moving elsewhere won't fix it)
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🧵 "Why A Query Hinges on Character" 🧵
I’ve written a lot of queries for myself and have critiqued a lot of queries for students and peers.
To that end, I've FINALLY compiled a blog post that answers some of the questions I'm continually asked.
Below is the condensed version.
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The best thing any craft book ever taught me was that a hook can be split into two parts, a plot hook & an emotional hook, and I swear my understanding of openings skyrocketed after that.
The book is "The Emotional Craft of Fiction", by the way, and I'll keep screaming about it.
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Wait, I...I got another short story accepted? This week is starting to worry me. I don't trust it.
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So if you're out there, Querying Author, and it feels really, really, really bad right now, then just know that you're not imagining it, and you're not alone. Never.
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I miss my 16-year-old self coming home from school to whip out a 2k chapter of a fanfic every day, consistently, until it was done. Like, what a feat. Gimme back this power, pls.
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One thing I wish more querying folks knew earlier on:
If a book has 8 requests outta 10 queries, and if it has an offer within hours...
...that's the market talking.
And that's not a reflection of you, your skills, or your product if you don't get those requests and that sale.
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I'm curious...
What is the *one* thing you've consciously worked on the most to become a better writer?
For me, it's pacing.
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I will honestly NEVER stop talking about how understanding the concept of a midpoint led to me FINALLY understanding structure.
I structure all my stories around their midpoints now, and it just *works*. It makes the beginning snappy, and the ending snappy, and it just... works.
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As an "authentic" European, I feel confused (and miffed) when people say European-based fantasy is overdone. Europe is big. Scandinavia is not the same as Russia or Turkey. Or maybe I should say: Britain does not equal Europe, in fantasy or otherwise😤
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When a query rejection calls you promising, it certainly doesn't sting as much 🥺🥺🥺
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🧵 LIST OF STORY CRAFT BOOKS 🧵
Okay, so, I wanna make a thread on my favorite craft books for writing and storytelling, and include what each of them taught me 😤
Some are self-explanatory, some are not.
Please do comment with your own.
Anyway, here goes...
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The thing about writing multiple POV is that people will *always* have a favorite character and a least liked one. As a reader, I also do this. It's totally normal. And that makes it hard to parse feedback some times. One's favorite character will be another's least liked one.
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Someone being a good writer doesn't mean they're good at helping others become good writers. That's an entirely different skillset that needs to be honed and developed. It's HARD to be able to see through someone else's creative working process and aid it rather than alter it.
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I'm gonna be honest.
This is the closest I've come to giving up on querying in 10 years.
This moment, right here, in which querying writers are being talked about as if they aren't technically the baseline suppliers of an industry.
I am tired. I feel unloved.
Just stop, pls.
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A lot of people who want morally gray characters, are rly asking for morally gray characters that they can feel justified rooting for.
But actual morally gray characters don't always have that, if ever, and I don't think these people necessarily realize this.
Food for thought.
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I sent my first query as 21. I'm 33 now. As I embark on yet another project, I just need to be super transparent and say that I am very, very tired of trying. I am just tired. So, so tired. Like. Tired. I don't know how to stress it more. I am tired. It's not cool, but it's true.
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One of the best tools you can cultivate as a writer, imo, is learning how to spot when criticism turns into preference.
You should always listen to (constructive!) criticism, but you shouldn't always listen to preference (if ever, tbh).
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I wrote 5000 words today, in 6 hours.
I just needed to see this statement in writing because it's never happened before and it's probably never gonna happen again, so here it is.
This is absolutely feral for me, I'm telling you.
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As much as I admire the commitment of the ppl who "hunkered down, wrote that book, and got that agent!" then, please, it's not for lack of hunkering down that everyone gets rejected. You're looking at 10 years of hunkering down here, and I have all the bitter books to prove it.
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I can't even begin to tell you how confusingly invalidating it is for all of my regular beta readers to agree that this is my best work to date and that they can hardly find any critique, and yet I still can't get industry attention.
It doesn't add up.
I don't get it.
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I've said this before, but it bears repeating:
If you're not actively querying right now, you don't know how unstable/fickle the current landscape is. Pls take your query advice from ppl actively querying, or professionals connected closely to querying authors. Especially now.
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I don't necessarily need romance in books, but I DO need love.
Broken love. Renewed love. Lost love. Fragile love. Strong love. Dangerous love. Safe love.
