Tools for Selling Your Novel: The One Sentence Logline/Super-short Pitch

Loglines are sometimes frowned upon when mentioned in connection with Novels. When I tried to get feedback on a logline a few months ago I was told "They aren't useful because you can't use them in a query so we tend to be apathetic toward them."

Ah. Yes. Well, there's more to selling a novel than writing a query letter.  

The One Sentence Logline is basically a pitching tool. It's the thing you rely on when someone says "Oh, you're writing a book? What's it about?" It doesn't matter if that someone is your great-aunt Matilda or an agent you bumped into at a writing conference. The last thing you want to be doing is groping around for an explanation of what your book is about. (And we've all been there, right? "Well, see. There's this girl. And she's magic and live in Ireland. Only it's not called Ireland, it's called Eire because the British never succeeded in invading in the 1600s. And she's lonely and then she finds out that her dad is in trouble and she wants to help him...." And then it gets really messy.) 

Also, if you're a writer who has been on Twitter with any frequency over the past year you've probably run across a Twitter Pitching contest or two. (This goes ten-fold for YA writers who frequent agent blogs.) 

The Twitter Pitch is even worse than the One Sentence Pitch because whatever sentence you come up with has to fit in about 132 characters. I know. MADNESS! But useful madness. 

Here are a couple I used during #pitmad a few months ago. 

A young magic-handler desperate to find her Da confronts conspiracy, murder and forbidden magic under the streets of 1888 London. 

With a brutal serial killer loose in London and a werewolf as her ally, Keira Fennel will save her Da or die trying. 

Keira Fennel didn't plan to run away or put her trust in a stranger, but Da's in danger and death nor magic will keep her from him. 

I had a few others, but they were multi-sentence pitches so I'll save them for the post on Three Sentence Loglines. 

"Well, that's cute," you say. "But I don't intend to enter any pitch contests and I certainly don't have the money to go to a writing conference and hobnob with agents. What good will this do me?"

If there's one vital ingredient to selling something it's KNOWING YOUR PRODUCT. It's no different when we're talking about a novel. And distilling the 400+ pages of your book into one concise sentence, one through line that will tell anyone the heart of your story, is immensely useful. Especially if you use it as a building block for other tools to pitch and sell your novel. (More on this later.) 

Holly Lisle even recommends finding the logline as part of of the editing process. Before you even cut the first word, find the logline. It's the heart of your project. The statement you can hold each chapter up to and say "How does this fit with the theme/heart of my book?"

"Okay," you say. "I might be able to use that. But how do I write a logline?"

With great difficulty. Hah. There's no perfect way to tell you how to find that single sentence summary of your story, but here is a great template (courtesy of Authoress courtesy of Holly Bodger).

"When [MAIN CHARACTER] [INCITING INCIDENT], he [CONFLICT]. And if he doesn't [GOAL] he will [CONSEQUENCES]."

Notice that she suggests two sentences there. But for this structure, one will usually work as well. Write a logline for your book based on that structure, then start playing with it.
Try and make it as effective as possible in the fewest number of words.
Try putting the goal and consequences first.
Use active words. (Verbs are your friend.)
Assign an adjective to your MC (plucky or reluctant or young or... you get the point).
SAVE EVERY VERSION. (I have a journal I use for brainstorming these. It goes through many pages just to get one usable logline.) 
Consider how to pitch the story as a romance. A thriller. An action-adventure.

If you stick with it, something will click. (It might take a few tries, it might take dozens.) Stick with it.
This will be one of the most important tools you can use to sell your novel.

Fear

Every now and then I find myself saying "I love pretty much everything about writing except for *insert dreaded thing here*." Usually that "dreaded thing" has to do with selling a project. 

FREX: I hate research markets.
I hate finding new markets.
I hate writing log-lines.
I hate writing query letters.
I hate writing synopsis.

I think you get my drift.

Yesterday I was working on a synopsis for The Steampunk Novel. I'd written one a few months ago and it sucked. I mean, it was okay, but with the recent revisions it needed changes and I'd thought from the start it seemed a little bit long so I figured I'd grit my teeth and write a new one. With much complaining. Because, you know, I hate writing a synopsis.

As I worked on it this little thing in the back of my brain started to ponder my dislike of this part of the process. It reminded me I'd done a similar round of teeth-gnashing and complaining both when writing a log-line and while trying to draft a query letter. Why was that?

I told the little thing to shut up. I was busy.
I finished the synopsis - totally and completely certain that it sucked in a very unpleasant way - and took a break to eat dinner. (IMPORTANT NOTE: Trying to write anything while hungry and tired is probably not one's best idea.) I got something to eat. Spent some time with my family, then came back to the synopsis.

Amazement of amazements, it didn't suck. It needed a few tweaks (which I made) but it was nowhere near as horrible as I had thought whilst writing it.

