tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812909700950069050.post7937224854478573250..comments2024-03-16T01:00:59.945-04:00Comments on Query Shark: #282-revisedJanet Reidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00615380335938685231noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812909700950069050.post-80529617281378493482016-09-07T17:04:56.480-04:002016-09-07T17:04:56.480-04:00"....because it forces you to try to look sua...<br />"....because it forces you to try to look suave in a suit made for someone else." <br /><br />I don't even know where to begin...insanely elegant.<br /><br />Cheers H.french sojournhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14262858704848580714noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812909700950069050.post-60074640672132605972016-09-03T01:01:39.612-04:002016-09-03T01:01:39.612-04:00Just listened to a screenwriting agent on a podcas...Just listened to a screenwriting agent on a podcast and he says he (and believes most agents in Hollywood) never reads loglines. Sounds like it's pointless even there.Surrlyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09287584641604972900noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812909700950069050.post-55655709159085171762016-08-30T00:41:31.928-04:002016-08-30T00:41:31.928-04:00I too was confused but I gleaned enough to know I&...I too was confused but I gleaned enough to know I'd want to read. For me, I want to understand more of the romantic tension. I felt you were telling more than showing. Let it sit a few weeks and I think you need to start fresh from a new angle. Pick why a particular character trait clashes with the other. That's my 2 cents. Take or leave it. You choose. I look forward to reading your next attempt. At the moment I can see why it won't hook an agent but you've hooked me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812909700950069050.post-62936627266480800642016-08-29T15:22:18.326-04:002016-08-29T15:22:18.326-04:00Agree that there's a lot of confusion going on...Agree that there's a lot of confusion going on here and it's making the story feel very disjointed. I found myself asking a lot of questions while reading the query. Part of your job while revising will be to either answer these questions or not raise them in the first place.<br /><br /> - How is Allisane planning to earn her uncle's respect? If I had to guess, I'd say it's be becoming a great warrior, and defending the kingdom from its enemies, but you don't want your query reader to have to guess. I'd focus the first paragraph on Allisane's goals and how she's trying to reach them rather than long lost powers. <br /><br /> - Is there a reason lords might object to Allisane being a Wind Rider and training on her flying horse? Because she's a woman? Because she's a noble? This is part of your world building: setting up,the society, what's expected of people in it, and what's out of the ordinary. If it's unusual,for a woman or a noble to be a Wind Rider, but no one is in a position to give Allisane any trouble about it, then it's not worth mentioning. <br /><br /> - Do the Volucians have wings? Gliders? Do they fly like Superman?<br /><br /> - What's the payoff for Damien earning his commanders' respect? You've explained what the two main characters want, but not why. I need something like "If Damien can earn his commander's respect, he'll get a promotion that will allow him to move his family out of the slums." "if Allisane can win her uncle's respect, she'll be upgraded to a flying horse that shoots lasers."<br /><br />- Why is Damien in a position to slaughter the tamed horses? Are they the enemy's flying horses? Why does the idea of doing this bother his conscience? I get that killing animals that didn't ask to take sides in a war ain't fun, but we need specifics.<br /><br /> - If you don't have space to explain the sociopathic nobleman, leave him out. One "either the character does this with X consequences or that with Y consequences" is usually enough and I don't understand this one.<br /><br /> - Why are any of the choices the two characters have to decide between at the end of the query mutually exclusive? It needs to be clear that saving her family will completely prevent Allisane from leading her people or Damien can't defend his nation while also protecting the innocents or helping out Allisane. Because right now, I don't see why Allisane can't just lead her people to defend her family and I'm to confused about who's who and what's going on to make sense of Damien's choices.<br /><br />There are ideas in here that I like, but we need to see them connecting in a clear, logical narrative.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Sarahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13903470731339372666noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812909700950069050.post-31222561695143127642016-08-29T09:00:55.780-04:002016-08-29T09:00:55.780-04:00Here's a handy exercise I'd recommend: Wri...