Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Lane Adamson]

Varying the tenses between traditional past tense and the present tense (a la The Regulators, for example) does make the present tense story mode more palatable.

Again, it's just one mossy-backed old guy's opinion.

[Kody Boye]

Present tense it: I look up. The wind is blowing in the breeze. It is biting at my skin.

Right? That's how I've always understood writing in present tense.

[Lane Adamson]

Present tense it: I look up. The wind is blowing in the breeze. It is biting at my skin.

Right? That's how I've always understood writing in present tense.

Exactly.  Most people (I think) will find several hundred pages of that difficult.  And most authors have a hard time maintaining it, without any slips into the normal past tense mode.

[ZombieDiva]

I'm in the process of editing my novel. Even though I caught some unintentional tense shifting, some of it is intentional and yet I've been told (not necessarily by a reliable source) that it was a flaw in my story. The person who told me this insisted that I HAD to be a very good writer to pull it off, and then they proceeded to misinterpret the deliberate tense shifts. Of course this same person then went on to rip on other things that had nothing to do with my story or writing in general, leading me to believe that his critique was not an honest one. That person had a different agenda going on, and so I discounted his statements. Although I did try to politely explain that what he had read was only a very rough draft, and something that was more along the line of getting the story out and worrying about cleaning it up later. Heck, I STATED this in the very thread before I had posted the chaps. But I did make sure to be aware of this when I did start editing it.  

[Lord Anubis]

Just to kind of go with what DDG and RThomas said...

I've been lucky enough to listen in on two workshops given by a phenomenal agent named Esmond Harmsworth (alas, not so wonderful that he represents horror writers, but you musttake the good with the bad) and he breaks publishing down into very easy to understand terms. 

A 120K novel from an unknown author is a huge gamble when you consider the publishers wil be putting out 25-30% more in costs than they would for most first time writers, and a large chunk of established writers.  This is also money they can't spend on something else now, so they can buy two epics or three regular-sized books, which would give them better odds for a sale.  The risk also goes up when you consider the epic will cost more at the bookstore, which means it's less likely a random browser will take a chance on this new author.  Finally, bigger books take up more space on the bookshelf, so three copies of the epic take up as much space as five or six regular paperbacks, which means LordAnubis Publishing has less books in our three feet of shelf space than KodyBoye Press does, which again means less chance of a sale with less variety.

Now, considering how much trouble it is to convince a publisher to take this 120,000 word novel, you can guess how hard it's going to be to convince the agent who has to convince a publisher to take this 120,000 word novel...  That's why most of them won't even spend the time to look at it, because the odds are sooooooooooooooooooooooooo against you.  It's not impossible, no, but it's also not impossible for random atoms in the air to come together and form a lump of gold...

I will say that I struggled with a 125,000 word manuscript for many years, and there's a special nail above my desk for the hundreds of polite rejections my query got.  So I pulled out the red pen, took a deep breath, took another deep breath, and after the third deep breath I went through and cut almost 30,000 words from the book.

But I now have letters from agents who have read it.

And, consider you're still in better shape than the guy who walked up to Harmsworth at the last conference, explaining that it was just impossible to cut any more from his 230,000 word mystery novel and he really needed to find a publisher... 

[Kody Boye]

230, 000 word novel?

Oh my.

I figured that I was correct, Lane. I would NEVER, EVER dare to write like that. I write in past tense, ALWAYS. I don't EVER want to try and go outside my original style of writing in any way.

Oh, and Brandon, I just thought of something. Have you ever tried spliiting the 120k novel in half? It'd be 60k, but it could be sold that way. I have no doubt that the 120k one will be sold eventually, but that's a good chunk of novel there. I believe that's a good 450-500 page novel with standard formatting, and most small-press publishers won't pick something huge like that up just like that. I don't know a whole lot about how splitting stuff up works, as I've never done anything like that, but it's something to consider. The longest thing I've ever written is a little over 85k, so I know NOTHING about splitting huge novels.

[BBerntson]

Present tense it: I look up. The wind is blowing in the breeze. It is biting at my skin.

Right? That's how I've always understood writing in present tense.

Correct.

[BBerntson]

230, 000 word novel?

Oh my.

I figured that I was correct, Lane. I would NEVER, EVER dare to write like that. I write in past tense, ALWAYS. I don't EVER want to try and go outside my original style of writing in any way.

Oh, and Brandon, I just thought of something. Have you ever tried spliiting the 120k novel in half? It'd be 60k, but it could be sold that way. I have no doubt that the 120k one will be sold eventually, but that's a good chunk of novel there. I believe that's a good 450-500 page novel with standard formatting, and most small-press publishers won't pick something huge like that up just like that. I don't know a whole lot about how splitting stuff up works, as I've never done anything like that, but it's something to consider. The longest thing I've ever written is a little over 85k, so I know NOTHING about splitting huge novels.

Actually, my 900 page one is at 250,000 words.  The trilogy I have begins at the 120,000 novel--a completely different tale.  Cutting the 250K would be no problem.  It's not that it's wordy so much as characters.  I guess cutting characters is a whole new ballgame.  I think I'll stick with the 80,000 female POV, read through it again, and work on a query. 

I just want to take the time to say thanks for everyone taking the time to reply to this thread and for the advice.  I definitely undestand why so many rejections came about it--reasons I didn't before.  SO all the advie (which I've taken to heart) has been extremely valuable.  Thank you all!

Brandon 

[Zombie Zak]

So 200,000 plus stories are a hard sell?  Dang.

[Philip.Hansen]

So, my question here is, how can I convey the fact that I can write, believably, from the point of view of a woman and convince an agent this novel is worth reading?  Several close friends have read this story, and they said they were convinced it was written by a woman.  The idea seems like an old take to me, the haunted girl going mad bit, but I believe it is every ounce original with unique and compelling dialogue, and even voice, with, of course, a unique ending.  Has anyone else tried to write a novel from the opposite sex POV, and if so, how did you convey it to an agent or editor that you did it succesfully?  Thanks.  Hope this was clear.
Brandon

You impress agents the old fashioned way -- you "pitch" them the idea in a way that makes it sound so compelling that they want to read the story.  I was just reading the blogs of several agents and a lot of them will post successful "pitch" E-mails or write whole blog entries on how to phrase your pitch E-mail.

If you want the URL's of the blogs I have been reading, I would be happy to share them since there is a TON of good information there on what agents are looking for.  (Even if they aren't all horror agents.)

[BBerntson]

I would be happy to see the url's for those agent blogs, Phillip.  Thanks.

[Philip.Hansen]

I would be happy to see the url's for those agent blogs, Phillip.  Thanks.

You have mail!

[Bobbie]

Can I get a copy as well, Phillip?   

babozaid@yahoo.com