Classics Challenge: "Gone With the Wind"

Wow.
Okay, so guess what? 1,037 pages later...
I finished "Gone With the Wind." Surprised? Me too! Last update I swore I wouldn't finish it. But then last weekend happened. I planned to spend the day editing. Instead I read "Gone With the Wind" for almost twelve hours. I hit Scarlett and Melanie's flight from Atlanta as the Yankees closed in--and I couldn't stop. 
There were moments that I didn't like Scarlett. I mean, let's be honest. She's really selfish. And because of that she misses a lot of things. And by a lot of things... I mean a lot. But I still enjoyed her as a character. She wasn't afraid to get things done . And the chemistry between Scarlett and Rhett? Goodness! I could stand Scarlett being cold in her marriage to Charles and Frank. She didn't love them. But I couldn't stand her when she didn't realize that Rhett Butler was achingly in love with her! Okay, I also didn't like how she treated her children.   But mostly Rhett.
Oh, Rhett and Scarlett! There's so much to say about them. But it all comes down to one thing: COMMUNICATION. These two were so prideful that they failed to communicate their love for eachother. Which led to Rhett's famous line at the end...
Speaking of the end, everything went crazy around page 990. People were dying, realizations were made, hearts were breaking... In regard to "hearts," I don't think it's over. Not by a long shot. Scarlett, as she herself claimed, has gotten any man she sets her sights on. Even though Rhett has left her, he doesn't stand a chance!

  Rhett & Scarlett Butler Forever.
Also, fun fact. Did you know that there's a sequel to "Gone With the Wind?" All right, Margaret Mitchell didn't write it, but her estate paid another writer to pen it. The title is "Scarlett."   And I've already requested it from the library.

Query Critique #10: SHADOW TALES

My thoughts are added in red. Every comment is my own opinion. Readers, feel free to leave your own comments below and help a fellow writer out!

If you're interested in a Free Query Critique, follow the link for more information.

Original Version (with comments):

Dear ________,

I am currently (The less words, the better! I’ll explain more down below.) seeking representation for Shadow Tales SHADOW TALES (Cool title!), my complete, a 60,000 word literary novel (“literary novel” doesn’t give me a genre or a category for SHADOW TALES. Maybe what you’re looking for is Adult Contemporary or maybe Young Adult? Type in “book genres” into google and see if you can find the perfect fit.) with supernatural elements. I’m a fan of many of the fiction authors you represent, with complex, genre bending works such as The Hope of Floating Has Carried Us This Far (Kudos for personalizing the query!). I hope you will be interested in adding me to your list.

My novel is set in eerie Schadentown, where three characters have to conquer their fears, while chasing literal demons and phantoms of their past. A young girl, a couple and a teenage girl will be locked in conflict with themselves and the pernicious effects of time: holding on to the past, ignoring the present, and overeagerly anticipating the future. (This is the part of the query letter where you get into the story, not a broad summary of what your characters have to overcome. Though the summary does sound very interesting!)

The story follows the events in an old French-German family as they experience the insidious, mystical workings of Schadentown (Ahhh, the elusive “first” sentence of a query letter. Let me start by saying this sentence needs to be a HUGE HOOK. It needs to draw the agent in while introducing your voice as a writer. This, unfortunately, does neither. Click here for a website that does a great job of explaining this.). Starting in the 70s, Viviane, a trusting young girl in love with the oldest forest in Schadentown, realizes that the church is about to destroy it (Ah ha! Here is the makings of your first sentence! When Viviane, a (insert age) year old girl living in Schadentown, discovers the church plans to destroy her beloved forest, she vows to stop them. See what I mean? I know you can think of something better. This is just a start!). Viviane must find a way to save her forest, even as her faith in religion and adults starts to crack (Why is her faith cracking? One thing you want to avoid in query letters are questions. Everything you describe should have a motivation/be explained—except for the ending. That’s the part you want to keep ambiguous!). She also must keep a hold of her sanity as unexplained events after unexplained events succeed each other even as she tries to fight for her forest (Explain these “unexplained” events. That’s the conflict!). Then we follow, Arles, husband to Eliane (Viviane's granddaughter), who abused as a child, estranges himself from his family, terrified of becoming like his father (Are there two POVs in this story? If so, Arles should have his own paragraph). His marriage and his life are on the line (why?): his actions stir up the shadows in his past, nearly destroying him and the ones he loves. Finally, the novel ends with Cayenne, Eliane's niece, who though beautiful and smart, loves to tear down people she thinks will surpass her. When her childhood friend unwittingly cracks her world of self-assurance and arrogance, Cayenne is willing to tear her down. Her jealousy and bitterness knowing no bounds (No clichés!!), Cayenne might realize she has to pay the price for destroying innocent lives (Another POV means another paragraph.).