If you look closely, every book has love in it, in some way, bc love is fundamental to life, and we all engage in it.
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It frustrates me so much when people equate wanting to be traditionally published with seeking approval. It's not approval that's the driving force here, but the work distribution. The work method. It's about choosing the optimal career track for yourself...
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I restarted querying last week, so I wanted to make a fun joke about querying, but then I realized there's nothing fun about querying, so I gave up🙃
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Throwing this out for the crowd, because I'd love to hear what people think about this:
Can you have fantasy without magic?
#amreading
#writingcommunity
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The books that have disappointed me most this year (note: not necessarily from this year) have been ones where the pitching & advertising felt off/removed from the actual product.
To me, this really reinforces how important it is to set the right expectations for your audience.
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Maybe this is controversial or whatever, but I really think it's important to foster writing friendship outside of your own genre. Sure, it's helpful to have writing friendships within your genre, but some of the best feedback I've gotten have come from those outside my genre.
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I just found out by accident that my new skirt has hidden pockets.
There is no greater joy.
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And please, everyone, don't turn this into a thread that bashes trad publishing and agents. That's NOT my point with this. That's NOT my opinion. That's NOT okay to do.
My point is to show love to querying authors right now.
I'm right there with you all ❤️
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I'm not a master of short fiction, at all, but I recently cracked the code for myself, and I cracked it rather rapidly. A lot of people have asked me how, and maybe I could write a blog post about the revelations I had that led to this... 👀👀👀???
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I can't help but think that this overall fixation on book comps is some sort of indicator of how little patience we have as a digital age culture. So much is instant gratification. Ppl take so little time to study an object that they need to be reeled in via a pre-studied object.
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Back in January, I decided that 2022 would be the year that I learned how to write short stories. At that point, the last short story I wrote was probably in high school (I’m 31yrs old now). And it was probably in Danish, not in English.
These have been my biggest lessons 🧵
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I'd like to quietly (but insistently and hopefully) petition that creepy seaside settings can become as popular as creepy woodland settings in fantasy, please?
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And I don't mean to be ungrateful to the industry, or show my peers/friends disrespect, but by god, I just don't understand.
When I get a rejection these days, it feels less like "art is subjective" and more like "art is non-existent".
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The thing about... 🧵 CHARACTER AGENCY 🧵
I have a love/hate relationship with this.
I get why "active over passive" works/sells, but I also think it's exclusionary.
It’s like the "show, don’t tell" & "prologues are bad" advice. It has merit, but is often taken to extremes.
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I WAS APPROVED FOR THE STARDUST THIEF, I GOT THE STARDUST THIEF, OMG OMG OMG-------😭😭😭 *ahem*
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I see super talented writers jotting down 4k in one sitting, but I can't be the only one who hits 1k and legitimately loses the ability to make sense of what I write? As in, the sentences don't even grammatically make sense anymore?
Pls tell me I'm not alone in this?
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The
#1
Beta Reader Rule to ensure a healthy work relationship:
"Make suggestions, not corrections."
I promise you; it makes a difference.
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I often have people unfollow me after they get an agent, "cleaning out" their following list. I promise you I am no less dirty now than I was before, so you really should've washed your hands of me sooner if a little dirt makes you go iffy 🙃
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Please allow me to tell you the one thing that I needed someone to tell me years ago, to my face, without hesitation:
"You can become a better writer, and still not get an agent."
Work on your craft and optimize your chances, yes, but remember there's never a guarantee. Ever.
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✨ QUERY GIVE-AWAY ✨
Things have been dour here lately, so allow me to spruce it up! Since I have it on good authority that I know my way around a query (& very much love helping with them), I'll randomly pick a couple of you this weekend.
COMMENT BELOW & be part of the pool!
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Writing a book was a passion when I did it at 16yrs old, after school, huddled up alone in my room until I was called down for dinner.
Writing a book is a job now, at 32yrs old, because I'm no longer 16yrs old, huddled in my room, being fed by my parents.
End.
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🌟 QUERY TIP 🌟
"Do I put my PITCH or my META-DATA first?"
I'm asked this question a lot, by students and friends and acquaintances, so I thought I'd share my two cents on this.
If you wanna know more 👇🧵
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As someone who's bilingual (formerly multi), one day I really wanna write an SFF book where the character is a translator and the plot centers on that somehow.