<br />Here's a handy exercise I'd recommend: Write three lines each of Allisane, for Damien, and for the war itself. For each one, write:<br />1. What they want.<br />2. What's in their way.<br />3. What they do about it.<br /><br />Keep it simple. Be <i>specific</i> - you don't need every nuance, but you need one central, concrete answer to each of them. "Takes a stand" isn't "What they do about it"; "steals a bunch of winged horses" is.<br /><br />That's an arc. And knowing your various arcs will be the backbone for your query - and maybe for your whole book.<br /><br />All the best :)Standbackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10877817311001333712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812909700950069050.post-39426646195464375432016-08-29T09:00:45.655-04:002016-08-29T09:00:45.655-04:00So here's an observation I don't think has...So here's an observation I don't think has been brought up yet:<br /><br />Your query fails to cohere.<br /><br />You have a long list of <i>details</i> about your story, but they don't seem to form into arcs, or plot, or meaningful stakes. Take a look:<br /><br />---<br /><br /><i>Princess Allisane Kent and Captain Damien Ardeo (...) fragile peace between Æled and Voluce is disintegrating.</i> <-- You were rightly concerned and QS rightly struck this, because it's a vague hand-wave-y intro instead of getting us to story details.<br /><br /><i>Allisane struggles to earn the respect of her uncle, the King of Æled.</i> <-- OK, but he's never mentioned again in the query.<br /><br /><i>As a Wind Rider, she trains in combat on her personal winged horse,</i> <-- Her combat ability is never mentioned again. Her personal winged horse is never mentioned again.<br /><br /><i>and any lord who disapproves can go hang.</i> <-- Disapproval of Allisane is never mentioned again.<br /><br /><i>Her people's ability to control light and fire vanished generations ago.</i> <-- This <i>is</i> mentioned again! As something that (I think) the other side doesn't know.<br /><br /><i>Training the wild, winged horses is their only protection against the superior might of the flying Volucians.</i> <-- The winged horses and enmity with Volucians <i>are</i> repeating elements - the <i>central</i> elements, really. I'll get back to this.<br /><br /><i>Damien is common born, struggling to earn the respect of his high-born military commanders</i> <-- His struggle for respect and his military commanders are not mentioned again.<br /><br /><i>His people fear Æled's control of fire, and every winged horse Æled trains threatens Voluce's very existence.</i> <-- Counterpoint to Allisane's paragraph.<br /><br /><i>He should follow orders and slaughter the tamed horses - if his conscience can handle it</i> <-- Qualms about slaughtering horses are not mentioned again. (Unless you're using this as a way of saying "Killing fighters from Æled", in which case that isn't clear.)<br /><br /><i>but flying to war means leaving his family unprotected from a sociopathic nobleman</i> <-- His family and the sociopath are not mentioned again.<br /><br />---<br /><br />I'm going to stop here a second before the last paragraph, and make my point. The <i>repeating</i> elements you have in this query are: two nations are at war; one uses flying horses, the others fly themselves.<br /><br />And that's <b>it.</b><br /><br />Everything else feels disjointed, incidental. Allisane <i>may</i> have conflicts with her uncle, Damien <i>may</i> be protecting his family, but those elements just don't seem to be important. They have no effect on the query. They are mentioned, and forgotten.<br /><br />The last paragraph bears this out: it's the climax of the query, and it is about one thing and one thing only: There is going to be war; war would be bad; can they stop the war.<br /><br />War can make for an exciting and powerful book. But don't ever make the mistake of thinking that because war is so devastating, readers (or gloriously be-finned literary agents) will care who wins yours. Until you give us something to care about, a query going "Two imaginary kingdoms are going to WAR", and nothing more than that, is going to fall flat. <br /><br />You need to convince us that <i>your</i> war is going to be exciting, or tragic, or scary for a character we love, or <i>something</i>. If your story is about war, what your query needs to do is make that war <i>matter</i>.<br /><br />---<br /><br />Or, maybe that's not what your book is about. Maybe it's about Allisane and Damien. Maybe it's about winged horses. I don't really know.