I am a graduate from Rollins College where I studied English Literature with Honors, Creative Writing and Music. In college, I completed an internship with Winter with the Writers Literary Festival, where I studied under writers, Karen Russell and N. Scott Momaday.  I have had my writings and music published in various magazines since 2014. My poetry, prose poetry, fiction and non-fiction can be found in magazines such as Festival Writer, The Halcyon, Perspectives, Art Saves Lives International and the Mulberry Fork Review. (I won’t tell you what to cut from this paragraph (kudos on being published in magazines!), but try to keep it down to a few sentences, unless everything really relates to your book. If it were me, I’d just mention studying under the writers (and give some one-two word information about them) as well as your magazine publications. It’s up to you though.)

Thank you for your time and kind consideration. As per your submission guidelines, I have attached the first five pages of my novel. Upon your request, I would be happy to send you the full manuscript. Please note that this is a simultaneous submission. (This is usually assumed :) )

Best regards,

…And the end! Here are some closing thoughts that I have for you.

1.  Your query letter is too long. When I pasted the full thing into a word document it totallyed at 451 words. The general guideline for queries is 250-350 words. Of course there are exceptions, though!

2. Unfortunately, as interesting as your concept is (I LOVE forests!), this isn’t a query letter. Make sure you visit that website I linked to in the inline edits. Google is full of great examples. I encourage you to visit Query Shark. There you’ll see a broad range of query letters—critiqued by an actual agent!

3. Consider the three POVs you have in this query. Are all three of them equally important in the actual novel? If so, you might want to state up front, in the first paragraph, that SHADOW TALES “is told through multiple points of view.” Or something like that. This way, agents are prepared for the character switch!

I wish you the best of luck with your query letter. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them! If you want to send any revisions my way, please do!

Ideas, Where?

I'm still steadfastly working on THESE WICKED WATERS.

In the meantime, I'm prepping SECOND-HAND SCAVENGERS for Ink & Insights 2016. As I've edited the first 10,000 words, I've been reminiscing.
For my almost all of my books, I can't tell you the exact moment the "idea" came to mind. With SHS, I can.
In fact, I have evidence of it. I was sitting at the library, using the Internet on my laptop. When the idea popped into my head, I grabbed my phone and saved it as a note--the bare skeleton of an idea. Inspiration that I had no idea how I would use. Yet.

That's right. I got the idea on July 10, 2014. If you followed my Idea to Pages series, you'd realize I didn't start planning SHS until July 9, 2015. A year later--almost to the day! This shows how important it is to write your ideas down! You never know what stories can come from them. 

Every book has a humble beginning. It all starts with one idea.

The Little Things

This past weekend I went with my mom to buy flowers for her front yard planters. 
While we were exploring the Amish greenhouse, we noticed a pot that had been knocked over, a seedling abandoned on the ground. I was going to walk by it, but my mom stopped. She proceeded to right the pot, scoop soil back inside, and ease the seedling back in place. 
I was in awe (though, I'm usually in awe of my mom so this was no freak occurrence). That simple act of stopping to rescue something as menial as a plant speaks volumes about her caring nature. A nature I long to replicate.
The same principle can be tied into writing. Is there a character that's horrendous, but you need the audience to sympathize with her? Have her do a small act of kindness. It doesn't matter what it is. Readers will be won over. I can say that from experience!
And just a quick shout out, because she reads all these posts and works so hard...
Thanks, Mom, for all you do. I love you!

Classics Challenge: Mid-Month Update

I want to go back to November 2015 (when I was preparing the Classics Challenge list) and talk some sense into Younger Emily. These 500+ page books are ridiculous!
You can guess my progress with Gone With the Wind from the above. Although I'm not halfway through the book (page 296, in fact), I'm really enjoying it. Margaret Mitchell is amazing at characterization. From Scarlett to Rhett to Charlie... They all seem like real people with real faults. Except for the perfect Melanie Wilkes!
Interestingly enough, although Scarlett is extremely selfish and contemptuous, I find myself liking and sympathizing with her (for now). Especially that ill-advised marriage when she was sixteen. An important lesson to teenagers--listen to your parents! If Scarlett had considered her mother's advise, her life might've gone in a different direction!
As for my favorite character... This should come as no surprise. Rhett Butler. He is such an interesting "gentleman." I put that in quotes because no one in the south considers him a gentleman. Which is probably why I like him, alas.

And least favorite... Scarlett's father, Gerald. I like everything about him except his selfish absent-mindedness (I suppose Scarlet got this trait from him). If he had done his duty as a father and paid attention to his daughter, she might've avoided her unhappy marriage to Charlie which skewed her entire life.
Can you tell this marriage disturbed me?
Though I'm almost 100% sure that I won't finish Gone With the Wind, I'm going to keep reading and hopefully pick it back up once my Classics Challenge is over.
Meanwhile, watching the movie is in my near future.

An Overall Blah

Clouds have invaded the east coast, and they appear too comfortable to leave. Every professor who comes into my office at work mentions the clouds. In fact, one said, "Now, Emily, it's your job to make sure the sun comes out tomorrow."
Unfortunately, I don't have any special contacts with mother nature.
Not only is the lack of sun depressing, but it drains the motivation too. While rainy days are awesome for writing, consecutive cloudy days?
...Not so much.
Which is why I'm coming clean. I haven't worked on THESE WICKED WATERS since my resolution post. 

