On Writing: Inspiration

 On Writing: Inspiration

It’s amazing how inspiration for a book never comes to me during the daytime. Time after time, I’ve woken up in the middle of the night (much like tonight—it’s 2:25am) only to be bombarded with an awesome plot premise for a new book.

I guess the important thing though is that inspiration does come; and, regardless of the time of night, you need to act on it, because so much of the craft of writing hinges on inspiration. You can write good prose all day long, but if you’re not inspired, how good is that book really going to be?

Whether writing is a hobby, craft, job, or art for you, don’t let inspiration ever pass you by. In my case, I’m always having to deal with getting the motivation to get out of that warm bed at 1am to jot down some stray thoughts, or to sit and type out a synopsis for a couple hours, knowing full well that I’m not getting those hours of sleep back the next day. But for others it might be carrying a notepad to work or school since that’s when inspiration most often hits you. Or maybe it’s bringing your laptop with you while you’re out at a family gathering or some other recreational activity since those are your inspiration hotspots.

 

Whatever and whenever it is that you most often get inspiration for your writing, make sure you are prepared to heed its call. Treat it like it’s water in a barren desert since, for me, these inspirational downpours aren’t an everyday occurrence.

How to Write a Query Letter

How to Write a Query Letter

Query letters are most often required when seeking to get your book published with a publisher. I say “most often” because sometimes they have a form that you fill out, or they call the query letter something else, but generally speaking, most publishers ask for a query letter and don’t provide specifics on how they want the query letter formatted and constructed. On that note, I wanted to do a post on what a query letter is, how to send it, who to address it to, and what it should look like.

 

Let’s start at the basics

A query letter, simply put, is a one page letter that is introducing the publisher to you and your book. You send a query letter because you want to publish your book with the publisher.

The query letter format

A query letter is constructed of a one sentence hook intro paragraph, a two to three short paragraph synopsis of the book, a paragraph highlighting your relevant writing career, and short call to action.

How to send a query letter

You should do your research as to what mode the publisher accepts query letters. Some request queries to be sent via snail email, others, email. This info is usually pretty easy to spot as it’s usually with the submissions details.

Who to address the letter to

If you don’t happen to know the head of the publication’s name or the appropriate department leader, you can simply address the query letter to “agent.”

 

What a query letter should look like

As far as what it should look like, I’ll post my own query letter for my next post. I’ll have to modify it as to not give away my current books plot.