One day. One day...
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And to "sell" your character, you really only need to ask three main questions: a) what do they want, b) what stands in their way, c) what will they lose if they fail.
Goal, conflict, and stakes.
Any pitch, query or not, can be effectively centered around those three questions.
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Your first draft doesn't have to be terrible.
Your inciting incident doesn't have to be at the X% mark.
Your MC doesn't have to be active to have agency.
This is your regular reminder that you learn the rules so you can cleverly break them---not mindlessly follow them 🌱
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I'll be editing my book this weekend so it can go on sub, and I'm so emotional that I finally get to do this, and say this, but I also don't wanna talk about it because it feels like bragging, and why am I feeling this way 😅🙃🥲
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So... when are we all gonna talk about what projects we're gonna work on next year, eh, eh, eh? 👀
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I would pay good money to know what agents truly would advice us querying writers to do right now, whether open or closed to subs.
To query/not to query?
That's the question, it feels like, and I know what I believe in, but I'm probably as wrong about that as my own books, lol
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When publishing professionals say they don’t want Western/European fantasy, I wonder if they mean it as written by Americans or by Europeans, and whether they’ve considered this distinction in the first place.
Because those two things are not the same.
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I get the magical sentient forest love in fantasy. I really really really do....
.... but also, pls, gimme more misty oceans, islands, bottomless lakes, salt-crusted lips, orange-tinted seashells, sand and clay that eat your steps, and faceless voices across crystalline water.
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🧵 Let’s talk about your 1st page(s)…? 🧵
I dunno who'd be interested in this, but people often talk about what your 1st page NEEDS, yet I think we should talk more about HOW to get those needs down on paper.
Say hello to ✨✨ micro tension ✨✨
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This is simplified/exaggerated, ofc, but the point is that you're selling everything through the filter that is the character. And you do that because that filter is an emotional connection that hooks the reader, be they an agent or not, b/c humans naturally seek that connection.
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On that day, I swore to be manlier than any man so I could infiltrate them and burn them down from the inside out (with my writing, of course)
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Now that the contract is signed, I can finally say that my story will be in
@BrigidsGate
's anthology "Dangerous Waters: Deadly Women of the Sea!"
Get ready to meet my retired mermaid hunter who decides to adopt a mermaid to atone for a past that rapidly catches up with her.
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I just got the nicest query rejection that offered one, single personalized compliment amid the usual rejection jargon. It really matters. It really does. I know it's hard for agents to do it, but it really matters when/if they do, and pls know it's appreciated. That's all.
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Everybody talks about the no's and the rejections in publishing...
...but for me, it's the maybe's and the near-wins that are the hardest to process and swallow, even as they feel promising and hopeful.
I've... had a lot of those lately, if you can't tell 😂😅
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Okay, so, I know there are much better writers out there than me, but this time last year I had zero publishing credentials to my name.
Today, one year since then, I have three stories in anthologies (a fourth coming soon), several short stories in lit mags, and an agent.
Wtf.
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With all due respect... actually, no. I'm gonna say this without fucking respect. Can we stop berating querying authors like children? Like we're just one big, messy reptilian brain that needs to be shown how to human correctly? Thanks.
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I misspelled “blade” as “balde”. In Danish, “balde” means butt-cheek. I literally wrote “she was speared by a butt-cheek”. How's your writing going?🤦♀️
#amwriting
#writerslife
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Me, talking to publishing: "Scandinavia can give more to fantasy than vikings. Please, please, PLEASE just allow me to SHOW you?"
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Okay, so, hear me out.... what if the 🌌northern lights🌌 could be bottled.... and what if they were ✨magic✨.... and what if I started a book about that instead of finishing the ones I'm already drafting???
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I'm gonna be real and open for a sec. Sometimes, the worst thing about being a serial, yearslong querier is the way that you lose professional companionship when everyone gets the promotion but you. I get that it's a natural survival mechanism, tho, and don't fault ppl for it.
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Okay, look, I'm all for angry, opportunistic, unapologetic female protags, but I also feel like this IS a thing now.
The NEXT thing I'd love to see is that these protags like cooking/embroidering/shopping/etc.
Women don't have to be one thing or the other; we can be both.
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I can't believe it took me 32 yrs to realize I can just write a pirate story in space, plot-wise, and that's sci-fi.