I haven't been totally lazy. I've been hard at work prepping SECOND-HAND SCAVENGERS for Ink & Insight's contest. (Anyone care to beta read 10,000 words???) But I know I need to get back on track, good weather or not.
Wish me luck. I've got a whole new chapter to write for TWW. You have no idea the massive editing that has been done on this book. I just hope it's worth it!

Smelling Brownies

A few days ago, I did something wonderful. I made chewy, chocolatey, delicious brownies. When I tugged open the creaking oven door to check on my dessert, the scent wafted over me. 
In fact, I smelled like brownies until I took a shower. It was kind of gross.
Quiz time! What's one thing that adds magic to books?
Answer: using the five senses! Touch. Taste. Sight. Smell. Hearing.
The reader's imagination is a wonderful thing. It creates a world from a scattering of symbols on a page. C-H-A-I-R become a actual figurative chair. Bet you pictured a chair in your mind, didn't you? But why not take it a step further? Describe how the chair feels! What it smells like! Get a little weird and describe the taste!
Each of these steps adds more details that makes the imagined world come to life. 
That said, don't go overboard. Ever read one of those books were a guy smells like three very specific things that don't have any relation to each other? Well, I have. It's unbelievable. Unless your character has a nose that rival's Gus' from Psych. I'm talking "Super Sniffer."

 Keep it simple, but keep it descriptive. Your readers will find themselves immersed in your story, and your world will become as real to them...
As it is to you.

Goal Time

As I've sworn before, telling people your writing goals makes a difference.
It makes you stick to them.
Which is why I'm updating you on my dismal progress.
Slow progress is being made with THESE WICKED WATERS. I feel like I've been editing this book forever. Maybe I'm having a hard time with motivate because there is so much work to do. I have pages of pages of notes left to enact, and I'm halfway through the novel!
Thus, I've set the following goal for myself: edit one chapter of TWW a day.
Yes, the number's a little underwhelming, but doable. That way I don't feel like a failure at the end of every weekday. That'll be a nice change.

Now for a new manuscript! Any of you remember SECOND-HAND SCAVENGERS? Well, I'm prepping it for entry into Ink & Insights! Placing third last year earned me a free entry, and boy am I going to use it! 
The goal for this novel is a lot simpler: finish editing 10,000 words by Saturday--Monday at the latest.
I can totally do that.
...Right?

Classics Challenge: Margaret Mitchell

"Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect." ~Margaret Mitchell
Margaret Mitchell, writer and journalist, was an American southerner through and through. Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, Mitchell spent her childhood writing adventure stories and using cardboard as makeshift covers. Her talents extended to drama where, in high school, she directed and acted in plays she wrote.
Mitchell married in 1922 to Berrien Kinard Upshaw, breaking our Classics Challenge's trend of umarried female writers. Unfortunately, Berrien left for the midwest four months later and was never heard from again. But that didn't stop Mitchell from falling in love a second time! In 1925, Mitchell married Robert March (who did not go out west, in case you were wondering).
During the period from 1922 to 1925, Mitchell was an active journalist, penning over 130 articles. Until...
A broken ankle cut Mitchell's journalist career short. At the time, Mitchell must have been heartbroken, but if weren't for that broken ankle, we wouldn't have the book (and movie adaptation) so many readers love today.
That's right! While recovering from her broken ankle, Mitchell wrote "Gone With the Wind." The novel was an overnight success, the film based on her novel debuting three years later.
Sadly, "Gone With the Wind" was Mitchell's single literary work. During WWII, Mitchell served in the Red Cross and was unable to write. In 1949, she was struck by a car while crossing the street. 
She died five days later at the age of forty-eight.

Writerly Things to Learn from Margaret Mitchell:
1. Writing is in the blood. Just like Margaret, writers talk about how they've been writing stories since childhood. (I too can claim this. I just pray my earliest works are never published. I'm looking at you, Sailor Moon fanfiction) Which means, no matter how frustrating writing can be, we're called to it. Basically, we can't escape the words. Sorry.
2. Your next book could be your biggest hit. "Gone With the Wind" started from very humble beginnings. In fact, Margaret Mitchell penned it on an old sewing table. Yet it went on to become a Pulitzer Award success.
3. Write your own way. Know-it-alls (myself included) tout theories on the best way to write. Feel free to ignore them! Mitchell wrote the last chapter of "GWTW" first and then the others randomly!
4. Always, always edit your work. Once "GWTW" was finished, Mitchell didn't start sending out copies. She did lots and lots of tweaking. Scenes were cut or rephrased and characters' names were tweaked. Bet you didn't know our beloved Scarlett started out as Pansy! Imagine how different the book would've been with a snobby, full-of-herself southern belle with the name Pansy!