And then something clicked.
My hatred of log-lines/synopsis/query letters/market research grew out of a very quiet sense of fear.
Sure, there was the fear that all my hard work writing The Steampunk Novel would be lost if I didn't have a killer query with which to pitch it. The fear that the synopsis would not reflect the really interesting aspects or voice of the book. But beyond that was a deeper, more personal fear.

Suppose the query worked? Suppose I got a request for a partial?*** Suppose an agent read my first chapters/150 pages/whatever and DIDN'T LIKE THE WRITING? What if my wordcraft was bad? What if the thing I'd loved so much and put so much energy into... sucked?

I've spent four years trying to get over the idea that what I write isn't worth much. Four years focused on practicing my craft in the hopes that I would get better. That I would gain confidence. That I would get good at writing.

Along the way I'd conquered a series of things that I "hated". (Finishing stories. Editing stories. Finding a market. Dealing with rejections. And so on.) One by one I'd put them behind me until the only things that stood between me and selling my novel (well, finding representation for my novel and THEN selling it) were the query letter and synopsis.

I hated them. I doubted my ability to make the book sound interesting. I doubted my ability to be succinct.
I doubted the value of the story I had told. I doubted my ability to tell a story, period.

That, you see, was the whole problem. Doubt.
FEAR.
The gut-wrenching, mouth-drying, palm-sweating fear that after all this time I still wouldn't be any good at this thing that I love so much.

And that's when I realized I don't have to "hate" any of it. All of that angst and blather about "hating " was just a smoke screen for my insecurity. And there was only one thing to do. 

DO IT ANYWAY.

I wrote a lot of short stories before I discovered Write 1, Sub 1 and used that as an excuse to start sending things out. I started a lot (A LOT!) of novels before I found NaNoWriMo and used that as an excuse to write the first draft of The Steampunk Novel. The only thing that changed between the short stories I wrote and shelved and the ones I submitted was that I submitted them anyway. Even when I was CERTAIN they sucked. (And the ones I thought sucked the most, sold the fastest.)

The only thing that changed between the dozens (yes, dozens) of novels I started and never got past the first 50 pages and the two that I've finished is that I didn't stop when I thought the book sucked. And then I went back and fixed the parts that weren't good. Even when I was CERTAIN it was a waste of time.

So, my (very long) piece of advice for today is: DO IT ANYWAY.
Whatever that writing related thing is that you "hate" (drafting/editing/querying/outlining/writing)... DO IT ANYWAY. 

DO IT ANYWAY.

*** Which, incidentally, I have. So much for thinking my query letters are shite.

Goals 2013

About this time last year I posted my goals for 2012.


1: To finish and submit Gaslyte - the novel-in-progress I've been working on since 2008 - by the end of the year.

2: To finish and submit at least one longer length project - 15k or more - by the end of the year.

3: To polish and submit the handful of stories I wrote this year but have languished in my pile of "to edit" projects.

4: To write a minimum of 15k per month.

I can safely say I've failed at all of those. (Well, there's a sliver of hope for #1 still. Maybe.)  

Here's what I did accomplish this year.

WROTE:
Damsel
The Spider-Thief and the Sorcerer
Legacy

SOLD:
The Collections Agent
Caught
Happy After All
In the Cool of the Day
Legacy

I also made serious revisions to The Steampunk Novel that have brought me to the brink of querying it. (See? There's still hope.) And in June and August I wrote nearly 40k words (combined). It has been a productive year. It has not been productive in the way that I envisioned it. And that's okay.

But I'm back in that same spot; asking myself "What do I want to accomplish next year?" After much thought (and too much coffee) my goals for 2013 look like this.

1: Find an Agent Who Can Sell The Steampunk Novel
2: Finish the Novellas I started This Year but HAVEN'T FINISHED
3: Write another Novel or Two
4: Sell my Short Stories

Notice how open-ended those are? Last year I tried making specific goals, laying out a plan of attack, and I did very little that I set out to do. (Again. It was a productive year, but not in the way I had planned.) This year I'll try something new and different. And, most importantly, I will not do what I did this year which was to waste time on personal lamentation about how I wasn't meeting those goals. 

Here's to a fresh start! And, hopefully, a fresh attitude. 

The Sunday Project

A couple of years ago I made a commitment to treat my writing as something more than a hobby. I set aside time every day to write (every other day when things were hectic) and I worked hard at producing short stories and writing/editing/polishing novels.


But the truth is, I have a life outside of writing. A life that is more important because it is... my life, not just my work.

It's a common thing to find creative folks who lay hold of the claim "At the core of my being I'm a writer/artist/musician". There was a point where I felt that way too. But in truth, I'm much more than that. I'm not just a writer or only a mother and wife. I write. I draw. I cook. I keep my son safe and healthy and happy. I support my husband in every way I am capable of. Because I'm not just a writer.