<br /><br />But what you <i>don't</i> have here is a compelling narrative progression. You don't have an <i>arc</i> - leaving your query feel disjointed, unstructured. There's no clear stakes he wants to see resolved.Standbackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10877817311001333712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812909700950069050.post-32808089452073849432016-08-29T08:08:40.524-04:002016-08-29T08:08:40.524-04:00I, too, gathered that Damien was from Voluce, and ...I, too, gathered that Damien was from Voluce, and that his people have some other sort of flying ability. (Dragons? Giant eagles? Wings? We don't know but I assume it's not winged horses.) Once the query gets cleared up this sounds like something I would want to read, especially if there's romantic tension involved between the principals. Good luck!Ashlyn Macnamarahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13555137874872846232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812909700950069050.post-76205245528896280522016-08-29T06:18:24.159-04:002016-08-29T06:18:24.159-04:00I believe Damien is from Voluce. If this were more...I believe Damien is from Voluce. If this were more clear from the get-go, that would help keep the query from going "splat," as the Shark says.JeffOhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07947660745120963286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812909700950069050.post-73662641182821396952016-08-28T22:28:00.199-04:002016-08-28T22:28:00.199-04:00A few things I liked:
- I like the army on the wi...A few things I liked: <br />- I like the army on the winged horses --immediately gives it a good epic fantasy feel. <br />- guy and girl on opposite sides of a war - talk about romantic tension! - although I may be imagining this, because it doesn't actually explain their connection in the query.<br /><br />I think you are doing what I did with (the first twenty versions of) my query: you know too much about your story and you love your story, so you're putting in unnecessaries, and omitting important connections. I think you can make it much tighter/ cleaner and less confusing.<br /><br />Some concrete examples: <br />-The mention of the lost light and fire abilities seemed unnecessary as it didn't seem to be a part of the plot.<br />-"lives in balance" seemed redundant to me (of course peoples' lives are in balance with war decisions). <br />- "if his conscience will let him" - I wouldn't add this unless we know something of his character already or an internal struggle he's having. I'm assuming he's a compassionate person and doesn't want to kill the horses? But a soldier fighting for his life wouldn't necessarily have that qualm, so I wasn't sure what he was having a conscience crisis for. <br />- The first paragraph (what you had listed as 'log line') could def. be incorporated into the query, just say that she's the princess of one country at the beginning of her paragraph, and state he's the soldier of the other at the beginning of his. We can see that peace is disintegrating! <br /><br />Good luck! The query's confusing but I feel like it could be an interesting story. <br /> Lennon Farishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03570629350169504234noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812909700950069050.post-89360789731037945092016-08-28T20:23:40.555-04:002016-08-28T20:23:40.555-04:00I'm confused by the paragraph about movie indu...I'm confused by the paragraph about movie industry loglines. My prior understanding is the examples could also be delineated like the following:<br />a) HIGH CONCEPT<br />A High Concept is no more than half a sentence to give an instantly graspable gist:<br />"Sharks in Space"<br />b) LOGLINE<br />A Logline to 24 words expanding upon the high concept, by describing the main character's stakes, risks, obstacles, and how the MC grows:<br />"Spacewoman Suzie is the only humanoid who can save Earth2050, but space sharks block her, until she reads all of the Query Shark blog."<br />c) MASHUP<br />A Mashup is another way of describing the queried work, via a quick comparison of titles of two well known creative works (preferably recent and in same industry and genre), which expands upon the high concept and supports the logline:<br />"JAWS meets LOST IN SPACE."First Turnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09595997307414005451noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4812909700950069050.post-58247675463464685182016-08-28T20:15:38.043-04:002016-08-28T20:15:38.043-04:00For me, what the query didn't quite do was exp...For me, what the query didn't quite do was explain the connection between Allisane and Damien. Why should he want to protect her? Is she just passively "caught in the fray" or is she asking something of him? I didn't quite understand how their different stories were supposed to interact with each other. It would be different if it was something like "When Damien captures Allisane, he thinks he can use her as leverage for peace terms, but his commanders demand her execution..." then that would make sense. I got lost when the query neglected to mention where/how/why they met each other. Laurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15725049899131699912noreply@blogger.com