Saturday, October 11, 2008

Ode To the Perfect Query

I've been writing a query letter for The Ultimate Evil for six months and I am sick of it. So, I sat on my bed this morning in beautiful Florida and wrote this:


Ode To the Perfect Query
When it comes to the query letter
I am smitten
I want to write the perfect one
That never can be written
No matter how much I try
This is something I cannot do
Even the literary agents have said
That this is too true
So try as I may
Try as I might
I'll never write the perfect query
No matter how much I fight
So I'm declaring it finished
Declaring it done
The Ultimate Evil query
Is done, done, done!
Will the agent like it?
This I cannot say
I guess I'll have to grit my teeth
And e-mail it to her someday
My frustrations worked out in a poem. I think six months is MORE than enough time to spend on a query letter for a story. What do you think?
Also, I apologize for a confusing layout with no spaces. For some reason it won't publish the spaces that I add, so again, I apologize.

6 comments:

Ian said...

Interesting , and to answer your question yes 6 months is way too long to work on any letter of any sort, don't aim for perfection because it cannot be done. Just because something looks perfect to you doesn't mean it would to someone else anyway so don't worry about it. My advice is that your in florida so .... ok ... this is a VACATION :P stop stressing yourself out about the same things you do when your at home and enjoy the vacation worry free. I know you really love writing so its ok to get some writing in but don't do so much of it especially if you get stressed out trying to make it perfect. So relax and have some fun , if the agent likes the letter good if not its not the end of the world :)

Madison said...

I know all that, Ian, but thanks for reinforcing it. It's good to hear that.

I'm not as stressed as my post probably came out. Right now, I feel really good, calm and peaceful. Let's hope it stays this way knowing how my temper can be! :-)

Ian said...

Yeah I figured you've heard that a thousand times from your family already lol but sometimes people are more receptive when they hear something from a friend :)

Anonymous said...

you do seem extreemly stressed, i wish you had called me. :D and if query letters are that horrible, you don't have to help me. i can find anything on the internet. I just found Jesse the anti photo theft protection code thingy for his website he's doing for his art. :D
PS:
As a friend I don't know how to say this... you're not a poet, you're a writer. stick to what you do best. ;)

Ray Veen said...

I can completely relate to this, Madison. There comes a point where you just gotta stop trying to tweak it and send the sucker out. "It is what it is - for better or for worse."

To do anything else is procrastinating.

Kay. Blog advice. Go to 'settings', then the 'formatting' tab, then the seventh line down will say "convert line breaks?" You just wanna click that lil' ol' "yes" button and your blog will come out super-duper space-inated.

Madison said...

Thanks, Big Plain V! Great help!

And, Sarah, like we said on the phone last night, honesty counts! :-)