All this is to say, in recent months I've had to reevaluate the way I divide my time. Much as I would like to spend "full-time job hours" writing, that simply isn't a reality at this point. So, for the past two and a half months I've been writing only on Sundays. It's been a bit of a shock. It's also been liberating.

No longer am I trying to cram words onto paper inbetween folding laundry and vacuuming. No longer to I have to worry that when I sit down to write "just this one paragraph" I'll vanish into the creative world for four hours only to emerge and discover that dinner hasn't made itself.

Sunday is a day I can concentrate on writing. Without interruption. Without complication.
Sunday is a day of focus.
Sunday is a day of words spilling out of my head and onto the page.
Sunday is a day to write.

And it is a wonderful thing.

NaNoWriMo 2012

The National Novel Writing Month begins on Thursday. I do not have aspirations to win this year. I mean, I'd like to win. I'll try to win. But due to a new writing schedule I only write on Sundays. While there are four Sundays in November, I would have to write 12.5k words per Sunday in order to reach 50k by the end of the month. Somehow, I doubt that will happen.

However, I'm still going to write as much as I can once I finish the last edits on The Steampunk Novel. (Which is moving along smoothly, but still has some work to be done.)

The new project is another genre-masher. A little bit of space-opera, a healthy dose of steampunk, a pinch of super-hero epic, a sprinkle of romance with a hint of sociological speculation. I'm really excited about it.

I'm also trying out the method proposed in Save The Cat of starting with a logline as the basis of any outline and subsequent pages. (Since loglines are basically "hooky" short synopses, it's a pretty solid idea. Start from a short summary and expand as you go.)

Here's what I have so far: When Delian, a disgraced warrior with psionic abilities, crashes on the steam-age planet of Ossia all she wants is to let her mind and body heal. But Jakob Halter – the crippled mechanic who rescued her from death - has different aspirations for the physically and mentally extraordinary woman from the stars.

It's not a perfect logline, but it's certainly enough to get me started. (The ideas have already been poking their heads in and I'm having to beat them away with a stick 'til November 1st gets here.)

So, here's to new projects and working my arse off!

Anthology Acceptance

The steampunk shapeshifter story I wrote during the summer has been accepted for The Beast Within 4: Gears and Growls.


I'm very pleased to be working with the editor, Jennifer Brozek. Look for more details in the coming months.

Lessons Learned (Re)Writing a Novel

1.Nothing is as Bad or Good as You First Thought

Rereading a first draft of a novel (or a second or third draft for that matter) is an adventure. I discover brilliant scenes I'd forgotten, unearth little threads of subplot that I don't remember weaving, find little gems of dialogue that make me all happy inside.

I also find a fair number of turds: descriptions that are not as clever as I thought they were when I first put them down on paper, plot holes I can throw a cat through, characters who seem cut from cardboard. Some of it is ugly. And some of it beautiful.

The point is, early drafts are allowed to be a mess, but chances are they are not as bad as you first thought when you typed "The End". That's what revising and editing are for - making the bad better and the good really good.

2. Trust Your Gut

Revisions are hard. There's that constant feeling of "But what if I make it worse?" There's the nagging suspicion that you won't have improved while writing the first draft and the second one will be more of the same drivel. There's the fear that if you try and change things you'll lose the thread of what you loved about the story in the first place.

But beneath all that is a sense of what needs to be fixed. It's the voice that says "That character doesn't serve a purpose here, get rid of her." It's the tingle of intuition that says that your MC's flaws are more interesting than her strengths. It's the whisper that tells you "That person has to die if the danger is real." This is your gut, the muscley side of your subconscious. It is always right.

3. Take Small Bites

Novels are hard to rewrite/revise/edit because they are so much longer than a short story. (Duh, right?) Take small bites, work on it consistently, and don't give up. Much like writing a first draft the middle will probably seem like The Middle from Hades or The Second Act That Ate Chicago. The difference here is that you already know how things end. You can stop to fiddle with an ornery scene that sets up the final conflict. You can take the time to develop that subplot with the romantic secondary character.

Where writing the first draft was a necessary push to get the whole story out on paper, the second (or eighth) draft is about fine tuning all the moving parts. Take it one step at a time. If it takes a week to revise one chapter and only five minutes to revise the next... that's okay. Mashed potatoes take less effort to chew than ciabatta.

4. Set Goals and Celebrate Accomplishments

Aim for a certain number of pages edited/revised at each session. Be honest about what you can accomplish, but give yourself a little challenge too. Just like with word count goals you may miss the mark sometimes. And sometimes you'll go way beyond what you intended to do. But without a goal it's easy to fall into the trap of moving commas around. Really easy.

Goals help you keep in mind that this is not the only chapter that needs work. And don't forget to celebrate when you make progress. That may mean an extra piece of shortbread at tea time or taking the evening off to something fun (or to veg). Whatever you choose to do, don't forget to recognize that you are making progress. Even if it's slower than you'd hoped.