Recruiting a crew? Space crew! Hunting treasure? Space treasure! Need resources? Space resources! Need to dock? Dock on a planet! Explore the sea? Explore space!
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I've missed the quieter fantasy stories for adults. The ones that leave you breathless with wonder and ache, not with anticipation and thrill. The ones that imprint on your soul, not the ones that kick your chest in.
So that's what I wrote this time.
Because that's what I miss.
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I just fell in love with my WIP again.
And I have to yell about it, sorry. I haven't written anything on it for months, but I just sat down and hammered out a prologue that sets up the entire epic, and suddenly I understood why I had never loved it until now.
Excuse my bawling.
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If you care about the POV from an international writer and decade-long querier:
"The novel that got me my agent is not my first—by far. Because it’s not just about skill. It’s not just about working hard. The final stretch is about luck, fast or slow."
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I'm curious... (as ever, lol)
For those of my friends who write multiple POV stories, do you shift between the POVs as you draft?
Or do you write each of the POVs separately and then piece them together in the end? 👀
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So, I got my first rejection for a new book today, meaning it's time for me to offer some positivity passes to y'all since that never fails to cheer me up.
Comment below if you'd like a ✨️ POSITIVITY PASS ✨️ from me on your 1st chapter.
I'll pick & DM a couple of you 👀👇
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This will (technically) be my 10th year of querying, and my 5th book queried.
Statistically, something good has to happen. Eventually. I have to believe that. And I do.
But... yeah.
Something good will happen!
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My strange little historical/gothic short story, THE MAD HATTER'S MAD WIFE, has been accepted for
@PhantomHPress
's August '22 anthology, EXQUISITE POISON, in which Cora Hatterson's husband might be mad with hats, but Cora herself proves to be mad with love.
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I'm not sure what happened in my brain, but once I began to think of hooks (be it opening pages or query) as having two sides (emotional & plot), the whole idea of a hook became much more accessible to me.
I truly can't thank "The Emotional Craft of Fiction" enough for that 🎓
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I think I've said this before, but here goes:
Some books have great writing & less great storytelling.
Some books have great storytelling & less great writing.
When you read a book that you feel "shouldn't have been pubbed", it's often due to an imbalance b/w those two skills.
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Am I the only querying writer who legitimately wonders if they'll be too much of an empty husk to have much of an emotional reaction when they finally, maybe, get good news?
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Aaaaaaaaaand we are officially querying once again.
Yaymaybe.
The peace could only last for so long, I guess.
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A Good Editing Reminder (that I needed today):
When someone suggests you raise stakes, they don't always mean you don't have enough stakes already. You often do. What they might be asking for is a raised *sense* of stakes. And that's more a matter of clarity. Not of direct lack.
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I have written 300 words on my WIP today, and I will ✨celebrate✨ each and every one of them because I haven't touched it in four months, so this is a-----
v✨i✨c✨t✨o✨r✨y
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I've met SO MANY lovely writer friends on here in the past year(s), and I just need to get off my chest how incredibly grateful I am to every single one of you. I'm here to cheer you on and buy all your future books because you absolutely deserve the world at your feet ❤️
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I can't rly believe all that's happened to me this year.
In February, I had no publishing creds. Now I have a handful, in magazines and anthologies. I also have an agent after a decade of trying and will go on sub soon.
2023 is gonna be when it all falls apart. Waaait for iiit.
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I finally hit 40k words on my WIP just now after MONTHS of TRYING!!!! 😭😭😭
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Some days, like today, it makes me sad that popular adult fantasy rarely has room for wonder and whimsy. I know being an adult sucks, but that's also why I'd sometimes love to read about un-sucky adulting. I don't always want a reflection, but a deflection, you know?
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Months ago, when I first asked this, there was a lot of interest, so this is me saying that I'm still toying with the idea of a writer's chat for adult SFF (since y'all are harder to find on here, imo), and I might shoot it off in the new year if there's still an interest 👀
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When you write from your gut, it can be really hard to build awareness around your own process.
One way to do this, if you wish, is to train/trick your brain into paying attention to your own language and that of your characters.
🧵 TIPS FOR GUT-WRITERS/PANTSERS 🧵
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The more books I write/read/beta, the more obvious it becomes to me that...
Good writing = balance.
Both on story level & scene level.
Balance of external & internal. Balance of show & tell. Balance of stakes & motivation. Balance of dialogue & character beats.
Balance ⚖️
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